Athens (Not Georgia)
We’ve arrived safe and sound in Athens and so far our tour company, while definitely European (“oh, someone will come pick you up, probably”) has not let us down yet. Our driver met us at the airport, our hotel is clean and comfy, and today’s city tour and lunch were quite nice. Athens is an interesting city… very dense and filled with hustle and bustle. There are more batshit-crazy drivers and motorcyclists here than I’ve ever seen, though Sasha assures me it’s nothing compared to Southeast asia and I believe him. Oh, and it’s hot as hell here.
Yeah man, but it’s a dry heat.
Anyways, last night we walked around the very touristy area called Plaka, where they have lots of small shops and tourist trap bistros. We ate dinner at one and then had a beer at the hotel bar, which is actually pretty awesome; it’s on the roof of the hotel and has a great view of the whole city and the lit up acropolis (interesting side note: the tallest skyscraper in Athens, nicknamed “the Athens tower”, is only 24 floors high; the lack of tall buildings really gives the place a flat, sprawling feel, and sets the acropolis out above the rest of the city). Today we went to the acropolis and agora, and saw the Parthenon, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the tower of winds, and a bunch of other cool temples and ruins thereof. We also hit up the National Archeological Museum, which was pretty awesome; tons of classical era sculpture, which I really dig. Now we’re at an internet cafe a few blocks from the hotel and we’ve gotta go find a laundromat, since we’re running out of clean clothes.
The connection here is too slow to upload all my pictures, but I’ve selected a few and uploaded those, so take a look. Tommorrow morning at 6:25 am we head to the harbor to catch a ferry to Santorini, where I plan to ride a donkey.
Stay loose.
