Athens

Athens, Greece (2007)

Carmel and I had no plans for the weekend so we decided to go to Greece. What did YOU do last weekend?

Actually, we had a good excuse because it was Carmel’s birthday. Also, we really are trying to get around Europe as much as possible while we’re in England. Flights are pretty cheap so it’s easy to bop around.

First picture: Free Patron tequila in the airport.

Our first meal in Athens consisted of us going to the kitchen, seeing what was cooking, and pointing to the dishes that we wanted. The dishes were a greek salad, meat pasta thingy, aubergine/eggplant, fish, garlic bread, and a pasta/rice thing.

We got to our island hopping cruise very early the next morning, but still mustered up enough energy to learn Greek dance in front of all the other shy and inhibited tourists.

Music with our dance.

Step to the left and step to the right.

Our ship, the Gior GIS.

Sites we passed along the way.

Island stuff.

Houses nestled in the hills.

Seaside views.

Carmel climbs to the top of the first island, Poros.

Cats and dogs live among the rocky island hills.

Cacti in bloom.

A life-like statue of Josh rests atop the island for tourists to photograph.

Resting along the street side.

Welcome to the island of Hydra.

White walled pathways of Hydra.

Path to somewhere nice probably.

The next football superstar?

Island path.

Blue and white are the norm.

Off the beaten path, we stumble upon a little restaurant and plaza.

My Greek labmate Danae told me to get some fresh fish on one of the island so that’s what we decided to do, even though we knew we’d get lunch back on the cruise.

Back in the kitchen.

After a long wait, the fish was served. I’ve had a lot of fresh fish in my time, but this exceeded my expectations and was fantastically delicious. We got a jug of retsina to go with it.

Back on the boat, we were served a less-than-stellar lunch. Things got a bit rocky too.

People’s wine glasses started tipping over with the rockiness, waiters stumbled and spilled water on diners, children ran around with glee, and this was all accompanied by energetic live music that made the scene all the more hilarious. You can kind of see the level of wine in the glass is not exactly level.

Back on top of the boat, people were not quite amused and half the boat became sea-sick.

Can you tell that the boat is tippy?

Carmel’s stomach could tell, and she joined the half of the boat that sees the glass half empty (because they threw it up).

After the island tour, we headed out for a bit of Athens night life.

The Galaxy Bar has a great view of Athens.

The streets of Athens have the glowing presence of the ancient Acropolis to light up the night’s sky.

Dinner that night was a simple but yummy lamb kebab with tzatziki.

Kebab shops from outside.

Next to Italy, we decided to get some gelato.

All of our transit was made easy by the metro made by Julie’s dad.

Carmel looks out onto Athens.

The Ancient Agora.

To the Acropolis!

Theatre of Dionysos.

The rock from which the Greeks used to defend the Acropolis.

Josh the Greek defends the Acropolis from invading tourists. Actually, Greeks thought I was Greek. I should make a new map of nationalities that I could pass for.

Athena Nike. Yeah, not really sure what this is all about, but supposedly interesting.

Badaboom! The Parthenon. The most symmetrically perfect building of the ancients.

The Joshthenon.

This guy totally won at Hide-and-Seek.

I bet the ladies who hold up the buildings with their heads would be good at breakdancing head stands.

Old Temple of Athena.

Even the trash/rubbish cans/bins were pillar shaped. (Does anyone remember a similar picture I took of the trash cans at the Great Wall of China?)

The missing knights to your chess set.

Ollllllddddd statue.

Monument of Filopappos as seen from the Acropolis.

Temple of Olympian Zeus as seen from the Acropolis. At this stage, we realized we didn’t actually have to go anywhere in Athens because you could see it all from the Acropolis.