Athens in Two Parts

The last time I left you I was sitting at the Athens Port as some crazy hour way too early in the morning and my legs were getting eaten by bugs and I now have scabs all over my legs. We have to go back in time a bit because we've actually been to Athens twice but I decided to combine it all into one post. We arrived the first time on a ferry from Santorini with our new Aussie friend. We had the day before we all left again and made the most of it. The first day we saw the Acropolis, Parthenon, and the outside of the old Olympic Statium.

Theater of Dionysus

Notice the 6 female statues... we'll be coming back to that.

Parthenon

Parthenon

They are working to reconstruct the entire thing so there is a lot of scaffolding up which isn't so pretty but still interesting. After Alyssa and I were off to our last island, Samos!

After Samos we came back to Athens for one more day to see everything we hadn't seen. We did a very long but wonderful walking tour and saw and learned all kinds of things. I'll give you the highlights!

During the walking tour we watched the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was rather hilarious and kind of strange, I'm glad I didn't have to march like that.

After the tour Alyssa and I went back to the Old Olympic Stadium since we hadn't been inside. It was built and used for the first modern Olympic games in 1896. Today it is the finish line for the Athens Marathon (which starts in Marathon Greece) and was used for archery during the 2004 games.

Inside the Old Olympic Stadium

In the stadium they have a display of several of the torches used in previous Olympics.

And we had to take a lap around the track.

Most of what they've found at the Acropolis is now in the Acropolis Museum.

Alexander the Great

A magic ball

The 6 female statues in the earlier picture are replicas and the 5 of the originals are in the Acropolis Museum which Alyssa and I also went. The 6th is in London at the British Museum which I tried to go to but my guide book had the wrong closing time. They had a video showing the restoration work they do and the techniques used to clean them.

I enjoyed seeing all the sights in Athens but I really didn't love Athens. It's a smelly and pretty disgusting city. I'll be ok if I never go back there.