On Friday morning, we woke up bright and early in an attempt to hit the town before the sweltering heat settled into the city and made it unbearable for human existence. This is the beautiful bread Amalia picked out for us the night before:
We had milk and bread and Jamie ate her dessert from the night before:
Amalia made us some Greek coffee:
You boil the water on the stove and put the coffee grinds right into the water:
This is what is looks like, and I don't remember if you are supposed to stir it...there is a very specific way of making it and Amalia is very good at it:
If I remember right, each cup is supposed to be prepared individually (if you are really going to do it properly) so it is time-consuming. Here is Jamie sizing up her cup:
We got to drink out of the pretty china! And here are my coffee grinds:
You are supposed to be able to tell your fortune--Amalia saw a lot of pairs in the cup which should mean "coupling" or me finding a mate. That has yet to happen...but Amalia and I did see a pair of ducks in the cup and she was going to look that up in her coffee grind interpretation book. It must mean something! Then Amalia dropped us off at the tram station. We were taking the newish tram system into the city. Even though it is super slow and the locals don't like to use it, it was perfect for us because it was cheap and gave us a nice view of the coast where Amalia lives and then the city as we started to enter Athens proper. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Amalia at this point because she was leaving on her work trip that morning and wouldn't return until we were gone to Italy. It was sad to leave her but I'm just so thankful to have friends like that who are willing to take me in and share their home and their country with me. It was so special. So Jamie and I hopped on the train and then followed Amalia's instructions on how to get off and then grab the metro to get into the center. Everything worked out perfectly and we got out right by the ruins of the Temple of Zeus:
This is where our tour began. Right in the middle of the bustling city there is this large expanse (kind of like a football field) with all of these columns which would have comprised a large temple:
Nearby we found a sign for Amalia's!:
Many signs have the words written in at least three alphabets--the traditionally Greek one, the simplified Greek and then the Roman alphabet. Then we took a short walk over to the Acropolis. You could see it from where we exited the Metro--it is up on a big plateau above the city. Entering, we came across one of the theatres of the Acropolis:
There is a low wall along one side of the theatre that has reliefs and famous among them is this guy in the middle of the picture holding up the weight of the world:
I forget what he represents but he is famous (the guidebooks say so). Here is Jamie seated in the theatre:
And me:
There was a small part of the theatre you could walk on (including where we were sitting) but most of it was roped off. Some other uncouth tourists (not American) tried to go over and sit there and take a picture and then play dumb when the guards started yelling at them. I think yellow rope is kind of an international sign for "Don't cross". I had to wait a long time to get this shot without any other tourists in it:
I love the old steps--this place is just so sacred with outrageous history. It feels pretty special to be walking around there. This is the other theatre:
They still use it for performances so you have this ancient structure fully equipped with a modern sound system! I tried to cut out most evidence of that from my pictures though but I think it snuck in in the lower left corner:
I really should get out my guidebook before I write about these structures...but I can't really say I even knew what they were while I was there. Let's say I just appreciate them for their history and beauty even if I'm not sure exactly what their historic purpose was.
These columns are so tall:
And reaching the summit you see the most famous structure of all:
At the top of the plateau the rock looks like this:
It is gray and red and really pretty. This is what the base of the Parthenon looks like:
And this is the view out over the city of Athens:
And in the other direction:
And this is looking back over the first sight we had seen--the Temple of Zeus:
Kind of gives it some visual perspective. Now by this point we were dripping sweat--even our legs were sweating. Probably our eyeballs were sweating. So for some much needed relief we headed into the museum:
They keep a lot of the sculptures in there that were found in or adorning the buildings on the Acropolis. In most instances they put replicas back on the structures and keep the originals in the museum.
Back outside we took a quick peek at the rest of the buildings that our guidebook said were important. This sculpture in the crevice of the building is a unique remaining original work, if I remember right:
We took our pictures in front of some other columns:
The Parthenon itself is just too big to take a photo with (and there are too many crowds) so these columns are the stand-in!
