Exploring Athens! Part 2

Yassou! So, after our trip up and down the Acropolis and our frozen lemonades, we continued to walk around. There are musicians all around the Acropolis playing all types of instruments like guitars, saxophones, and accordions (adult musicians). However, we also saw 2 gypsy children (their mom or someone who was making them work was not too far away watching them); one was a little boy about 9 years old who was actually playing the accordion. The other little girl could not have been more than 3. She was very very little. She couldn't play the accordion yet; she just went through the motions. Cross-cultural observation: (the students are journaling about any differences they notice, and so I'm noting them as well). It is odd to see these children begging; in the United States, we see adults asking for money (for example at intersections), but we wouldn't allow children to beg. They would be put in foster care or taken away from the person making them beg. And, someone is definitely making them beg; you can always see the adult watching them from afar. . it is difficult to tell if the adult is watching them to make sure they are ok, or if the adult is watching them to make sure they keep working. It was sad to see a child so young sitting out there (for who knows how long) begging. I may sound a bit ethnocentric here (my students know this term) because I make it sound like I'm judging this, but it is definitely an odd experience to see such young children working/begging.

Another interesting aspect of Athens are the many stray dogs walking around. I read a little about these dogs. Many of them actually have collars from the city, and they are chubby stray dogs . not skinny at all because people feed them. I found out that before the last Olympics in Athens, they rounded up all these dogs (but they didn't harm them); they just gave them collars, and after the Olympics were over, they let all the dogs free again back into the city. They are really everywhere, but they are so tame and chill. (maybe because it is so hot, and they are well-fed.) Below is a picture of a sleeping stray dog, and you can see that someone left him a glass of water.

After all the walking that we did at the Acropolis, Sarah and I decided to take a hop-on hop-off bus to see some of the city. Of course, we decided to sit on the top of the open-air bus to get the best view, but again, it was sooooo hot! I'm not sure, but it felt like it was about 100 degrees that day.  We are wearing headphones because an automated tour guide tells you about the things you are seeing in your choice of language. If you've ever seen the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and you remember the music from that movie, that is what we are listening to over and over and over again. There were maybe 2 traditional Greek songs that they kept playing over and over. Sarah said she would never forget those songs! Below are pictures of us on the bus.

Below you can see a bit of the Temple of Zeus from the bus.

I know that the media usually does a good job reporting what is happening in the world; however, I was disappointed in how the media made it look like the protesting in Athens was out of control and violent because of their economic troubles. The protesting was only in one area called Syntagma Square that is by Parliament. It was very peaceful; people were just posting their opinions on lots of signs. (The reporting came from one day in which the riot police got involved, but I heard from people in Athens that it was really exaggerated in the media.) And, the media reports led to negative consequences. I learned that in the hotels around this area (Syntagma Square), they had lost 50% of their bookings because of what the media had reported. Making Athens look dangerous only ended up hurting the city even more economically. Below are some pictures of the signs posted as we approached Syntagma Square. From what I could gather, the people in Greece just believe very strongly in stating how they feel when their government seems to be making decisions that will greatly affect their lives. I can understand that, and the economic situation is pretty bad. I learned that some people (in city jobs, etc) have not been paid for a while, but they keep going to work in the hopes that they can at least hang on to their job.

Below is a picture of Syntagma Square, by Parliament, where all the protesting is taking place.

We took a break at Syntagma Square to walk around a bit and look at the signs. There were a few signs in English that you can see in the pictures below.

The sign below is really interesting . . .you can see that this sign is encouraging people to speak out! Wish I knew what the other signs say, but I have no idea. I was really glad that most signs in Athens were in English as well as Greek because as you can see, it is difficult to even have a guess at what signs say in Greek. Yes, I was in a sorority in college, and we had to learn the Greek alphabet, but I've forgotten most of it now.

