nightswimming: trip day 4

Trip Day 4: Athens

This was our last full day in Athens. I was having trouble sleeping because my body was still thinking I was on Eastern Time. I hadn't had a good night of sleep since we left. Eventually I just got up to go run and saw the sunrise over this mountain. I ran up and around the entire Acropolis area. Nice views.

I recognized some street art from Barcelona and Venice.

After my run, we did the breakfast and really started missing bacon and eggs. We went back to Pinky Coffee and saw our friend. We gave her a drawing that read "Eisai Omorfi" which is what Google told me was "You Are Beautiful" in Greek. The lady smiled so it must have been close.

We took a bus/trolley to a museum which will not get named here. I'll tell you why in a minute.

There were really cool historic things here from all over the country of Greece. We loved the octopus.

...and the bull head. We did not love the hordes of school kids moving through the museum with us. It was tight spaces, priceless artifacts and lots of bodies.

As I mentioned earlier, Violet has been studying Greek history and mythology so she was in her zone with this stuff. She was telling me myth stories and clarifying who was who and why they were fighting in the artwork. When she saw the arm of Zeus, she asked me to take a photo to share with her teacher. As I took the photo, a terribly bitter old museum worker yelled at me, "No! No posing! This is not a bar!"

I was shocked by her ridiculous negativity. We walked away from her without speaking but I was very angry. Maybe she was having a bad day, maybe it was the hordes of kids in the building, but she took a positive experience away from Violet and I'm still a little pissed about it. She needs to find another job but I decided not to complain about her and try to rush that process along. I do not recommend this museum because of the employee. Shame on you, lady.

I don't like real life snakes, but I draw them a lot. I was happy to see so many snakes used in these historic places and more contemporary versions in the street art.

This guy again. He's good.

We decided to follow another of the barker's recommendations and head to "Bikini Beach" during our free afternoon. There were a lot of sex shops and this was was how we knew which bus stop we needed to be at.

Our nameless, unresearched gang waiting for the bus. We had Hope with us for a minute but her parents were going to the museum of her favorite Greek dude and she ditched us with good reason.

The bus/trolley was no fun. It was crowded and hot. This guy gave his seat to Kennedy and then got pissed when she gave it to someone else. He sat back down and wouldn't smile for our photo.

I love a beach. This is Bikini Beach. It was a short swath of beach with a lot of litter and it was pretty crowded for a Thursday afternoon. The water was a beautiful clear green and the horizon was lined with mountains and fog. It was cloudy but still beautiful.

The barker's recommendation was actually for the Bikini Beach Bar and we did decide to get some refreshments there but we were there for the beach. We were also learning that everyone still smokes cigarettes in Greece. Everywhere, all the time. People on the beach were smoking, the waitress was smoking and the bartender was smoking.

Violet was trying all the fruit juice drinks!

The sun came out a little.

We enjoyed our little beach afternoon before heading back to the bus stop.

After a long bus ride back to Athens, we rested a bit, recharged our phones and then went out to find some snacks and groceries for the next day. We had a 5 am meet up time scheduled so we'd miss breakfast and coffee. Violet and I found this cool antique store on our search for groceries.

We found the grocery store and bypassed the Marshmallow Mateys for a sleeve of Oreos and some Texas BBQ Pringles.

There was a beautiful church near our hotel.

We met the gang again for dinner and got the royal treatment from a restaurant called Ionos. More Greek food and I had to get the stuffed peppers. So good.