Athens: Days 3 and 4

After just two days in Athens, we had already seen most of the major sites. Our only plan for the day was to visit the National Archaeological Museum. So we rode the Metro and then after a short walk we found the rather plain-looking building. Now, I must admit, that I don't remember much about what was in this museum. After a while, all museums begin to look the same. During this trip, we saw, I think, four or five museums, and all had displays of the same artifacts. So we wandered around for two hours just to get our monies worth.

Then we decided to take the Metro down to the port city of Piraeus to see what was there and to get information on traveling to the island of Aegina the next day. The Metro ride took us past areas of the city we had not seen, including what looked like slums, and closer to the ocean one of the stadiums built for the 2004 Olympics, which we did not stop at. Once at the port, we walked to the docks and found out we could just buy tickets for the boat at any time, since it was off-season. With not much else to see, we took the Metro back to the heart of Athens.

We were now just killing time. I suggested we walk through the National Gardens, since they were close by. The gardens were very green, thick with a variety of exotic vegetation and trees. Then we stumbled upon a "zoo", which was nothing much more than some caged goats, birds and other small animals. You couldn't go inside, and there didn't seem to be anybody attending to the animals. I took some photos, but they didn't turn out very well. Since we hadn't eaten lunch, we decided on an early dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food and service wasn't the best, but it was still a meal. We turned in early with the plan of taking a boat to the island, which would be our Thanksgiving adventure.

So we woke up early Thursday and made it to the port in time to buy a ticket for the hydrofoil that departed at 9AM. The smooth ride to the island only took 45 minutes and was rather relaxing. Once on the island, we expected to be overrun with tour guides trying to get our business. We in fact had the opposite problem. We couldn't figure out what to do or how to get around. There was an archaeological site within walking distance, so we ventured over there. It too had a museum. The ruins included structures from six different cities built over the centuries.

Then we walked back to the main part of the town and eventually found a booth that sold the bus tickets for the bus that would take us to the Aphaea Temple in the middle of the island. The bus left at noon, and we were told it would pick us up at the temple at 3PM. So we hopped on the bus and after a 20 minute, wild ride through the narry streets of the island, we arrived at the temple.

This temple was is relatively good shape. Much of the structure was still standing, and since it was sunny, it made for great photos. We wandered around for about one hour and then walked back to the entrance. The temple is very isolated. The only other building nearby was a snack and gift shop that had a very low roof. It was only 1:30, and from what we were told, the bus wouldn't be back until 3. We hoped that there might be a 2pm bus, but there wasn't. So we sat in the street for 90 minutes waiting, as did another family. However, we did meet a family from San Francisco that arrived on scooters. Being the small world that we live in, the father was a firefighter who had been called down to fight the fires in San Diego. He and spent a few days stationed at a fire station not far from my brother's house.

Right on time, the bus showed up at 3PM. So once back at the city, we bought our return boat tickets, and still had time to eat a Thanksgiving meal. We ended up eating at a cafe near the main street. The menu had a variety of items, and I opted for pizza with peperoni. When the food arrived, my pizza had just cheese and green peppers. I guess the order was lost in translation, but the pizza was very good with lots of cheese and freshly made crust. It tasted even better with a local beer.

We boarded the 5:30 hydrofoil and were back on the mainland by 6:30. Then we took the Metro back to Syntagma station, and after a visit to the Internet cafe, we had one more museum to check out because it was free on Thursdays. The day before we tried to find the Museum of Popular Instruments, but it turns out it is closed (covered in a large green tarp). So we entered the Benaki Museum, located near the Parliament and various foreign embasies. This museum had artifacts dating from 500 BC to the 1800s. We were already tired from walking for four days, so having to climb the four stories of exhibit halls drained what little energy we had. There was still the walk back to the hotel to contend with. The museum was interesting, but once again, one can only view so many exhibits before loosing interest.

Since this was our last night in Athens, we attempted to buy some souvenirs. But many of the shops were closed and we didn't feel like walking too far from the hotel, so we concluded our eventful and fun-filled adventures in Athens. We had an early wake up call the next morning so we could get to the airport for the flight to London.