When we found out that we would be leaving London and moving back stateside, we thought we would end our adventure with a big trip. Usually our trips are for a few days. We can do just about any major city in about 3 days tops - we have gotten to be very efficient sight seers! But I knew there were a few places I wanted to see that would take more than a few days and I didn't want to rush it. So we decided to go off to Greece and Turkey. It was the trip of a life time and we had a marvelous time. Starting with Greece.
Although we tend to think of Europe as one big old continent, easy to get from one place to another . . . it was a bit harder getting to Greece then most of the other places we have visited. Partly because we were coordinating Chizz's travel from the US and our travel from London. But eventually I got it all done, and we were in Athens. But. . . . our debit cards wouldn't work in the machines. I had anticipated we might have a problem in Turkey and had downloaded a list of all the Citibank locations where we would be, but nothing I had read had prepared me for an issue in Athens. After several calls to Citibank, wherein they professed not to know why our cards weren't working, we eventually were able to get money out of a few machines. We just kept going back to those. And we didn't seem to have a problem using the cards in points of service transactions, like stores or restaurants, just in getting cold, hard cash. So that is my travel tip of the day, when using your ATM card overseas, make sure you know where a local branch of your bank is in the city you are visiting. It is helpful because ideally both branches of the bank will work to solve your problem and at the least can give you a cash advance until you get home.
Athens was as beautiful as the post cards you see. There are so many things to see and we hit the highlights. If I blogged about every place, this blog would be much longer but I think I will just touch up just some of the sights. But trust me, if you can think of it in Athens, we probably did it - even if I don't talk about it here!!
I think our very first stop was the
Acropolis. Actually there are many acropolises (acropoli?) all over Greece. "Acropolis" basically means the city center of the local area, usually in the high spot of the city, raised up on a rock or hill. It was the symbolic spot where the government buildings and sacred temples met up. Over the years this one became so popular and well known that it just kind of morphed into THE Acropolis, like it was the only one. It certainly lives up to its billing. I can't imagine any of the other Acropoli or "es" could possibly be any more mouth open, jaw dropping, awe striking spectacular. You have seen all the pictures, and when you consider how darn old this stuff is, it makes it even more amazing. I have seen buildings in the US built 40 years ago that haven't withheld the sands of time that this stuff has that is over 2000 years old. Simply Amazing. We took a guided tour through the Acropolis which I think was useful, you can learn a few tidbits here and there.
The grounds of the Acropolis are fascinating, you wander through just looking at the ruins, the amphitheater, and before you know it you have climbed up to the top and are at the foot of the
Parthenon, which I am guessing is the most famous site in Athens. After the tour you can wander around for as along as you like. The Parthenon was built as a temple to the goddess Athena. It is undergoing a refurbishment program right now as are quite a few of the other buildings on the site, so you will see some scaffolding. But it is quite easy to ignore and imagine it as it 
would have been thousands of years ago. In this view of the Parthenon, you can see where the Elgin Marbles were. The Elgin Marbles are a series of sculptures or reliefs that taken, borrowed or stolen (depending on who you ask) by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin in the early 1800s. Lord Elgin says he had permission and produced an English translation of a document that seemed to verify his story, but the original document appears to have been mislaid. Convenient. In 1816 when the British Parliament debated the subject of the legality and morality of the removal of the marbles, they found (not so surprisingly) that the removal was legal and they allowed the British Museum to buy them and subsequently display them. We saw them when we were in London and they are pretty amazing. Especially now that I can put them in some kind of spacial perspective, seeing where they were before they were "ripped" off the walls. (Quote courtesy of our tour guide). Greece has been trying to get them back for some time but so far has been rebuffed by the English Government and the British Museum. Not a surprise.We also spent some time at the Roman Forum, which was a little smaller than I thought. To me the word forum just makes something sound HUGE but it was actually
pretty intimate. Actually the original agora, or marketplace, was much larger but over the years the remains have dwindled down. This is the original gate to the Forum area. There is an inscription that indicates the gate was built by Caesar and Augustus but it is so faded, that the only time you can read it easily is at noon when the sun is shining directly on the marble. We were there a bit past noon, and we could make out the inscription but it is not really visible on the photo. One of the things I noticed all over Athens is
there are "ruins" just about everywhere. You can be walking around the corner of a fairly large street, and you will run into the remains of a column, which may be theonly thing remaining from an ancient temple or other building. There are just so many of the darn things, that you start to become a little numb to them. At first, you are excited but after a while you just walk by. I still managed to take a few photos of things just hanging around in Athens.
