trip day 3

 Trip Day 3:  Athens

We got up and ran together through town and around our block a few times to avoid cars.  Then we ate the hotel breakfast but were not huge fans of the coffee so we walked down to a place we passed on our run called Pinky Coffee.  It was tiny but there was a sweet lady making real cappuccino.  We sat for a moment before heading back to meet with the group for our first adventure.

Our first adventure started before the planned adventure.  We made a new friend, AJ.  He joined our trip even though he wasn't an art major.  We noted his positive attitude and latched onto him quickly.  We had noticed the streets were lined with orange trees with real oranges on them.  They were dropping on the street.  AJ climbed a tree and grabbed us one.  We peeled it and our little group all grabbed a slice.  It was horrible.  Very sour and it made my tongue tingly and numb.  We, of course, started to question our decision to pick a fruit in a foreign country and eat it without being 100% sure what it was.  With tingly tongues, we hiked up to the Acropolis entrance.

We took a quick group photo before entering and splitting up for the steep hike.

Violet and I took off.  It was hot.  Very hot.  We would sweat and then we'd stop for a rest and the sweat would go away.  

I had noticed that a lot of the street art had a positive message.  We found this card at one of the historic markers.

I think Paul Yanko and Enid Williams took this one for us.  

It was crowded and everything here is marble.  Fun fact, marble is slick.

Violet had recently studied Greek culture and mythology so she understood more about some of the things we saw than I did.  

At the top, we saw the Parthenon.

We took photos with it.

And took photos of it.

And when marble is slick and covered with a light coat of historic dust, people slip and fall.  I slipped just enough to knock my shin into another piece of marble.  I got this cool scab that I kept for the whole trip.  A nice souvenir.  We saw other people fall completely down and one guy skidded all the way down a ramp but didn't fall off the mountain.  

The view was amazing.

This is Alayna teaching in the exact spot where the Apostle Paul gave his speech to the great minds of Athens back in the day.  

The street art was cool and funny.

We found Kennedy and Alayna at the top of the Acropolis and stuck with them on the walk down.  We found a cool little place to have lunch.  We used the barker here for information on what we should do while in town.  If we had done this prior to the trip, it would be called "research".  But now, we were just winging it.  He had some good tips.

Then we met the group again at the Acropolis Museum.

We saw a lot of historic statues and heads.

And we took some photos with them.

And we helped out by filling in vacant pedestals.

We picked up Hope and left the museum to do some exploring.  We headed in the general direction of the Monastiraki Market, as advised by our new restaurant barker friend.

It was touristy but also had some things for locals.  Sometimes the decor was just weird.  There was a T-rex in a jewelry shop.

We found a cool vintage store that sold clothes by weight.  I found a Duke Power tshirt.  Apparently the Americans sell their stuff in Europe and it's like gold.  

A cool mural we found while walking.

And this place was apparently a breakfast restaurant.

It was crazy and spread out over a few different buildings.

We discovered the Greeks like them some Bob Marley.

And different versions of this guy were all over the streets of Athens.

We made it back to the square to find a rooftop bar the barker recommended.  We were going to miss sunset but the view was supposed to be great.  We noticed a large police presence and a lot of red flags being passed out in the square.  We asked a cop what was happening and he told us the election was this week and the Communist Party was rallying and marching.  These guys all got big Communist flags and took off marching through the streets.

More fun street art.

We made it to the rooftop bar and discovered it was a more formal affair.  We, of course, did NOT have reservations but the lady agreed to let us stay for one hour if we all ordered drinks.  It was hot, so no problem.  These were designer drinks with a theme and a story and heaven forbid you try to order one without using the correct thematic name.  

We found our way back to our part of town and passed a lovely restaurant called Daphne's.  They treated us very well.  I had "baby rooster" and it was one of the best things I had on the whole trip.  They had really good limoncello and you just try to stop Alayna and me from ordering cremé brüleé.  It was so good.  Then we all got gelato and bottled water and went to bed.