Here is the plaque in front of the Parthenon:
There is lots of scaffolding around it because they are working on it and trying to reinforce the supports. This is an important set of sculptures of women:
I like to marvel at the detail on the columns--it is just so beautifully intricate:
Columns, columns everywhere:
There are fragments of ruins all around on the grounds of the Acropolis. These were laying in a garden:
I admit that we made a pretty quick tour of the Acropolis but Jamie and I saw all that we needed to see and we couldn't bear the 150 degree heat on top of the mountain any longer. Our spirits were sagging as we realized how much further we had to go on the "tour" that Amalia had planned out for us. As we were walking out of the park (or whatever you want to call the grounds of the Acropolis) I started to despair because I thought I had lost the list detailing each stop of our tour that Amalia had written down for me. Panicking I started turning everything inside out because I didn't how we were going to make it through the day (or get home for that matter!). I finally found it tucked inconspicuously in the guidebook and saw that we were right on track. But where exactly were we? And where was this street she had written down? Well, that's when I went up to this nice Greek policeman (and not bad looking either) and got some directions:
I must commend Jamie on her photo journalistic skills--that photo just says it all and cracks me up! Having been pointed in the right direction, we were back on track. We walked the path that leads around the base of the Acropolis for some amazing views back up the hill and interesting sights along the way--such as these ruins of homes with their mosaic tiling:
We walked for a long way on this road and to her credit Amalia had advised us to stop here and have some refreshment. Unfortunately, I was kind of accustomed to Italy where there are "bars" on every corner and 5 on every block and they serve everything from coffee to alcohol to pastries to pasta. All we could find were serious bars--serving only alcohol or restaurants that were serving full-on meals. We just wanted a pick up. I was getting seriously grouchy from hunger and dehydration and nothing was going to satisfy me. Jamie was more amenable but I just kept mumbling about how Greece was ridiculous and all I wanted was a pastry. Where were my Italian coffee bars? The well-known European stereotype of "Italians abroad" is that they are fussy eaters who can never find anything that satisfies their palate as much as their beloved pasta and pizza and that they complain loudly about their dissatisfaction. When did I become a snobby Italian traveler? Poor Jamie had to witness my melt-down and tried to remain hopeful about finding some place to eat that would cure me. We finally settled on a place that had frozen mocha drinks and chocolate and ice-cream slathered waffles on the menu. Check out the sugar bomb that we gobbled up:
After that, plus a mocha drink and a few glasses of water, I was cured. Turns out I just needed a little blood sugar. Then we got back on the program and walked through the market where they sell just about everything:
Including half-body mannequins as you can see in the above picture. There were furniture shops and antique shops--a very eclectic collection of goods:
But I must admit (sorry Grecians) that it reminded me a little bit of Tijuana...with all the random stuff sold everywhere (and a lot of junk):
Walking through the market took us to another part of town where there are ruins. We didn't go into any other of the sights (we'd had enough columns for one day) but many of the structures were visible all around town. Here you can see an old structure in front and the Acropolis in the distance:
This is the Tower of the Seven Winds (I think it is called):
This is an old building that I thought looked cool:
Here are some other buildings I liked:
And this is the main cathedral in Athens:
I was armed with a map and Jamie's trust in my ability to get us in and out and around this town with Amalia's instructions and we did really well. We ended up back in this neighborhood that Amalia had told us about which was right near the metro:
It was a cute neighborhood full of old-fashioned buildings and wrought-iron balconies. We got one last look at the Acropolis before moving on:
We took the metro to the center of Athens in order to see a couple of sights there. Here we are riding the Metro (we don't stand out in the least, do we?):
Then we got off to see this building which is the capitol government building (again, if I remember right). And the guards were doing their special "dance":
It was amazing that they weren't passing out in the heat of the afternoon as they did their intricate footwork in those uniforms:
They do this whole routine with kicks and foot scrapes along the ground--very precise:
Here he is standing by his guard tower (Greek colors):
And here is the capitol building:
And just down the street there was a Hotel Amalia!:
But I'm sure our stay was better with the REAL Amalia. We saw a couple of other important buildings in the city--we walked through the gardens near the capitol to this building called the Zappher or something like that:
No one could really give us a straight answer on what this building is used for but we gathered that it was used for meetings with international leaders. Then we walked on to see the house of the Greek president (their version of the White House):
You can't see much from the photo but it is a nice mansion with beautiful gardens around it and guards doing their routine in front. Strikingly absent is the snipers poised on the roof like we have at our White House...Here we found a beautiful fountain:
And I love how cute Jamie looks--like she is on safari in the wilderness of Athens:
It was amazing that we were still standing at this point--we had been walking in 110 degree heat with 95% humidity for about 4 hours. Fortunately, there was only one more sight on our checklist. The Olympic stadium:
We fantasized about jumping over the gate and running a lap around the track but the idea of spending a hot night in a Greek jail and missing our flight to Italy deterred us and we settled for these pictures instead:
From the stadium you can see back across town to the Acropolis--I'm sure it looks stunning when it is lit up at night:
Jamie, standing at the Olympic stadium with the Acropolis next to her head:
