Spring Break 2013: Athens

Evidence of continued frustration with current economic situation. 

In case the demonstration got out of hand, which it did not.

Parliment House Athens - most of the protests where here.

The girls on a walk in Athens.

Amazing to see the bustle of modern everyday living taking place at the foot of the Acropolis.

Fellow victims of the "I have a restaurant for you" scam. Alba and Ulises Jimenez of Argentina.

Roman theatre at the Acroplis site.

Work continues on the Parthenon. Despite the scaffolding a wonder to behold.

Like Rome, some temples have been preserved and are part of the city.

The Erechtheum 

Hadrian's Gate.

 

View of Athens from the Acropolis.

The new Acropolis Museum is built on top of ancient neighborhoods - the construction preserverd this ruins for future study.

Temple of Zeus where 100+ columns used to stand.

Olympic Stadium from the 1896 Games.

Finishing our day with a lunch with Katia.

We decided to head to Greece for spring break this year. The timing was perfect as Anna is studying Greek mythology in school this year and Kate studied the Olympics last year. Both girls were really looking forward to this trip.

We arranged for an individual tour of the city's highlights. We visited the Acropolis and Parthenon, temple of Zeus, the Acropolis Museum, and the Olympic stadium built for the 1896 games. Katia, our tour guide, was fabulous. She is going to Minnesota at the end of June and we hope our paths cross again. 

We saw and heard elements of unrest due to the austerity measures and debt crisis facing Greece. We saw one protest outside the Parliment building, and riot police preparing to keep order. We spoke to some locals about the situation; they are frustrated, fatigued and I think embarrassed with the situation. The saddest part is that some don't have any hope for it getting better.

We found Athens to be a lovely city. We stayed at the center of the city and enjoyed walking through some of its neighborhoods and squares. We had fantastic weather and the people were friendly....sometimes too friendly as we found out when walking to dinner. A really nice man saw us looking at our map and offered to help. And help us he did.....he was "kind enough" to tell us we were in the wrong place and 30 minutes from our desired restaurant. But.....he knew a local restaurant and took us there. Of course it was a scam and the man lied about the location of our other restaurant. And Steve saw him after dinner speaking with the restaurant owner - we assume he was getting his commission for brining us there. It turns out that the couple from Argentina next to us had the same thing happen to them. We had a nice time visiting with them walking back together to the Titania hotel where both families were staying. We are already in touch and have been invited to visit them in Argentina!! 

Overall, we a had a great stay in this famous city.