First full day of Athenian life

Our first full day began with a mini-bus tour (mini being the adjective used to describe the tour, not the size of the bus) around Athens, and served as most of our first glimpses of the city. Most of the places we ended up re-visiting, but one of the more notable sights was the first modern Olympic stadium.




The first modern Olympiad was celebrated here in 1886, where athletes (all men) from 14 nations competed.

This beauty (built circa 566 BC and has been renovated since then) is made up entirely of marble, holds about 80,000 people, and is still used for the end of the marathon races. NEAT-O.




The rest of our tour consisted of mainly drive-by shootings (of pictures, people!), with Roula (our FAB tour guide) telling us the significance of each place on her little microphone up at the front of the bus (nothing, of course, that I can remember).




Our next (and final) stop of the day was the Parliament building in Syntagma Square (our favorite point of reference in Athens) with their adorable little guards, whom I took literally 20 pictures of because I could just not get over the outfit + march combo. Despite being a tourist attraction, these guards (called Evzones) ARE on duty and must be alert at all times while on guard.

In fact, we learned that in Greece, ALL males must serve for two years in the military. Evzones, however, are those chosen for this Ceremonial duty, and are considered to be the "best of the best."

The two Evzones pictured below are guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which depicts a dying Greek warrior and has an inscription from Pericles’s famous funeral speech.



We also happened to be there for the changing of the guards. Like I said, I could literally show you about 20 pictures, but I've included just a couple to give you the general idea:

After this we had some free time, which Tracie and I used to our advantage. We wandered through a little garden-y area, which was quite lovely, wound up outside the Temple of Olympian Zeus (which will be covered again in a later post), and then if I remember correctly we wandered around in the Plaka got "lost" about 2 blocks from our hotel, which lead to my second mini-panic attack of the trip. It was at this point I realized I better learn how to read maps-- and I did! (eventually).

Now, at this point in my post I am wondering how on earth I managed to accomplish so many things in one day.. and secretly regretting it because it means a longer blog post. After getting-lost-but-not-really and finding our way back to the Hotel Astor, we went on my first (and only) trip on the Metro with Katie & Andrew. They invited us to tag along and scope out possible places to go out at night (which I'd say was semi-successful).

I can't really recall what took place after this, as I have no pictures to jog my memory, but I can say with certainty that it included another delicious Greek meal with great company!