There were many steps and columns; it was most tranquil

I't's just after 5pm here, and we're exhausted.  Cas and I joined our tour group at 8:30 this morning for what promised to be an hour and a half long walk.  We went past some of the important sights in the city, starting with a statue of Pericles, who is credited with being the impetus behind the Athenian city state and many of the areas of focus, such as art and philosophy.

Good going, Pericles!

After that, we walked over to a spot where three buildings with neoclassical architecture were constructed n more modern times.  The three buildings from the 1800s were the National Library, the University of Athens and the Academy of Athens.  Guarding the Academy in statue form atop the building are Athena and Apollo.  

Farther down the road is the parliament building, checking in as downright youthful, having gone up in 1934.  That building is protected by two guards, which Charlie told us are called evzones.  They look a little like the Swiss Guard at the Vatican, in that they have funny shoes and pleated kilts, but this is entirely different.  Evidently, this is an old style military uniform, and there are 400 pleats on the kilt- one for each year of Turkish occupation.  

From there,we walked trough Syntagma Square and up- way up- to a viewing area where we could see the Acropolis just a bit higher than us and the whole city below.  After that, we were back down in the main square where Cas and I had lunch yesterday.  That ended our walking tour.  Cas and I were on our own from there. 

We decided to have an iced coffee for a moment before heading back up to the Acropolis.  

That was our starting point.  We went from the cafe to a street vendor who sold hats, then up, up, up to the Acropolis.  We did have to utter a few lines from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, as they went to someplace just about like we were visiting to pick up Socrates.  There were many steps and columns; It was most tranquil.  

I tried a selfie.  Cas usually takes our selfies, but this isn't bad: 

Here's my best angle on the Parthenon: 

Cas has plenty of other photos in the album he's keeping, and he posted a link when he jumped on here this morning.  

We went from there to the Acropolis Museum, which had air conditioning (hooray!) but didn't allow us to take photos (boo!).  We tried to eat in the attached cafe, but after reading menus for 15 minutes with nobody bothering to see if we were hungry, we decided to try some other local restaurant.  Good call, too, as we ended up with some really nice sandwiches and a glass of Ouzo each.  

We kind of needed to have the Ouzo.  There is no more Greek beverage I could think of but Ouzo, nor is there a more Greek thing to go and see than the Acropolis.  

After that, getting back to the hotel took a bit of work. We got turned around a little, and the weather wasn't cooling off.  

We have each just had a shower.  Totally necessary...  I think we may lay flat and relax before making any firm commitments about dinner this evening.  Tomorrow, we take a train to Meteora.  Certainly, I will appreciate going somewhere via a different mode of transportation than our feet.  

Photo album

Καλημέρα y'all!  Here's a link to some of our photos.  I'll try to keep it updated, but the wifi is going to be a bit sketchy in places.  Enjoy!

https://goo.gl/photos/zxmxAmDBqhc4hPHD7

Cas

Banana juice

Once everyone arrives, our tour group will consist of 16 people and a tour director.  We're not entirely sure how, but we've got ourselves another French woman in charge this time.  It was Brigitte in Australia and New Zealand, and it's Charlie here.  Seems that we are destined to be guided around by French women who are living away from their homeland.

After we checked in and showered, Cas and I had a pretty substantial nap.  That got us ready just in time for the orientation meeting and the welcome dinner.  The meet and greet was good, and this group is a bit different than our crew last summer.  Last time, we were in the company of nothing but Americans, and this time, we have a German woman, three Australians, a Canadian native and a Canadian who spent her childhood in Greece.  There are 16 total people in the group, and only three of them are men.  Unusual balance.  

The welcome dinner was pretty great.  We had lamb roasted in parchment paper with potatoes.  We had grilled pieces of Greek cheese for an appetizer, and we had Sangria to drink.  If we had not selected Sangria, I may have ordered the most confusing menu item I've seen in a while.  They were selling glasses of different fruit juice, and one of the fruits they claim to be able to extract juice from is a banana.  They had banana juice for sale by the glass.  I have no idea what that would look like, nor do I know how one would go about extracting juice from a banana.  Alas, it remains a mystery.  

Maybe we'll try it out if we see it on a menu again.  

For now, we've walked around in Athens twice, eaten here twice, and we're about to fall asleep for the second time.  Not bad for one day...  

Here we are in the restaurant: 

And while we walked back from the restaurant, this was our view of the Acropolis all lit up at night: 

We do a walking tour tomorrow, so there is more to come from this city before we head to the next destination.  More soon, friends! 

