Athens

After four restful days in Paris, we continued our flight to Athens, a noisy, dirty city, with lots of stray cats and almost as many stray dogs. Everywhere you go, you see big, lumbering canines, which Athenians mostly ignore, but apparently, there are organizations that feed and collar some of them. For the most part, they don't seem to be a problem, but it's kind of weird to see them lying around on city sidewalks! 
 

So far, the weather hasn't been nearly as warm as we had expected it to be in Greece. Our second and third days in Athens, it rained on and off, but we managed to do some exploring despite the showers. While walking around the Syntagma (Constitution) Square on day two, we noticed a huge police presence, mostly in riot gear, and we were a little concerned that we had walked into something scary. As it turned out, it was a peaceful, but large protest march of hundreds (thousands?) of municipal workers who are most likely facing similar cutbacks to the ones state workers in Californina, Wisconsin, etc. have been fighting. 
 

Our hotel, the Hotel Carolina, was simple and clean. Our “rooftop garden room with Acropolis view,” was a bit of an overstatement. There were lots of large potted plants and trees, but you could only see the Acropolis if you went to the other end of the “garden” and looked back toward the other side of the building. If you looked between the satellite dishes and TV antennas, you could barely see the Parthenon in the distance. Still, as I said, it was clean, the staff very friendly, breakfast was decent, it was close to everything thing we wanted to see, and the free wi-fi was great!

On the left side of this photo, you can see the front of the Hotel Carolina, and on the right, is the Booze Cooperative, which seemed to be a chess club during the day, and a music club at night.

Not sure what the chickens on the front of the Booze Coop are all about...

Our neighborhood was a shopping district. Lots of clothes, fabric, household linens, and tons of shoes.

“Room 69,” sort of a Greek Frederick's of Hollywood, specialized in some very sexy shoes.

Speaking of shoes, I had a pair of sandals personally fitted for me by the son of the original Poet Sandal Maker.

There are archeological sites everywhere, even under the glass floor near the restrooms in one of the restaurants where we had dinner one evening.

Our first Athens sunset, taken from the pathway that leads to the Acropolis, overlooking the sprawling city of Athens.

The Acropolis lit up at night is very beautiful.

We finally made it to the Acropolis on our last full day in Athens. This time of the year, in Greece as well as Italy, there are red poppies everywhere!

The Temple of Athena on the Acropolis.

This is us on the Acropolis, with the Parthenon in the background, taken by a lady who had asked Sam for help with her camera.

Blue Star Ferries is the ferry company we used to get to the islands of Santorini and Naxos. They're like small cruise ships, with cars, trucks and other vehicles carried in the bottom. Very smooth sailing.

Ahhhh... Paris!

Considering how poorly I was feeling while we were in Paris, it's a good thing it wasn't our first, or even second, visit to the City of Lights. We did a lot of just hanging out with Paul and Eva in their apartment, and I tried to rest as much as possible. Still, we did manage to see the Espace Dalí, a museum exhibit of Salvador Dalí's sculptures and etchings in Montmartre, had dinner with a friend named Gabrielle (who we met the last time we were in Paris), and we had lunch with a old classmate of mine from grammar school (Nathalie Rodgers) who now lives in Paris, and who I hadn't seen in about 45 years!

The night before we left Paris, the four of us went for an unforgettable “foodie” experience at an amazing restaurant called La Cerisaie. If you're ever in Paris, and you want a really special meal, be sure to make a  reservation! 

Keeping a Positive Outlook

We departed from SFO on Thursday afternoon, and after a non-eventful, non-stop flight on Air France, we landed in Paris midday on Friday the 13^th.  Now, I have always considered the so-called bad luck day as good luck (Sam and I had our first date on a Friday the 13^th ), and when we got on the RER train, which was to take us all the way to Arcueil/Cachan station, only a few blocks from Eva's apartment, everything seemed to be going our way. However, when we arrived at the Gare du Nord (one of the train stations on the edge of the city), our train stopped and we were informed there was a one day strike. Our train could not cross Paris to the south eastern suburb we needed to get to!

Being very tired, having just traveled for about 17 hours total travel time, dragging our luggage through the crowded train station, and with about €42 in my purse (leftover from a previous trip), we decided to hail a taxi and hope we had enough cash to make it to Arcueil. Luckily, it was just enough! Our driver was very friendly, and made a real effort to get us to our destination as quickly as possible, but the traffic we encountered, was unbelievable! Due to the mass transit strike, everybody was in their cars instead, creating exceptionally bad traffic jams, and making our trip take twice as long and costing twice as much! Still, when we finally arrived in front of Eva's building, the meter read €41, and as I said, luckily, we had just enough! Now, our “vacation” could begin!

Eight Days Late

As usual, I begin a trip with the best of intentions, intending to write about our adventures as they happen, but life isn't that organized, and travel even less so. In addition to the normal obstacles, I started this voyage with a developing illness. At first, I thought it was just allergies, but now I'm not exactly sure what it is.

Fortunately, since our first four days were in Paris, visiting with Sam's cousin Paul and his girlfriend Eva, I was well taken care of (thank you, Eva, for your lemon/honey treatments), and managed to get a fair amount of rest. The second four days of our trip, however, have been spent in Athens, a city we have never before visited, one that has so much to see and do, and like all big cities, is very crowded, noisy, and dirty. In other words, not very restful! Still, we had a great time, saw many of the sights, and I think I am slowly getting better. Hopefully, the next couple of days on the island of Santorini, will be the be the best medicine!

From this point on, internet connection permitting, I will try to fill in the blanks of the last week, add photos here and there, and hopefully, do a better job of sharing our adventures as they unfold.