And with that we called it a day for Athens--we had seen everything we wanted to see. Amalia had recommended catching a cab when we completed our tour but being the cheap...er, frugal girls that we are we caught the economical tram and rode it allllll the way back to Amalia's neighborhood. We were at the next to last stop on the line on one end and we knew she was at one of the last stops on the other end. Trouble was, we didn't know which stop. But we had about an hour to figure it out. As we got closer we were like, "Is it this one?" "Nah, maybe the next one". We eventually found the one but we didn't get off because we remember her saying that there was another one closer to her house...so we got off at the NEXT one. Once there we found a woman who spoke some English and after showing her Amalia's address she pointed us in a direction that led us directly into a construction site. Then another passerby didn't speak English and even when I showed him the address (written in Greek) he couldn't tell us where to go. So we wandered around for awhile hoping we would see something we would recognize until we stumbled upon a small hotel. Figuring they would know the area we went into the lobby and found some English speakers--actually it turned out that the hotel manager and another man were speaking Italian and so I got to through some Italian in there. But ultimately, he gave us directions in English and we made it home in no time. Phew--I was getting to the end of my ability to wander around and needing a bathroom soon. Amalia had given us a key to get into her apartment while she was gone so we let ourselves into the building no problem but then couldn't figure out how to get her apartment door open! Ack, it took every last bit of patience (and a little praying) to figure out how to open the door and get some relief--what a long trip home! It was all we could do to collapse and take naps. Later we summoned up a little bit of energy to take a walk and see what food we could grab for dinner. Nearby we found a little souvlaki stand that was perfect:
This was the perfect way to eat our last meal in Greece:
We got chicken souvlakis (hold the sauce on Jamie's) and headed home to crash and watch TV. Amalia has quite a DVD collection--we watched "Sex and the City" and ate our Greek dinner. It was a great relaxing night. I love those chicken souvlakis...I could eat one right now. This Amalia's five-bedroom apartment:
This is the family home she grew up in with her brother and sister. It has views of the ocean and decks on all sides. It was a luxurious place to stay while in Athens.
This is the view of the ocean at dusk on our final night in Greece:
Sure, we could have gone out to the clubs and partied it up Grecian-style but we were pooped from our touristing of the day and we had an early flight to catch the next morning. Here are views of Amalia's apartment building from the outside as we left that morning:
Amalia had even arranged the cab for us to pick us up and take us out to the airport Saturday morning (she was still away on business). We had a lovely time in Greece and were looking forward to meeting up with my mom for our week in Italy. And I only had one week left abroad! A little panic was starting to set in...
We had milk and bread and Jamie ate her dessert from the night before:
Amalia made us some Greek coffee:
You boil the water on the stove and put the coffee grinds right into the water:
This is what is looks like, and I don't remember if you are supposed to stir it...there is a very specific way of making it and Amalia is very good at it:
If I remember right, each cup is supposed to be prepared individually (if you are really going to do it properly) so it is time-consuming. Here is Jamie sizing up her cup:
We got to drink out of the pretty china! And here are my coffee grinds:
You are supposed to be able to tell your fortune--Amalia saw a lot of pairs in the cup which should mean "coupling" or me finding a mate. That has yet to happen...but Amalia and I did see a pair of ducks in the cup and she was going to look that up in her coffee grind interpretation book. It must mean something! Then Amalia dropped us off at the tram station. We were taking the newish tram system into the city. Even though it is super slow and the locals don't like to use it, it was perfect for us because it was cheap and gave us a nice view of the coast where Amalia lives and then the city as we started to enter Athens proper. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Amalia at this point because she was leaving on her work trip that morning and wouldn't return until we were gone to Italy. It was sad to leave her but I'm just so thankful to have friends like that who are willing to take me in and share their home and their country with me. It was so special. So Jamie and I hopped on the train and then followed Amalia's instructions on how to get off and then grab the metro to get into the center. Everything worked out perfectly and we got out right by the ruins of the Temple of Zeus:
This is where our tour began. Right in the middle of the bustling city there is this large expanse (kind of like a football field) with all of these columns which would have comprised a large temple:
Nearby we found a sign for Amalia's!:
Many signs have the words written in at least three alphabets--the traditionally Greek one, the simplified Greek and then the Roman alphabet. Then we took a short walk over to the Acropolis. You could see it from where we exited the Metro--it is up on a big plateau above the city. Entering, we came across one of the theatres of the Acropolis:
There is a low wall along one side of the theatre that has reliefs and famous among them is this guy in the middle of the picture holding up the weight of the world:
I forget what he represents but he is famous (the guidebooks say so). Here is Jamie seated in the theatre:
And me:
There was a small part of the theatre you could walk on (including where we were sitting) but most of it was roped off. Some other uncouth tourists (not American) tried to go over and sit there and take a picture and then play dumb when the guards started yelling at them. I think yellow rope is kind of an international sign for "Don't cross". I had to wait a long time to get this shot without any other tourists in it:
I love the old steps--this place is just so sacred with outrageous history. It feels pretty special to be walking around there. This is the other theatre:
They still use it for performances so you have this ancient structure fully equipped with a modern sound system! I tried to cut out most evidence of that from my pictures though but I think it snuck in in the lower left corner:
I really should get out my guidebook before I write about these structures...but I can't really say I even knew what they were while I was there. Let's say I just appreciate them for their history and beauty even if I'm not sure exactly what their historic purpose was.
