Athens, Greece

Lots of people told us that Rome was an incredibly beautiful city that you can't not love and it didn't live up to all of its hype. So when lots of people told us that Athens was just a dirty, busy city with not much to it we didn't know what to expect. After spending a few days in Athens I argue it's a beautiful city with a busy city life, deep history, and pocketed with quiet neighborhoods.

We left Rome in the evening on an Aegean Airlines flight (most attractive flight attendants I've ever seen) and got into Athens Airport at 11:30pm. After negotiating the great Athens public transportation system we arrived at our subway stop at 1:00am. What really surprised Lara and I was how many people were just leaving to go out at 1:00am. I'm not talking about club going 18 year olds, I'm talking about 50 somethings going out for a nice dinner. I think my parents have been up past 1am once in the past ten years and that was because I set their clocks 6 hours fast as a prank. When we got to the hotel we met up with the Foresmans (Lara's parents), who were joining us from Athens to Istanbul (12 days). They had arrived a few hours earlier and had discovered the roof pool/restaurant of our hotel. The four of us went upstairs for a glass of wine and to admire the incredible view.

No, not the view of Nielsen's Athens office which just happened to be across the street from the hotel.

This view. That's the Parthenon lit up just a mile away from our hotel.

In our first day in Athens we checked out the Parthenon and Acropolis. The Parthenon is the large columned building that everyone knows. The Acropolis is Greek for 'high city', which is where the Parthenon and several other temples are located. (The more you know). Between us and the Acropolis is a nice stretch of shops and restaurants with the brand new Acropolis Museum in the middle of the neighborhood. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, which turned into the best meal Lara and I had had in over a week, then set out for the Acropolis and other cool areas around it. We toured the Greek equivalent of the Roman Forum, a large area of ancient ruins, or as Lara put it, a junkyard. Without a guide the Greek Forum is pretty uninteresting and we ascented the Acropolis. From atop the Acropolis you have this incredible view of the city and then when you realize that you are in the shadow of these 2000 year old temples and walking in the footsteps of Plato and Socrates, you realize this is a special place. After the Acropolis we checked out the Acropolis Museum which was not only a great museum, but at 1Euro entrance and a nice lunch for only 6Euro, it's quite the price performer. With our legs and brains tired, the four of us had dinner on a rooftop terrace that was spectacular and then called it a night.

For our second day in Athens we decided to see ....... more ancient ruins! We started the day by walking through an ancient Greek archaeological area, which was ok. After the archaeological area we walked through the Greek National Garden to the parliament building (again, ok) and then we made it over to the Greek tomb of the unknown soldier. Guarding the tomb are two Greek soldiers dressed in traditional Hellenic attire. On the half hour they perform a patrol of the tomb which is crazy. The best way to describe it is it's like an ostrich mating dance. I think the crazy outfits say a little of what I'm talking about.

We finished our day just like the day before, having a great dinner overlooking the Acropolis. We left Athens early the next morning for Santorini. After visiting Athens for the first time, the four of us were all very impressed and think it's definitely a place to visit.