This morning we had the best breakfast of the trip. Bread/ toast (not a lot of places offered a toaster!), homemade jams, fruits, yogurt, eggs, crispy bacon, cereals (with actual cereal bowls!), frapps, juice...and cakes!! They had a cremé cake and banana cream pie and some other devilish delights. It was delicious!
We got ready and headed out to see ancient Athens. Since its a free-admission day everything was pretty busy. But it was worth the money we saved!
We started at the Acropolis. We wandered around the ruins and ancient theatre then climbed the hill to the Parthenon!! Atop of one of the highest points in Athens lays the infamous Parthenon which dates back to 4th century BC.
Its massive! And the amount of original columns and marble structures is mind blowing. It was truly a sight to see.
We also saw the temple of Athena Nike, which still has some of its original sculptures in tact!
We have noticed a large number of stray cats and dogs in Greece. But who would of thought we would find them way up at the Parthenon!? We found a family of 4 cats. Which we named: Zeus, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. I made friends with Athena and wanted to take her home. (Haha, just what we need...a 5th cat!?! Ummm, no)
After descending the hill we discovered the ruins of ancient Agora. Walking through ruins from a civilization that thrived in 4th century B.C. is a humbling experience.
Must have been a day for animals, because we found two tortoises out for a stroll in the grass! Heather of course got pics with both of them. You can take the girl out of Petsmart, but you can't take the Petsmart out of the girl. ;)
We then explored the shops around the Plaka area of Athens. All the while stopping in to different monuments/ruins here and there...because they were free!! Heather bought herself a cool copper replica of Athena's helmet.
We ate dinner at a place called Estia. We had vine leaf rolls for an appetizer. They are minced pork with rice and seasonings, wrapped in a vine leaf and covered in a cheese fondue. So delicious!! I was tearing those up!! Who knew I'd like something Greek?? Heather had traditional Greek chicken souvlaki and I had a burger. Which we weren't entirely sure was beef...I suspect veal. But alas, it was yummy. (Sorry Bambi!) We splurged and had dessert too! We split a white hot chocolate and a crepé with Nutella and strawberries. Best dinner ever.
After dinner we booked it to the New Acropolis Museum, which houses most of the sculptures from the Parthenon. We were hearded like cattle to get in. They were open late tonight for the holiday, and it was swamped!!
The museum was voted best in the world...and I can tell why. Its is three stories and there is a path laid out on the map for the best tour. There are glass floors where you can see the current work on excavations below, galleries of sculptures...then there is the Parthenon. Sort of.
The top floor has metal columns laid out to-scale like the Parthenon, with all of the sculptures on display as they used to be on the actual building. It was very innovative! You could really get a feel for how gorgeous the original building was!!
We ended up spending three hours in the museum and left when they were closing. We swung by the temple of Olympic Zeus, then back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we are going on a day cruise around some of the gorgeous islands!! We get to see Hydra, Poros, and Aegina! I'm stoked. Hopefully we can finally play on the beach!
Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather
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