Our first stop was Athens. It is a bustling big city with a third of Greece's population living there. We arrived Friday evening to stormy rainy weather. Unfortunately, neither of us were prepared for this. We didn't think to check the weather before leaving and our bags were mostly filled with tanks tops and shorts. What few warmer clothes we brought got quite a bit of use during our trip.
Saturday morning we went on an Athens food tour. We got to try a lot of traditional food and drink. Our guide also talked a little about the city of Athens and the history. She showed us one of the many small churches that are scattered throughout the city. There are about 660 of these churches in Athens!
On the food tour we tried different breads, meats, pies, sweets and various olive oils. We also stopped by a meat and fish market and a produce market. Both were very busy and the former, quite smelly.
After the food tour we visited the Ancient Agora, Acropolis and Mars Hill. For dinner we had the traditional souvlaki. It is meat that is cooked on a skewer (ours was lamb and beef) and wrapped in a pita with onions and tomatoes. I have never eaten such a tasty wrap before. We ate some ice cream while searching for a bakery that sold baklava, which we then bought and took back to the hotel to enjoy.
On our full second day in Athens, Sunday, we went for a walk around the city. We visited Syntagma Square, Tomb of the Unknown Solider where we also saw the changing of the guards. We visited a couple of the little churches and a cathedral. We also went to the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Olympian Zeus - very impressive! Next we walked along the winding paths and small houses right below the Acropolis as we headed to the Roman Forum.
After we went to the port to get our ferry tickets for the next day we got some ice cream and enjoyed it on our hotel roof top terrace. Before dinner we went to the Acropolis museum. It was very interesting. On display were some of the statues and pediments from the Parthenon.
We had dinner at one of the restaurants we visited on the food tour, Taverna Kilmataria. We ate the best Greek sausage and lamb and potatoes. Ben went over board on ordering and we almost ended up with three starters and two main dishes. I canceled one of the starters and it was a good thing because we didn't even finish all the food we ordered!
View of the Acropolis from our hotel balcony.
Parliament building
The church that our food tour guide took us into. The altar is behind the doors and they are only opened during a service. On various occasions as we walked around we heard the service being sung. It was so beautiful!
When people come in they say a prayer and then come kiss the icons, for example this one in the frame.
The metal things at the bottom of the frames are a sort of charm. You can find all different kinds; an arm, eye, boy, girl, old woman, old man, baby etc. If something is ailing you, you buy that specific charm, say a prayer and leave it as an offering. So that the offering always stays with the icon, when the rope gets filled up, they melt them down and add it to the icon.
Second stop of the food tour: Cafe Krinos that is famous for loukoumades which is kind of like a doughnut. Our first stop was a food cart that sold sesame seed covered bread. It is the most common breakfast for an Athenian and these stands are on every corner.
Next stop was the Varvakios Agora, the fish and meat market.
Notice the tuft of tail that is still attached?
The redder that bit is there on the fish, the fresher the fish are.
Next stop was the Lesvos Shop, a traditional grocery store. We tried olive oil, spoon sweets which is candied fruit, honey, feta cheese, Exilir, a type of vinegar distilled with spices and a specific type of tree sap from an island that can only be harvested in September. It is commonly chewed like gum and definitely tastes like tree sap. You can also drink it in liquor form.
Bougatsadkio was our next stop where we tried some traditional minced meat pie, chicken pie and custard pie. They take phyllo dough and you can basically stick whatever you want in there.
Fotsis was an herb store.
Miran, open since 1922 and decorated in the same style was our next stop. We tried pastourma (a red flattened meat), soutzouki which is similar to pastrami and rusks, a toasted bread with herbs.
At Taverna Kilmataria we tried onion pie and tsipouro sauce. We came back here twice for dinner.
The fruit market was our last stop. Altogether, it was a very fun tour. We enjoyed being able to try all sorts of new foods.
These are worry beads. Everywhere we went men were playing with them, counting them or flipping them. It is a pagan past time, a spin off of rosary beads.
Library of Hadrian
Roman Forum
One of the many churches scattered throughout the city in the Ancient Agora
Items from the museum in the Ancient Agora: pot and comb from 550 BC
Offerings from a woman's grave, 750 BC
Pottery from late 3rd millennium to 1600 BC What?! That is so old!!
Temple of Hephaestus in the Ancient Agora
Notice the grooves from the ropes made over the years as people hauled water out from the well?
In every church, Jesus is depicted holding a Bible in the cupola of the church. This one comes from the church in the Ancient Agora.
On our way to the Acropolis. This particular theater is still used today.
Temple of Nike
The Erechtheion temple
The Parthenon
Theater of Dionysus
Temple of Olympian Zeus
Mars Hill
In Greek, the passage from the Bible when Paul spoke on top of Mars Hill
View from Mars Hill
Ben getting us some breakfast. We ate the sesame bread that we tried from the food tour whenever possible.
It is illegal to put down an animal and so Athens is filled with stray dogs and cats. Mostly dogs. The animals are caught, given their shots, fixed and released back on the streets. People take very good care of them, laying down card board for them to sleep on and bringing them food.
Changing of the guards.
His skirt has 400 pleats! One for each year of the Turkish occupation.
The officers make sure everything is set right with their uniforms before they change.
And of course there was a protest going on during our stay.
Temple of Olympian Zeus.
Both Ben and I were loving all the stray animals roaming around.
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