Athens is hot.

Yes, Athens is very hot and one guess as to the first thing Marissa and I see in Athens. Not only was it hot, but we climbed many stairs to get to the Acropolis. But it was worth it! We saw the Parthenon, a temple, and other ruins I could probably tell you more about if we could afford a tour. Just seeing all the ruins has been amazing enough for me though!

View from the Acropolis.

Temple at the Acropolis. I hope I am not as dark in this picture as this computer is making me look.

Athens.

Marissa and I with a great view of the city!

A view of the Dionysus Theater from the Acropolis.

Marissa and I try to compensate our not-so-great lunches with  more-than-great views, so we ate PB&Js by the Acropolis.

One of many old churches near the Ruins.

Me and yet another Ruin.

Athens has a lot of turtles!

Nice view in the National Park near Parliament.

Marissa and I took it easy today. We bought tickets for the Acropolis which apparently get us into 5 other ruins thoughout the city. When we bought our ticket the lady said 12 euros, and then I think she saw our disappointed faces so she asked us if we were students. We said yes and showed her our IDs (For Monica.... since I forgot my USC ID at home, I showed my New Yorker ID. I guess you could say I have a "fake ID"... but I am a student) Anyhow, after validating our student status she gave us 1/2 price! And then for our German friend behind us, she looked at his ID and said "Oh, nice place! No charge!" So... the pricing is a bit subjective, I think.

Afterwards, Marissa and I roamed the market area a bit a saw lots of nice little shops. It is so hard to resist buying things for my place in Dallas! Well, not really that hard... I can't afford most things. Since I try to get a cross from each country I visit, though, I did purchase a hand-carved wooden cross from a monastery in Northern Greece. We found this little Christian store amongst the souvenir shops. We walk in and the man says "This is not a souvenir shop. It is a religious store" so we said, "Perfect!" He had such beautiful crosses but a little out of my range, so I asked if he had anything around 10 euros. He searched his store for a long time and found the wooden cross that was marked 35 euros. He said since I am a student, he would sell it at buying price knocking off 20 euros!... He said, "I may not make a profit, but God knows!" He was so sweet. And whatever he was eating smelled really good. Throughout the market, we saw lost of Byzantine art, Greek Orthodox art, Greek sandals, beautiful ceramics, etc... and LOTS of Greek food! Tomorrow is our Greek food day, so we are really looking forward to that. The problem will be deciding which food to eat!

Finally, we walked around the National Gardens and realized that Greece has a lot of stray dogs and turtles. Don't ask me why, that is just from observation.

Today was exhausting though!! We were able to take a nap after our long day, we will take it easy tonight, and head out tomorrow for more Athens and GREEK FOOD!!