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Published: September 28th 2009
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Our first full day in Greece started with a nice hotel breakfast before heading out to the Monastiraki to visit the market., What an amazing collection of stuff from David Hasselhoff vinyl records to vacuum tubes. Judy managed to find a couple of trinkets to bring home regardless. Next up was the changing of the guard at the Parliament building. What a site. The high stepping guards were cool but even more entertaining was the police officer blowing his whistle constantly while waving his arms to move the crowd back for the parade entrance. The ceremony was OK at best and we left a little early before it ended to beat the crowds. We stumbled upon a nice candy store and picked up a few treats for later in the afternoon. Most of the other shops were closed today as it was Sunday.
Back at Monastiraki Square we found the reported best souvlaki place in all of Greece, Thanasis. Others must have thought the same as the line was out the door. We weaved through the crowd and were soon enjoying our food while sitting on a wall in the square. It was good by me. Just down from the square is the ancient Agora ruins. Lucky for us it was a free Sunday and we walked right in. Others must have known this as there were quite a few people there but not over crowded. The highlight for us was the Hephaistos Temple on the hill. It is the best preserved of the ancient Greek temples and very nice. I only got yelled at once for sitting on some ruins. The whistle blowing workers try their best to keep people in line but it is a full time job.
From there we started the climb up to the Acropolis. Lucky for us there was an ice cream shop about a third of the way up to revitalize our tired bodies. Before we knew it we were at the Acropolis. It was getting to be late in the afternoon and the crowds were light. The Parthenon is shrouded in scaffolding but still impressive. We lingered for a while just gazing it before moving on to check out the views from high atop. The city below seemed to stretch for miles in all directions until it ran into either mountains of the sea. That high up it was extra windy with dirt whipping up in our eyes every now and then. Also at times it was hard to hold the camera steady to take photos.
Around the other side of the Parthenon is the equally impressive Erechtheon with the girls, Caryatides, holding up part of the structure. We thought they were in very good shape until later we learned that they are replicas and the remains of the originals are in the museum. The climb down was quick and along the way we found some grilled corn from Crete to revitalize us. Next up was the Acropolis Museum. The neat thing about this place was they had a life size layout of the Parthenon on the top floor complete with the original friezes and those known but missing (i.e. in the British Museum). It was starting to grow dark outside so we double timed it back on foot to our hotel completing an entire lap of the Acropolis.
For dinner this evening, we followed the taxi driver's recommendation and dined at Hermiom not too far from our hotel. Judy had a lamb dish and I opted for more souvlakis. I just can't get enough of those. Dinner went by quick and we did a little shopping at night before heading back and calling it a night.
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