Athens

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ATHENS!!!

We arrived at the airport in Athens around 9:45pm. We hailed a bright yellow Mercedes cab that brought us to our hotel located at the base of the Acropolis. It is fittingly called the Hotel Parthenon!

Jeff and I ventured out to have a bite to eat around 11pm. It always amazes me how many people are out to eat at that hour in Europe. But, the warm summer nights make it a perfect time to enjoy food and get some great people watching in at the same time!

We sat down at a table and ordered our first Greek meal! We ordered Saganaki (brandy fried cheese…mmm… it’s HEAVEN), Greek salad, and a mixed gyro platter. Of course we ordered a jug of house white wine, and finished our meal with ouzo! What a great way to start our time in Athens.

We headed back to our hotel around 2 am and fell fast asleep! We made sure to set our alarm for 9:45am so we’d make it to breakfast with enough time to eat something before they closed at 10am. Continental breakfast consisted of cereal, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, and Greek breakfast of tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese and sandwich meat! YUMMY!!!

Jeff and I walked up the street to the Acropolis entrance, and hiked up the hill! I have been to Athens before, but Jeff hasn’t. We enjoyed our time up on top of the hill. I remember there being far less people there when I was there 5 years ago…but we noticed that there were a ton of people from cruise ships. I guess Wednesday is docking day in Athens.

We wandered around the Plaka for a yummy lunch after our visit to the Acropolis and then Jeff came back to the hotel to do some practicing while I wandered about doing some shopping! I didn’t buy anything….as I’ve found that Greek clothes don’t quite fit my body type.

We took a quick nap before venturing out to Syntagma square. This is where the current Greek parliament building is. We got there just 10 minutes before the changing of the guards, and decided to stop and watch. It was INCREDIBLE! These men in amazing outfits…. So completely different from the changing of the guard in London!

We walked slowly through the rest of downtown before stopping for some appetizers (first a street gyro and then some wine and calamari in the shadow of the Acropolis). We ended our evening by spending a few hours at a great little café half way up the hill. There was live Greek music, and a great atmosphere. We ate some incredible desserts (making sure to have a Baklava for Eric!) and went through a litre of house white wine, and then a few glasses of ouzo. As an extra surprise, Jeff gave me a very cool ring that we had seen and he had secretly purchased for me earlier in the day.

The nights here are so warm and wonderful, that when we got back to the hotel, we went out on our balcony and enjoyed the bottle of wine the hotel gave us in honor of our honeymoon! ....and we took a few self portraits!!! 😉

Today we head to Corfu where we’ll be meeting the rest of the Canadian Brass guys for 5 days on the island.

We’ll keep ya posted!

Enjoy the pics…

Love,
Nina (and Jeff)

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Comments

[craig wilson]

have fun!
Thailand, California and now GREECE! You guys are not working hard enough. Please return to the rat race ASAP. CW