Today we received a tour of Athens and spent some quality time touring the Acropolis area. It really is amazing all that the Greeks were able to accomplish at the peak of their civilization. Their contribution and legacy to the world will always be present within us and their culture influences almost every society around the world in one way or another.
Our tour finished up around noon and Chris and I walked around the city for a while more. We saw the changing of the guard in front of the Greek parliament and wandered through one of the larger parks in the city. After that we headed back in the general direction of our hotel and came across a small cafe. We decided to stop there for lunch and I ate some spanakopita (spinach pie).
After that we got lost for a while on the streets of Athens. In many ways it reminds me of Boston with no basic street grid system. Streets can start out going one direction and end up going a completely different direction by the end of it. Plus there are a lot of little side streets that are worth exploring so it's easy to get turned around.
We eventually got our bearings again and headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap (we are trying to embrace the culture as much as possible). Similar to many cultures around the world, the Greeks usually take a siesta type break after lunch and most shops close down for a little while. We hung around the hotel a bit and then headed out for the final dinner with our tour group. The dinner was at another small greek taverna with live music. Every half hour or so they had greek dancers come out to perform a little show next to our table. We had some delicious soulvaki for the main entree as well as a lot of wine. Afterwards many of us went out to a club in Athens and stayed out until the early morning hours drinking and having a great time.
So that is officially the end of our tour and now we are on our own. We're checking out of our hotel this morning and going to stay with some friends in Athens for a couple days. Then we began our island hopping adventure. Opa!
