Start of our Greek Holiday

Hello Blog Readers!

I'm currently in Athens, Greece, the starting point of Kathleen and I's three week adventure through Eastern Europe. We started our journey yesterday morning when Hilary dropped us off at the train station in Melton. Then as we always do when we catch a train in Melton we took it to Ipswich and then continued on to London. After arriving in London we took another train out to Gatwick Airport to catch our flight to Athens.

When arriving at Athens Airport we took the bus from the airport to the center of Athens. From there we walked to the Athens Backpackers Hostel in which we are staying. After checking in it was getting fairly late in the day so we had supper at a nearby restaurant and then called it a day. When we woke up this morning we had breakfast at the hostel and then started our first full day in Athens. The first place we stopped was Hadrian's Arch which was built in 131 A.D. At the time it divided the old Greek city from the new Roman city. The next thing we saw was right behind the arch, the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was amazing to see what was left of the fifty-two foot tall columns and imagine what the temple looked like when all the columns and the statue of Zeus still stood. After a walk around the temple we started our hike up the hill to the top of the Acropolis which is home to the Parthenon. When we reached the top of Acropolis we took in the amazing views of Athens and explored the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. Upon descending the Acropolis we headed to the Ancient Agora where much of Athens day to day life occurred back in the sixth century. When we were done having a thorough tour of the Agora we sat down at a restaurant across the street from the Agora and had lunch. After a delicious lunch we went to explore the ruins of the Library of Hadrian and then on to the Roman Forum. After touring the ruins we made the trek out to the Kerameikos, which is the burial ground of Athens. There are many ancient tombs of generations of noble Athenians and it was very interesting to see the statuary and decoration on the tombs. At about this time we had both experienced what we agreed to be the hottest day of both our lives and decided to head back to the hostel to enjoy our air conditioned room.

As for tomorrow we are planning to go to the Theater of Dionysus and then the Acropolis Museum in the morning and then we are catching a tour bus at 2pm out to the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. As for now though it's about 6:40pm Greece time so I'm going for supper.

Till next time,
Rocky