Greece: Part 1 - Athens

For the past two years Jess and I had been talking about some of our dream vacations: Turkey, Croatia, China, Antarctica, Mars, etc. More than any of the others though, we always talked about going to Greece. Thanks to Jess' study of Greek theatre, and my love for the classics, we were both dying to get over there and see firsthand where it all took place.

Long story short, we decided to ignore both our lack of linguistic skills and our monetary situation and to go ahead and do it. There were a lot of things that we wanted to see, so we debated the merits of seeing the islands, northern Greece, etc. but finally settled on spending two days in Athens and four days driving the following route through the Peloponnesian Peninsula.

We spent our first full day in Athens doing the obligatory exploration of the Acropolis and the National Archaeological Museum. Luckily, both sites happened to be free that day, so we saved a solid $60 in entrance fees. The views from the Acropolis were absolutely breathtaking, as was the sheer scale of the Parthenon, though we were disappointed to discover that, in typical European fashion, a large portion of the site was covered in scaffolding, though no actual repairs appeared to be taking place. As such, I found the Erechtheum (God Bless you!)with the Porch of the Caryatids to be much more impressive. Even with some construction, however, it was a gorgeous site, and one can only imagine its magnificence when it was constructed.

From there we headed to the National Archaeological Museum, which housed an absolutely incredible collection of art, sculpture, and artifacts. Being able to see the evolution of art from the archaic Kouros to works like the Epehebe was amazing. I might have been most excited about seeing the Mask of Agamemnon, because I fully accept all of Schliemann's findings to be factual. Haters can hate.

One day down! The next day we proceeded the Roman Agora, Ancient Agora, and the Temple of Hephaestus, which was incredible but doesn't get enough credit, despite its state of preservation, because of its low elevation.

From there we utilized our only marginal knowledge of the Greek script to get on a bus to Sounion to see the Temple of Poseidon and to celebrate the day of my birth. While we were there, we enjoyed a breathtaking sunset and a glass of wine. Romantic indeed.