Adventures in Athens
December 7th, 2008
Sadly I had to leave Rome, I had such a good time though that I’m sure I will be back.
Athens has been a little bit of culture shock, since they use an entirely different alphabet and I had to really look closely to compare train/metro signs one in lowercase one in uppercase in order to figure out how to get to my hostel, but after 10 minutes or so I finally figured it out and was able to get on the right train (with no guide book to help either!).
The hostel thing is working out pretty well, other than the snoring guy… Oh well its a trade off, and it is making my time in Europe a lot cheaper.
The weather in Athens has been great. I’m wearing flip flops for the 3rd day in a row, and its nice and sunny.
But it’s not all warm and happy, unfortunately the ticket workers at the main attraction, the Acropolis, are striking and it has been closed since I got here. I hope they end the strike soon, I’m getting tired of taking pictures of it from the bottom of the hill. And then there are the riots (!! see comment below). But I’ve been making pretty good use of my time in spite of it, thankfully the other things like Temple of Zeus, Ancient Agora, and Archaeological Museum are all open. And yesterday I took a half-day trip down to the southern tip of the Greek Peninsula to see the Temple of Poseidon with a nice group of girls I met at the hostel which was a lot of fun and had some amazing views. Photos later.. now added!
Photos
December 7th, 2008 at 6:59 am
What an adventure you are having! We certainly are enjoying your blog and pictures. Take care, Mom.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Watch out for the rioters.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28090788/
December 7th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I actually walked by one of the buildings that was all burned up today, I thought it may have been a car bomb or something when I first saw it, and I had been seeing a bunch of broken windows/glass earlier all day on storefront windows and pay phones. There were three cars in front totally burned up and the building looked like it was half gone but probably will need to tear the whole thing down. And there were a few plastic lighted shop signs across the street where the heat had melted and deformed the plastic. Also all the shops with large glass windows facing the street had them bashed in for 3-4 blocks straight, pretty crazy.
Here is the picture:
