Athens

We arrived in Athens Tuesday afternoon. We immediately laid down to take a nap. #priorities

After we regained our strength, we ventured out on the town. And by out on the town, I mean we walked around the immediate area. Fortunately, our hotel seems to be in a good location. It is right next door to a lot of shopping and restaurants. Our room also has a view overlooking the Temple of Zeus.

We ate dinner and finally order a gyro. We didn't have much luck finding a gyro in Santorini... Athens seems to have plenty of places that have it. We were surprised to see what a apparently is- it's not wrapped neatly in a pita, instead it is a pile of meat on top of a few pieces of pita, with some tomatoes, onions, tzaziki, and French fries all on the plate. We learned that a gyro is normally served wrapped in a pita when it is ordered to-go (or take-away, as they say in Europe). They also do not have lamb gyros in Athens... Only chicken and pork. We learned so much about gyros!

The next day we had an all day tour. We visited 4 main sites that were way outside Athens (hence the need for an all day tour). We visited the Corinth Canal, the ancient theater of Epidavros, the acropolis of Mycenae, and a little town of Nafplio.

When we got back from that, we went for dinner in a section of town called Plaka. This section of town has two things: souvenirs and restaurants. For dinner, we ended up getting a big platter of stuff. A lot of different meats (pork, chicken, beef burgers, lamb, lamb/beef) along with some rice and pita. It was delicious!

Our last full day in Athens included a half day tour around the city of Athens that ended with a trip up the to Acropolis... The Parthenon being the big attraction. As some of you may know, the great city of Nashville has a full scale Parthenon randomly in one of their parks. So this was really the second time we had seen it... The one in Nashville is in much better condition, the one in Athens is run down and barely standing... Kind of depressing. After that, we went over to the Temple of Zeus... Even though we see it all the time right outside our hotel window. Not much left of that except for a few pillars. We also got "take-away" gyros... They put the fries right in the gyro! Unbelievable!

Something we have noticed is that when you walk by a strip of restaurants in a tourist heavy area, they always have somebody standing outside trying to convince people to eat there. They will run up to you with a menu and tell you how great their food is and then finish it off with "I have a table ready... Please come". It's fun when you are actually looking for a place to eat since you are interested in the sales pitch... It's not so fun when you aren't eating and they follow you for a little bit. Italy was somewhat similar in that they had people standing outside restaurants... But they normally didn't chase you down. They would mainly be there to answer questions... And then they would seat you if you wanted. It is fun hearing the sales pitches to other people once we are already seated.

We have also noticed that the Greeks have been relatively friendly... But they have also been the most pushy when you are looking in one of their stores. They do not take no for an answer. My advice- don't go into a store unless you really intend to buy something!

Canal