We visited Athens, Georgia last year, so why not Athens, Greece this year? We just completed a 5 day trip to Athens to handle Steven’s Greek family business. We relied heavily on our niece Mel, a Greek attorney and MBA (below) to help translate for us during a 5 hour appearance before the Supreme Court of Greece sitting “en banc” (eg. 8 men and one woman in funny hats), and several long meetings with the assigned attorneys.
However, we had some free hours to enjoy the full moon over the Aegean from our waterfront hotel balcony, great food, lively family, and a few delightful tourist experiences:
Gorgeous marble on the public buildings (and see feature image)…
Dionysos strutting his stuff at the Acropolis Museum (removed from the East Pediment of the Parthenon)…
Fresh Mediterranean seafood, and grilled Haloumi Cheese, a hard, brined Cypriot cheese…
The winner of the Monty Python funny walk contest…the changing of the guard at Parliament…and even better….the 10 minute, “Knifing the Pleats” performed by a senior officer while the boyish guard got his skirt fiddled with, without even a tiny smile or giggle…
Swimming in a collapsed limestone cavern in warm clear mineral spring water, complete with a fish pedicure by the Garra Rufa fish at Lake Vouliagmeni…
and the simple enjoyment of strolling narrow streets below the Acropolis on a quiet Sunday morning…
including a visit to the Greek version of the Guitar Center…
hearing part of a mass at a Greek Orthodox Church…
and a stroll past the 4 story McDonald’s with uberstylish Eames knock-off seating.
With almost a million residents, Athens is a big city, not the predicted location for street dogs. The oddest thing though, is the existence of LOTS of street dogs downtown and at the metro stations. Unusually, all are overfed, and all of them are of the very BIG DOG variety eg. over 60 pounds. They don’t beg for food, just lie in the sun and sleep. There were no dogs needing rescuing, none dodging traffic, and some of them even had collars. The Greek economy remains in sorry shape, but the street dogs are thriving…maybe that is some kind of sunny economic indicator?