Athens, Greece - Day 2

Sara and I both loved Greek mythology as kids. I spent countless hours crushing articles about myths and legends on Encarta ’95. Even more time watching the exploits of Xena: Warrior Princes and the great Kevin Sorbo as Hercules on TNT. So strolling through the old center of town, The Greek Agora, (which literally means "meeting place") and tracing the footsteps of the likes of Plato and Socrates was pretty cool and slightly mind-blowing. From science class, math, social studies, history, and art class, you hear so much about these people and places growing up, they almost seem like fictional characters.

Our second day in Athens was much the same as the first. We spent the morning eating some more delicious Greek Pastries (think Feta filled croissants) and checking out the Athens Central Market. Part flea market (much more than the actual “flea market”), part farmers market, part stinky fish market, and part crazy crowded meat market, we seemed to be the only non locals, non patrons around, which I thought was weird, but amazing.

After that, more strolling through neighborhoods like Sytagma. Eating Souvlaki for lunch and doing some trip planning in a small café filled with old Greek men smoking and watching soccer….one of whom was wearing a Captains hat, and may have been the inspiration for the Old Sea Captain from the Simpsons.

Walking around, we stopped by the Panathenaic Stadium which hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. Well it was originally like 2,000 years old and was refurbished and rebuilt for the modern Olympics.

A few blocks down, the remains of the Temple for Olympian Zeus.

Some more Roman ruins just happened to be on our way as we walked home. It seems everytime you turn a corner there’s some sort of site that’s old enough to have a comma in it’s age.

Truthfully, you could spend a lifetime in Athens exploring its many winding streets, and visiting all of the shops, cafes, historical sites, and probably never see it all. We were there two days. Not a bad sample. Excited to be back on the road.

From Athens, with Love,

Will and Sara.