lost in translation

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we are overjoyed to report that this fairy ride went one hundred times better then the previous one. of course, that is easy for me to say since i slept about 13 hours and the fairy ride only lasted about 16 hours. i'm not quite sure if the fatigue set in from the whole trip or the medicine we bought from the nice lady in venice that we trust were for sea sickness, made me tired...but i slept. and then there were a few trains to catch and finally we were in athens.
our hostel is in a great location, which is always a plus...that is the building of our hostel. our actual room in the hostel is probably the highest floor in their ownership. but although we have acquired a distinct dislike for stairs, there are few things that can keep us from the horizontal position at the end of the day.
we spent the what was left of the first day wandering the streets, avoiding vendors, and questioning why the whole of europe has a certain....well....stench. yesterday the weather was gorgeous and we took a closer look at athens. the early morning began with strolling down the "sacred way" which led to where plato began his school of athens. and then to ancient agora which is where paul might have stayed and where mars hill is. the ruins here are much less distinguishable then in rome, but you could still make out the lay out of the city that paul might have gazed upon before filling in the scholars of his time on what truth was. you can't actually walk, sit, or stand on mars hill but can climb above it which we did and tried to imagine the city as it would have been there as we discussed our own summary of what paul would have said since we sadly had left our bible behind.
i should mention at this point that the whole day is complete sunshine. i have often retained fond memories of sunshine but it has been a while since i have expereienced the phenomenon. overjoyed i walked the whole day smiling straight into the sun, sleeves rolled as high as they'd go and arms in front....soaking the rays. tony, less ecstatic about the intense heat he felt beating down on him, crept from shade to shade. at the end of the day...we began to realize the very raw look of our skin. it's safe to say the initial burn is over with ladies and gents.
back to athens. it was a little disappointing to see scaffolding (please ignore my spelling) around the parthenon and a few of the other temples on the acropolis, but they were still quite amazing as we were herded like cattle to stare straight up at these towering columns. it did provide quite the view of athens and we even learned via eve's dropping where the ancient city would have been.
we sort of zig-zagged our way through the rest of the day, visiting the olympic stadium from 1896 and through gardens to be greeted by yet another protest. we're not quite sure if these things always occure or if we have somehow drawn this crowd of each city...there were protests in dublin, paris, and now athens. the changing of the guard, "wind up toy soldiers" as one brochure put it, amused us for a while in front of parliament and then we went to be greek.....sit under canapies on couches, sip ever so slowly on various cold coffee drinks, and talk, play various games, or just chill.....but whatever you do, you sit for hours. tony succeeded much better then i at sipping slowly since my drink contained mostly chocolate...but i did my best.
today the clouds changed our island plans into get various things done plan. and thus, we have posted pictures. for some reason we can't get all of them up to athens, but they go into rome and also sadly, aren't posting in order....sorry. anyway, enjoy.
until next time.

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