The shower was probably the second best shower I have ever taken in my life. I stayed in there and really enjoyed the hot water and soap. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been nearly as good an experience if this whole travel disaster hadn’t happened. After we were both showered and changed into clean clothes, we decided to hit the town and see the immediate neighborhood. We were tired from the overnighter, but more excited to be in a new city.
We knew from the beginning of the trip that Athens would probably be the hottest city that we would visit, but actually it wasn’t much different from everywhere else we were. As usual, as long as we walked in the shade it was very comfortable. We started off by walking around the Acropolis hill, which was just a block from our hotel. Kuniko had selected well, and the location turned out to be perfect for sightseeing. We figured that tomorrow we’d do some serious sightseeing, so today we’d just get the lay of the land. There were already hordes of tour buses parked in the nearby parking lot, and tours were lined up to go up to the top of the hill and see the Parthenon.
One place that didn’t seem to be so busy was the Ancient Agora, the ruins of a some famous temples and public buildings. We bought a ticket book there that allowed us entry into the other famous sightseeing places that was good for four days, so we were all set for the next day of adventures. Ancient Agora was just what I had expected when visiting Athens – pillars, columns, statues of Greek gods, and temples. It was nice to walk around, and there was this terrific sense of freedom without having to worry about our suitcase.
From there we walked back towards our hotel. Along the way we frequently saw some tourist “trains” – small tourist trams full of tourists who didn’t want to walk. The train was decorated like something out of Traintown USA, and I thought it would be a little hard on my dignity to end up on one of those. But we saw them all over the place during our stay, and most of them were full.
We stopped at a small café for some cold beer and a snack (a vegetarian Greek sandwich) and also tried to find a supermarket to do some shopping for later. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the supermarket, but we did get a good look at the streets outside of the main tourist areas. The parts we saw looked a little depressed, and I was struck by how much graffiti there was. On our taxi ride into town we noticed an unusually high ratio of sex shops, and I guess all of these things point to some economic problems. We always felt safe when we walked around Athens, though. Right now tourists are their most precious commodity.
Back at the hotel we took a two hour nap. We could have slept a lot more, but we set the alarm and got ourselves out of bed. The bed felt like the most comfortable bed ever, and it was a big challenge to get out of it. We managed to escape its siren call, and headed back out to another shopping district to take a crack at finding me some business shoes. My shoes back in Japan were about ready to die, and I have only one emergency pair left in reserve. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any shoes that fit, and it seemed like the ones that they were selling would fall apart in a few days. We also were finally able to find a supermarket (we asked two Greek policemen carrying assault rifles) and we could do a little shopping there.
For dinner we stopped at a restaurant that was advertised all over Athens, the “Smile Café”. Despite the cheesy name they served some excellent gyros. It was Kuniko’s first gyro in a restaurant, and I think she really enjoyed it. We got so caught up in the meal that when we left we forgot our groceries, but the server chased us down and gave it back to us. Maybe a bit of the exhaustion creeping in…
In the evening we did a lot of souvenir shopping, as our vacation was kind of drawing to a close. There were plenty of tourist shops near our hotel, and we found everything we needed and more fairly quickly.
Lastly, around the corner from our hotel was a wine bar, and so we thought we’d drop in for a glass of wine before bed. We found out that the place had just opened a few weeks ago, and they served only Greek wines. Since we had been so impressed with the wines on Santorini, we decided to opt for their tasting. We each paid 12 euros, and the staff served us a flight of six wines. They poured heavy, and they also served a generous plate of meat, cheese and breads. It was a really good deal.
We explained that we had just come from Santorini, and asked for a survey of some of the other regions of Greece, and the server did a great job of introducing some of Greece’s best offerings. I had no idea that Greek wines had progressed so much. Each wine we tried was very well made, and two wines (a red and a white) stood out as something I would want to cellar and drink in the future.
After six glasses of wine each, it was definitely time to wrap up the day. We walked by the Acropolis hill on the way home and admired the Parthenon illuminated at night. Around the area were street performers, students and tourists, and street vendors in kind of a festival-type mood. The neighborhood was starting to wake up and come alive, but we were pretty much going the other direction.
