Monday, September 10, 2012

Greece - Athens

Day 224 - Sunday, September 2

As noted in the last blog, I was up until 5am Sunday morning watching the end of the Clemson game. I was planning to catch a 6:45am bus to Athens, so I decided there wasn't really any point in sleeping.

The bus trip to Athens took 11 hours, of which I probably spent about 8 asleep, though it seemed like never for more than about 15 mins at a time.

After arriving, I grabbed some dinner, where everything was swimming in olive oil. While in Greece and Albania (which has a large Greek population), I encountered multiple greek salads that were more like a bowl of cereal with olive oil instead of milk and tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, and olives instead of cereal.

The place I stayed, City Circus, definitely wins the award so far for the hostel with comfiest beds and softest towels; it was glorious. It had pretty sweet view of the Acropolis/Parthenon from the rooftop terrace as well:
From Greece - Athens


Day 225 - Monday, September 3

I had heard that there wasn't much to see in Athens other than the Acropolis, but for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was my very comfy bed, I decided to stay in Athens until Wednesday, giving me two days in the city. With the Acropolis on the agenda for Tuesday, Monday was a lazy day. I climbed up Lykavittos hill which had nice panoramic views of Athens:
From Greece - Athens
From Greece - Athens
From Greece - Athens
Afterwards, I wandered around a bit just checking out the city. Then, for the 3rd night out of the previous 5, I was up past 5am because I had a fantasy football draft (rescheduled from before) that went until about 2am, and then when I was already up at that point, I figured I might as well stay up and watch the primetime college football offering (VT v. GT), which didn't end until well after 6am. Football starting up again seems to be turning me nocturnal.

Day 226 - Tuesday, September 4

After finally crawling out of bed sometime after noon, I headed over to the Acropolis.
From Greece - Athens
From Greece - Athens
From Greece - Athens
With all the cranes, restoration/preservation equipment, tourists everywhere, and high expectations, it was a bit of a letdown, but still really cool. I remember being much more blown away by Rome 10 years ago, seeing the Colosseum, etc.

Despite an early ferry to Mykonos, I was up quite late again, party because my sleep schedule was just so screwed up and partly for a fantasy draft in my other fantasy football league.

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