Balmyra Beach Glyfada

... and then a subway stop over to the Acropolis. It took about an hour. I didn't really know what to expect Greece to look like, but it's certainly not like other places I've been to in Europe. Coming from the quaint little German towns with green everywhere and the little slanted red roofs, Athens looks way different. First of all, it's warm and we wore shorts for the first time on our trip! It was beautiful weather, I think in the high 20s but it felt a little ...

... bought artichokes at the farmer's market, so we also needed to go BACK to the grocery store for the real butter Godiva required to prepare the artichokes. I inexplicably brought the package of butter with me on the hour-long tram ride down to the beach so that Godiva could cross "dip feet in Aegean Sea" off her wish list for her visit. As we sat at the tram station, I felt confident I could get myself and Godiva there and back with no problem purchasing the tram ...

... ash from generations of burned sacrifices. The ash cone was later used to fertilize the fields and the rest rained away, but archaeologists know it existed because they found huge layers of ash at the site filled with small votive figurines made out of clay that would have been given as offerings to the god. -- During the Hellenistic period, warriors catapulted vases full of poisonous snakes and scorpions into enemy ships. Oi!

... what the structure might have looked like, so we could imagine how impressive the monument must have been. Right next to the Parthenon we saw the small but graceful Temple of Athena Nike, and to the North the Erechtheion with its famous Caryatids (now cement reproductions, most originals also at British museum). From the Acropolis, we had a 360 degree view of the modern city of Athens. Athens, named after the goddess of wisdom Athena, is now a ...

... in a restored stoa (covered walkway) that was originally built by the Romans in the Greek style along the edge of the Agora. It houses every interesting artifact they dug up in the Agora, including pottery, sculpture, coins, tools, jewelry, etc. dating from 4,000 BCE to the 19th Century AD. Some of them tell a touching story, such as the burial of the woman in which the archaeologists found an inordinate number of bones ...

... it gets too late. the plan is to see everthing we can in athens tomorrow then who knows what we will do. 12.18.07 8:14 PM hello from an internet cafe above mcdonalds on syntagma square in downtown athens. the square is right in front of the parliment building. ithe cafe is over looking the square which is decorated very ornatley for christmas. among other things there is a carousel, a huge tree, and live band playing at the moment. it is very crowded although it is pretty ...

My flight from Baku, Azerbaijan, flew over Mt. Ararat. The view was completely clear and it was amazing especially since it rained my whole time in Armenia and my earlıer view of Mt. Ararat from Khor Virap was obscured by clouds. My flight from İstanbul was delayed but nevertheless, when I arrived in the Athens airport, Athena was waiting for me along with a sign that had my name ...

... like 20 litres of spirits and 40 litres of wine each! So basically we figured it was as much as you could possibly carry. So we stocked up on vodka, baileys, gin for mum and lemoncello (a traditional Italian kind of Lemon flavoured firewater). we managed to see the acropolis and a few of the other ruins like the anicient agora and the roman agora, but took it pretty easy compared to our busy Italian schedule ...

... day... just right to swim in the beautiful sea and lie on the beach.. not Aussie standard but who's complaining! Spent next four days having a lovely time exploring Athens.. some awesome architecture. Our trip here culminated with us meeting our new Athens best mates.. John and Arlette who were lovely and showed us a cool time in Athens central!.. Cheers guys you rock!

... we weren't suppose to meet for another hour. So we went over to Gelato's and had some great ice cream. I had a vanilla with chocolate chunks and hot fudge sauce in it. It was so good, I have found my favorite ice-cream place here (and we found it in the Plaka, so I am good to go now.) It was fun eating ice cream and talking to everyone about their days. It seemed that we had the best day, because we did more then shop, so a lot of ...