Barbara - Ruins, Shopping (Oct 25)

Athens. It embodies so many images in my mind about what Greece is. We are a 10 minute walk to the Acropolis. Less to the Olympian Temple of Zeus. Even less to the first Olympic stadium. Today we walked up and down marble and stone streets of the old Athens city market, marveled at ruins thousands of years old, and read a lot of plaques. We also got some gift shopping done. 👍Then we came back for a break and watched videos about Doric, Ionic and Corinthians columns / designs, and a quick recap on the Greek mythology family tree. I like traveling with Gillian! I also got in an icing of my rather puffy knee. I unfortunately broke Gillian’s and my rule for the trip - no injuries. But I’m walking up to the Acropolis one of these days!

We have many more things we’d like to see than time. Today we got to Zeus’ temple, Hadrian’s Arch, and the Roman Agora, as well as the spectacular Athens Cathedral, The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. Our theme was ruins, shopping, ruins, shopping...also eating. 

Chili chocolate drink with lunch. Roasted sesame seed-peanuts and corn from a street vendor. Some very frightening looking chocolate bar Gillian picked which actually tasted half decent.

The feral cats here and on Crete are plentiful.  As are the crazy drivers, unpredictable sidewalks, meandering streets, and a fair degree of chaos. Chaos was, if you recall, the origins of Gaia and the other primordial gods. The entrance to the ferries in Crete and Athens were essentially unregulated. We wandered around freely with the guys tying the huge ferries to port and avoided calamity as fueling trucks pulled in beside us. Cars drive in, dropped off passengers and leave as they so chose. Buses randomly pushed their way in. 

The ferry ride - 9 hours overnight - was my first berth trip..with a porthole! 😃 

Doors here fascinate me. Such intricate work in metal and wood. And alleyways. And steps. 

I’m not attaching photos due to the ongoing technical hassles with syncing my phone. But Gillian will have some, no doubt.