Monday, September 10th:

We arrived in Athens, Greece first thing before the sun had a chance to rise.  

As expected, my first reaction was to relieve myself at the nearest Water Closet in the Athens airport. There were signs warning not to flush any toilet paper down with your excrements. None. I’ve read that piping in Greece were narrow and may easily clog if paper is flushed down the toilets.  I punched the huge oh-that-was-an-awesome-shit toilet button and took the risk.

I felt a little bit like a celebrity when we saw our taxi driver, Mr. Kostas, standing in the terminal holding a sign up with our last name.  This old guy held a scowl at first, but instantly warmed into a smile once he found his passengers. He was a speed demon racing down Route 64 to our AirBnB.  The car rarely stayed within lines even when there were no other vehicles on the road. I realized the smile he gave us was foreshadowing our death. He played popular American pop ...I can assume it was to help us feel at home and relax.   It's a better way to die.

These were our huge archaic keys for our flat.  They're similar to the ones from Fifth Element and I'm sure they'd open the secrets to Atlantis if I had the chance to explore Athens a bit more.

In the morning, we noticed the streets were patrolled by a number of uniformed personnel.  At first I thought someone may have just gotten murdered around the corner. We discovered we were actually staying right next to the police station so it made up for the unsafe feeling we had last night as we were led along a graffiti laden street and down an unlit set of steps to our flat.  We were greeted with many stares at my wife's breasts as we passed each officer...or were they gawking it her huge necklace. We will never know for sure.

Daylight in front of our AirBnB

The Georgios Karaiskakis Monument

The Panathenaic Stadium was our first stop on our way up to the Acropolis.  We didn’t really see any point of paying to walk within the walls when we can see pretty much everything from outside.  So this was a short visit.

The Panathenaic Stadium is supposedly the only white marble stadium in the world!

More Ballsacks welcoming guests to the Stadium...
We found a little corner cafe called the Coffee Joint.  A sweet old lady who was sitting just outside stood and greeting us as we walked in.  Again, American music played on the intercom, but I was actually pretty amused that the theme to Neverending Story sang as we were seated.  She suggested we try the caramel frappe. Where has this holy sacred juice been all our lives?! The host was obsessed with American 80s Television.  He went on and on about MacGuyver after telling me how he saved a person who was stuck in their basement restroom the day before when the door handle broke.  (My wife was in the restroom at the time)

Our very first Frappe! and first taste of the most deeerishush overseas fresh tomatos

Here's the Wi-Fi info if you're ever in town

Most public toilets didn't have seats... I'm assuming to discourage people from shittin'...?!

Sitting on foreign stairs where foreign people step...

Obligatory Croc Shot...

Our rental broke down so we had to hoof it like native donkeys the rest of the way....

The first monument to visit was the Acropolis.  We went straight to the entrance and was quickly turned away to purchase tickets.  They seemed irate as they turned away customer after customer. It would be understandable if they actually had some noticeable signage to where the ticket booth was.  We made our way further down the path and around the bend to the ticket booth (which was facing away from the monument entrance) and purchased our tickets.

The paths and steps were steep.  The structures are just as majestic as I expected.  

There were plenty of employees walking the area to assist with questions as well as keep the riff raff in check.

Inside the entrance to the Acropolis in front of The Odeion of Herodus Atticus Exterior

The Odeion of Herodus Atticus Exterior

The Propylaea from inside the Acropolis

The view from the Chalkotheke

The Odeion of Herodus Atticus Interior

The Beulé Gate

The Parthenon (front) under construction repairs

The Parthenon's dariare

 I was in the middle of photographing my wife in front of the Parthenon when a lady behind us blows her whistle. “You can’t do that here.  This is a photoshoot. How did they let you in wearing that?” Mind you, everyone’s taking photos and many other women are wearing similar dress if not less than what Nicole was wearing.  Nicole put her black shawl back over her shoulders and wrapped herself up as requested by this lady. We didn't get any shots.  The lady left us alone and we proceeding down towards the Temple of Athena Polias where we shot what we initially intended when we were in front of the main Temple with an open shawl.

The Old Temple of Anthena Polias

Another angle of the Old Temple of Anthena Polias

The entrance to the Old Temple of Anthena Polias

The Pandroseion lies between The Old Temple of Athena Polias and The Erectheion

I saw a  lady with  the same model camera a I had and took this one and only chance of trusting a stranger with my gear to capture this memory from the Acropolis Viewing Point

The Erectheion containing the Porch of Caryatids with the Tomb of Kekrops lying underneath

It was at the Propylaia in front of the great entranceway where the whistle was blown again when my wife attempted to perform a little circus stunt on one of the steps.  

The Propylaea

The Pedestal of Agrippa (left) , The Propylaea (center),  and The Temple of Athena Nike (right)

Vag Stampin' the Steps...

Trademark Croc Pose...

YaY Acropolis!

Exiting the Acropolis through The Propylaea

Obligatory Pay Phone Model Shot

We watched the sun set on Areopagus Hill outside the gates of the Acropolis.

Climbing Aeropagus Hill

A view of the Acropolis and Mount Lycabettus from Aeropagus Hill

Graffiti Rocks of  Areopagus Hill

The Sunset view from Aeropagus Hill

We wandered the market streets and passed many restaurants ambient with greek music.  

Side Street Vendors with a view of The Acropolis

All of the Dicks...

We ended up at a corner restaurant called Gyristroula. 

Per the suggestion of our hostess at the Coffee Joint, Nicole ordered wine and ouzo. I went with some beef and lamb dish. Our waiter became concerned lack of ordering food, not knowing we were going to share, and made sure Nicole ate something before killing her stomach with straight alcohol.

Ouzo is kinda gross and should only be consumed when you're an insane psychopath.   I brought home some extra to give to my best friend.

Fountain of Pnyx entrance

Picked up a set of Komopoloi (Worry Beads) that the travel guides say is a must have souvenir...

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Annunciation and the statue of Archbishop Damaskinos

Oh Hey Lookie!  It's a KFC <3

It was pretty late when we finally made it back to the flat.   We crashed as soon as we entered since we had to wake in just a few hours for our flight to Santorini.

Let's Fly on Over to Day 04 - Santorini!