Athens, Greece Last Night, 2 June 2009

Tonight is our last night in Athens. We fly from Athens, Greece to Atlanta tomorrow;Wednesday. This morning we went up to breakfast about 9 AM. The sky was very cloudy with rain type clouds. About 9:30 AM there was a very light, short shower. That is one for the calender. Normally Athens does not get any type of rain between May 1 until the end of October. By noon the clouds were gone, the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly. We walked down and over to Krinosos Cafe to get a cheese pie. It was definitely worth the walk over. We also purchased some pillow covers for sofa pillows.

We just relaxed with afternoon until time for supper. We agreed to go back to THANASSIS for supper. We got the ground meat kebabs and a Greek salad. I stopped in a small store to get some packaged olives on the way back to the hotel. We also found a good little grocery store about 4 blocks from the hotel.

It's been a very good trip. We plan to travel with STAR CLIPPER again and would definitely plan to stay at the Magna Grecia hotel again. The location is great and the staff are very helpful.

All for now. I will need to get my STAR CLIPPER log down loaded to the blog.

Emily

Athens, Greece Saturday and Sunday, May 30 - 31, 2009

We arrived at our hotel about 10 AM on Saturday morning. We checked in, dropped out luggage in the lobby and went to the roof top breakfast area. The lady working in the breakfast area recognized us. She welcomed us back and got us coffee, tea, and fresh squeezed orange juice. I checked e-mail and added to blog. We then headed toward Monostiraki Square to THANASSIS tarverna for lunch. The location to the flea market and the layout of the traverna seemed like the one we would eat at in 1976 when we were leaving the flea market. THANASSIS was estrablished in 1968. I told our waiter we used to eat there in 1975- 1976, The waiter had us meet Mr Thanassis. Mr Thansassis had the waiter get us another beer.

After lunch we walked to George's Jewelry (I purchased some items from George in 1975.)
The son, George is now operating the jewelry shop. I also had one of the jewelry boxes from 1975 with me and yes, I did make another purchase. Instead of writing a personal check as in 1975, I just used my VISA card.

For supper we were heading to Monastriaki Square when we hear the loud music. We ended up at a garden square cafe across from the "Tower of the Winds" I got a very good spinach and cheese pie.

SUNDAY

Jim and I got up early on Sunday. After breakfast, we headed for the real flea market. The real flea market is on Sunday and begins in the square at the end of Ifassou St and runs to Thesseion Metro Station. We stopped at a cafe near Thesseion Station for drinks and yogurt with honey. It was filled with Greeks. We were the only tourist there. We got back to the hotel about 1 pm. At 4:00 pm we walked over to the entrance to the Acropolis. We climbed up and toured the Acropolis. There is some much reconstruction or taking down and replacing with genuine fake copies. Walk ways have been constructed. We saw people on Mars hill, (where the Apostle Paul preached to the Athenians). The people on the hill do not know how easy their climb was. We did it by moonlight with no steps. In 1976 my mother was visiting; her guide book big hint was to see the Acropolis by moonlight. There are now 2 sets of steps up to the top of Mars Hill.

We returned to our hotel from the Acropolis and started to walk to Monastiraki Square for supper. We could hear loud music so we just eat at a cafe cross from the hotel on Mitropoleos Square. Jim got the chicken kabab with fries and seasoned rice. I got the grilled veggies. My grilled veggies was grilled with olive oil and seasoning. There was a plate full of grilled tomatoes, squash, mushrooms, and eggplant.

Hopefully on Monday evening the square will not have loud music. We are hoping the music is only a weekend thing.

Travel with Em & Jim

Jim and I lived in the suburbs of Athens, Greece from 1975 to 1976. We lived in Glyfada just across the road from Hellikinon Air Base. At that time it was the "land" without phone service or ice cream. The number of telephone lines in the area was very limited. The quickest way to obtain a phone number was to buy a home or apartment with phone service or inherit the number.
A few of the things we learned while living in Greece: You did not need a phone or TV to live. There was no English Language TV. It was cheaper to eat in a taverna than to cook at home. Marble floors are very, very slippery. Sunny warm Athens, Greece is very cold in February with snow on the ground.
It's been almost 34 years since we first arrived in Greece and we are looking forward to revisiting Athens and also visiting many of the islands. Driving in Athens was an experience 34 years ago, but I will not be driving a car this time in Athens. We will be walking and using the Metro for our travels in Athens. There was no Metro when we lived in Athens, but we did use the public buses.It will be interesting to see the many changes in Athens. To travel to the islands we will be on the Star Clipper. The Star Clipper is a very large real sailing vessel carrying about 170 guest. This will be a big change from the 19 foot O'Day day sailer we had in the Glyfada Harbor.