Walls in France: Finally Greece!

I finally made it to Greece! It has been a lifelong wish of mine to travel there, but I had never done so until last weekend. We had actually planned a trip to the Greek Isles for my 40th birthday a couple of years ago, but finances and circumstances forced us to cancel, so we were determined to get there as soon as possible. We decided to go to Athens so that we could see all of the historical sites it has to offer and then plan a later trip to lounge on the beach! I made the travel plans (flight and hotel) through expedia.fr so I just picked a hotel from a list that seemed reasonable and that would meet our needs. Our flight took us from Marseille to the Munich airport (which is wonderful!) and then to Athens. Since I don’t have any knowledge of the Greek language (except for being able to sing the Greek alphabet thanks to my sorority days), we decided that Bucky would be in charge on this trip. I told my sister this and she said, “Well, he doesn’t speak Greek either!” which I realized is true, but since I am usually the one in charge in foreign countries, we decided that it would be his turn. So, being in charge, he telephoned the hotel, the Athens Atrium, prior to our trip to find out the best way to get from the airport to the hotel (we love public transportation!) and they insisted that we take a cab. We got one easily and headed into the city of Athens.

It wasn’t what we expected. I guess we all had envisioned a more ‘tropical’ place or how the Greek Islands look on TV. But this was a HUGE, somewhat dirty city. I was fascinated by all of the billboards and the strange looking letters, but I was also surprised by the lack of the lush, tropical feeling that I thought it would have (I guess I was thinking more Hawaii). When we arrived at the hotel, we realized it was not in the most ‘central’ part of the city and were a bit dubious about the location, but the place was really nice and the people were very inviting. We got settled and then took out our list of the Top 10 Things to Do in Athens. It was mid-afternoon so we decided we had plenty of time to hit the Acropolis and the New Acropolis Museum. We got the scoop on how to take the bus, and without much hassle, we arrived at our destination. That’s when our perspective of Athens started to change. We were awestruck by the Acropolis and the Parthenon that stood so sturdily upon it. The gates to the Acropolis had closed for the evening so we just admired the beginning of western civilization from afar and agreed to climb it the following day. Instead, we headed straight to the New Acropolis Museum that cost just 2 Euros for the four of us! It is built upon ancient ruins and you can see the ruins through a clear floor! It was so neat. We then spent a couple of hours following Lucie around as she filled us in on every detail of ancient Greece and Greek mythology. I was really impressed by the museum, but even more impressed by how much Lucie knows about Greek history. She definitely got the history gene from her dad and my dad. I had nothing to do with it.

We then walked out to the winding streets of the Plaka to find a place to eat dinner. We decided upon a quaint restaurant with lots of twinkling white lights in the trees, where we could sit outside and enjoy the warm weather. Dinner was delightful! We spent the evening planning our schedule for the next day which included a trip to the flea market in Monastiraki Square, trying to find “The Poet” and climbing to the Parthenon.

Our second day in Greece was fabulous. Since it was Sunday, the market was in full swing. There are lots of permanent stalls to shop in all week long, (it sort of reminded me of Chinatown in NYC. I kept wondering if there was a ‘back room’ where you could go to buy name brand bags!) but on Sunday, all of the locals come out to sell their wares including fabulous antiques, beautiful furniture and lots and lots of CRAP! It was fascinating. The girls bought Greek scarves, Bucky hunted for stereoscope film (to no avail) and I couldn’t get over how much stuff there was in this little square! After making our way through the market, we decided to try and find the Poet, a famous sandal maker who has made sandals for John Lennon, Jackie O and others. He was easy to find and when we walked in, the strong aroma of leather was overwhelming! The gal who greeted us handed us a newspaper-like flyer with pictures of all of the styles and names of the sandals they offered. Lucie tried on “Spartan,” Kathleen started with “Cleopatra” (and then went through about 3 other styles), I opted for “Jackie O” and Bucky went for “John Lennon” of course! We took our time trying the leather sandals on and talking with the salesperson and the artisan (who we believe is the son of the Poet). Once we decided on style and size, the sandals were then adjusted to fit our feet. Lucie and Kathleen left wearing theirs – Luckily, it was a warm day!

After a leisurely lunch, we decided to head up the Acropolis. The structure itself and the surrounding ruins were breathtaking, but I was equally as impressed with the view FROM the Parthenon. It seemed like the city of Athens went on and on in all directions. And it looked like all of the buildings were white! It was amazing. We headed back to the hotel in the afternoon because we had big evening plans...There was a big Cineplex near our hotel and we were going to see New Moon! The girls were thrilled, Bucky not so much, but knew it would be a good memory. Plus, it was convenient and we weren’t sure where we would be able to find the movie in our neck of the woods in southern France. It was a fun night out and a unique movie experience with Greek subtitles and assigned seats!

On Monday, we decided to go ‘full-on tourist’ and do the hop on-hop off bus. The girls were thrilled to sit on the open air top deck and thought the red earphones were cool. We went throughout the city and saw things that we had not yet seen and agreed to get off at The National Archeological Museum. The museum was full of artifacts and Lucie wanted to find a particular funeral mask that she had learned about last year from Mr. Duckworth. While looking for the mask, I noticed a striking woman whom I recognized who was also looking at the displays. It was Diane Von Furstenberg! She was there with a male friend who seemed to be showing her around. So while Bucky and Lucie did their history thing, Kathleen and I followed the designer around to see what she was looking at! Fun was had by all!

That afternoon we decided to do some more shopping, including going through the Central Market. Gag choke. There are halls and halls of butchers selling all sorts of meat and indiscernible animal parts. Gross me out. We had to then walk through the vegetable aisles to settle everyone’s’ stomachs! We checked that experience off of our list and headed to more do-able shopping venues! We ended up eating an early dinner in a lovely square in the Plaka area and headed back to the hotel to get to bed early since our flight back to France was tres early the next morning.

Our trip to Athens was wonderful. I was so happy to finally get to Greece. Now, we look forward to exploring more of that country (including the islands!) at some point in the not too distant future. Opa!