We also stopped in Plaka, the oldest part of Athens, to walk around and have lunch. Sarah had received a recommendation from some people (on the metro, I think) about a great lunch place in Plaka called Thanasis. The people we met were very helpful in Athens; when we asked for help, they always helped us. One store even let Sarah plug in her phone because her battery was dying. We wanted to make sure that we were going in the right direction for the restaurant so Sarah walked into another restaurant to ask for help. And, when I walked in after her, I laughed because once again, the Greek man helping her with directions . . . . .well, why didn't I just take a picture? LOL. But, one fuuny thing about directions from people in Athens is that eveyone who gave us directions would point a certain direction and say, "yes, it's just up there . . or it's just over there". Then Sarah and I would walk and walk, thinking just where??? Although people were always ready to help, the specificity of their directions seemed to be lacking! It was always "just up there".

We finally found the restaurant, and it was well worth the wait. I had a Greek salad, pita bread with tzatziki  (I LOVE PITA BREAD and TZATZIKI!)( the pita bread in the states is NOT the same), and Sarah and I split some french fries (called chips in Greece). It was an amazing lunch. . such fresh food. Also, I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but the bottled water in Spain and Greece is amazing. Many of you know that I'm actually picky about bottled water and only drink certain kinds. But, here in Spain and Greece, I'm always thirsty and drinking tons of water . . much more than I drink in the states. I'm not sure if the air is dry or someone said that in Spain, we are thirsty because the food is salty? I don't know, but I drink so much water here. It is delicious! Below is a picture of the restaurant where we had lunch.

And, my yummy lunch!

I really liked this restaurant; I would recommend it for anyone traveling to Athens . . really fresh food, great service, and great ambiance. Our waiter was really nice. He took the picture below for us.

I had my camera sitting on the right side of my plate, and when the waiter walked by and saw it there, he moved it to the inside of the table for me (so that no one would steal it). A little gypsy boy came in begging for money, and the waiters made him leave. Then, a little gypsy girl came by begging for money. I think she might have been selling kleenex. She would approach tables, and we watched how the Greek people responded to her. They wouldn't look at her; they would just ignore her. She looked very sweet and sad as she asked for money, and one table (tourists) gave her some money, but then the waiters made her leave, and I saw a very different little girl. She was speaking in Greek to the waiter, but from the tone of her voice, she might have been using a few Greek expletives back to the waiter. She was a very tough little girl with an attitude when confronted, but again, I can't imagine what her day-to-day life must be like.

Back on the hop-on hop-off bus, we saw the guards who watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as they marched toward Syntagma Square and Parliament where they guard the tomb. These guards are members of an elite Presidential unit of the military. They wear a unique but traditional uniform (sort of like a kilt and notice the pompons on their shoes.) As is the case with most guards like this throughout the world, when they are guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier, they are supposed to be perfectly still. Interestingly, they have to be at least 1.86 meters tall (at least 6.1).

So, we continued on the bus (listening to the same 2 songs) and we saw the fresh market of Athens. We really wanted to go there, but didn't have time to go back to it. (I really wanted some olives!) Below you can see a pic of the fresh market from the bus.

Next we rode past the 3 neoclassical buildings famous in Greece: the Academy, the University, and the Library. I got a picture of the Academy, which is Greece's top research institute. Had there been more time, maybe I could have stopped there to collect some data! :) Oh well, maybe some other time! Also, notice the Greek flag. In Athens, I saw Greek flags everywhere (hanging from people's apartment balconies, restaurants, everywhere . . . .I felt it was more prevalent than we typically see our flag in the states.)

Then, we rode past the  Panathenaic Stadium. This stadium hosted the first modern Olympic games in 1896! 

This stadium has been refurbished and restored, but it was used to first host the Panathenaic Games (starting in 566 BC!!!) It orginally had wooden seats, then in 329 BC, the entire stadium was redone in marble (it is the only stadium in the world built entirely from marble). Then, in 140 AD, more was added on so that the stadium could hold 50,000 people. Then, two men named Zappas and Averoff funded the refurbishment of the stadium for the 1896 Olympics. (They used the remnants from the ancient structure.)

Below is a picture of a statue just outside of the stadium.

Below is another statue across the street from the stadium (and the top of a fellow passenger's head.)

We also saw a small little church right in the middle of town so when we got off the bus, we decided to take a look inside. There is definitely a difference between the cathedrals we saw in Spain (wait til you see pics from the cathedral in Toledo) compared to the Greek Orthodox churches in Greece. I only saw 2 churches in Greece, but the ones in Greece were more simple and even the artwork in the churches looked very different. I can't write intelligently about it, but you will be able to see a difference.

