Day 16: Athens

Wow, titling this post has really brought to life how far along we are in this trip. 16 days of travel already, and just 5 days left. Sitting here eating fresh Greek Baklava in our hostel, we recognize that we have seen so much and continue to experience wonderful new adventures every day.

Today was our one full day in Athens, and of course the number one thing to do is see the ancient ruins. The forecast predicted 88 and sunny, so we knew that if we wanted to get up to the acropolis, we should do it early to 1) avoid the line and 2) do the hike in the coolest weather. So we got up at 7am and made it to the acropolis by 8am, right when it opened. This really was one of the best decisions we made. We pretty much had the parthenon to ourselves! So we walked around the area taking in both the ruins and the view of the city below, and then went back down to see the rest of the sites spread throughout the city. We saw the Hadrians' Arch, Temple of Zeus, the Marble Olympic Stadium, and both the Roman and Ancient Greek Agoras. It was really awesome to see all these sites-- especially to see the scale. These things are huge!

By 2:30, we had seen everything our ticket included, so we went back to hostel and changed into our swim suits, then took the tram over to the coast. We decided not to do the ferry to an island because we didn't want to spend $20 each to get to an island and only have a few hours there, plus we didn't know what time we would be done seeing the ruins. So we just got on the tram and we were planning on going to a beach at Voula or Glyfada, two highly recommended coast cities, but once the tram hit the coast (40 minutes into the ride), we decided to just hop off and get onto the beach. As everyone had been telling us, the beaches on the mainland weren't really anything to write home about. So we set up a towel and we each went to go feel the Aegean Sea. It was cold, so we didn't go in past toe depth, but at least we felt it! After an hour of drifting in and out of consciousness, enjoying our first time of relaxation in days, we became a little chilly and headed back towards the city center to find our final Greek meal. A brief google search showed that a little mom-and-pop called Paradisiako was the best place to get fresh calamari and good ol' Greek home cooking. We enjoyed the calamari, some roast chicken and wine and then searched the surrounding area for our Baklava. With dessert in hand, we retreated to our hostel for some R and R, and will be going to bed now before our extra early flight to Barcelona tomorrow.