Greece

Greece is where I belong. It’s a wizened soul wearing a pair of ass-kicker boots.

This may be a little hard to explain. First, growing up in San Diego, I often heard how comparable Greece’s climate was … and it is. I was shocked to feel a sunny 65 degrees in the morning, and yet the locals were covered up in fur coats, gloves, and scarves. It reminds me of the days when, under similar temperatures, I’d yell down over the railing in the morning for dad to turn on the heat. Perhaps I’ve finally adjusted to “normal” winter’s being the ice-ridden, sleet-flinging, snow-vomiting type that St Louis has to offer … but really I think it had more to do with the 10lbs of “Bahrain Bulge” I’ve acquired in the last few weeks.

Upon my arrival into Athens and our half hour journey into the city on the metro station, my first impression of Greece was, “Ick” But not a bad kind of ick.; let’s remember, I’m traveling to Greece from Bahrain, so anything with colors outside of the tan spectrum will be appealing to me. I guess when economic trouble hits, it hits some areas of the world first: Greece has shanty-towns. It has graffiti. It has one-legged people begging for food on the side on the road, and pick-pockets galore.

Then there’s the language. Remember that saying “it’s Greek to me?” It’s true. It’s so confusing … we attempted a few words, but … you can’t ATTEMPT Greek. Probably 90% of the people spoke English though, so that was helpful.


My travel buddy was Danny. That’s him in the photo. We’re outside the Parthenon atop the Acropolis. It was quite breathtaking, and a beautiful sunny day to view it all. I gathered over 200 photos, so I’ll attempt to only post the more interesting ones.

Day one was spent wandering the Acropolis. It's a large mountain where palaces, temples, and churches have sat. The tours and signs tell you a lot more about it than I could ever explain, but if you're even somewhat interested in the history, I recommend going. You can get through everything in about a day. I found it strange that they're working to rebuild the Acropolis as it was in ancient days. The photo to the right shows construction work going on - they're resurrecting a temple. It'll be interesting to see what the area looks like in another 20 years.


The second day of our trip was spent at the Archaeological museum... I recommend taking a taxi. We took the metro and then walked. It's not a bad part of town, but it's not for the faint of heart either. This was definately an awesome part of the trip - all of those years studying ancient civilizations, and then to walk into a room and see the actual artifacts. Pretty neat. Remember the death mask on the left? I think I stared at this image for hours on end in classroom text books. It's far more awesome in person. The other side of the display shows a smiling, fatter faced version. Other parts of the room held statues, some Egyptian artifacts, and some old-lady's personal collection of Greecian items she horded, er.. collected during her lifetime and passed on when she died.

After the museum Danny and I were beat. Our legs were buring from the day before still, so he finally agreed to just sit and enjoy the scenery (which I wanted to do on day one). So we found a nice cafe overlooking part of the city. Here's Danny videtaping some it it. His parents apparently never traveled much outside of the US, so he's makes videos for them. They're incredibly boring.

Some how we drank the rest of the day away. Don't get me wrong - we had TONS of great food, met some neat people, and did a little shopping, so I don't consider it at all a bad thing. Unfortunately for Danny he got sick that night... I heard him in the restroom throughout most of the evening. I did not offer assistance.

The next, and last full day, was spent with Danny recovering in the morning. I sat and enjoyed a book (finished a Portrait of Dorian Grey) and had some tasty coffee. That evening Danny and I took a bus tour down to the Temple of Poseidon, which sits on top of a cliff. It was amazing - probably the best part of the trip. We drove an hour each way, along the shoreline. It let us view a part of Greece we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. The view from the temple as the sun set was breathtaking, though it's sad to see so much of the temple was destroyed by collectors in the 1800s. Apparently Lord Bryon left his name etched somewhere on the stones - some may say "Ooo, such a historical connection - Bryon came here to write poetry!" ... sounds like another alpha male to me - marking his territory.

Sorry, tangent. The view was amazing, as I said. I could definitely see myself having a nice summer home there...
Overall Greece, I give an A. I'd like to go back and visit the countryside more - perhaps see the wine country and Ouzo factories. Maybe in a few years I'll be able to go again, but there are a million other places I want to see before I can justify a second trip!