Searching for Greek Gods in Athens: Day 1

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So when I first told my friends of my family vacation travel plans to Greece, the most common thing they asked for? A Greek God. Yes, I know that according to Greek Mythology all the Gods live on Mount Olympus and have now been abandoned for more morally concious and practical religions like Orthodox Christianity, however, this doesn't stop me from at least trying to find them what they're looking for.

After all, you've all seen the Disney movie Hercules...Who isn't looking for a man with those bicepts? I must admit though, the task of finding 10 brooding, muscular, statuesque Greek men is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

Anyways we'll revisit my Greek God search later, for now we'll get to the City of Athens. I'll be as honest as I can here, Athens and I did not get along well at first. Not only did I not sleep the night before our plane left, but I also had quite a few issues finding good breakfast. Now, while some travellers can skip the occasional early morning meal, I am not one of them. Bagels with olive spread they were serving at the airport Burger King just didn't tickle my fancy, niether did stale muffins from the corner cafe...I HATE MUFFINS...but guess what I ended up trying to eat that morning? Of course because of my lack of sleep and food, I was not a pleasent travel companion. I was crabby, just about everything was getting on my nerves and I had a sudden feeling that "family bonding time" was overrated and a little more than I wanted to handle. I didn't even want anyone looking at me, much less trying to make conversation if it didn't end with me drinking a diet coke and eating a slice of pizza.

That being said, I did survive the flight without causing anyone death or bodily harm (I'm still not sure how that happened). We landed safely, found our way through customs and with a little struggle even found a cab big enough for all of our people and luggage. It was only now things really started going downhill for me. We realized that the apartment I'd found for us to rent was a little further out of town than I had thought. The place was gorgeous, but small and suburban, not as close to the center as our wonderful hotel in Istanbul. No scenic views of the sea or the acropolis. It takes a bus and a metro just to get to where the action is. In retrospect, now I love the place, surrounded by all kinds of locals with cafes and tiny coffee shops and stores, but in the heat of my crabby, hungry, sleep deprived mood, this seemed disasterous.

It only got worse when we decided to explore and look for food in Peristeri (the name of the suburb we are staying in). Turns out that cafe's don't serve anything but cola and mini espressos even if the menu says they serve food and waffles. Lesson learned. But not without some major reprucussions, well major tears and one really really empty stomach. We finally decided to stop and buy some soda and a bag of chips at the corner newsstand and my mom and brother went to the minimarket to look for food (and probably to get away from me becuase I wasn't very pleasent company). Turns out mini frozen bagel pizzas and a 3 hour nap are a pretty good cure for a travel Hades like myself. And once I got both of those, my attitude towards Athens quickly changed. Plus you can't very well meet yourself a Greek God with such a crummy attitude. I'd spent so much time being a pain in the ass, I forgot my entire mission in the first place.

So with a sunnier outlook, and a fuller stomach, Athens and I got reaquanted for day number 2 when I began my serious search for the gorgeous Greek Gods my friends were expecting to find upon my return home. I didn't think it'd be too hard, I mean afterall, anyone who has seen Greek and Roman statues should know what I'm talking about...
We began our day 2 adventure roughing our way around Athens public transportation. Trying to figure out Athenian busses is tough buisness especially when everytihng is written in Greek letters. You basically never know if you're in the right place or not. After a minor pitstop, we finally found our way to the metro station. Because of the 2004 olympics Athen's metro is extremely nice. New, clean stations, huge metro cars and easy to read maps that use both Greek and Latin letter so as not to completley befuddle tourists. My only complaint...no Greek Gods on the subway. Unless you go for the middle-aged, beer gut balding type with long nose hairs...if so, you'd up Mount Olympus as the ancient Greeks used to say (okay so they probably didn't say that, but it sounds good so just pretend with me)

We got off at Sytagma square. A famous central location in Athens known for its huge Christmas tree and most recently its violent protests. No protests today though, just some crazy looking cartoon characters and a bunch of young people offering free hugs. Free hugs? There's gotta be at least one Greek God offering those you'd think? But no...unless you're into the skinny computer nerd with crooked teeth type...or chicks, the free hug chicks were pretty cute...anyways...We found ourselves a great authentic Greek lunch (gotta love chicken mcnuggets and french fries...I mean olives and feta cheese, yeah thats it) and then bought tickets for a hop on/hop off tour of Athens, just to get a feel for the city, especially since our apartment is so far outside the downtown attractions.

So despite the nippy weather, I picked a seat on the top, uncovered layer of the double decker bus, risking the cold for 2 reasons. One: Great views of Athens attractions Two:Great spot for seeking out Greek Gods. The bus tour did cover a lot of ground. We passed by Zeus's temple, the Acropolis, The national library. I got some amazing pictures and seeing how the city was laid out really helped us to plan out the rest of our stay in Athens. As for Greek God scouting. I did see a couple that definetley reached the Greek God quota. I just need to learn how to say "could you come home in my suitcase to meet my friend in a totally non-creeper way"? in Greek...guess I know what I'll be doing with my free time tonight...

One side note: As much as I knocked our apartment when I arrived here, I'm starting to really love the place. It's still a little far out of the city for my taste, but the area around it has its own advantages. Tiny boutiques, bakeries, flower and fruit shops, lots of locals too, I feel like I'm really living the culture. Tonight for dinner we found this amazing completley local place. The menu was entirely in Greek, yet somehow we managed to order by far our favorite food of the trip. Greek salads filled with fresh olives, ripe tomatoes and cucumbers. Everyone else order beefsteak which they said was phenomenal and I got a chicken pita topped with lettuce, tomatoes and some magical sauce. It was phenomenal and has definetley earned a repeat visit in my book.

So despite the 2 or 3 Greek Gods I've spotted here, I won't consider my journey a success until I have one for each girl at home so patiently waiting. Guess that means I've got a busy day ahead tomorrow!

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