Exploring Athens

Our second day dawned bright, hot and cloudless as the day before, yet with a heightened anticipation of fun and exploring. We left our lodgings after a quick shower and plan and headed down the road to find the closest coffee and breakfast we could. We came across a small roadside cafe where Dmitri brew up 3 of the finest, shortest espressos we are sure to have all trip. As we sipped our coffee we chatted with the locals and firmed up our plan for the coming few days.
We moved on to breakfast which turned out to be just a few minutes up the road and another few away from the Acropolis. Through a mixture of pointing and sign language we managed to order 3 servings of cheese and spinach crepes and 3 orange juices. The juice was freshly squeezed and delicious while the crepes we gentle, filling and lightly flavoured; rustic and satisfying. It was thoroughly enjoyable just watching Greece go past, with basil bushes lining the roads, trucks and bicycles zooming by and friendly people muttering "calimera" (good morning) on their way past.

Onwards we went up to the Acropolis, baking our way up the few hundred metres to the summit where the Parthenon and other temples, ruins and ancient artifacts reside. It was HOT, and with no shade and nowhere to rest there were many complaints from my traveling companions. I tried to block it out and take in and admire the incredible history of what I was looking at, and the incredible views over the whole of Athens, Pireaus and out to sea.
From the Acropolis we had lunch at it's accompanying museum just down the hill and viewed more historical artifacts and reconstructions of the ancient Parthenon - all of course within the safety of air conditioning. It was both interesting and enjoyable, while lunch was another authentic and odd experiece. I had wonderful little pikelet pancakes with thyme honey, tahini and grape molasses, Joy had a sesame bagel type bread roll with cheese, and Vernon had strange donuts covered in honey and pistachios: nice but cleaner frying oil and some contrasting fruit wouldn't have gone amiss. Afterwards we descended the streets into normal Athens and took the tube again back to our hotel.

(Unfortunately my phone died up the acropolis so the centre part of this day I failed to document. However I may steal some pics from v and j and upload them later)

Next stop on our day was the markets, which are deserving of their own entry in this blog, but which took up the majority of the afternoon and ended us up back at Syntagma Square (Parliament in Athens) and at yesterday's hotel for another cocktail. This one was not nearly as strong and harsh, but a floral and beautifully scented Lychee Martini, one of the nicest things I have ever drunk.
From Syntagma we again took the tube home and went out to dinnner: my choice as I so highly recommended the small taverna I visited the night before. We were not let down and consumed the following: cheese, bread, fava bean dip, bread, prawn saganaki, meatballs, sausage with red beer stew, mustard chicken, bread, beer, sangria and some strange deep fried salty chocolate covered pancakes. Weird but excellent.
From dinner we went to our hotel again for a final nightcap of hot chocolate whilst looking up at the illuminated Parthenon from the hotel's garden roof top restaurant and went onto bed. A decidedly better day than the one before.Read more