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Published: October 9th 2005
Doug and I met up in Vienna and caught a flight to Athens. We were grateful for the warm, sunny weather, which made it more enjoyable to be out and about. We got up early the first day and were at it by 8:00 am. We went to the Acropolis first, where you can see the pictures of the Parthenon, Athena Nike Temple and the two theatres. There is massive restoration taking place there now, so we only took side-view shots of the Parthenon and couldn't get a good shot of any structure there. It was probably due to this construction going on, but our impression of the Acropolis as a whole is that it didn't meet our expectations. Based on photos in magazines and also the Olympic coverage with the aerial shots, that wasn't what we saw.
From what we heard from the locals, the structures are deteriorating at a rapid pace, so if you have any desire to see the ruins, we'd suggest that you book a ticket fairly soon. And if you do come, see them either at night or early in the morning.
Because we we're pretty confidant that we'd have nice weather, we took
Parthenon
A "Temple to the Virgin", Athena. Constructed during late 5 BC under the reign of Perikles, the Golden Age of Athens.a 1 day cruise to three islands: Poros, Hydra and Aegina. Of the three, we liked Hydra the best. It was a small island that ıs sparsely inhabited and does not allow cars on it. That is where Doug picked up his new ride. We especially enjoyed just sitting at the outdoor cafe on the water tipping back a few.
On the boat ride back, we got a Greek folklore show that had some singing and dancing by people in traditional garb.
As for the standard food and beverage review you've all come to expect......we were very much ready for some lamb after weeks of pork, pork and pork. We walked around looking for a joint with lamb gyros and couldn't find one, so we ended up eating at sidewalk cafes moreso than sitdown restaurants, but what we got was pretty good. Funny thing, when we asked the person at the hotel where a good place for lamb gyros was on the day we left, she told us that gyros are made with pork, not lamb! We give the food a B.
We only tried one Greek beer, Mythos, which was good. Doug particularly liked it and
partook a bit more than I did (OK, a fair amount more than I did), but we give it an A. We didn't try any Ouzo, so we cannot comment on that.
We didn't interact with many locals, but the ones we did we found nice enough. We had a very helpful travel agent (more on that later) and she recommended that we come back to Greece again, but not to Athens, but to cruise the islands. That we could see doing in the future.
Next we're off to Istanbul!
P.S.
If you are considering coming to Athens and renting a car, here are a couple of pointers for you: red lights, the painted white lane markers and the speed limits posted are all just suggestions for the driver to obey. And if you know this much, you can bet that it ain't particularly safe being a pedestrian either!!
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Greg
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Don Keyopoulous?
Eeeeeiiiiieeeeeuuuuuwwwww! :)