It's all Greek to me

Our first day in Athens was really good. The night we arrived, we made it around 9ish and then had dinner at the rooftop restaurant at our hotel. The food was pretty good, the views of the Acropolis were amazing, but the service was terrible. Around midnight we were finally done with dinner and turned in for the night.

We started our first day with a visit to the National Archeological Museum. The museum has many statues, pottery and some ruins and also gives you a good outline of Athenian and Greek history. The best exhibit they have right now is one about a ship wreck. I thought it was really cool to see pieces that had been partially submerged in the sea floor, as the half that was submerged was preserved perfectly and the other half had all kinds of damage from being in the open sea. The museum is worth a trip if you like to look at relics from ancient civilizations and things like that. I personally can only handle so much of it, so it wasn't my favorite thing that we've done. We stopped for lunch at a great place called Alexandra that is traditional Greek food. I would definitely recommend if you're in the area.

The remainder of our day was spent on a private tour that I booked to take us around Athens and to Cape Sounio. When coming to Greece you do have to keep in mind that things can still be a little volatile, nothing major, but with an unemployment rate of over 27%, people generally have something to say about it. So, for our two full days in Athens all of the government managed monuments closed at 3pm due to a general strike by workers.

Parthenon

In Athens we hit a lot of the big sites and our driver took us around to many neighborhoods and local spots, always explaining the history and any significance. We started at the Acropolis, hiking up to see all of the various monuments, such as the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike and Temple of Rome and Augustus. It was pretty amazing, especially considering that it was built around 2500 years ago. At times it can be hard to tell what you're looking at without a map because the ruins- what's left of them- look like a pile of rocks. From the Acropolis you can also see many other sites such as Theatre of Dionysus, Temple of Zeus, and the Roman and Athenian Agoras.

Then we took a little time driving through Plaka, the neighborhood and markets just below the Acropolis. We also stopped at the first Olympic stadium, which happens to be the only stadium in the world made of marble; went to the Hill of Lycabettis, which has 360 degree views of the city, all the way to the coast; saw the changing of the guard at the Presidential House; then did a drive by of the Parliament  building and National Library. The Parliament building was disappointing and surprisingly ugly. You would think with all of the architecture and history in Athens they would have done something good with it, but it's just not so.

After hitting some of the highlights, we headed out toward Cape Sounio where Poseidon is located. It was about 7Okm outside of Athens, and on our way out we drove through many of the upscale suburbs and coastal towns. There are beautiful views of the Aegean Sea and many secluded beach areas and coves along the coast. 

 

We ended our day at Poseidon at sunset. We enjoyed a light snack at the restaurant just below the monument, then walked up just before sunset to enjoy the view. It was really beautiful and made me realize that I'm really looking forward to exploring and seeing the islands later in our trip.

We then headed back into the city and had our driver drop us off at a little restaurant called Kuzina. The food was very good and it was a nice relaxing way to end the day. We're wrapping up our second day now; much more to come!