It's All Greek to Me...

In order to thank Greece for...giving my dollars so much more breathing room, I headed down to Athens, where my friend Eric guided me through the slightly chaotic maze of ancient ruins and modern people.

Athens, while having a plethora of ancient temples, houses, and hills, looked much more modern than I anticipated. The buildings, seen from above, give the city a very white and boxy feel.

There are a ton of stray dogs in Athens. Apparently when people can no longer house their pet, they let it free to roam the streets. The government, to mitigate the multiplicative effect of these animals, rounds them up one by one, gives them all sorts of shots, spays them, and then returns them to the streets.

When the Olympics came to Athens a few years back, they needed to expand the subway system. Of course, it being Greece, they found a lot of cool stuff while they were digging. But the show must go on, and they kept on digging, putting up glass walls to show off their discoveries.

The traditionally-garbed Greek guard outside a government building across from Syntagma Square, where many of the protests take place.

The open markets were great for shopping, getting lost, and people watching.


At the top of the Acropolis.

Greek food is delicious! Now, if only I could remember what it's all called...

A two-hour bus ride from Athens, and you arrive at Sounio, site of an ancient temple to Poseidon, and an incredibly beautiful sunset over the Mediterranean Sea.

Greece was in all kinds of protests while I was there, and they almost kept me from leaving the country. Luckily, I was able to get one of the last metro services to the airport before they went on strike that Tuesday morning, and I flew out of the country before all the Greek airports closed on Wednesday.

Signed,
the Sengenblogger