Today was hot. Just plain and simply scorching hot. By “hot” I mean roughly 107.66 degrees Fahrenheit was the estimated high for today in Athens Greece. So, by my rainy Oregon standards it was unbelievable. But, regardless of the incredible heat, I ventured out into downtown Athens regardless. Athens is a city wrought with graffiti and political unrest (one of the give aways were the policemen with crowd control shields on numerous street corners.) The first stop on the Athens itinerary was to slowly saunter (due to the extreme heat) to a local restaurant to get some hearty home cooked traditional Athenian food. The restaurant had all of the choices of food laid out in the display case to point and grunt at in the very few Greek words I know. (Interestingly enough in Greek “ni” means yes and “ohi” means no. It gets very confusing because it is directly opposite then how it works in the states.) But, regardless of my poor Greek the owner gave me exceptional food. I had the most delicious artichokes cooked with shelling peas and golden potatoes. They were the biggest artichoke hearts ever J
After the yummy lunch we ventured onto the National Archeological Museum. Because it is Monday, many of the main attractions in Athens are closed. In fact, due to the high temperatures, the Acropolis closed around 10 am when the heat began to get so extreme. But, the National Archeological Museum opened at 1:30 for those tourists seeking minimal air conditioning. I ended up spending about four and a half hours at this museum due to its vast size and the amount of history that it contained. Essentially, all of the Greek mythology and literature that I have learned about and studied in school came alive in these original painting, vases, and sculptures from 600 B.C. I don’t really know how to fully express the wonders and the amount of aw I was in as I wandered the halls of the museum. Statues of Zues, Athena, Poseidon, and Hades all lined the walls: made out of marble, bronze and even some with plated gold. I could not get over the splendor that was contained in the museum. Eventually, when I get internet I will put some pictures up although I have to admit, I was too awestruck in most of it to even take pictures. J
After such an expansive time at the museum, it was time to find dinner. We took the metro to another part of the city in search of this legendarily supreme restaurant we had heard rumored. After asking many locals for directions (the streets are labeled really oddly and are on the side of the buildings, not to mention they are all in the Greecian alphabet which I can not read very well) we ended up at this cute little pastry shop on the side of the road. All these homemade pastries and ice cream dishes were modeled in lighted display cases. So, of course I had to indulge in an ice cream bar just to see how it was and let me tell you. It was incredible. J Then it was on to the real restaurant. Outside of the restaurant there was a cute little park with lots of dogs running around (apparently in Greece the government provides food and water for the stray dogs which means there are numerous amounts of strays in the streets.) We wandered in the park for a bit until the mosquitoes started to get really bad. Today the Greece government issued a warning for West Nile Virus. There have been quite a few outbreaks in Athens and they are expecting more to pop up soon. So, even with the immense amount of DEET that I put on I didn’t want to be out when the mosquitoes were getting particularly summer. Then, it was dinner.
Dinner was… awesome. I feel like a theme of my blog is “this food was awesome” “this food was incredible” “this food was the best I’ve ever had” … but seriously. It was. I had a Greek salad that consisted of sweet onions, a huge chunk of feta cheese, fresh tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, delicious olives, and a light dusting of olive oil vinegar. That along with a local beer and the free desserts (some yummy desert bread with a dusting of powdered sugar on top) pretty much sent me into a food coma and I was ready for the hour trek home. All in all, it was a really pleasant and relaxed day! Tomorrow (barring any more heat advisories) is the Acropolis!
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