Day 8: Athens

Athens was an early start - we met at 8:30, and were happy to find that Tony and Tania were going on the same tour as us. We were introduced to Costas, our guide, who we liked much better than our guide in Messina. He spoke very clearly, and didn't feel the need to fill every minute of the trip with narration. The area we docked in is called Piraeus, and although the area directly around the port is mostly industrial, there are some nice harbors and marinas for private boats.

For the most part, Athens is not much to speak of - most of the area we passed through consisted of office buildings with lots of graffiti, pollution, and traffic. Costas pointed out many stadiums and structures left over from the 2004 Olympics that have been converted into concert halls, sporting venues, and other purposes.

The night before we arrived in Athens, we received news that there was a strike due to economic conditions in Greece, and that the Acropolis would be closing at noon. We realized what a problem this was when we arrived at the Acropolis, because every bus tour was trying to get access at the same time before it closed. We were lost in a sea of people, and we gradually fell further and further behind Costas in the crowd as we slowly approached the gates. We finally did get through the gates and caught up with Costas.

The Parthenon is really amazing, however under renovation with scaffolding all around the structure. Costas said it's been like that since he was a kid - so it's constantly ongoing. Sadly, most of the frieze and statues on the structure have been taken by the English Ambassador while Greece was still under Turkish rule. Greece is trying to reclaim this property, with no success so far. The columns and roof itself is being slowly preserved using marble from the original mountain about 3.5 miles away from the Acropolis.

Although it was amazingly crowded, we happen to be there on the 100th anniversary celebration of Greece's independence from Turkey which warranted a procession at the top of the Acropolis with the mayor and the Greek military guards.

As we climbed down from the Acropolis at about 11:30am to meet our tour group and bus, we saw the protestors herding toward the entrance with the police already lined up in full conflict attire.

Our tour continued driving past some neoclassical structures in town, but most was closing down or about to receive protestors - so our tour ended with lunch at a local outdoor restaurant (gyros, souvlaki and spinach pie for all - YUM!) and a leisurely walk around the shopping district where we met a very cute little girl playing accordion who provided a sweet smile for our picture.

As we waited for the bus back to the port, we witnessed police confiscating the local street vendors 'splat balls' (this is a piece of junk souvenir sold in every city we've been in so far that resembles goo that you throw down and splats flat before it restructures itself) only to see the vendors all come back to their positions with new bags of splat balls within 5 minutes of the police leaving the area. Only this time the vendors have actual 'watch guards' on cell phones around the perimeter of the area on watch. Hysterical!