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Published: June 14th 2011
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Day 3
Today our plan is to watch the ceremony of the changing of the guard in front of the Athens Parliament and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The changing of the guard happens every hour however, on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. they have a large processional including the military band.
After breakfast we take the hotel shuttle downtown once again. Today it is already very warm by 10:30 a.m. and feels very muggy. The shuttle drops us off two blocks from the parliament. Across the street from the parliament we pass a park filled with tents and protest signs. We, of course, do not know what they are protesting because all of the signs are in Greek. All the tents remind me of something you might see in the river bottom of Ventura or tent city in Fresno.
Across the street we stand with a crowd of people waiting to see the ceremonial changing of the guard. As we wait for the ceremony to begin, we watch the current guards perform a sequence of steps and moves as they change sides. They are wearing fetching outfits of white dresses while holding a rifle
Changing of the Guard
Note the dog in the picture seems to be part of the ceremony and wearing what looks like tap dance shoes with puff balls on the toes. Quite a sight! We hear the band before we see them. The ceremony takes about 20 minutes. The most entertaining part is the local stray dogs. They seem to think they are part of the ceremony and weave in and out of the soldiers while they march. We have often seen stray dogs and cats at the local monuments. Brian has made an interesting observation, he says it is almost like the ancient Gods have taken animal form and to this day, still guard their monuments.
Following the ceremony, Warren and I hop the underground and head out to another flea market. When we arrive we realize this is more like a swap meet and filled with junk. We are there all of five minutes. We hopped back on the underground with plans to head to Lyvitticus Hill for the amazing view. Upon exiting the underground the sky looks foreboding, probably not a good idea to hike up the highest hill in a storm. This turned out to be a good decision considering the sky opened up and began pouring rain with thunder and
lightning within the next thirty minutes. We ditched that idea and headed to Plaka for lunch and shopping.
The local Greecian drink is Ouzo. We frequented multiple shop in an attempt to find the best Ouzo and ended up purchasing a few bottles. Ouzo tastes like a cross between Jagermeister and Vodka, very black licorice. While completing a purchase, the rain began pouring. We sought shelter at a nearby restaurant and had lunch. The food was ok. When we thought the rain had slowed, we quickly made our way to a taxi and headed for the hotel. Once again we indulged in an afternoon nap.
At the routine afternoon cocktail hour in the executive lounge, we meet up with a couple other pilots that Warren knows from back home (random). Warren has a tendency to run into this particular pilot all over the world. The aviation industry is truly a small world. We invite him and his colleague out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Dionysos.
After dinner we head back to the hotel for a few pitchers of beer at the rooftop bar. A few drinks later we head to our room and call it a night. We plan to head for the island of Rhodos in the morning. Athens is a cool place but it is a big dirty city and we are ready for a more laid back beach setting.
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