Greece - Athens: Family and Acropolis

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Due to Covid restrictions, I had not seen my sister and her family in two years. They had moved to Sweden in the middle of the pandemic and I had planned to spend much more time with them, but Americans and UAE residents were not allowed in until late October, after we had already made plans to meet up in Greece. So, I planned a week to spend with them, a week to myself on the islands, and a week with them in Sweden. Greece is now my 50th country, so I was glad it was extra special!

I arrived via First Class on Emirates (god I am spoiled) a few hours before they arrived. So I found my hotel, checked in, took a short nap, and enjoyed the day time view of the Acropolis from our balcony. The rooms were pretty nice, though the beds are short - T was going to have a rough time! I then took an expensive taxi to the airport to meet my family, getting there a bit early and enjoying the moment when they came through the doors! My niece saw me almost immediately and made a beeline, even though I had told them I would see them at the hotel. We got two expensive taxis who apparently did not know where the large hotel in downtown Athens was located, so my nephew used his GPS. It was very weird.

Anyway, it was approaching midnight when we arrived, my niece puked right outside the room door (bad car sickness), and they were all apparently starving as SAS does not give food - weird. So, they ordered a huge spread of food and it was mostly gone before we went to bed. The next day, we got two expensive taxis to take us to the Acropolis, my one I ordered via Uber actually refused to take us for some reason that I could not understand (something about police....?). We found where to get our tickets and made our way into the site. I knew going in that many people had warned that Athens was not their favorite place and so I did not have high expectations, but some of the behavior, setup, taxis, etc was just really weird even with the warning.

However! The ruins and museum areas were very well done and we enjoyed our day. It was quite busy, but we made our way up, seeing the amphitheater below, the city surrounding the hilltop, and the ruins at the top. The Parthenon. The Propylaea. The Temple of Athena Nike. Temple of Zeus Polieus. You could walk around the area and take your time. It was a little cool, windy and cloudy, but still impressive. And it was fun to walk around with the kiddos to catch up with them. We got some good photos, but there was not much in the way of information, so it was just looking and seeing.

We walked down to a rock outcrop for the kids to play on, with more great views, then made our way through the park towards the Temples we saw from above. But first we stopped for lunch at one of these outside cafe things along the main tourist route. I got a delicious hot chocolate and salad, and was still amazed at the amount of food these kids (the boys especially) could put away. We hung out for a bit, then continued on, trying to find our way into the Agora.

The Agora part basically covers the entire lower portion from the Acropolis and has lovely grounds with lots to see: ruins, temples, a church, a museum, gardening, etc. It was peaceful and beautiful, with great views of the Acropolis. So, we took our time here, chatting and getting good photos. Then we walked around the other side of the Acropolis to leave, stopping by the Roman Forum ruins which were included with our tickets and just a small area of impressive ruins. At this point, it was sunset and lovely close to the day.

Getting back to the parking lot, we just assumed we could get a couple of taxis for the short drive back to the hotel - we would walk but it is such a busy street and the kids were tired. At first, the drivers seemed reluctant to take us. Then they tried to charge us 25 EURO each car!!! We're like, it took 5 Euro to get here- um no. Then it was 15 Euro for one car - oh you have a van? No? How do we fit in? "The kids can sit on the floor". W. T. F. We started to walk away again, and I think we got down to 10 Euro each car and were like, ugh, fine, let's just get back, get some sleep and get t.f. out of Athens tomorrow. What a killer end to a lovely day.

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[D MJ Binkley]

Parthenon
History is full of beauty.