(authentic Grecian Tzatziki has changed my life; the Danforth will never be the same to me again) we came back to our hotel and I crashed hard..."You fell asleep right away, huh?"
"Yeah. Did I snore?"
"Yeah..."
...but awoke the next morning ready to conquer the world. And we might as well have.
After breakfast down in the hotel
tavern (so simple and yet satisfying--and the COFFEE...!) we headed out on foot.
Jumping out of the metro (yes, it's also spelled "metPo" in Greek) at the Acropolis stop, we spent the early morning hours strolling the 5000(?) year old site. I was totally awed
by the architecture and carvings. I'd always heard of and learned of the ancient mythologies, but there I was, STANDING on the site!
I gotta say too: thank goodness for zoom lenses. Used it both to take superbly close-up pictures, and I could also inspect the otherwise detailed but too far away fresco carvings.
So we climbed up to the Acropolis and walked the entire site, circling each building at least once. Then we climbed back down (gawking at the crowds flocking up for the late morning shift). Just a short walk away, there was a random mini-mountain of rock.
"I want to climb that!"
And so we did.
We climbed the slippery rock to reach the top for an amazing view of the Acropolis and the surrounding views of Athens. Wow.
From there, we could spot several other churches, ginormous buildings, and another, real mountain.
"I want to climb that!"
And so we did.
But not until after walking to visit the site of the Olympic Temple of Zeus and walking to visit the Panathletic Stadium.
Finally, we wound our way through the streets of Athens towards our mountaintop goal. Without a map, we kept ourselves on track by making sure we were always heading uphill.
Oh man.
So it was uphill past (what we think was) the Prime Minister's house, uphill through the Yorkville-area of the city, uphill through some very narrow residential streets, and up some very steep stairways. Finally we reached...the bottom of the mountain.
Bottom?! All that uphill and we were only at the BOTTOM?!
Yup. And so our climb began. And it kept going and going and going. It was exhausting. But the views at the top--spectacular. When we reached the top, I forgot what all the complaining was about.
The landscape sprawling beneath us was breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking.
After we'd rested up and had taken in enough of the Athens cityscape from above, we headed over to pay for the cable car ride down (for the record, we didn't know there had been a cable car to begin with). Turns out the car wasn't leaving for another half an hour--so we walked down.
Once we were off the mountain (Lycabettus was its name, by the way), we started to make our way back to the city--on foot, of course. Along the way somewhere, we decided to hop on the Metro to see the port area of Piraeus.
Um, besides the street sellers and
behemoth ferries (because there were no beaches or views to be had), it was fairly a bust. We spent 1.5 hours walking around trying to find some cruise agency to book a day on the water. Finally, a little store owner took pity on us and called the agency from his own phone and let us speak to them.    "Where is your office?"
    "Behind."
    "I'm sorry?"
    "Behind three blocks."
    "Behind what?"
    "Three blocks behind."
    "Three blocks behind what?!"
    "Behind."
    (oh geez)
By this time we found the right office, our feet burned...and we didn't even book the day on the water anyway. Instead, we walked back to the station and headed towards our hood on a restaurant recommendation from our Lonely Planet book.
Score.
The station we got out at deposited us into a square and adjoining flea market. My fave.
Starving, we cut our strolling short to eat dinner at Savvas. Y.U.M. But starving as we were, we couldn't even finish our plates.
On our walk back to the station, we caught a glimpse of something fantastic.
Wow. The Acropolis by night.
The rest of the night in a sentence: walk, walk, walk, pass-out, walk, coffee, walk, creepy TV, sleep.
It was the return of my angry legs, but it was worth every step.
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