Athens

Two views of the Acropolis which is home to many structures, buildings and ruins like the Parthenon.

This is a very cool view of the theatre down below the Parthenon. I think they did plays here or maybe held court and beheaded people. Who knows, but it's a nice theater, very steep, as steep as it looks.

What a neat photo with such a small camera. It actually does panoramic shots and this is one of them. Did I tell you I received this Sony cyber-shot 14.1 pixel camera as a free gift for subscribing to The National newspaper? The subscription cost me $149 and the camera is easily worth that. Look at the pictures it took.

The one below is the entryway/arch leading into the structures on the Acropolis.

If you look closely at the photo you can see there's a lot of work going on restoring many of the buildings with craftsmen, crains, trains, forklifts all hoisted up to the top of the Acropolis to do the work.

As you can see I went to Athens and although I'd love to tell you it was a beautiful old, European city that I could have spent weeks exploring, it wasn't like that for me. I'm glad I had the marathon expo and the marathon to occupy about 10 hours of my 3 days on the ground there, otherwise I might have been bored.

I'll admit I'm not a big history buff and I'll also admit there are a lot of historic buildings/structures and stories attached to those buildings in Athens and all over Greece, but it's not my cup of tea. The Temple of Zues is pictured here. And also from on high at the Acropolis.

This is another beautiful area of ruins down by the Plaka area and below the Acropolis. I took this at the end of the day.

I did have a nice time in Athens because I had a reason to be there, the marathon. There are some good areas to walk around in, The Plaka, is a great shopping and dining district. After that I'm not sure what was available. The city is in tough shape, graffiti everywhere, stray dogs and cats everywhere, but a nice clean Metro system.

The Metro was put in for the Olympics in 2004. The story goes that the dogs were all rounded up prior to the Olympics so as not to bother all those visitors. They were kept in kennels and had collars put on them. Then they were released and now they sit around all over the city. Most seem friendly or at least apathetic, they don't bark much just lay around either waiting to die or waiting for someone to feed them.

The streets are crowded with vehicles, there are motorcycles driving on the sidewalks, the cab drivers don't use meters and you need to negotiate the fare before you get in. The food was good, pizza, gyros, Greek salads (I think they were invented there) and like many countries the desserts were very tasty.

So from my perspective go to Greece, see Athens and then travel to some of the Islands weather permitting and see the sites there.

QOB: "The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." Charles DuBos

weyinuae