Day 4 - Piraeus & Athens

So off the boat we went in search of a taxi to take us into Athens. We actually got out of bed, dressed and breakfast done by 8:30am!! That is unheard of so far on this particular trip so I was fairly impressed. We got a very overly helpful taxi driver who quoted us half of what the first one had to take us the 13 miles into Athens from Piraeus. He wanted to take us on a driving tour of the city when all we wanted to do was get dropped off downtown so we could enjoy the city center! He spoke English, but not fluently enough so that we didn’t end up with a partial Athens tour before we got the message across that we only wanted to be dropped off. We did some shopping at the Plaka, which is a farmer’s market. We bought some traditional Greek clothing, which we will try out at dinner tonight. We also found a Starbucks! The first of our trip. So in we went to see if they had anything different and a Greek Starbucks card, no to both. Though the barista was very impressed with my mini Starbucks card, so I gave it to her to keep as it was out of money anyway. I think I made her day! We tried to have a snack at the McDonald’s, but they had no power so couldn’t cook anything. We ended up with some fries and a salad. We’ll try again at the next city.

After we met our cabbie again to take us back to Piraeus we were just in time to meet our afternoon tour. They were a half hour late getting started, but they said the Captain of the ship was aware of the delay and held the ship for us. The tour took us to The Acropolis and the Olympic arena. The Acropolis and the Parthenon were amazing! It was 38 degrees and no shade, but the views were amazing and the buildings were over 2500 years old! I have never seen anything like it. We took a ton of photos, so I’ll try to add them to the slideshow, though the internet here is excruciatingly slow!! On the way back from the Acropolis we got to take pictures at the Olympic arena where the first Olympics were held in 1896. This is also where they will light the Olympic torch for the 2010 games in Vancouver before passing it to our officials to take to Canada for the Olympic ceremonies in February! All in all a successful day, though it was hot I met a lot of nice people, saw some amazing sights and bought a few souvenirs.

Tonight we’ll lay low, I’ll get a pedicure and maybe catch the performance.