Athens to Nashville

We took a 9 hour ferry ride from Santorini to Athens.  Of course, we had the cheap seats and were seated on the outdoor top deck for the duration.  It was freezing in the shade, but breezy and beautiful in the sun with the view of the open Aegean Sea.  

The first night we just hit the bed right when we got in.  The next morning, we went just across the street from our hostel to the New Acropolis Museum which opened in late June of this year.  For the rest of this year, they have decided only to charge 1 euro for entry.   Then at the beginning of 2010, they will start to charge 5.  Lucky us!  The museum is built over architectural excavations of houses and streets of ancient Greece.  On the first floor, outside and inside the museum, there is glass plating on the floor you can walk literally right over and look down into the excavations!  So cool!  The museum holds all the artifacts from the acropolis (minus the ones held in the British museum in London -- seen the first day of our trip).  We saw the "saddle bearer" from the Nike Temple and the caryatids from the Erechthem.  The rest of the afternoon was spent doing our final last minute shopping around Plaka and Syntagma.  

Our last day, we climbed to the top of the acropolis which is 450 feet above sea level.  The hike up there was quite the climb and it was scorching hot outside without a cloud in the sky.  On our way up, we passed the Theater of Dionysus.  We entered the acropolis through the Propylaea, the monumental gateway.   To the right is the Parthenon and to the left is the Erechthem.  They obviously do not let you inside any of the monuments, but it's amazing just to walk around them and get an entire panoramic view of the monstrosity which is Athens.  At the top,  there was a fairly strong breeze from the ocean which made the atmosphere more pleasant in the sun than for the climb up.  On the way down from the acropolis, we climbed up on a massive rock which overlooked the city and the ancient Agora.   We found it quite amusing on the first day of our trip, we viewed the Parthenon artifacts in the British Museum.  Here on the last day, we were actually at the Parthenon and then the very next day would be returning home to Nashville, which holds the only replica of the Parthenon.  Very fitting ending to our trip.

Now, after some major delays in the Atlanta airport, we are back at home in Nashville.  It is great to be able to have time to spend with our family and friends after being out of contact for so long.  However, the adventures do not end here!  Not only have we started planning our next European romp (funding and place in time are yet to be determined), but we are driving from Tennessee to California a little under 2 weeks from now.  And the beat rolls on. 

Until then.  Love, Hall and Liz