| Glenn's Athens Journals 5-5-02 Today was our day to explore Athens, or at least all that was open. Again remember that today was the Greek Orthodox Easter. We did our usual, which includes waking up, showering, and breakfast. Breakfast included bread with jam and some coffee or tea. I chose the hot chocolate which left a little to be desired. We packed our back pack for the day ahead and off we went. We headed out to the Acropolis, which was within walking distance from our hotel, to check out the Parthenon and the surrounding buildings. It was interesting to learn that the Erechtheion, in its time, was the more important of the two. (The Erechtheion was dedicated to Poseidon, and had a spring that provided the temple's inhabitants with water, and to Athena, whose sacred olive tree grew on this site.) The actual entrance into the Acropolis was closed but we still had a magnificent view of the structures from many different vantage points surrounding the area. We spent the next few hours walking around the countryside surrounding the Acropolis enjoying the many views of Athens including a view of the port of Athens, a different view of the Acropolis, and a view overlooking the city of Athens. We ended up calling it an early day as most things that were open were closing early. The day was hot and being in the city made it seem even warmer without the cool breeze of the ocean nearby. The hotel had a nice outdoors sitting area that was cooled by the limited breeze and shaded by a tree that extended over a few of the tables. We sat outside, relaxed, and worked on journals that we were a few days behind on. We finished up around 7:30 pm, mostly because the smell of the food cooking nearby was making us hungry, and headed out to dinner. Restaurants had opened up to support the celebration of Easter for all of those that wanted to dine out. The traditional Easter dinner was lamb, which we took part in (Erin for the first time). I enjoy lamb, but have had lamb on a few occassions before, but I am not sure that Erin would have lamb again if it were her choice. Dinner was enjoyable and afterwards we walked around the area checking out the few stores that had opened for the night. I do not normally like to shop but shopping in a foreign country, enjoying the different goods for sale, is always interesting. The other thing I enjoy about shopping in foreign countries is the chance to barter on the price. The more formal stores do not barter but the more locally owned stores have room to barter, and in low season probably barter more than they need to in high season. We did not end up buying anything of significance tonight but it is still good to have a comparison for next time. After dinner and shopping we headed back to the hotel. Once at the hotel we had a chance to play darts before heading off to bed (and the mosquitos). We had a long day ahead of us on Monday as we had to check out and then hang around in Athens until the boat left at 8:30 pm for Crete. |
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| Glenn atop monument hill, with part of the huge city sprawl and the port area of Pireas in the background |