We took a boat ride outside of Athens, to a few of the little islands nearby. Instead of taking a "tour", we rode the waterbus which basically had three stops at each island, where we stayed for an hour or two at each place. It basically gave us enough time to walk through the town, get a feel for it and perhaps stop for a beer or ice cream and watch the town happenings. We went to Hydra, Aegina and Poros. All three were beautiful little villages.
Hydra is probably the most famous of the three as there has been some very upscale
development there over the past few years and quite a few wealthy people have 
vacation homes here. Other than a few service vehicles there are no 
cars or motorized vehicles. If you book a hotel on the island and have luggage to transport, a porter with a donkey will appear to carry your luggage to your room. Most things, including people, are transported by donkey. It is pretty cool to walk through down and see all the donkeys around. The solo donkey photo is a photo of the donkey "parked" at the grocery store. It cracks me up!!I thought Aegina was one of the most beautiful ports we stopped in. It is known for its pistachios and every shop in town carried all kinds of pistachios, salted, flavored, plain. We sampled quite a few different varieties. We bought a HUGE bag and afterwards I was concerned that we might not be able to take them into Turkey. Customs officials can be a little choosy about what kind of food you can bring into the country. Snake assured me that he would singlehandedly eat every single nut in Immigration if they weren't allowed. Thankfully it didn't come to that. Here are some photos of Aegina.
One of Chizz's favorite things we did was a visit to the Temple of Poseidon. It is
not in Athens and there is no easy way to get there. You can go on a bus tour with a tour company, which normally is not our thing. You can also hire a taxi for several hundred dollars. I did some research and found out we could take a public bus, which conveniently stopped rightacross the street from our hotel. The upside - bus stop close to our hotel, the cost
was just a few dollars per person. Another positive, is riding public transport. We really like to use public transportation in a new city, there is no quicker way to feel like a local than when you master the city's public transport system. The downside? It is about a 2 hour bus ride, with a many stops along the way. After dithering about it, we decided to do it and it was a great experience. You can learn a lot about a country and its people riding a public bus for 2 hours. And I have to say it is one of the highlights of our trip to Athens. I think because the remains of the temple are so impressive. It is one of the few that has quite a few of the columns remaining so it is very easy to imagine what it was like years and years ago. This temple ,built in 444 BC, is actually the second temple on the site. It is located on Cape Sounion right at the top of a bluff overlooking the sea. This temple has been visited by many people over the years. One of the most interesting things is the graffiti. Now, those of you 
that are regular visitors to my blog, know that I usually rail against graffiti or people that can't seem to control themselves when it comes to touching artifacts. They can't just look with "their eyes" as I have told my kids a zillion times. Buuuuttttt . . . . in this case the graffiti is pretty darn interesting. It started in the 1800s. Some say it was started by the famous English poet, Lord Byron. His graffiti was etched in a column in 1810 and can still be seen, although it is difficult and doesn't show up readily in photos. However, I was able to take photos of quite a bit of the graffiti. I guess graffiti has to be old in order for me to "appreciate" it. There may be hope for me appreciating some of the "art" left on
freeway overpasses. Perhaps time will tell. As we left that evening, after spending 2 hours there admiring the temple up close and from the cafe down the hill, I captured this sunset from the bus window. I think it is a perfect ending for my Greece entry as it was a perfect ending to our visit to this temple. Next, Turkey!!
