For some reason, this last Greece post seemed to take forever to come together. One little snippet at a time, it came together, though, and 5 months after our trip the last of the photos are finally being posted.
In all honesty, our final day in Greece came much quicker than we anticipated. But since our flight didn't leave until the afternoon, we decided to take full advantage of the small amount of time remaining to us. We set our alarm the night before so that we could get ourselves ready and enjoy a quick breakfast before heading out to see a little bit more of Athens before heading to the airport. Our main objective was the Roman Forum near Monastiraki Square.
On the way there we passed this really interesting campus - the Technolopolis. It's an industrial museum that's a popular venue for local events.
Unfortunately, upon arriving at the Forum gates, we realized we were a little too quick getting out the door - the Forum was still closed. With about half an hour to kill, we walked down to the Square just as stores were starting to open. The walk there skirted the perimeter of the Forum and we got a great view into it from some of the walkways outside its walls.
Our view of part of the Forum from outside the walls.
A perfect morning for a walk-about.
View of the Acropolis.
More of the Forum from outside the walls.
The most scrumptious spanakopita we tried during our entire stay in Greece. Just enough pastry, just enough spinach and goat cheese. YUM!
Certainly the BIGGEST bougatsa we tried while in Greece, and also one of the best. Both from our favorite bakery in Athens.
While putting around Monastiriki, we had a few epiphanies about Athens. In some ways, Athens seemed like two worlds living in parallel. On one side you have the ruins of millenia that millions of people come to visit, take photos and proudly say "I've been there". On the other side, you have a modern society fighting to not be driven to a similar fate. The photo above is just one example to us of this dichotomous parallelism.
After a very scrumptious second breakfast of bougatsa and spanakopita, we were finally able to enter the Roman forum. At first we were the only ones there, which made the visit that much more special. Most of the actual forum has been restored, and it truly is magnificent.
Looking down the corridor of pillars on one side of the forum.
In pictures like the one above it's really easy to see where some of the restoration work was done.
Atticus posing - what else?
Atticus, cool as a cucumber, posing with Milayla.
The wooden beam roof structure is amazing!
Pillars, and lots of them!
More pillars, yay!
After we left the Forum, we walked around the site. Below, Laura and Atticus pose along one of the trails.
The remains of pillars from the original forum site.
One of several ornate sculptures recovered from the original Forum site.
Above the Forum on a small hill sits a temple. It was a bit of climb up there with the stroller, but we managed alright. Totally worth it, though, as the view was incredible.
Daddy and the kiddos in front of more ruins.
Mommy and Atticus with a great view of Athens in the background.
Of course, before leaving Athens for good, we had to stop in one more time at our favorite bakery, and to our absolute delight, they had our favorite little Cretian cheesecakes. They were a perfect way to finish off our stay. Afterward, we hurried back to our hotel and headed to the airport. Greece, in general, was an amazing experience. We got to see so many perspectives of life there (perhaps more of some than we cared to!) but we were grateful for the experience. If asked again whether we would go back, the answer would be a resounding "yeah!". There's still so much more to see, and if we're lucky, someday we'll get back down there.
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