Day 2 - Greece Trip: Athens

 When I graduated from TASIS I made myself a bucket list and a promise. My bucket list was a ridiculously long list of all the possible places I could see in my life time. I knew I wouldn’t get to them all, but I hoped I’d get to a few. I put an asterisk by the ones I REALLY wanted to see. You could say my top 5 places. My promise was that I’d do my very best to get there. I wanted to keep the feeling of seeing the world and experiencing new places and different cultures.

I, of course, had no idea where my life would take me, but I’m thrilled that my decisions in life have led me to travel.

On that top 5, and the last of the top 5, was Athens. And as I stood at the top of the acropolis I took a moment to be in the present and at the same time think about the past and the promise I made to myself. I was in Athens, standing next to the temple of Athena Nike! I smiled deep in my soul at that moment.

Now, as to the actual visit to the acropolis. I’ll just say it was TOO SHORT. Our excursion was scheduled for 3.5 hours. It took an hour to get there. Then we stood for 20 minutes as people used the restroom with thousands of their other friends.

We walked up…and up… and up…I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. See, there’s an “easy” way that takes switch backs and a less altitude climb with each switch back. And there’s the “hard” way, the stairs. We took the stairs! All 120 of them. By the time I got to the top, I thought I was going to die. Thankfully, the tour guide did stop half way through to show us something, in which I took that moment to catch my breath. Sherrie kept asking if I was ok because I was breathing so heavily. But god dang it I was determined.

We continued our climb and let me just pause her to tell you how incredibly crowded it was. Thousands of people. Tourists just like me. All jockeying to get up the stairs and onto the acropolis. To say I was annoyed beyond belief by the time we got to the top is putting it mildly.

The tour guide walked us around a bit telling us this and that, none do I remember. I figured I’d read about it later. I think Greek mythology is interesting and I really wanted to learn a bit while there.

After a bit, she set us free for about 30 minutes to walk around. Sherrie and I took a couple of selfies and then I let her go her way and I went mine.

Our first stop was to duplicate a photo mom and dad took in front of one of the temples. I was going to hold the photo up and take the same picture, but I forgot the darn photo at home. So I guessed. Still it was a bit comforting to know mom and dad stood there in 1987 happy as clams to be in Greece.

We did get in a bit of trouble by donning our crab hats and taking a photo in front one of the temples. They take their sacred lands seriously and it never dawned on me that it might be offensive to put crab hats on and take a photo. We got at least one off before he caught us. I kinda felt bad, but not too much.

One of my favorite photos though is of Sherrie and I trying to take a selfie of us with the temple of Athena behind us. All we got was the puddle behind us and our smiling faces. 

The walk down was much easier, but still oddly difficult. The stones were a bit slick, even on the bright sunny day.

The bus drove us past the parliament building and the office of the president. Sherrie was able to get a shot of the presidential guards as they protected the offices.

Back on board, we went straight to dinner and then off to rest.

Tomorrow is Santorini. I’m looking forward to that. Mom LOVED Santorini so it has to be amazing.