Athens

And now to enjoy the serious heat of Greece!  We spent three days in Athens, visiting all the "must see" points of history of Western Civilization, plus wandering throughout the charming streets of the Plaka, learning some plants in the beautiful parks, and eating very well.

Experiencing the columns, statues, immense buildings of the Acropolis and surrounding sites was more impressive than I expected.  The new Acropolis museum and the National Museum were wonderful for helping to refresh our sense of how much has happened in Athens and organize things into a time line and then being there to see the excavated and restored sites, along with many of the statues and vases and frescos that we remember from text books (me from art history, Eli from Mr. O's class, and Ingrid from UC days) was thrilling.

Perhaps more beautiful and exciting than even our visit to the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis was our late afternoon stroll through the park to Pnyx and Philopappos Hill.  The views to the Acropolis were spectacular, and the stroll through the restored vegetation in the park was wonderful.  Medicago as a shrub 2m tall!  Aleppo pines, olive trees, capers, and so much more.  Harvester ants with giant seeds.








Cicadas first in sync, then syncopated, then random, then in sync again -- in the park and all over the city.  Lovely park, spectacular views out to the port at Piraeus  and to the mountain tops inland.  The city with monochrome off-white in all directions, with sparkles catching the sun.

We had eaten so much great food, but realized that the mainstay of Greek restaurants in the US and Panama -- gyros -- had been absent.  So Eli wanted to make sure we found some gyros, but were having little luck.  This led to a great conversation at a small restaurant, where the owner was emphatic that souvlaki was much superior.  That we could find gyros at the ports if we wanted, but we shouldn't eat it because, he explained to Ingrid, "It is fat like your husband".  The meat used for gyros is what is left over after you eat the good, lean mean -- sort of like sausage.  Pressed together and then cooked on the spit, so it tastes good but is more fat that lean.  The souvlaki was great...

Everything is close here, so walking is a pleasure.

The narrow streets (just big enough for pedestrians, but often joined by motorcycles and occasionally cars) through the Plaka are always and adventure, and it felt good to be a little less accosted than in Istanbul (restaurant owners are quite agressive, but not like in Turkey).  We did our best to learn polite words and phrases in Greek, and got to be pretty good at sounding out the greek signs to find our way around.  But it seems that pretty much anyone engaged with tourists speaks either English or Spanish, so we've had little trouble communicating (except with the housekeeper who gave us the keys and the tour of our airbnb place; that was largely pantomime).

The heat has slowed us down (a bright, sunny 36°C, except for one mid-afternoon thunder and lightening drizzle) including mid-afternoon siestas, but with early starts and late dinners we have had plenty of time.

Tomorrow off to Hydra for a few days of escape from city life!