Nice view from the pool!
That's where we spent most of our Athens time, in the pool, staring at the Acropolis. I stared at the Parthenon up there, and Mark would turn on the jet in the pool and scare the crud out of me. We were both happy.
Lori's twice-baked dish was only half-baked once
Me, Mark and the tourists in the background enjoyed our gyros
Mark’s favorites included the gyros, which he ate every day, and the chocolate croissants. A kid in the pool told him about those and he spent the night dreaming of them. He woke up drooling, and promptly ate about six of them. In fact, he ate so many that by day 3, he didn’t want to see another chocolate croissant ever again.
Mark adjusted very well to Greece. The only thing that threw him for a loop was the bidet in our bathroom. He took one look at it and said, "That's a weird sink!"
There were lots of dogs wandering the streets. Well, let me re-phrase that—they weren’t wandering so much as sleeping. There’s definitely a siesta time for Greek dogs, and it takes up most of the day. They slept on the sidewalk, they slept on wall ledges, they slept in the middle of squares and historical buildings. We saw one not-so-bright dog panting in the sun—it was much too hot for him to sleep. Mark and I yelled at him to move to the shade, and to our surprise, he did. Pretty much confirmed my friend Rob’s story that if you yell at a stray dog to go home, it will.
There are also about a million mangy, underfed cats roaming the streets, and Mark tried to befriend them all. They were feral, which he did not understand, and more than one took a swipe at him. But they eagerly accepted the scraps of food he tossed them, including a piece of ham at breakfast one day. I asked him why he got ham (never saw him eat it before) and he said, "It's for the cats." Duh!
On Thursday, my friend Florida Lori arrived. I was glad to have another adult around, especially one so familiar with Greece. (It’s her favorite place in the world.) She loved the hotel, even though they thought we were sneaking her in. I explained that we had a triple room, and that she was our third person, but the hotel clerk just harrumphed and haughtily (though hesitantly) agreed to give Lori a key when she arrived. (They gave Lori the same amount of grief when she checked in.)
We decided to take advantage of our fabulous rooftop restaurant, and dined in that night. The maitre’d was also a bit stuffy, rolling his eyes when I announced our third guest would arrive shortly (Lori was still getting ready). Mark, meanwhile, had discovered that the plants growing in the planters next to him were rosemary and mint, and with Lori’s encouragement, he plucked some mint and garnished his water glass. Mr. Snooty waiter almost had a heart attack when he served Mark’s appetizer and saw green things floating in his water glass.
“What is that?” he nearly shouted, appalled that Mark would get a dirty glass. We explained Mark had added the mint, and that lightened the mood considerably for the rest of the night.
The food there was amazing as well. I was thrilled to try a tomato foam—I always watch them making foams on Top Chef, but I’ve never actually eaten any. It was kinda weird—literally foam that tasted like a tomato! Points off because I hate tomatoes, and the texture was a little odd, but happy none-the-less. I also tasted my second (lobster) and third (strawberry) foams, and the strawberry one was definitely the best.
On Friday, we were kidnapped and held for ransom on a boat, and it cost us $100 to be freed. OK, not really, but I wish that were actually the case. Because I’m ashamed to admit I spent that much money on one of the crappiest boat trips ever. (Talk about good marketing!)
A travel agent sold us the trip as a one-day cruise, but I prefer to think of it as my Greek day in Hell. The boat never went above 2 miles an hour--it took us 3 1/2 hours to get to an island 2 hours away. The upside was that they were painting the boat at the time, and that everyone in Europe smokes relentlessly, so instead of getting seasick, we just inhaled noxious fumes instead.
Yeah, the boat really was that exciting
We slooooooowly sailed back to two more islands during the remaining 8 1/2 hours. That's right, we were gone for 13 hours. I pretended like I was on a real Mediterranean cruise, because it felt like we were gone for a week. But at least there was a group of crazy Japanese people to entertain us. (They kept taking random pictures of some poor girl, and were the only participants in the Greek dance lessons.)
At least the islands were pretty, and we got to stick our feet in the Aegean Sea...
But Saturday was the highlight of our trip. We climbed up the Acropolis!!! We woke up early--at 6:30, so we could make the trip before the crowds and the heat (Athens is hot!!). It was a great plan--we got the hilltop to ourselves for a good hour or so, and took a million pictures before the masses arrived. I almost cried--I couldn't believe I was there, standing in front of the Parthenon. THE PARTHENON. You know, the one you learn about in school, and see in movies and books? Yeah, that was me, standing in front of it.
It was truly a moving moment, which I dragged out to about an hour and a half. I also took 330 pictures during that 90 minutes alone, because for God’s sake, it was the Parthenon, and who knew if I’d ever be there again!
Afterwards, we walked down the rock, and went to the new Acropolis museum, which was fantastic. Just a year old, it was filled with the most beautiful sculptures, friezes, and art, dug up and displayed wonderfully. The floor was made of glass, so as you entered the museum, you could see the ruins they'd dug up below you. Photos were not allowed inside the museum, but that didn't slow me down--I took a funny one of me standing in front of a headless statue, so it looked like I had a statue body (I found out later the Greeks don’t take that kind of thing lightly—I saw tourists get in trouble a few times for taking silly pictures with statues, which the Greeks apparently see as disrespectful).
I spent most of the time telling Mark not to touch anything, because I’d never be able to replace it. Just then, a little kid ran by me holding a straw. He jumped up, tried to smack a priceless statue with it, and kept on running. I felt better about Mark's behavior after that.
He was a bit disturbed by all the statues though--he wanted to know why all the girls were dressed, but the males were all naked. It bothered him so much he told one statue to put on some clothes!
More tomorrow...
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