These columns are so tall:
And reaching the summit you see the most famous structure of all:
At the top of the plateau the rock looks like this:
It is gray and red and really pretty. This is what the base of the Parthenon looks like:
And this is the view out over the city of Athens:
And in the other direction:
And this is looking back over the first sight we had seen--the Temple of Zeus:
Kind of gives it some visual perspective. Now by this point we were dripping sweat--even our legs were sweating. Probably our eyeballs were sweating. So for some much needed relief we headed into the museum:
They keep a lot of the sculptures in there that were found in or adorning the buildings on the Acropolis. In most instances they put replicas back on the structures and keep the originals in the museum.
Back outside we took a quick peek at the rest of the buildings that our guidebook said were important. This sculpture in the crevice of the building is a unique remaining original work, if I remember right:
We took our pictures in front of some other columns:
The Parthenon itself is just too big to take a photo with (and there are too many crowds) so these columns are the stand-in!
Here is the plaque in front of the Parthenon:
There is lots of scaffolding around it because they are working on it and trying to reinforce the supports. This is an important set of sculptures of women:
I like to marvel at the detail on the columns--it is just so beautifully intricate:
Columns, columns everywhere:
There are fragments of ruins all around on the grounds of the Acropolis. These were laying in a garden:
I admit that we made a pretty quick tour of the Acropolis but Jamie and I saw all that we needed to see and we couldn't bear the 150 degree heat on top of the mountain any longer. Our spirits were sagging as we realized how much further we had to go on the "tour" that Amalia had planned out for us. As we were walking out of the park (or whatever you want to call the grounds of the Acropolis) I started to despair because I thought I had lost the list detailing each stop of our tour that Amalia had written down for me. Panicking I started turning everything inside out because I didn't how we were going to make it through the day (or get home for that matter!). I finally found it tucked inconspicuously in the guidebook and saw that we were right on track. But where exactly were we? And where was this street she had written down? Well, that's when I went up to this nice Greek policeman (and not bad looking either) and got some directions:
I must commend Jamie on her photo journalistic skills--that photo just says it all and cracks me up! Having been pointed in the right direction, we were back on track. We walked the path that leads around the base of the Acropolis for some amazing views back up the hill and interesting sights along the way--such as these ruins of homes with their mosaic tiling:
We walked for a long way on this road and to her credit Amalia had advised us to stop here and have some refreshment. Unfortunately, I was kind of accustomed to Italy where there are "bars" on every corner and 5 on every block and they serve everything from coffee to alcohol to pastries to pasta. All we could find were serious bars--serving only alcohol or restaurants that were serving full-on meals. We just wanted a pick up. I was getting seriously grouchy from hunger and dehydration and nothing was going to satisfy me. Jamie was more amenable but I just kept mumbling about how Greece was ridiculous and all I wanted was a pastry. Where were my Italian coffee bars? The well-known European stereotype of "Italians abroad" is that they are fussy eaters who can never find anything that satisfies their palate as much as their beloved pasta and pizza and that they complain loudly about their dissatisfaction. When did I become a snobby Italian traveler? Poor Jamie had to witness my melt-down and tried to remain hopeful about finding some place to eat that would cure me. We finally settled on a place that had frozen mocha drinks and chocolate and ice-cream slathered waffles on the menu. Check out the sugar bomb that we gobbled up:
After that, plus a mocha drink and a few glasses of water, I was cured. Turns out I just needed a little blood sugar. Then we got back on the program and walked through the market where they sell just about everything:
Including half-body mannequins as you can see in the above picture. There were furniture shops and antique shops--a very eclectic collection of goods:
But I must admit (sorry Grecians) that it reminded me a little bit of Tijuana...with all the random stuff sold everywhere (and a lot of junk):
Walking through the market took us to another part of town where there are ruins. We didn't go into any other of the sights (we'd had enough columns for one day) but many of the structures were visible all around town. Here you can see an old structure in front and the Acropolis in the distance:
This is the Tower of the Seven Winds (I think it is called):
This is an old building that I thought looked cool:
Here are some other buildings I liked:
And this is the main cathedral in Athens:
I was armed with a map and Jamie's trust in my ability to get us in and out and around this town with Amalia's instructions and we did really well. We ended up back in this neighborhood that Amalia had told us about which was right near the metro:
