Athens on five doughnuts a day
Finishing up the “month of vacation blogging,” we have this look at my short time in Athens and in the post just below, some final thoughts. About my vacation, not this blog. And a surprise!
Remember those packs of stray dogs that made Athens so much fun for me? Here’s a bunch, in Syntagma Square, on the steps leading up to Parliament. If I were a dog, I’m sure I’d hang out around politicians too.
Here’s something to go along with my famous “Barzini’s butter display” photo. It’s world o’feta!
PS, I hate feta.
But that’s not what I came to Athens to see! No, it was this, the Acropolis. On the first day, I took one look at it and decided to climb it… some other day.
The next day, I set out early, got lost (I mean, you can see it from everywhere, but how do you get there?), decided to just get on the subway, and finally found it. I believe that’s how Thucydides always got there too.
Once again, I took a large bottle of water plus my backpack of guidebooks, three kinds of currency, and electronics I didn’t want the hotel housekeeping staff to steal. Midway up, I started to get very hot. And tired. And mindful of the fact that I had forgotten sunscreen. The stone “steps” were also incredibly slippery and clogged with tourists from every country you can imagine plus some others. I stopped to rest at this lovely theater, also because I never did get to that one in Epidavros. I think Blue Oyster Cult played here in ’73.
But then I reached the Parthenon and it was all worth it. This was the highlight of my trip, I have to say. It totally blew me away, not literally, luckily, because we were pretty high up. I thought I’d be all “yeah, yeah, looks just like the coffee cup” but it wasn’t like that at all. It’s overwhelming in its beauty, scale, magnitude, and classicism. I could really have stayed there all day, except for that whole lack of sunscreen thing not to mention the “plane to Israel” thing.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. Except the Parthenon, they’re still working on keeping it upright, as you can see. But my time in Greece did. Check out the post below for an exciting, actual picture of Becca in Greece, though!
Here’s the pathway up to our apartment. It’s far less pretty at 5am with a big suitcase after a tour through Jerusalem on a sherut. But let’s think of it this way, shall we?
Here’s the entry to the shuk, or market. It’s a fun place, but Niece1 and I were on our way to the Central Bus Station and their food court of Kosher fun. It was a Friday afternoon, things were winding down, and we moved along. Niece1, who is eighteen and studying in Jerusalem for the year, pretended she didn’t know me while I snapped this.
This was the very last shot on my camera, the view out the window of our kitchen. The lady downstairs had just taken down her sukkah. She’s not at all religious, she just likes to entertain there. This is Israel in a nutshell. In the US, many Jews don’t know what a sukkah is. In Israel you have one even if you’re not religious, kind of like that “I don’t believe in Jesus but the kids like their tree” thing.
But the most beautiful thing I saw the whole time, was this one. Home. I really missed New York. Sometimes it’s good to get away and realize the places and people you miss.
