Becky and I arrived in Athens yesterday afternoon a little pooped from our eight hour ferry from Santorini to Pireus; we had woken up at 5:30AM to make it to the dock. We had been having issues with transportation in the islands, so we were greatly relieved to see Becky's last name held up as we left the ferry. Our driver dropped us off at our hotel, we put things away, and emerged to try and find our way through the enormous city that is Athens.
I have to be honest. My first impression of Athens was not the most pleasant. We past graffitied, square, cement, building after square, cement, graffitied building as we searched for a money exchange kiosk. Thankfully we found one in the mix, and then we took care of some other other errands. I bought my ticket back to Turkey, and we found a nearby cheap vegetarian restaurant called Healthy Food Vegetarian recommended by one of my guidebooks. We drank carrot juice, Becky had a Greek salad (we would have eaten one everyday since we arrived in Greece, except today we broke tradition), and I got a mushroom, pasta casserole which was reminscent of academy cafeteria food.
Satiated I navigated Becky and I to the Archeology Museum (don't laugh Jessica and Brad...I really found it ;). I love museums that show items in chronological order; we meandered through all sorts of findings from the earliest findings up until Christianity took over in Athens. We only had a few hours until closing, so we had to speed walk a lot at the end. My favorite items were the theatre masks and large statues of, of course, Hermes and friends. We even found a statue of a siren. I took a picture with it, but a museum worker (there are one or two in every exhibit room) told us that we were being disrespectful. Maybe this was true; people worshiped these pieces of art. Perhaps it would be for the Ancients like someone today desecrating a Bible in front of a Christian. An any case, we didn't take any more pictures with the sculptures.
Becky and I scurried through the rest of the museum and then took it easy the rest of the evening. We strolled through a tiny cobblestoned street called Gladstones that is lined with shops and cafes. At the end of the street we went inside a Greek Orthodox Church and then sat on the benches outside chatting for a long while. We needed a rest. We have been traveling intensely for the last two weeks. We realized we haven't probably taken enough time to just sit and watch people, their movements and interactions.
Before our trip, Becky got us hooked up through her mom to stay at a university with whom her mom's university is associated. After a huge hotel breakfast on the terrace--kiwi, apples, dried apricots and figs, cereal, bread, lime juice--a man who works for the university picked us up and took us to the university. He drove us past all of the endless sea of city to an area that actually has a bit of green and is quite charming. A lively thin lady met us when we finally stopped at the apartment building we were to stay in. She introduced herself as one of the dance teachers and showed us to our apartment. It is so nice! We have a bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen with a bounty of food, and free laundy and workout room. The dance lady helped us orient ourselves, gave us info, and told us to come visit her, as she is our next door neighbor.
After Becky and I put our things down and ate a few of the brownie cookies they gave us, we ventured to find the bus and metro to take us back to the city. I felt even more at home as I passed none other than a Starbucks! Getting to our destination, the Acropolis, was amazingly easy although one short old man we asked to tell us which bus stop to stop at to get the metro missed his stop because he was too busy explaining it to us. I felt pretty bad, but he gave us a huge smile as we passed him. From then on and after our meeting with the university folk, my view of Grecians was greatly heightened. In the Greek Islands and during our first day in Athens the only nice people seemed to be foreigners: guys from places like Albania and the former Yugoslavia. Thankfully everyone today was awesome!
Becky and I got off the metro at the Acropolis, paid our 6 euros and consciously took time to drink in all the sites we visited. It was SO nice to not be a part of a tour group. We read passages from Fodors as we looked at the different sites and that was sufficient for us. First we went to the Theatre of Dionysus in which famous tragedies of Sophocles and the like and comedies by those like Aristophenes were performed. Next was the Odeon, then the main area on top of the hill: the temple of Athena Nike (Propylea or something like that), the Parthenon, and the Eurtheon. I learned that most of the sacrificing to Athena was done in the latter. The Parthenon was mainly used to store treasures for the Delian League. We went through the Acropolis Museum, took a look at the huge city of Athens, and then passed back through the temple of Athena Nike.
From there we climbed up slippery limestone to the Areopagus. We walked around it a bit and then realized that this was the place where Paul preached to the Athenians. I had my Bible with me, so Becky and I sat down on the famous rock outcropping and read the sermon he gave to Athenians in Acts 17:16-34. It's a really wonderful passage and it was amazing to be able to see all the places it describes from where we were sitting. We could identify with Paul's reference to the many Athenian statues.
The rest of the day we spent looking at the ancient agora, eating at Plaka, and finding our way back to our apartment. Well, we haven't done the latter quite yet, but I bought a Starbucks frappachino, so I should have the energy to find our street.
Happy Sabbath to those with whom the sun hasn't yet set.
Sunday
Becky and I had a very homelike Saturday night in our apartment relaxing and watching her dream man Paul Newman (you know...the guy from the salad dressing bottles) in some movie. We ended up going to sleep later than normal, so this morning we didn't get out of the apartment until around 11AM. We took a taxi and then a two hour bus to Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon. We rode along the coast watching enumerable people enjoying Athens' endless beaches and little coves. The water was bright blue! 
After gaining a butt cramp, I finally saw the massive temple on an cliff on a high peninsula and we soon disembarked. Becky and I walked around taking pictures in the blazing Grecian sun and then sat on some ruins under the solitary tree of the area. She wrote and I painted for probably more than an hour. It was a gloriously lazy day. The ever-present museum workers were friendly and helped us find Lord Byron's signature before we left. Even well known English writers carved graffitti!
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