Athens, Greece

Athens Day 1 and 2

This last week has been my fall break so Clifton and I decided to take a trip to Greece. Our first two days were spent in Athens. I have to be honest and say it was very disappointing to both of us. Don't get me wrong the Acropolis was incredible and magnificent to see but the rest of Athens was a let down. We were luckily warned before hand that Athens is a dump and that we will love the Greek Islands so much more so we were somewhat prepared for our disappointment. The buildings, walls and monuments are covered with graffiti and the streets are dirty. The service was not good and the people were actually rude. We didn't even take many pictures of anything besides the Acropolis and the Plaka area because the rest of Athens was not worth taking pictures.

Now to the good part of Athens. The first day we went to the tourist area which is called Plaka. The streets were filled with amazing stores, full of handmade products and of course some of your cheap souvenirs. The streets were also filled with dogs and cats. It is amazing how many cats and dogs just roam around the streets. They are all friendly and will just lie in the middle of the street passed out. It was pretty funny! We ate at a restaurant that had a great outside patio and this cat came up and jumped into my lap and just fell asleep in my arms. It made me kind of sad because it was obvious it just wanted a cuddle so I held him for a little bit and then had to put him down once we left. The next day we reserved for the Acropolis. This is probably the most amazing sight I have seen to date.The Parthenon and other main buildings on the Acropolis were built by Pericles in the fifth century BC as a monument to the cultural and political achievements of the inhabitants of Athens. The term acropolis means upper city and many of the city states of ancient Greece are built around an acropolis where the inhabitants can go as a place of refuge in times of invasion. You can see the Acropolis from all over Athens. It was built in 432 and is so surreal to walk on and around. The whole Acropolis is still an archaeological dig site. They are excavating all the time and there are tons of pillars, pedestals and statues just sitting around that have been found. When I used to think of the Acropolis I just thought it was the Parthenon and not this massive area that is still being worked on to find more artifacts. After the Acropolis we decided to go the Acropolis museum. The whole front of it has all glass to where you can look down and see the dig site that is where they found many of the artifacts. So as you are walking toward the museum you are looking down to this old civilization that they have found many statues, pottery and other objects from the ancient Athens civilization. The museum is dedicated to all of the items they have found in the excavation. A lot of the first floor was glass as well so you could see the dig site inside as well.

So I know I said that Athens was disappointing but anyone going to Greece has to go to Athens because the Acropolis is incredible but my suggestion would be to only stay one night and go to the Plaka area and the Acropolis and then head out to the Greek Islands. We feel so lucky that we got to see such history in Athens and it was only the start of our trip. There was much more history to be seen on our cruise.