Athens, Greece

 Much of this leg of our trip was a repeat of my Euro-trip of 2007. We took the same ferry from Italy (One of the worst experiences of my life, done 3 times now.) to Greece. We made it to Petras, and took a bus to Athens. Our hostel was really close to the Acropolis, but on the opposite side of where I had previously stayed. 
Before we had really seen much of Athens, we were already out on a day trip to the Temple of Poseiden.
 I couldn't remember exactly how long it took by bus to get to this place, but the guy running out hostel said that it only took a little over an hour... Boy was he wrong! After an hour and half on the bus, we asked the driver and he said 2 1/2 hours! Argh... It ended up being close to three hours I think! Oh well! The Temple of Poseidon is one of the most complete ancient Greek structures an the setting is extremely cool! The temple is on the top of a hill that overlooks the sea. We ate something because we were quite grumpy after our bus travel, and I ate the most amazing spaghetti carbonara! That perked me right up!

Last time I was there in 2007, I made my travel buddy Michelle climb down the side of the cliff with me so that we could get to the water. It was dangerous and a struggle to get back up. We thought at that time the beach that is below the temple was a private beach. I'm glad and a little embarrassed to report that it is NOT a private beach and we were able to rent some beach chairs and enjoy the weather. This beach was amazing! My avid beach goer, Leigh thought so as well! The water was so calm and clear, and you looked back behind you and you see the Temple of Poseidon! Think of all the history that took place in that exact spot! Amazing! It was one of the those moments when you look around in "awe". I have those moments most of the time in nature, but this was remarkable with the history aspect. I forgot to mention in the Santorini blog that I got a horrible tan line on my legs from riding on the 4-wheeler. Unfortunately after many other beach days, this tan line was still very much there...

We did end up spending some time in Athens as well. On our last morning we went to the top of the Acropolis. Well, we both didn't go at the same time. We purchased some yummy slushies before trying to get into the Acropolis... That was a fail! They should have told us when we purchased these extremely expensive slushiness that we couldn't take them with us. Soooo... Leigh went inside while i guarded the slushes. When she came back, we switched  and I went in. I remember that back in the day when I was there that I was annoyed by all of the reconstruction going on and all of the scaffolding that are in my photos. Apparently 30 years ago they did something that they thought was preserving the structures, but instead it has made preservation a much bigger and continuous process. 

My favorite part of the Acropolis is the Porch of Maidens. I feel like this is the most complete, and it's actually really cool. I remember studying this during my years of art history and year ago really wanted to see it. I would have never thought that I would see it twice by the time I'm 27!

The food in Athens was amazing as well. We went to a Greek tapas restaurant, which was perfect for us because we could try many different things. They were all good!
We randomly ran into an outdoor theater that just so happened to be at the base of the Acropolis. They were playing the move, "Mud", which starts stars Matthew McConaughey and features Reese Witherspoon. Neither of us had seen it, so we decided that this would be such a cool new way of watching a movie! It was fabulous! The movie was good, the weather was great. You looked over to the left and could stare at the lit up Acropolis. AND- They even had an intermission for stacks and such!

Overall, I was disappointed at the state of Athens. It was obvious that there wasn't a lot of pride in this country at the moment. Most spaces were graffiti and the only shops that did not have graffiti on the windows were the ones that covered their windows at night with metal. We drove past official Olympic buildings from the 2004 Olympics that were completely trashed. It is such a shame to see this! I could tell a difference from the last time that I was in Athens, and that wasn't a good thing!