Athens!

Before we went to bed the first night in Athens we wanted to find a restaurant and we ended up walking and finding a square that had about ten different restaurants. Each one had the owner out front trying to lure you in to eat at their restaurant. We picked a place that looked the coolest, not really knowing what to expect for food. 

Sarah and I ordered this platter for two which turned out to be some of the best food I've ever had. It was two giant pittas and then four different types of meat and all sorts of vegetables to make your own gyros. What we came to find out is how much the Greeks love their meat. Every meal comes with the biggest portions of meat! We ended up walking back to the hostel after finishing our meals and falling asleep. The next morning we woke up, still full and decided that we would go explore the flea market, then visit the Parthenon and Acropolis, and if anything came up we would have time for that. Sarah and Kyle had seen something online about a man who hand makes sandles so we went out to find him. The flea market was actually very cool. The workers of the little shops were all friendly, and all spoke a bit of English. We were able to visit tons of shops and we eventually found the sandle-maker. I was interested in getting a pair, but my feet were too big and he would have had to make mine over the next couple days, and also would've been very expensive. Kyle ended up buying a pair and they are very awesome. 

After the flea market we made our way up to the Acropolis. It is the name of the hill that holds the Parthenon and other ancient buildings. You can see the entire city from the top. As we made our way up the hill, there were all sorts of ancient ruins that were being renovated to maintain what little is left. And once we reached the top, the Parthenon made me shake my head. It is something I have wanted to see my whole life, an ancient wonder of the world. All I could think about was how in the world could these massive buildings be man made. There were temples to Zeus and Athena and I just couldn't help but think back to this place was the beginning of civilization. Without the Greeks there wouldn't have been the Romans and without Roman civilization there wouldn't be ours. Just crazy to think about the history behind that place. 

So amazing!! As I said, Acropolis is above the whole city. And from where we were, we were able to see the Original Olympic Stadium. It was a super long horseshoe, but in the 1800s, they built over the original ruins. It still looks old because it is almost 200 years old, but you can tell that it's not the original from thousands of years ago. 

There was a rainstorm coming so we made our way back to our hostel to take a nap as we were all still worn out from the last few days. We timed it perfectly as the rain started pouring as we returned to the hostel. After the nap, we made our way to the train station to reserve our seats up to Thessaloniki on Sunday. We took the metro back to the square we are at the previous night and tried out a different restaurant. This time, instead of a pitta, I tried the same food but on a special Greek loaf of bread. Again, such good meat and lots of it! To end the night we went across the square to a crepe place where I had a peanut butter, banana, and strawberry crepe. Wow!

We have an early morning tomorrow as we are taking a ferry to Santorini at 7:25 am. So we are going to bed early and looking forward to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world!!!!!