No Bulldogs in THIS Athens

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Woke early at Yotel for a 6 am flight to Athens, Greece. We arrived in Athens a bit before noon and made it into the city around 1:30 pm. On the way we saw a line of cops with riot gear and full body shields and then a protest march. Luckily we kept going and made it to the city center for a less uneventful weekend. So far in 2009 Athens has been ravaged with riots and protests due to police shooting a student and just political unrest. A week before we arrived there had been more protests but we didn't know about it until the day before we flew out. Luckily there really wasn't anything going on while we were there.

When we arrived at Syntagma Square we immediately started walking towards Ermou Street. This is a highly popular shopping street, though we didn't do any shopping. We walked by Kapnikarea, a small church located in one of the junctions on Ermou. We continued walking until we found the flower market that was very pathetic so we were only there less than 5 minutes before continuing on by another large church on the way to the Central Market. This is probably the largest meat and fish market that we have ever seen, with hundres of stalls selling almost any kind of meat and fish you can think of. It was neat but very grotesque, with lots of open bodies having all of their guts hanging out and tables of just animal heads.

Kapnikarea:


Octopus at Central Market:


Flags at City Hall:

When we left the Central Market we walked by the City Hall building and then to Loumidis coffee store. Greg bought some coffee (which ended up being horrible) and some wonderful Turkish delight. We left the store and walked to Panepistimio where we had lunch at Evergreen. Greg and I both got a beer from a local brewery called Craft. Greg's beer was a very odd smokey lager that tasted like a bbq in your mouth. He finished dinner with an espresso that came with sparking water to clear his pallette, weird.

Agii Theodori:

After lunch we went to Agii Theodori (another small church) and then to Le Chocolat to buy some wonderful Greek chocolates. Next we walked to the Parliament building to see the Evzones (Greek guards) and the tomb of the unknown soldiers. The Evzones are some of the most interesting guards that we have seen anywhere. They wear traditional Greek outfits that have a skirt and pompoms on their shoes. We were told that they may look like sissies in skirts, but they are highly skilled and very strong. Our next stop was the Mitropoli church, which was stunning inside, and then to Starkbucks so Greg could get his coffee mug that he collects. After that we did a bit more shopping in some souvenier stores.

Le Chocolat window display:


At Parliament, the Evzones:


The Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers:


Parliament as seen from Syntagma Square:


Just one of many silver wall plaques in Mitropoli:

Our journey then took us by Hadrian's library, Tower of the Winds, and the Roman Forums. These are all ruins that are still standing. It is mainly a lot of columns and some steps but the Tower of the Winds is still intact. The Church of Agia Aikaterina was the next place we stopped by and then to Hotel Herodion to check in. We took a quick nap and grabbed a snack at the bar while waiting on our bus to arrive, we had an excursion planned for the night.

Columns at the Roman Forums:


Hadrian's Library:


The Tower of the Winds:

Our bus arrived and took us around the ports of Piraeus so we could see the boats and some of the stadiums at night that were used during the Olympics. After the trip around Piraeus we headed to Taverna Kalakerinos for our dinner. There were about 14 of us in our group and we all gathered around the table to enjoy the show. There was a Greek band playing and singing while dancers, belly dancers, and another singer also performed. Our dinner consisted of a lot of Greek traditional foods including, Moussaka, Grape leaves stuffed with minced meat, cheese pastries, sausages, squid, Greek salad, souvlaki (yummy chicken skewers), rice, potatoes, Ouzo to drink, and honey & sugar donuts for dessert. It was all very good and we were stuffed and happy when we left. When we got back to the hotel we took a look out of our window and enjoyed the view of the Acropolis lit up at night before heading to bed for the night.

Looking towards the lights of Athens from Piraeus:

Some of the dancing at Taverna Kalakerinos

A little information about Athens, it is full of stray dogs. We had read this before we went but didn't give it any thought until we were there. It was true, there were stray dogs everywhere, at every square and every historical site. At Parliament there was a dog sleeping at the base of each side of the steps. In Panepistimio there was a yellow lab laying in the grass near the large statue. We saw dogs walking down the streets, lying around, guarding entrances, everywhere. We even saw one sitting in the middle of an intersection (not a busy one) just watching both ways. All of the dogs, except for 1 that we saw, were large, mostly mixes but including those that looked like border collies, labs, shephards, etc. We learned that the dogs are actually very well taken care of by the city. They are all spayed/neutered and tagged as well. Before the Olympics in 2004 they gathered up all of the stray dogs and made sure they were clean and fixed and then let them back out. All of the dogs are very friendly, and like I said, very well taken care of, not one looked skinny. However, there was not 1 that looked like a bulldog, GO DAWGS!

Here are just a few of the dogs we saw, the first one is my favorite: