Day 7: Athens

Μετρσ: We took the metro for the first time. It is truly an awesome underground public transportation system. Thia Voula dropped us off at the metro station, located at Ethniki Amyna, on her way to work. We didn’t know how to get our tickets at first. I think we walked into a bank first where someone told us we had to go downstairs into the station for the tickets. When we got to the ticket machine, we didn’t know how to use it. We stared at the machine for a couple of minutes trying to read the instructions, which were printed in multiple languages including English. Finally, someone who spoke English helped us figure it out. You had to press how many tickets you wanted first, then deposit the money. Each ticket allowed you to transfer two times within a 1.5 hour ride. So for both of us, the tickets cost 1.40€. We got off at the second to the last station on the Blue Line (#3), which was called Syntagma. Then we changed some money. The banks rip you off because the dollar is weak here in Greece. Then we struggled to find our way to the Acropolis.

Προω Ακροπολη: We walked 12 hours today seeing the Acropolis after finally finding it late in the morning. The weather was extremely hot, about 90° F, but the hot weather only last from about 10:30 AM until 1:30 PM. There is really no way to describe what we saw today. I will let the pictures tell it all.

Thansis: We ate lunch at this restaurant. Originally, we wanted gyros, but they didn’t have it. It was the place that Thia Voula recommended so we were surprised. But instead we ate souvlakis. It is very similar to gyros. It has the slow-cooked meat with spices and vegetables and Greek bread. We also got the yogurt sauce with cucumbers, which is called Tzadziki.

Peddlers: During lunch several peddlers came to our table to sell stuff, mostly pirated DVDs of movies which have not been released yet and CDs of music. I bought a CD of the winning Eurovision song, My Number One for 4€, which is about $5.

Serenade: While we were eating we noticed a small boy, who should have been in school, going around to the various tables playing a zouras and singing. We called him over to our table for a song. And I gave him 2€. It was kind of sad that he was not in school. Perhaps this is part of the way he and his family can survive, to peddle music and songs. Maybe he is a gypsy. We learned that his name is Kristo (Christopher).

Shopping: We did about 99% of our souvenir shopping today in Monastiraiki and Plaka. Monastiraiki is a huge flea market full of little shops. Plaka has nicer more upscale stores and restaurants. We found most of our things in the flea market.

One guy where we bought some gifts was like Gus in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, telling me about English words that all came from the Greek language. For example, O.K. comes from Ola Kala. Some of his word stories were kind of far fetched, like the word Israel coming from some Greek letters that ultimately refer to the Greek sun god. Whatever. He was a nice enough guy and gave us some discounts on some stuff. He even threw in a nice mini calendar that Josephine liked for free.

Hard Rock: After a long day of walking, we made our way back to our original metro stop in downtown Athens and ate dinner at Hard Rock Café Athens. Since we were still full from lunch, we just had an appetizer and a drink. Here’s to Dave Simmer, Hard Rock connoisseur, who has not been to Greece yet or the Hard Rock Athens.

After dinner we took the metro back where Aunt Voula picked us up. They were surprised that we stayed out so late. They probably thought we couldn’t handle all the walking.

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