Athens post #4 - the climb to the Acropolis

After lunch we made the surprising discovery that the Acropolis was indeed open despite the strike. Even though it was almost 2:00 we decided to make the hike since we were there and it was open. What a good decision it turned out to be! Everyone else must have still thought that it was closed because there were very few people and it made for a wonderful experience. No crowds meant that we could take as long as we wanted which was really nice because this was really a once in a lifetime experience. We walked up the South Slope and stopped at the Theater of Dionysus. It's in pretty rough shape. There are plants growing everywhere and there are a lot of loose rocks. It's hard to tell what is original and what has been cobbled together as "repairs" over the ages. It is neat that you can because you can climb all over the theater and sit in the seats. You can look down onto the stage and almost feel like it's 2000 years ago!
A teachable moment - Emmy seems fascinated:
priceless artifact or reproduction? Hard to tell...
Pretty plants doing a number on the seats:
Now if I could just get them all to look in one direction...
Back down onto the stage from the seats:
There were so few people around that I had to set the camera on a column and use the timer to get this photo!
Again - let's hope this isn't an original carving sitting here in the underbrush...
A theater that is being restored:
Caves at the base of the Acropolis - Aidan said there were monsters - Emmy pretended to cry - good times :)

Athens post #3 - LUNCH!

After we left the Temple of Olympian Zeus it was lunch time!! I was so excited to eat real Greek food in Greece and we found a nice cafe just below the entrance to the Acropolis. Since it's in the main tourist area we thought it would be at least decent - and they had an outdoor eating area so that sealed the deal for us. The food was delicious!! We ordered dolmades - grape leaves stuffed with a mixture of rice, lamb and spices - for the appetizer. They arrived warm with a cheese sauce - pure heaven!
Brendan had a gyro, Emmy and I shared grilled chicken with potatoes and rice and Aidan had the most delicious lamb meatballs I have ever eaten. He refused to eat them mostly because he had just downed a banana shake in about 22 seconds! Poor Aoife had to eat baby food. She did also get some mashed up potatoes and a little rice which she loved because it's food and she's enormous! We brought all of the extra food back to the hotel and they managed to get some down before they passed out for the evening!

Comments....please??????

Hello out there! I've installed this new program that counts each time someone visits here. There are LOTS of you - at least 50 per day - but no one is leaving any evidence that they visited! I would LOVE to get some comments on these posts so....if you enjoyed your visit leave me a little note. Just click the comments link below and type away! Looking forward to hearing from you!
xoxo
Becky

Athens post #2 - The Temple of Olympian Zeus

On the first full day that we were in Athens - Friday - we had planned to go to the Acropolis first thing in the morning and then go to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch. When we checked in with the concierge at the hotel that morning, he told us that the entire government was going to be shut down due to a massive strike of all government employees. The country of Greece is bankrupt and in exchange for bailing them out, the European Union demanded that Greece reduce the number of federal employees - needless to say - the employees were mad. That meant that the Acropolis was scheduled to be closed as were all of the other national monuments. We were really upset and thought that our whole gameplan was going to be thrown off. The traffic in the city had come to a standstill and the shuttle that runs from the hotel to the center of the city wasn't running. There was no way to take a taxi because walking would be faster and the Metro was closed due to the strike. The only option was to walk with the kids to the city center. Athens is stroller-lethal so we set off with Aoife in the backpack and the other two walking. Emmy got carried a bunch and Aidan got a few shoulder rides but they walked on their own a lot - especially Aidan. They did great but were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. They all went to sleep at 5:00 and slept through until 8 the next morning!

Anyway - as we were walking away from the protests we realized that the gate to the Temple of Olympian Zeus was open. We were so happy that we were going to be able to see something that day and realized that perhaps the communication between the strikers and the rest of the federal government wasn't that great! Here are some of the pictures that I took. It was amazing - the columns are HUGE and although only 16 exist today there were over 150 originally. The temple was 130 by 350 feet and had a roof! Imagine that!
The black that you can see on the underside of the marble is from pollution and acid rain - they somehow clean them but are evidently saving money by not cleaning the bottoms!

