Last day (night, really) in Athens

We never got an opportunity to post about our last day in Greece.

We headed to the Athens Flea Market in Montrasiri to buy souvenirs. We didn't buy much, but the Flea Market was HUGE. It was blocks and blocks of various stores; souvenir chotchkis, cheap clothing, cheap beads and jewelry, antiques and antique furniture, and more souvenirs.

We headed back to our hotel via Ermou Street, where all of the designers had their stores. Our guidebook said that Ermou had the highest concentration of shoes per block than any other city in the wold. All of the stores seemed the same after a while, although we ducked into Zara to escape the heat in their air conditioning, and I ended up buying a shirt.

Finally, around 3pm, we were unable to handle not only shopping, but the heat any longer. We read in the English version of Greece's newspaper that the temperature had been 99 degrees Farenheit! Although there were museums and gardens we still wanted to see, we just couldn't take the heat and decided to head back to our hotel. Even restaurants and tavernas were sweltering in the summer sun... it seems like air conditioning is too much of a luxury in Athens to actually be used enough to cool you off.

We decided to have a siesta like the Athenians do, and ventured back outside at 10pm. At that point, the Athenians were just starting to go out for dinner that night. We ate dinner and walked around another neighborhood in Athens called Psiri. Psiri is supposedly the bohemian artsy area of Athens. We thought a lot of people were out when we went to Plaka the other night, but Psiri was out of control! Every seat at almost every taverna was filled with people.

After another delicious dinner, we went for a drink at a bar nearby, then headed back to the hotel. It was a rather unaventful ending to our honeymoon, but we had almost too much fun watching Japanese shows on our hotel TV beore falling asleep.

Athens nights

Last night, starting at 10pm, we went on a late night walk around Athens. In the States, at 10pm most things are closed. At 10pm in Athens we found more people in restaurants and in the streets than we did at 3pm.

We walked around the ancient neighborhood of Plaka, the oldest remaining neighborhood of Athens. It was the only part of the city to remain inhabited throughout all of the highs and lows of the city.

There were tons of tavernas open and filled to the hilt with customers. Tavernas are much like pubs in the UK, they are open for drinks and food, and they are open all day and night. Most people seem to get coffee and snacks (called mezes) there.

We were walking past block upon block of full tavernas, until we came upon one that was recommended in the guide book. We both had beers (Brian an Amstel light, and me some beer called Kaiser, which was a very good pilsner). For dinner we ordered a meat pie and a cheese pie, and they were delicious! The cheese pie especially was very good.

After our food, drinks, and good conversation we walked home at midnight. A rather cool ending to a very hot day.

Heavy Metal Taxi

Hot. It's very friggin hot in Athens.

Today was our first full day in Athens. Last night we ate dinner on the roof of our hotel, where they had a beautiful view of the Acropolis (the hill where the ruins of the Parthenon, etc. are) which is all lit up at night.

Today we decided to take a cab to the Acropolis and see the ruins. Our cab driver began asking us if we liked Bruce Springsteen since we were from th USA. That pretty much turned into a conversation about Heavy Metal and he put on the new Dream Theater album as he drove us as close to the Acropolis as possible. I don't know about that reputation about the cab drivers being shady.....

The ruins were cool, but once we got back down the hill, we realized that we had skipped the museum at the top. So back up we went. We found out later that the weather was 99 degrees today, which is unusual for June. So that sapped us of our strength and we spent a good deal of the afternoon napping in our air conditioned hotel room.

Intersting side note: yesterday we saw some Sheik-looking guys standing outside our hotel with bullet-proof vest wearing security guards. Today they installed a metal detector in the lobby. And while we were napping, we were awoken by a protest in front of the hotel. The police had even blocked off the streets. Um, yeah.

Turns out there was a student protest right in front of the hotel on the 16th, just days before we got here. http://www.connpost.com/ci_6151207?source=most_viewed
Our hotel is right across the street from the Parliament Building, so maybe that had something to do with today's angry shouting.

Anyways, now it's almost 10pm and the sun JUST went down. We finally understand why Greeks have a siesta in the afternoon and stay up super late eating dinner. So we're off to eat in the ancient town of Plaka. Tomorrow's our last full day in Greece, but we're both so sick of the sun now that we may end up doing something lame and in-doorsy. Good bye!

Athens trains, tea time, and H&M's

Today we left our "exlusive spa resort" hotel in Crete and arrived in Athens. We are staying in the Hotel Grande Bretagne, a 130 year old hotel. It's kinda like staying in the Biltmore, except that we have a view of the Acropolis outside our window.

After arriving in the Athens airport, we decided to save a few bucks (and perhaps some harrowing stories of corrupt taxi drivers) and we took the metro train to the hotel. We are probably the only people who arrived in the luxury hotel by metro. Anyway, the lady at the airport told us to get off at a certain spot, and despite our misgivings (as our guidebook told us otherwise), we got off at that spot. After travelling quite a while and not finding our hotel, we were able to orientate ourselves and discovered we were quite far from our hotel. This was not a pleasant experience in the Greek midday sun.

But, we finally made it, and I got to have tea time in one of the hotel restaurants. My 26 euro tea consisted of a pot of Earl Grey, 4 mini sandwiches, 3 fresh baked scones (which were excellent!) and 4 or 5 little tarts. These were all served on a tower of 3 plates, and it was the perfect light meal, despite the exorbitant price.

After a shower and a nap, Brian and I decided to try our luck at shopping. Brian has started to get blisters from his Roos, and I needed to find a shirt for sightseeing tomorrow that would hide my hideous skin disease. It turns out that when you take antibiotics, they say to stay out of direct sunlight for a reason. In the past few days, any part of my skin that gets hit by direct sunlight turns into a bright red, bumpy, rash. I'm not sure if you can tell by any of the previous pictures. It's not itchy, but it feels tingley, like I'm getting pricked by a bunch of little pins.

Unfortunately, all the shirts I brought were tank tops or v-necks, leaving my upper chest, shoulders, and arms exposed to the evil sun which turns me into a diseased red lobster. So I went in search of a regular crew neck t-shirt, while Brian needed new shoes.

In our pursuit of relief from blisters and the sun, we found the Greek version of Nordstrom's, which was far overpriced, just like the American version. We later found another department store where Brian found shoes.

When we got off at the wrong train stop earlier, I remembered seeing an H&M store, and we found our way back there, and I was able to get a shirt. Hopefully this will prevent any more hideous skin disease from appearing on me.

Now, Brian and I are headed back to the hotel, and then to find somewhere to eat dinner. Goodnight!

P.S. I have no idea why it won't post spaces after my punctuation marks. I'm spacing my sentences properly, I swear!