Athens:
It is very interesting how different Athens feels after nine years. I visited Athens as part of a Italy/Greece trip the summer before my senior year of high school. It was the first time I had traveled outside of North America and the first time I had been in an airplane... At this point in my life, I did not like tomatoes, never ate salad and pretty much ate very limited foods. I remember flying into Athens and being amazed at their brand new airport. The Olympics were only a few years away and the city was preparing for the games. However, my most vivid memory of the city was just how dirty it was. There was so much construction. Every single block. This made for horrible traffic. I also have to say it was the first time I had really been in a "big city" exploring. Luckily enough I was with a great group of friends and we had awesome tour guides. I remember Athens for it being dirty, stray dogs every where, and not liking any of the food served (who likes warm milk for breakfast?).
Wow, I think I have changed tremendously and maybe Athens changed too. No more construction. The city did not feel any dirtier than Chicago, New York, etc... Compared to Cairo, Athens felt like it had just undergone spring cleaning. Additionally, my taste buds are far more sophisticated to say the least. I love Greek food now. This time around I really enjoyed Athens. It is funny thinking about my trip in high school, I always said, I would go back to Italy and the Greek Islands, but never Athens. Well, I am glad that I did not hold true to this as Athens is much better than remembered.
We arrived in Athens via ferry. The port here is huge and definitely the biggest port that I have ever visited. We were excited to arrive, but sad to leave the Islands and sad that this was the last stop on our vacation. We arrived in our hotel which we were intrigued to visit. The travel agent booked the hotel as part of our island tour. Looking at their website the previous night, the actual hotel website ranked it as a C- but with great views. The website was right on. We checked in and went straight to the roof top bar to admire the awesome view of the Acropolis and the surrounding area. After a milkshake (I was on a kick), we quickly realized that the hotel was in an awesome location. We were within walking distance to everything. We spent the evening exploring the Plaka and planning our Athens attack.
We spent the first day visiting the Acropolis which was cool to visit for the second time. I remember visiting previously, but I did not remember any information regarding the Acropolis. It was great learning about the columns and how they built the parthenon. Obviously, the wow factor was not as high the second time around, but it was fun realizing how different it is to travel now as a mature adult versus a high school kid (ok probably an immature high school kid).
We spent our second full day in Athens visiting Ancient Agora, the Acropolis Museum, Temple of Zeus, and the Archeological Museum. All that before 3:00! It felt like we walked the most in Athens. I am not sure if it is true or not, but my legs were jello after yesterday. It was nice being able to walk to all of the sites and feel safe.
Well the breakfast and beverage cart is approaching. Maybe it will wake the snoring gentleman across the isle. We have a 5 hour layover in Zurich before a 9 hour flight back home! Until then...
Final Greece pictures, including Athens
Trip summary:
North America: Canada-Toronto
Europe: Spain-Barcelona, Madrid
Turkey-Istanbul, Izmir, Ephesus, Selcuk, Pammukale, Kusadasi
Greece-Samos, Mykonos, Paros, Naxos, Santorini, Athens
Switzerland-Zurich
Asia: Turkey-Istanbul
Africa: Egypt-Cairo, Aswan, Edfu, Luxor, Giza
Wonders of the World: Great Pyramids of Giza, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Hagia Sophia, CN Tower
TOTALS:
30 days: 13,000+ airline miles, 21 cities, 13 hotels, 10 flights, 7 ferries, 6 countries, 5 languages, 4 continents, 4 Wonders of the World, 3 train rides, 1 great trip
Wow, that was fun to create. We had a blast!!!
I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to travel for 30 days. I loved everyday! I am excited to be on my flight home. 30 days seems to be the most I want to travel from hotel to hotel. I am ready for a more consistent living situation. I am not sure I would have changed anything about the trip. I would admit that by the time I got to Athens I was a bit bored by looking at ancient artifacts and ruins. It is amazing to think about the history that we got to see on this trip. We covered the Egyptian times, the Ottaman Empire, and the Roman Emprire. The years and years of history we got to experience was amazing. Kristen and I talk about how cool it would be to have seen the stuff we saw as we studied it in school. We have some ideas on how we want to involve our kids into traveling along with their studies throughout school. How cool would it be to learn about the Egyptians and get to see the Great Pyramid during the summer!
We laugh as the few weeks before our trip when we were in New York, we avoided falafel and humus saying, we are going to get tons of that on our trip. We had no idea that Egyptians, Turks, and Greeks really do not eat much of either. We in America label gyros, humus, falafel, etc... as Mediterranean food. However, based on our experiences, not all Mediterranean countries eat them all. Humus and falafel must only be Middle Eastern. With that all said, we feel fortunate to have eaten such great food the whole time. I would say my favorites would include: gyros and greek salads in Greece and a humus topped with minced meat in Instanbul (we only had humus three times and ate it twice at this restaurant in Istanbul it was that good). The dessert I had our last night in Istanbul was to die for. How I have changed. Nine years ago in high school, I would have never even tried any of those foods that I now enjoy so much.
What I really enjoyed the most about our 30 day adventure was the time Kristen and I got to spend together. We went from a long distant relationship to spending every minute together. Talk about extremes. However, it was awesome to be able to get used to each other on such a day to day level. Our long distant relationship feels like it was a long time ago. We will be a better couple after being able to spend the past 30 days together. Traveling is stressful enough for veteran marraige couples. We have more confidence than ever in our relationship after spending the past 30 days together. Traveling this amount of time really brought us closer than we even thought was possible.
The TV monitor on the plane says we have 5:00 more hours! I definitely look forward to being able to read the US news, driving my car, breakfast (I am tired of eating pasterys and bread), drinking water out of the tap, the English language, going to the grocery store (we have eaten lunch and dinner out for the past 30 days!!), my iphone (it is crazy how many times we were like, I wonder... and have to remember to look it up back at the hotel vs plugging it into the iphone for an answer. I love having information at my finger tips), excercise, and getting used to our new home and area!
I really enjoyed being able to blog about our trip and keep up with our pictures. We ended up with over 2,000 photos, so to sort through the pictures as we traveled is a huge relief versus having to do it when we return. I hope all who read found our journey interesting and inspiring! Traveling definitely is such a gift and I was happy to be able to share it with everyone!!
All vacation photos here
Signing off from vacation 2010...Jake
