Lindsay and Ryan Do the World 2008/09

Now where do we start! I think this has been the busiest stop yet!  There is just so much to see in Athens.  It is a beautiful, old yet modern city.  Our favourite city on this trip so far!!  It has been our chillest stop yet, about 12-18 degrees during the day and about 10 degrees at night.  That seems chilly when all you have to wear is a sweater and jeans.  We have learned to layer our clothes well. haha.

We have had 5 days here and I think we have almost seen all the main sightseeing spots plus some.  5 days is a good amount of time here.  We could spend some more time just wandering the cute little shops and streets but it would start to cost a bit.  The Canadian dollar buys .60 Euro.  Not too good considering that we have always gained on our currency during this trip.

Our first full day in Athens was March 15 and we had a busy day.  It was Sunday and everything is free on Sundays so we wanted to see alot.  We started early and saw changing of the guards at the President’s Residence, then headed down the street a little to the very first Olympic Stadium.  The first Olympics were held in April, 1896.  The stadium is quite small compared to modern day Olympic Stadiums but still impressive.  We then walked to the Temple of the Olympian Zeus.  It is a bunch of huge columns still standing from Ancient Greece.  That was my favourite ruin.  I just can’t believe how old some of the columns and buildings are here.  Canada definitely doesn’t have anything this old! All the main sightseeing spots are very close together.  We walked everywhere this day.  Our next stop was The Acropolis, where the Parthenon is.  It is 490 feet above Athens. We walked up the south slope through ancient theatres, more ruins, old statues.  When we finally got to the top it was great.  You can see the whole city of Athens from up there.  It is a very clean and cute city, hardly any skyscrapers or large buildings.  There were a lot of tourists up on the Acropolis this day but it is so large up there that is was ok.  We still got some great pictures.  I think there are about 3 buildings up there and two theatres while you walk up it.  It felt like everywhere you looked you wanted to take a picture. 🙂  This was Ryan’s favourite site.  Every night all the ruins in the city are lit up.  So you can see them right across the city. 

The next day we saw more ruins.  Ancient Agora was really good.  It is an old city of just ruins left. It probably has the best preserved building of them all.  It has a really long name and I don’t remember it. lol.  We also took a walk up this large hill where the ancient Greeks went to think.  There was also some battles up there as well.

Our third day we had a couple more sites to see.  We went to a really old burial ground and city called Kerimeikos.  The museum here had really interesting artifacts.  We walked around some really nice neighborhoods called Psiri and Plaka.  They are tiny little streets with a lot of cafes, bakeries and restaurants.  It was very much like how I pictured Europe.  We also went to the flea market and got a few souvenirs this day.  Since we have only 2 more days of our trip we decided to splurge and go to a nice restaurant for dinner.  The Greeks really do know how to cook!  It was delicious.

Today was our last full day in Athens.  We took the Metro to Pireaus (the harbour front).  It was ok down there, a lot of cruise ships and boats which take you to the greek islands.  We then took the Metro again all the way to the other end of Athens to see the Olympic Park from when the Olympics were held here in 2004.

We just got back from lunch.  We had gyros!  The best thing to come from Greece.  We have had one almost every day here.  They are very cheap.  For those who don’t know what a gyro is, it is a pita with sliced pork or chicken and onions and tomatoes with tzatziki sauce.  OMG…MMMM!!!!!

We fly home tomorrow with a stop in Amsterdam.  It is going to be a long flight back but Ryan and I both like the long flights because they feed you so well on them. lol.  We can’t believe it has been just about 5 months already.  Some of our stops flew by and some seemed to drag on.  Overall, I enjoyed every stop and am so glad we saw the things we did.

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