Athens, Greece

Athens. What a city. I don’t know how old your home town is, but imagine if people had been living there for 3,400 years. Imagine if all of Western Civilization pointed to you as their beginning. Imagine 4 million people spread over 150 square miles. Imagine a crossroads of east and west. A center of shipping, commerce, and trade. As modern as it is historic. That’s Athens.

After a long layover in Philadelphia, and a short one in London, we arrived in the late afternoon, some 38 ½ hours after we got out of bed in Minnesota. We found an ATM, found the train, road the train, walked a few blocks, and we were at our home for the next few days. Hostel Zeus. Some DELICIOUS souvlaki for dinner at a place just down the street, and we were done for the night. Early I think. Our bodies didn’t really have any idea of what time it was.

The next morning, half of us seemed to be sleeping much better than the other half. Luckily the half that was wide awake at 5:00am was also the half who was super excited about being at the Acropolis ticket booth right when it opened at 8. So we were up with the sun, found some Greek Coffee and Feta/Bacon stuffed pastries for like $4, and were sitting eating our breakfast in view of the Acropolis and Parthenon. If we wouldn’t have had to finish our coffee before going through “security” we would have been the first people into the site. Not a problem though. We spent the next hour or two strolling up the Acropolis, admiring the sites, imagining what it was like and really taking our time. We have been extremely fortunate, and without much planning, we’ve happened to hit some major sites during slow season. I counted 12 other people until the first tour busses showed up as we were leaving.

​The rest of the day we spent strolling through a labyrinth of neighborhoods like Monstiraki and Plaka, stopping into little shops and cafes, and stumbling on whatever other historic sites our $12 Acropolis tickets got us into.

Normally we like to make our way back to our place around 3 or 4 in the afternoon to clean up a little, relax, and get ready to go out at night. Against our better judgment, we may have accidentally taken a nap, which turned into sleeping until hunger woke us up for dinner.

We grabbed some more AMAZING Greek food in the form of Falafel Pitas, mozied through a flea market, did some people watching while sitting next to some Roman ruins, made our way back and tucked ourselves in. Good night Greece.

From Greece, with love.

Will + Sara