This church needed a few repairs inside, but I liked the simplicity of it. Also, I loved how it was just in the middle of a busy street. See the pictures below.

Below are pictures of the inside of the church.

Even in this small church, notice the beautiful intricate column in the picture below.

Just beside the church was a cute clothing store. Sarah and I took a tourist break and went into the store to try on a few things, but we both sadly decided that we had been much more interested in the clothes when they were on the hangers than when we tried them on. Oh well . . I didn’t need to spend any money on clothes anyways!

I really didn’t go into many “American” establishments throughout my time in Spain and Greece (used the bathroom in a McDonald’s but didn’t order there . .although they had a lot cooler options at the Madrid McDonald’s than the Miami McDonald’s . . it was more like a cafe.) And although there was a Dunkin Donuts in the metro station in Madrid, I never had any DD coffee! For those of you who know how much I love DD coffee, I’m sure you are surprised, but what can I say? The coffee in Spain was so amazing that I didn’t even want DD coffee. Sorry to be a traitor to my DD coffee, but I've never had coffee as good as the coffee in Spain. However, why I'm mentioning this is because we did stop in a Starbucks (not for the coffee) although I did get one, but because Sarah was trying to get internet access to check on a work issue. I have to say that this Starbucks in Plaka (oldest part of Athens) was a very cool place. Great place to grade papers or get some writing done. To the starbucks crew in Miami, let's meet up at the Starbucks in Athens, sometime, ok? I know the students went to a Starbucks in Madrid as well. But, still by far, the cortado con leche in Spain is THE BEST coffee (loved Greece as you can tell, but in my opinion, between Greece, Spain, and the US (including Miami's Cuban coffee), Spain easily wins the coffee battle!)

So, after a busy day of walking, sightseeing, and bus riding, Sarah and I decided to go back to our hotels to clean up and take a shower. Then, we were going to meet back up to go to an area of Athens called Gazi (not sure about the spelling). We both got ready (we were both so tired) and then met back up at our usual spot, Vitro's to catch the metro to Gazi. Although I think both of us were super tired, we knew that we had to make the most of our time in Athens. At this point, I think it was around 10 PM (keep in mind that I have a 5:40 am flight to Zakynthos, and Sarah had a early morning flight as well to Santorini.) When we arrived at Gazi, we could see that this was kind of like the South Beach of Athens. Everybody was dressed up, and music was blasting from every restaurant/bar/club. We walked the length of the street looking for a place where we could actually eat and hear each other speak (does that give away our age???). It was definitely the hot spot of Athens, but it seemed a little much for us so we walked down a side street and saw a restaurant that appeared to be empty. However, they were showing a live video of the tables outside behind the restaurant where there were people. So, we walked in and a guy walked over to us, said hello, talked to us for a minute, and then showed us to our seats and walked away. Once again, I really should have taken a picture! Then Sarah and I debated about whether or not he worked there, or was just being friendly. Sarah decided that he definitely worked there! Sarah and I had a lot of good laughs at this restaurant. It was definitely a restaurant for locals. We were the only tourists, and everyone seemed soooo serious there. Our waiters were 2 of the first people we had met who really didn't speak much English. However, even though it seemed like such a restaurant for locals, they were playing American music from the late 80s/early 90s so Sarah and I knew all the songs the DJ was playing!

Below are pics of Sarah and I at the restaurant.

Then, 2 little gypsy girls came in, and again, the Greek people ignored them. On this night, I learned why ignoring them was a good strategy. When this cute, little girl (maybe 7 years old) came over to sell kleenex, she kind of threw a pack on the table, and I looked at her and said, nicely, but firmly, No. She then grabbed Sarah's bottled water, and Sarah said, "That's fine. You can have it." Then, the former Sunday School teacher came out in me, and I shook my head, and said, No to her again. This time I said it in a stronger voice. And, this little girl did not respond well to a firm voice. She threw the water bottle down on the table and as she walked off, she pinched Sarah hard! She knew what she did was wrong because she ran off. Then, a little later she came back to other tables in the restaurant. I now understand why the Greek people never looked at her and just ignored her. Anything else seems to encourage bad behavior. When she came back near us again, and our waiter was nearby, I told on her! (Yes, I know I'm the adult and some of you may disagree, but in my opinion, when you pinch someone, no matter your age or upbringing, I believe you should still get in trouble.) So, the waiter made her leave. It actually was sad because she was a beautiful little girl, and unfortunately, someone had probably pinched her before, and that's why she did it to Sarah. But, no matter what, I felt she needed at least some consequence for her behavior. So, yes, I'm a tattletale.

