Athens is awesome

After a newborn niece and a fun weekend in PA with Kasia's family, it finally hit us... "We're headed to Europe!"   A kind friend dropped us off at the airport in Columbus, and we were off.   Three airports and nearly 24 hours later, we arrived at our hotel in Athens, Greece.   

World Cup at every bar/cafe.  You can see 3 TVs from 3 different outdoor cafés from this spot. 

We slept the best we could on the plane, but we were still beat upon arrival.  Typical advice is to stay awake and power on to adjust, but we opted for a nap so we could watch the USA in World Cup soccer at 11pm local time.   The man at our hotel suggested the Syntagma Square area near the center of Athens for food and drinks, so we headed that way around 9 pm feeling refreshed.   Some wine and some phenomenal Greek food awaited us!

We watched most of the USA game there, then another stop closer to our hotel before the extra time that led us to witness a USA loss.  We didn't see too many USA fans around Athens, but a few were all decked out in the red, white and blue.

Taking a break from the heat on our trek to see the Parthenon. 

Our first full day in Athens took us to the Acropolis, the site of so many Ancient Greek ruins, like the Parthenon.  I still can't wrap my mind around how long ago these building were first built...make our 90-year-old house seem like a baby.

We made it to the top!   There's ever-present preservation going on with these structures.

In our 2+ days here we learned the train system, walked ~5 miles around the Acropolis, city center and Gazi, and sweated off 5 lbs apiece in the July heat.  

Most meals included Greek salad, which here means tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, onions, olives, and sometimes peppers too in olive oil.   No lettuce.  No problem.  We're addicted.  The Greeks love their food and we are right there with them!

Odeon of Herodes Atticus. 

What we really noticed about Athens though, was that, in general there's a romantic and sexy feel to the city.  For instance, we had delicious dinner at a mostly gay courtyard restaurant.  Although we noticed the preference in this area, Athens doesn't seem to care about sexual orientation nor race.  We often saw public displays of affection with all types of couples.  Additionally, something about the historical buildings and architecture seem to add to this feeling of romance throughout the town.

Can one survive on Greek salad alone?   We think so! 

People leisurely drink coffee or wine and smoke cigarettes at the outside cafés (and nearly every place to eat or drink is an outdoor cafe) before they take off on their scooters or to the train.  People are affectionate, warm and seem to indulge in the little pleasures of life.

The Greek letter system makes it nearly impossible to try and learn any Greek, but the people are very friendly and helpful.  Plus everyone in Athens seems to speak a bit of English.  

For me, this is a more foreign feeling than Costa Rica -- I didn't expect my longing to speak a tiny, broken bit of the local language. I now realize I took this for granted in Costa Rica (because I know enough Spanish to at least get past the pleasantries).

Tomorrow we head to the port and a 7-day island cruise.   We can't wait!  

Photo bombed by a Greek god. 

A cafe near Monastiraki Station. 

View from our seats.