Greece - Day 7 (Athens and heading home)

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.  

Greece - Day 6 (Athens)

Day 6 in Greece, Sunday as it turned out, came much quicker than expected. It always amazes us how fast time can go when you're busy having fun exploring new places.  With it being Sunday, our first objective of the day was to head to church.  Having already located the chapel a couple days before, we were confident in finding our way, and looked forward to attending the services in Greek for the first (and probably only!) time in our lives.   Unfortunately, what we didn't know was that the services had been moved to another location (that we could not seem to find an address for) because of planned demonstrations at Syntagma Square that afternoon.  So, when we got to the chapel's address, all we found were shuttered doors.  How disappointed we were! In the end, though, we were able to take advantage of a truly gorgeous morning and take a nice walk through the heart of Athens, first visiting the base of the Acropolis.

Apparently, we were not the only ones with the idea to go for a Sunday stroll as there were many families out for a Sunday morning walk. It was beautiful!

Daddy and Atticus soaking up the sun near the Acropolis.

Since we weren't able to get our weekly dose of church, and still had our scriptures on hand, we decided to take a break from our walk just below Mars Hill, and read Paul's sermon.  It was pretty incredible imagining the spot two millenia ago with Paul preaching to the local Greeks.  

Nearby the Acropolis are the ruins of the Roman Forum, essentially a giant outdoor mall. We got a chance to go inside the ruins on our last day in Athens.

A shot of Jason and the kiddos in front of the entrance to the Roman Forum.

As always, Atticus was more than happy to pose for a few pictures.  What a ham!

After touring some of the ruins we headed to Monastiriki Square.  The square was particularly busy today.  Interestingly enough, we saw a Native American performing some music and dance.  A lot of Greek people passing by stopped to watch and listen, intrigued by the novelty of it all.

Atticus pulling down the stroller sun cover just because he can...and because he was utterly exhausted.

That evening, after our feet were tired and sore from so much walking, we treated ourselves to some delicious galaktoboureko.  It was fantastic, and well enjoyed.  As we began to look back on our trip to Greece, we realized just how much we had been able to do and see.  Only one day to go!

Greece - Day 5 (Delphi)

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to hop in the car and head for the mountains. More specifically, we were headed for the center of the earth - Delphi. The greek mythological site for the oracle received it's location when Zeus released two eagles in opposite directions around the earth and noted where they met. It is also the site where it is said that Apollo defeated the python. And (a little more factual), beginning in 776 BC, it hosted one of the four Panhellenic games which were the precursors for the Olympics. One very cool difference about the games hosted here though - these games had musical competitions!

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather in the middle of February. The drive was stunning! (Though, it was now Laura's turn to get sick.)

 As we began driving into the mountains we all started getting anxious to go exploring and hiking. Unfortunately, no time for extended exploring on this trip :(.

 Before arriving into Delphi, we first drove through a town called Arachova and it was stunning. It is a small, idyllic skiing town built on the side and top of the mountain. We were so busy admiring the relaxed, welcoming feel of the town that we forgot to take any pictures. Shortly there after we were welcomed into Delphi with a row of country flags. 

Due to us missing the parking lot for the archeological site of Delphi we ended up doing a nice driving tour of the town (it's mostly a big one-way street, so you get to see a good portion of the town if you miss your turn off). It is another beautiful little town though. There is no shortage of hotels and restaurants - and especially no shortage of beautiful mountain views either!

Once we finally found our way back to the parking we decided to head into the museum first. The Delphi Archeological Museum houses items that have been recovered from the archeological site. It is amazing how much they have found, and in amazingly complete pieces (this is after earthquakes, fires and explosions). 

A good portion of the pieces on display were gifts sent to the oracle from wealthy foreigners. Nothing quite says "please, favor me" like an oversized sphinx. 

 The piece below is only one segment of three that make of a tall column that was sent as a gift.

Some of the statues also depicted philosophers who were said to have spent some time here.

 And at the very end of the exhibit, we were able to see a model reconstruction of the archeological site. A great way to get an overview of the mountainside that we were about to go exploring.

Before heading up the mountain, Jason ran the stroller to the car while the rest of us got to sit in the outdoor seating and enjoy the mountain views. Of course, the kids were spit on (Greek style), and we had a nice American family ask us for travel advice (they seemed to think we were experts...we sure hope our advice didn't steer them wrong :). 

As soon as Jason returned, Atticus hopped on his shoulders and away we went!

By this point in the trip, the kids were really starting to understand (and enjoy) the increased picture taking. They both loved giving us their best smiles for the pictures.

We hiked up the many steps and into the Roman Forum. This is where travelers would purchase items for the oracle after their long journey (assuming they weren't one of those wealthy folk who just had large statues made and sent over). 

The kids loved exploring this place. Atticus was pretty concerned that everything was "broken" and would kindly point out the broken items and ask if they would be fixed. As we're sure you can imagine, when walking around ancient ruins, there are plenty of broken things around.

Every time we reached a new vantage point, we would turn and soak in the incredible view before us.

The girls were completely in their element as they admired every single detail that Milaya would point her little fingers at.

 And Atticus kept Daddy on his toes as he climbed over bits of rubble and insisted on doing all the climbing and walking himself. He was certainly enjoying being an explorer!

This theatre was actually used as recently as the 1950's and can seat up to 5000 people.

Truly, the most incredible part about this theatre would be the view that the spectators would see directly behind the performers.

 Unfortunately, due to the recent rain, our ascent could only go so high and the upper parts were closed off to the public. As we wound our way back down we stopped at the sanctuary of Apollo.

Admired some more of the views.

 And even managed to snap a family photo!

 When we arrived back at the entrance, the kids were very tired so we opted to grab a quick snack at the cafe and head back to Athens.

Milayla was all giggles when we first loaded into the car...

but 20 minutes into the drive, our cute little passengers looked like this:

Since they slept for the entire journey home (a true testament to how much they explored as the drive back was 3.5 hours!) we were able to drive the whole way through without stops. Of course, there were a few spots where we needed to slow down for a stretch of road while we waited to pass trucks carrying olive branches.

 The drive back to Athens was just as beautiful as the drive there, except perhaps a little bit better as it was the first car journey that no one was sick for! We made such good time getting back to Athens that we were able to head out and explore a bit and enjoy a nice sit down dinner.

We purchased some food for Sunday including a few treats that we had not tried like Halva (a sweet sesame loaf) and wandered through a few areas that we had not yet seen before arriving at Sholarhio Ouzeri Kouklis for dinner; a lovely family owned restaurant that brings a large platter of all the available dishes to your table for you to choose from. We loved it! We all enjoyed the food and atmosphere so much that we were able to linger a little longer than usual and enjoy some fun conversations.

The building on the left is the restaurant

 After dinner we decided to walk a different route back to the hotel to see some new sites. Our walk took us past Syntagma Square. With protestors being a staple at Syntagma Square, so are the riot police.  Of course, the evidence of the recent riots were very present in the form of graffiti and burn marks on buildings. We decided pretty quickly that we did not want to hang around there and headed up towards the Academy of Athens where we also saw the University of Athens and the National Library.

Parliament

The Academy of Athens

The University of Athens

The National Library

It was a nice way to end a great day. We arrived back to the hotel in need of a good night's sleep and were looking forward to a more restful Sabbath day.

Delphi was, without a doubt, a major highlight of the trip for all of us.