Athina

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Geo: 37.9792, 23.7166

Today went so quick I could barely believe we were off the ship for over 7 hours! We arrived in Athens, Greece and there were other ships everywhere - mainly ferries that take Athenians to the other outlying Greek Islands for short "holidays" (European word for vacation). I had counted over 20 other ships in port this morning and finally gave-up. It was not yet fully daylight when we sailed-in this morning and then... it never did get bright and sunny... lucky us! It was still humid and felt a little too warm when walking all the way up the many hills to see the Acropolis but we got lucky today because, as our tour guide put it, it was not "blazing sun as usual" in Athens today. It was low 70s, overcast, and occasionally we had a couple of sprinkles but never anything that required an umbrella. Athens, by the way, lacks the beautiful grass and trees that we saw in Croatia yesterday. The only thing that seems to grow well here besides palm trees is, of course, olive trees, the legendary gift to the city from Athena.

So, what did we do today?? I had booked us with a private tour company online that offers a bus services to several major sites - and the bus waits for you at each site - and you get a tour guide - we got two tour guides, actually. Kamie & I cannot agree on their names but we believe they were something like Nicholas and Raid. We walked off the ship, found the sign for the tour company, loaded the bus and soon we were off.

We went to see the original olympic stadium which was built around 293 B.C. and is still in use to this day. The stadium can hold up to 50,000 people. We went to see the changing of the guard ceremony which takes place each hour at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This little ceremony was quite interesting. Nicholas, our Grecian man-guide, who stayed with us most of the day (and I liked that very much -ha), told us to be a soldier picked to be one of these guards is extremely prestigious. They are chosen based on looks and legs and etc. They normally made around 3,000 Euros per month - but now Greece's economy is having a huge problem and the cutbacks has put them down to around 1,300 Euros per month. He also said these soldiers are trained to not acknowledge anyone at any time during their one hour post of guarding the tomb. One time a dog bit a soldier as he was standing guard and even though the guard leader was able to get the dog to go away, the soldier stood until his one hour was up before he would go to the hospital. Recently, there were over 1 million people on the square near the tomb protesting and the police were spraying tear gas to break-up the protesters and a picture of a soldier, doing is one hour of guard duty, went rampant on Facebook because even though tears were flowing from his eyes, he did not blink and he remained emotionless for his entire one hour. They currently have around 24 men who are honored enough to do this duty in one hour segments. They are very sought after by the females, according to our female guide, and even the men seem to think highly of them because it is such a prestigious position to have in Greece. Nicholas told us that the President and The Pope have both bowed to the soldiers when passing through Athens in the past. Impressive. O, and by the way, they do their change of guard, which is really funky in my opinion, and then they stand by their guard post and do not blink or move or talk or sway in any way, for one hour. They are wearing wool skirts and thick leggings - even in the summer when it is over 100 degrees every day. Nicholas told us if you get too close or you start to crowd a guard or you make a guard mad, he will bang his gun on the ground to scare you away. One lady got too close while we were watching, he banged his gun on the ground and it freaked her out - and I happened to get a picture! I'll see if I can include it.

We left the guards in skirts and went to the Temple built to honor Zeus. This temple is comprised of columns made from an extremely rare marble so the former 100+ columns have been stolen over the years prior to the site being preserved and now there are only 15 remaining standing columns. Sad, really. The site is surrounded by many ruins built to honor many other famous mythological characters but we only had about half an hour to explore here today and as it was, Kamie & I were the last people back to the bus, again.

Which brings me to our next stop.. The Acropolis! We walked up..and up some more...and up some more very slippery marble rocks...slippery because they have been worn down over the years by tourists walking over them... but we finally reached the top and the views were worth it. The Parthenon was built by the Athenians to honor Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, for she gave them the olive tree and they loved her. It took over 600 years to build. Can you imagine?? My goodness! The one area I was most looking forward to seeing is known as The Porch of Maidens. I don't know if I told you the story or not but in the 1800s, Lord Elgin saw the beautiful porch of six maidens and he loved them so much, he took a maiden and put it in his mansion. Legend has it that for many years the Athenians could hear the other five maidens weeping at night, missing their sister. I like that little tale.

Just a few sidenotes about today.. we have been warned not to buy fake goods anywhere but a hawker was selling goods for practically nothing today and people swarmed him.

The traffic in Greece is incredible - makes Dublin look like a cake walk. Seriously. Every other car had a dent or two.

So, two people on our bus today claimed they had 10 Euros stolen from a ticket agent. The first couple got on the bus and told our tour guide and then the old man behind us told her and he was yelling "THIEVES! THEY ARE THIEVES!" The tour guide was embarrassed but she ran in and took both tickets and told them both couples were shorted 10 Euros in change. She said they got "hostile" with her but gave her the change. Maybe it was an innocent mistake?? I do not know. They counted our money so quick that after we paid I had to step aside and recount - not something I normally do - but they did not want the change I had given them, they wanted different bills. So, again, sorta confusing and I wonder if this is not on purpose. Sad, huh?? My comments are kind in comparison to some people on our tour bus today. And on that note, we bought a Christmas ornament, an "evil eye" good luck charm, and a t-shirt today. She shorted me 3 Euro but I didn't notice until later. :-/We walked a lot today & ate a really odd lunch & wished we had not had lunch. Eh. Live and learn. I will let the pictures tell stories as I am tired of typing now and tonight we are somewhere in the Agean Sea now, between Greece and Turkey. There are lights of boats and islands in the distance and all around us as there are many Greek islands all along the path we are taking to Izmir. I am going to sleep soon as we have a semi-early day (but short day) in Turkey tomorrow. We saw lazy, big, fat dogs everywhere today and I miss my Simo. 😞 I have already promised to myself and to Kamie and to Simon that we will never, ever take a vacation this long again. It's not fair to Simon. 😞 PS - Athens is known as "Athina" by the Greeks and all the road signs say Athina. 😉

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