It was a cute neighborhood full of old-fashioned buildings and wrought-iron balconies. We got one last look at the Acropolis before moving on:
We took the metro to the center of Athens in order to see a couple of sights there. Here we are riding the Metro (we don't stand out in the least, do we?):
Then we got off to see this building which is the capitol government building (again, if I remember right). And the guards were doing their special "dance":
It was amazing that they weren't passing out in the heat of the afternoon as they did their intricate footwork in those uniforms:
They do this whole routine with kicks and foot scrapes along the ground--very precise:
Here he is standing by his guard tower (Greek colors):
And here is the capitol building:
And just down the street there was a Hotel Amalia!:
But I'm sure our stay was better with the REAL Amalia. We saw a couple of other important buildings in the city--we walked through the gardens near the capitol to this building called the Zappher or something like that:
No one could really give us a straight answer on what this building is used for but we gathered that it was used for meetings with international leaders. Then we walked on to see the house of the Greek president (their version of the White House):
You can't see much from the photo but it is a nice mansion with beautiful gardens around it and guards doing their routine in front. Strikingly absent is the snipers poised on the roof like we have at our White House...Here we found a beautiful fountain:
And I love how cute Jamie looks--like she is on safari in the wilderness of Athens:
It was amazing that we were still standing at this point--we had been walking in 110 degree heat with 95% humidity for about 4 hours. Fortunately, there was only one more sight on our checklist. The Olympic stadium:
We fantasized about jumping over the gate and running a lap around the track but the idea of spending a hot night in a Greek jail and missing our flight to Italy deterred us and we settled for these pictures instead:
From the stadium you can see back across town to the Acropolis--I'm sure it looks stunning when it is lit up at night:
Jamie, standing at the Olympic stadium with the Acropolis next to her head:
And with that we called it a day for Athens--we had seen everything we wanted to see. Amalia had recommended catching a cab when we completed our tour but being the cheap...er, frugal girls that we are we caught the economical tram and rode it allllll the way back to Amalia's neighborhood. We were at the next to last stop on the line on one end and we knew she was at one of the last stops on the other end. Trouble was, we didn't know which stop. But we had about an hour to figure it out. As we got closer we were like, "Is it this one?" "Nah, maybe the next one". We eventually found the one but we didn't get off because we remember her saying that there was another one closer to her house...so we got off at the NEXT one. Once there we found a woman who spoke some English and after showing her Amalia's address she pointed us in a direction that led us directly into a construction site. Then another passerby didn't speak English and even when I showed him the address (written in Greek) he couldn't tell us where to go. So we wandered around for awhile hoping we would see something we would recognize until we stumbled upon a small hotel. Figuring they would know the area we went into the lobby and found some English speakers--actually it turned out that the hotel manager and another man were speaking Italian and so I got to through some Italian in there. But ultimately, he gave us directions in English and we made it home in no time. Phew--I was getting to the end of my ability to wander around and needing a bathroom soon. Amalia had given us a key to get into her apartment while she was gone so we let ourselves into the building no problem but then couldn't figure out how to get her apartment door open! Ack, it took every last bit of patience (and a little praying) to figure out how to open the door and get some relief--what a long trip home! It was all we could do to collapse and take naps. Later we summoned up a little bit of energy to take a walk and see what food we could grab for dinner. Nearby we found a little souvlaki stand that was perfect:
This was the perfect way to eat our last meal in Greece:
We got chicken souvlakis (hold the sauce on Jamie's) and headed home to crash and watch TV. Amalia has quite a DVD collection--we watched "Sex and the City" and ate our Greek dinner. It was a great relaxing night. I love those chicken souvlakis...I could eat one right now. This Amalia's five-bedroom apartment:
This is the family home she grew up in with her brother and sister. It has views of the ocean and decks on all sides. It was a luxurious place to stay while in Athens.
This is the view of the ocean at dusk on our final night in Greece:
Sure, we could have gone out to the clubs and partied it up Grecian-style but we were pooped from our touristing of the day and we had an early flight to catch the next morning. Here are views of Amalia's apartment building from the outside as we left that morning:
Amalia had even arranged the cab for us to pick us up and take us out to the airport Saturday morning (she was still away on business). We had a lovely time in Greece and were looking forward to meeting up with my mom for our week in Italy. And I only had one week left abroad! A little panic was starting to set in...
