La Vita E Bella: Greek shoes, a run through history, and 2 kilos of cherries

Parthenon

Athens, Greece....like Rome, Athens was a more of an obligatory stop on this trip. Since we wanted to visit some of the Greek islands, we felt we should at least stop in Athens. And like Rome, I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing Brad and I noticed as we left the airport on the metro was that the subway was pretty nice. I know Athens was pretty dumpy for awhile and they did a lot of revitalization work leading up to the 2004 Olympics. It certainly paid off!

View from our hotel balcony

Brad did a great job of finding us a hotel right in the central part of Athens. We could see the Acropolis from our balcony...pretty cool! Seeing as that was one of the main attractions we were interested in, we headed there after getting settled into the hotel Monday afternoon. With just over 24 hours in Athens, we knew we had to plan our time wisely.

I wish we had been able to get a guided tour of the Acropolis but the guides office right by the entrance was empty and after a few minutes of waiting, we gave up. During the few minutes we were waiting, I had a good laugh when a dad and his two sons (they sounded American) walked right by me, talking about how hot they were (the sun is brutal here!!). The younger son, about 8, was saying, "yeah, I'm all sweaty and my underwear is really bunched up..." So I of course had to chime in from a few steps away, "that sounds pretty uncomfortable!" The kid looked mortified and said nothing as he kept walking by. Sorry kid, but it happens to the best of us. Thanks for the laugh!

Walking up to the Acropolis

The main attraction... The Parthenon

We spent over an hour wandering around the Acropolis, seeing the Parthenon, among many other ruins up on the hill (which is the acropolis) and below. A quick history lesson: The wall up on the hill that currently surrounds the Acropolis was built by 1200 BC. By 480 BC, several monuments were in place in the Acropolis, including the original monument for Athena (for whom Athens is named) and the foundation of the Parthenon. However, then the Persians came and destroyed quite a bit. The original Athena monument was gone, and in less than a decade, they built the Parthenon, in tribute to her. Around the city, tons of other monuments were also built and worshipped. However, if you remember from history classes, there were a lot of wars, and a lot of other peoples came in and destroyed the temples over the next 2000 years. They literally hacked off beautiful pieces of art and looted or destroyed them. Many were buried for hundreds of years and as a result, are in better condition than they might otherwise be. So anyway, as impressive as the structures are now, it's unbelievable to think of what they were like then.

After a great Greek dinner Monday night, Brad was interested in dessert so while I waited for him to get something, I chilled out in Monisteraki Square and people watched for a bit. The guy next to me, who I later found out was a life-long Athenian, started up a friendly conversation by asking, "where are you from, Italy?" Haha nope, but almost!

Delicious breakfast at the hotel

Greek yogurt in Greece is amazing!

We had plans Tuesday night to catch an overnight ferry that left the port at 10pm. So we knew we had to plan our day wisely. Brad was in desperate need of new sneakers and I had heard about this guy, Stavros Mellissinos, the "poet-sandal maker of Athens." The family-owned sandal-making shop has been around for like 85 years and the grandson has continued on with it. He is the last custom-made, hand-made shore artisans in Athens and dozens of celebrities, including the Beatles, Jackie O, Sarah Jessica Parker, etc, have been customers. I was interested, and the shop was just a few minutes from the hotel. I chose from 30 or so different designs, and they took a sample pair in my size and then custom -fitted the leather to match my feet. For 32 euro, it wasn't bad at all. Brad, meanwhile, found a pair of Adidas sneakers for 130. I think I got the better deal here....

My Greek sandals

After that we made our way to the Panathenaic Stadium, another must-see. Built on the site of the ancient Olympic Games, this stadium hosted the first of the modern era of Olympics in 1896. It's also the only stadium in the world entirely made of marble. It was 3 euro to enter and you got a free audio tour, which was fascinating. After the tour, despite the sizzling heat, I decided to get in a short workout on the track, realizing this was an opportunity that probably wouldn't come again and I needed to run anyway. So I did! It was pretty awesome. The track, by my measurements, came out just over 400 meters, but the straightaways are about 185m, so those are some tight turns! The surface was pretty decent, too. During the entire time we were there touring, not one person ran on it, but once I started, a bunch of others did a lap or partial lap for a photo op. Several hours later, on our away to dinner, a guy we were passing recognized me from running on the track earlier! Cool fact: the distance of the straightaway measured one stade, a unit of measure, and that's how the word stadium got its origin.

The rest of the day consisted of some more historical sights, the acropolis museum, which was pretty cool, dinner, and heading to the port for our transport to Crete. On the way we stopped at some fruit vendors to pick up some fruit for the ride. Brad and I each went to a different one and each requested a bit of cherries, which went for 1.69 a kilo. I guess they didn't want to try to figure out the math, because the smallest they would give each of us was one whole kilo! So now we have two kilos of cherries to eat up. That's a heck of a lot of cherries! Good thing the fruit in Europe is so delicious!

All in all, Athens was great, a notch above Rome. I'd give it an 8.