Again Athens

13 November 2009-  Here are some highlights of our recent trip.  Classically Greek items.  We thoroughly enjoyed our trip.  Under budget on all accounts.  Greece was cheap.  1E50 for a pint of cold beer.  About 15E for lunch or dinner with wine or beer.  Metro for 1 euro.  All good in my book. 

Some funnies about the trip.  My scientific training was useful.  I was able to recognize most of the letters of the alphabet.  I recall a friend and her "E= hv" when it was actually a lowercase nu, not a v at all.  And in a commercial instead of mmmm, it was a line of lowercase mus.  Such a geek.  But it was helpful when reading metro stops, street signs and trying to read the Greek side of the menu.  Chad got stopped in a crosswalk and his handshook by a guy on a motorbike.  Maybe he thought Chad was Edward Norton?  And we saw the Matrix (awesome to see the greek word for Morpheus) and 300.  The other channels had very highbrow shows.  Guess you can be highbrow when you invent democracy and modern civilization.  I loved hearing the greek language.  Not sharp like Spanish or Italian, soft like Chinese.  Except when spoken by 4 girls headed to Paris for a hen party for the weekend.

I love that this old capital was turned into building material for a new wall.  I mean you can't possibly keep all the old relics laying about.

The timely storm couldn't beat our fast shot with the fisheye lens of the Odeion. 

And our last night was capped by watching the sunset from the top of Mount Lykabettus.  We waited for the lights of the city to come on to snap this one.  Au revoir to Athens but I could go again soon.

All is well in Paris.  Junior hassled us about being gone but now he is sleeping peacefully.  Time to return to real life.  Hopefully the lungs hold out, they seem to have healed up quite a bit.  Must have been all that cheap beer or the antibiotics took effect with the tzaziki.