Back on the Mainland

We've returned to the mainland in Athens, after 5 very relaxing days in the Cyclades. We had a great time braving the winds along the beaches with our ATV. We also had a great night out with our fellow hostel guests, Ryan from Australia and Amir from Israel, who were probably the only other tourists on the island, and thankfully ones that wanted to talk politics and american sentiment over pool and beers (please vote for obama so our reputation doesn't precede us...shameless plug, sorry) After Naxos, we made a last minute decision and cut our stay at the lovely Hotel Soula short and hopped a ferry to nearby island of Paros on Monday morning. Lucky for us Paros was even better than Naxos, mostly becuase the weather picked up, and the hospitality at Anna's Pension was even better. On thursday we got to experience a National Greek Holiday, Feast of St. Demetrius, as the local children paraded throughout the main street in Parikia and the locals all celebrated at the cafes and bars. After enjoying the white washed buildings and blue shutters we rented a scooter and took off for some of the sights around the island. We stumbled upon a private beach sheltered from the wind by the rocks and the bay and laid out for while before driving around the rest of the island and experiencing an amazing sunset along the water. Sadly on Wednesday we returned to Athens for some sightseeing. Our hostel is in the Monstiraki section of the city, which is the eqivilent to the lower east side of NYC....super cool, looks rough around the edges, but has all sorts of awesome grafiti, hipsters galore (authentic ones that is), neat shops, and awesome bars. From the balcony of our room we have a perfect view of the Acropolis lit up at night. Yesterday afternoon we explored the Agora...as in the actual agora, not BC's super-fangled-web-meeting place-technology (but you can see where it gets it's name.) Conor noted that he felt like he was arriving just a few minutes late and missed one of Socrates great orations.....if only! Then we had another amazing Greek Dinner....and fresh huumus and tzitziki.

Today we hit the biggies...first a strenous hike up to the Acropolis we saw the Temple of Athena Nike, The Parthenon and the great views of Athens below. From up on the hill you can see the entire landscape. NExt we ventured down the south slope down to Hadrian's Arch, and the Temple of Zeus...which is HUGE. Hard to imagine how big it must of been, but the Corinthian Columns give a pretty good indication. From there we walked to the first Olympic Stadium. In the 04' Games the Marathon Finished inside the stadium, and held the archery games...since it's not that big, but does have amazing white marbles for all the seating. Then we wandered the rest of the streets, checking out the Syndagma and Plaka neighborhoods.

Sadly Greece must come to an end as we head to Prague tommorrow and finally say good bye to mild weather....although from the sounds of it we're getting a good deal compared to the weather back home. Ya Mas!