The view of the Acropolis from the Temple of Olympian Zeus:
This column fell down at some point and they said - hey - let's just leave it there! It is neat that you can really see how the columns are constructed.
The Acropolis with Hadrian's Arch in the foreground:
Emmy being a Greek statue:
2 adorable statues - they moved quite a bit:
Hadrian's Arch:
So we obviously did get to visit the Acropolis after this. We decided to give it a try and they were open. It was very empty so I think most other people thought the same thing that we had! I'm sorry to post in bursts like this but I took 217 pictures on day 1 alone so plowing through them is taking a bit of time. I will publish the best ones in the next few days so keep checking back!

Athens

Athens is an interesting city - it reminds me a lot of Seoul. There is a total lack of organization from the ground up. Streets are only a suggestion of where to drive - sidewalks, stairs and blocked off pedestrian roads seem to be just as good! There is a large police presence in the city probably due to the protests of the EU's demands in exchange for bailing the country out of bankruptcy. Even the police seem to be a little underfunded - we saw a police car patrolling the area around the Acropolis that was a rusty, hubcapless hatchback from 1982 or so. Not very intimidating to say the least. On the other hand - the traffic in the city is a constant stream of sleek Mercedes sedans with tinted windows. There is money somewhere - it's just not in the government! Another thing that was hard to miss was the abundance of feral animals wandering the streets. Cats and dogs - quite healthy looking in fact - were just everywhere - sleeping up on the Acropolis, on the front steps of expensive hotels or even in the middle of the streets! I guess animal control is also underfunded!The graffiti is hard to miss - it's EVERYWHERE except on the Acropolis itself. Graffiti that you can't read doesn't have the same effect. Greek letters spraypainted on a wall seem more interesting than English!
The city itself is sprawling and from above almost looks like a tide of white buildings pushing up against the mountains that surround the city. We were in the center of the city - the touristy area if there is one - and even here the buildings were decrepit. A lot of them were abandoned and falling into disrepair although a lot of the inhabited buildings looked about the same as the abandoned ones!
That being said - the city seemed safe. Granted, we were walking around during the day but I never felt accosted by beggars like I was in Bangkok or intimidated by the local population like in some areas of Seoul. There were very few beggars or homeless people - mostly just African immigrants trying to quietly sell knockoff handbags in the main square of town. The locals all seemed to think that we were just great - they loved the kids and Emmy got more compliments than I have ever heard in all my life. There are orange trees - with oranges - all over the city. The kids thought this was fantastic and they kept a constant look out for oranges in the trees. Every time we saw the oranges it was like they hadn't seen them 2 minutes before!

Athens!!!

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while - I was getting us ready to go to Athens for a short vacation! We arrived last night and will leave Sunday evening so we'll get 2 1/2 days here in the city. Today we went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and we hiked up to the Acropolis. It was a LONG hike since we came in on the South Slope without knowing better! The kids did a great job. Brendan carried Emmy some of the way and Aidan climbed all the way up by himself. There are lots of things to see on the way up so at least it's interesting!! Here are a few pictures of us from today. When we get back I will post some more detailed accounts of our trip!
At the Temple of Olympian Zeus - there are 16 columns still standing but there were over 150 originally - it was over 100m long!
On the way up to the Parthenon at the Theater of Dionysus:
At the Parthenon - it was really windy!
Also - the blogger website is entirely in Greek here so forgive me if things look weird!

Freedom

In my - noteably - limited experience as a mom, I have noticed that my children have gone through dramatic surges of independence. Sometimes these involve sleeping, eating more or different types of food, using the toilet etc. Emmy has just recently gone through one of these surges. She has learned to ride her scooter well and has the confidence in her ability to zoom up and down the path away from immediate maternal supervision. She's started riding her scooter everywhere that she used to ride on the back of the stroller - to drop Aidan at school, to go to her school and come home, or even just to go on a walk. We went down to the other end of the street 2 nights ago to have dinner with our neighbors. It's not far - 200 yards or so - but no one wanted to walk. Aidan rode his bike and was - of course - already at the neighbor's house before I even left. Emmy rode her scooter and much to my surprise she was halfway down the street as I was coming out of our driveway. She didn't even turn around to see where I was and when I called to her she stopped, turned to look at me and gave me a big grin. She's been craving the freedom that Aidan has but she hasn't had the confidence to go after it. All of a sudden she's gained mobility and the tether that held her close to me for 2 1/2 years has suddenly and brutally been stretched. I know it's part of letting go and that I can't treat her like a baby forever. She has to grow and gain confidence in her abilities to take care of herself. It seems so soon but I suppose it will never feel like the right time...