November 9, 2008

Athens

Happy Birthday DiDi!

We were up and ready to go before 8am to meet the departure time. One last breakfast of yogurt, cornflakes, and fruit. So not going to miss the same thing everyday. And then it was off the boat to catch the shuttle bus to the terminal. Once at the terminal, we cleared a very disinterested customs area and then walked outside to catch a taxi to the Metro.

We took the Metro to the Monastiraki station and walked to our hotel which was once again the Hotel Attalos. This time we were given a room with a balcony. The view was great. After dealing with a few things (postcards, email, and passport stuff) we headed out to find the cemetery. Along the way we ran into the Poet Sandal maker of Athens and each bought a pair of sandals. It was such a fun thing to do.





It was then onto the Keramikos Cemetery, where we were able to convince the guard to let us in for the 15 minutes that remained before they closed. It was a fun experience to walk about and see the old grave stones.



Once the siren blew for us to leave we walked to the Theseion, which is the best preserved Doric temple. Along the way we ran across the flea marked. There were many vendors selling jewelry, fake purses, and other trinkets.



After the Theseion, we took pictures of the Stoa of Giants and the Stoa of Atalou. We also visited the museum in the Stoa of Atalou. Since I was in artifact overload I decided I wanted to hit the flea market and do some shopping. Didi and Helen continued onto the Agora while Russ and I checked out the vendors. I was able to find a cool bracelet and a fake Prada purse I just could not resist. Russ found two paintings he liked. We then headed back to the room so Russ could check his email and I caught a nap before Helen and Didi returned.

We then changed and went downstairs to meet Heinrich for dinner. He arrived right on time and walked us to a restaurant he recommended to celebrate Didi's birthday. To eat we had fried zucchini, yellow split peas, fried cheese, stuffed mushrooms, squid, stuffed ocotopus, and fruit for dessert. It was all very good or maybe what I should say it what I had was very good. We then sat and chatted for hours. Afterwards we walked over to a cute little bar for an after dinner drink. After a couple of hours I was feeling tired so I headed back to the room with Russ for safety while Didi and Helen continued to hang out with Heinrich. They figured they might as well enjoy their last night. Since our alarm was at 3:30am there was no sleep to be had anyway :)