Athens, Greece

In Athens we had about a 10 minute walk from the port to the metro, then seven stops later we were hiking through the Plaka (old neighborhoods) to get up to Athens Acropolis.  Walking through the neighborhood was fun, there weren't any main roads (the tour buses came up the other side I think) but a lot of walking on small streets or on the doorsteps of cafes.

Hiking up to the Acropolis

The Parthenon

Being on top of the Acropolis (large hill where the Parthenon and other ruins are found). It makes sense why large city buildings would be there since it was up high and you could see all around the valley to the ocean to be able to protect yourself. You could easily see anyone coming (I'm assuming in those days when there were less buildings)  The view was breathtaking, you could see a 360 degree view of the city, the sea to one side and the city of Athens everywhere else, extending as far as you could see. Being from a small city in the western United States it was crazy to me that it was all large buildings apartment buildings crammed together, no single family homes in sight.  It was a beautiful city but made me grateful for our "little" patch of grass backyard!

Odeon of Herodes Atticus built in 161 A.D. This theatre is still used at times.

Standing on Mars hill where the Apostle Paul preached.

View of the Acropolis from Mars Hill

After hiking up and down a bunch of hills we were hot & tired, we walked into the Agora museum to cool down.  They had some amazing OLD things. Here are a few.

Gold rosettes from a rich lady's burial tomb from 1400 BC..that is crazy old!

This is a casket-like stone burial tomb that has the remains of a little girl that lived thousands of years ago along with some of her pottery and jewelery.  You could see her teeth and some of her bones.  So interesting to think about how the earth was when this little girl lived on earth.

These black pieces of pottery were used for Ostracism voting. A vote was made by scratching the name of the person most undesirable, the person with the most votes had to leave Athens for 10 years.

This was a jury selection machine called a Kieroteria. A person would place a card with their in a slot and then a bunch of white & black balls would randomly be put in at the top.  Depending on if a white or black ball ended up on your horizontal row, you and the rest of the row would have to do jury duty.

vertical rotisseries

Smiling and then scarfing down my gyro at the plaza outside the metro station. I wish I could go back to Greece just for one of those. Chicken, French fries, onion, cucumber dil sauce stuffed in a warm pita. Yum!

We walked around the markets a little before heading back.  I found two cute Greek dresses that would fit Kamri & Lyla but they wouldn't barter like in Turkey. They were more than I wanted to spend so I left them.  I kinda wish now I would have just bought them. We got back to the boat that evening and ate, read, ate some more and sat in the hot tub to relax after all that walking!