After we finished dinner, we didn't know what time the Metro stopped running, and we knew that a cab would be expensive. We thought the last metro ran around midnight, and I think it was about 12:30 or so at this point so we headed down the stairs of the metro station to see and saw people running. That gave us a clue . . .we followed suit and raced down the stairs, and in one minute. . the LAST metro was going to run! We were laughing and couldn't believe our luck!! We hopped on the metro and met a man from Canada who had just arrived in Athens as well. We talked to him for a minute on the metro and made it back to our station. As we are leaving the metro station, we took a few pictures of the walls in the metro station. Even the walls in the metro are beautiful. See the pics below.

There were so many funny memories from this day, but this one still makes me laugh. We were clearly tourists because we were taking pictures of the walls in the metro while everyone else headed up the stairs out of the metro. Then, a voice comes over the loudspeaker (in English!) saying, "The Metro is closed. Please exit." We were laughing because the guy spoke in English and was probably thinking . .what are those crazy Americans doing? 

So, we headed up the stairs to our usual meeting place, Vitro's. There were lots of little restaurants in that area that were still open so we decided to get dessert. Why not? It was probably 1 am at this point (remember my flight is at 5:40 am!) so of course, we should just stop and have dessert! Right? We definitely didn't want our day in Athens to come to an end.  I would love to visit Athens again, and next time I will spend time in all the museums. (In one day, you can't really go to all the museums.) Anyways, at the cafe, I ordered a gelato and coffee (and I think Sarah got baklava). But, the cool thing about this was that the 3 people (2 men and 1 woman) working in the cafe came out and sat with us. So, we got to talk to 3 locals about their life in Athens. The woman not only worked at the cafe, but was also an accountant, but when I told her I taught Psychology, she beamed and said she would love to go back to school for Psychology. They were so nice, and we told them how much we loved Athens. We laughed about the chill and chubby stray dogs everywhere, and the fact that our flights were in just a few hours. I asked about the gypsy children. They were very compassionate when they spoke about the children, and said they would give them food, but never any money. We just had a great, easy conversation, and these three people continued to demonstrate to me the generous spirit that I kept finding in the people from Athens.

After our dessert, Sarah and I said our good-byes, and I headed back to my hotel. I asked the man at the front desk for a wake-up call, told him about my early flight, and we debated the benefits of staying up vs. sleeping a little before the flight. He recommended sleeping for a bit, and said he would have a cab ready for me at 4:00 am (the metro doesn't run that early). He said that if I didn't appear downstairs at 4 am, he would come knock on my door! So, I slept for about an hour and a half, quickly got ready, and headed downstairs at 4 am . .right on time! He asked if I slept . .and I said yes, and that he was right, it was good to sleep for a bit. I paid my bill, and then perfect timing, there was the cab waiting on me! I hopped in the cab, and the cabbie asked me ."where are you from?" lol! Remember that I mentioned that I think that is the first phrase that everyone learns to speak in English. We talked about my stay in Athens; he was nice as well, and then he dropped me off at the Athens airport, ready for my next adventure.

Before I left for this trip, I read many reviews about Athens on travel sites like TripAdvisor. When I read these reviews of Athens from travelers from the US, many people were not very kind and didn't say great things about their trip to Athens. I had a very different experience, (and I think Sarah did too). I loved Athens, the history, the people, the food. I had always wanted to go to Athens. It has always been in the top 2 of all places I wanted to visit worldwide (the other is Jerusalem/Bethlehem . . I will wait on that for now.). Anyways, the point is that if anyone had high expectations about Athens, Greece, it was me, and I was not at all disappointed! So, ευχαριστώ (thank you) Athens for an amazing trip. And, ευχαριστώ to Sarah for being such a great travel companion! Adio! Now, on to Zakynthos!