Checked in

Okay- I had to drop that little note in earlier just to let anyone who was awake and wondering  know we had arrived.  There was wifi at the restaurant where Cas and I shared an appetizer.  

But now, we're checked in to our hotel.  It's a small room, though it is clean and features pretty much everything we need.  Having just thoroughly appreciated the shower, I can tell you it's fully functional.  It is one of those European style showers I had seen before with a small, square area featuring a shallow lip around it and a drain in the middle.  They did have a curtain, though.  Nice touch.  When I finished, the floor of the whole bathroom was soaked.  Europe, am I right?

But, before we got back to our room and took a very necessary shower, we walked around a little bit.  My impression of Athens so far is that the city itself is large, dirty and kind of smelly.  There is graffiti on nearly everything you see.  If I lived here, I would invest in a store that sells spray paint.  

As for the aroma, I guess I forgot how many people in European countries smoke all the time.  I used to work in a bar where there were ashtrays every five feet, but it's been a few years.  It's very common here.  That was the most dominant smell, but occasionally, I caught a fragrance that I can only describe as "barnyard."  

Between the long stretch of time we had spent in the same clothes, the summertime heat and the aromatic nature of the walk, we were both really happy when we got back and the clerk at the hotel said our room was ready.  Hooray!  Cas was a true gentleman, so I got first crack at a shower.  I feel a thousand times better, now, and maybe I can start to appreciate this as art: 

Walkabout

Just a quick note to all who may want to know- we have landed safely. We got to our hotel just a little early for our check in time, so they are holding our bags.

We went for a quick walk to find a cafe and found ourselves at the entrance to their downtown flea market. I'm enjoying a cold beer, you may enjoy a photo: 

DFW

International travelers at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport may be seeing Texas for the first time.  The airport itself is unremarkable.  It looks exactly like an airport.

I often try to dispel a little of the mythology attached to Texas for folks unfortunate enough to live elsewhere.  I make sure they know I don't wear a cowboy hat or ride a horse.  I don't have an accent, and I still haven't learned how to properly integrate the word y'all into my regular speech.  Not all Texans are like the mental picture everyone has leftover from the TV show Dallas.

That's why this isn't helping:

In fact, we do not have our cattle walk about on hind legs, Animal Farm style, and we do not dress them in denim.  Or western-wear.  Or any clothes at all.  

This is a heck of a welcome sign for Texas, though- a shop at the airport where you can buy western clothes and look just as slick as the cow-mannequin.  

On a happier note, though, we had a great morning so far.  Jeanne joined us for a quick breakfast at our house, then gave us a ride to the airport.  We had printed boarding passes before we left the house, so when we arrived all we had to do was show those along with our passports, then the very friendly Air Canada employee checked in our luggage.  

We even had an easy time of the TSA security check.  Cas and I both forgot to pull out our little baggy of liquids.  Nobody seemed to care.  Overall, it was unusual.  People were all pleasant, and nobody made us feel stressed, rushed or herded like cows in western wear. 

We're off to Montreal with a short layover before the long haul to Athens.  Should be pretty great.  We'll be in Greece in the morning, which I think will be around 3am in my Central Daylight Time brain.  

Here we go!  

Back in the saddle again

In one week, Cas and I will get on an airplane again.  This time, we are headed for Greece.  The tour company we're going with has a 15 day trip all planned out for us, but we've extended the trip for a few extra days.

We go from Athens to Meteora, then on to Delphi and Nafplio.  From there, it's a boat to Crete, where we go to Chania, Agia Romumeli, Loutro and Iraklio.  It's another boat to Santorini from there, and that's where the tour company bids us farewell.

We booked a boat to Mykonos on our own, then a flight back to Athens from there.  The map below is from the tour company, but I pointed out Mykonos on there, since we added it to the trip.  All in all, we get home 18 days after we leave.  The trip will end, and we will be home just in time to celebrate our first anniversary.

As I did last summer, I plan to write on this page whenever I can locate some decent wi-fi.  If you're interested in keeping up with our travels, please check back often (starting in a week).  I enjoy writing, and this blog is something I can easily do with my phone.

If you want to say bon voyage or impart some travel wisdom, our email address is heatherandcas@gmail.com.  We may get back to you all from another hemisphere. 

We have just one week to pack up and get ourselves all put together, then it's time for our next big adventure. Should be a great time.  Opa!