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Published: June 17th 2011
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Apparently the theme for this year's trip to Europe has been 'Protests'. We've run across one in every locale save Menorca. On our walk to find was is reportedly the 'best' Greek coffee we ran across a gigantic protest as well as many, many closed streets. They were all headed in the direction of Syntagma square and the Parliament building so we gathered we should stay away from there. We didn't manage to find the mythical coffee as it was on the square in which the protesters were gathering, so we grabbed a coffee elsewhere and then wandered back to the central market.
We were on a mission to buy some lamb for dinner. We asked for lamb chops and were shown a rack instead. Unfortunately, I didn't listen to my gut instinct that said 'hmmm, that meat is awfully pale for lamb'. Unless we found the rare white meat lamb, it definitely wasn't lamb (not really sure what it was, smelled like lamb). We shall have our revenge!
After second nap we decided to walk to Psyrri to check out some of the artisan shops. As we walked we noticed Athens was eerily empty and everything was closed.
We had to settle for yet another gyro for lunch as everything else was closed. We also started to see multiple people with what looked like white paint on their faces. We later found out that these people had been tear gassed at Parliament. As we tried to make our way back to our place, a few nice Athenians stopped us when we were headed towards the action and told us which way to go instead. We still ran across the riot police headed towards the square, but were far enough away to avoid any gas.
Apparently it was only a 24 hour strike because the next day Athens was back to business as usual. The streets were packed again and we headed to Monastiraki for lunch. We enjoyed a spicy goat cheese spread, meat and rice wrapped in pickled cabbage, and a giant serving of mousaka with spinach. Delaney really enjoyed the pickled cabbage dish and we managed to sneak some spinach into her stomach.
After lunch we headed to Filopappou Hill. The hill is a nice respite from the noisy city below. It was mostly empty but had amazing views of the Acropolis (which we still
haven't been to). The Pynx (the ancient equivalent of Congress) was also on the hill. D enjoyed running around in the assembly. There was also an Orthodox church, Socrates' prison (a house carved into stone in which the Greeks hid the Acropolis artifacts during WWII), and a monument topping the highest point.
Unfortunately, it started to rain so we had to cut our exploration a bit short. We'll definitely head back there to check out the back side of the hill. We've now been in Athens a week without going to the Acropolis (somebody call Guinness). The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow and D is pretty settled into a schedule now so we're going to attempt the Acropolis tomorrow.
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