Athens - Day 1

Trust our luck to have the first full day of our Athens adventure on a public holiday!

The Greek Orthodox Church requires there be 40 days of fasting before Easter and today Monday 7 March happens to be the beginning of that period. There is a week of celebration preceeding this day and all good Greek Orthodox give up meat with the exception of dead sea creatures. To celebrate the first day of lent Greek parents dress their children in bright costumes, parade them through the streets and allow them to through coloured confetti at everyone and everything. The parks and hillsides are filled with families flying kites which is also a tradition to mark the day. It was certainly a real treat to see the locals out with their families including the 'oldies'.

The public holiday came with a big bonus for the tourist in the know. Today all ancient monuments were open to the public for free. Taking full advantage of this opportunity Ron and I wondered through a number of exceptional ancient sites which included Ancient Agora, Tower of the Winds, the Roman Agora and of the very impressive, take your breath away, Acropolis complex.

It is difficult to express the excitement that we felt while strolling along the gentle slope toward the icon of the Acropolis, so I will simply say that our expections, at all times wer meet with no dissapointment. The colour of the marble on the 2500 year old building is a dirty white but, you get a sense of how magneficient it must have been where the repairs have been made in gleaming white marble. It certainly easy to imagine how impressive this temple must have looked in the sun had you been looking at it over 2000 years ago. A second impressive complex is Acient Agora. Here one of the many highlights was the Ancient Agora Museum which held a display of archaeological finds starting from the Neolithic age. Our eyes feasted on the most exquisite and equally practical items used by the people that lived on the site through the centuries.

Of course our first day in Athens had not only included the old and broken but a generous exploration of the various Tavernas and food on offer. We tried Ouzo but only in a watered down form. The minute you sit down at a table you become the target of beggers (mostly Romany children) and others trying to sell you cotton threaders and other such useless novelties.

Ron and I both agreed that we had chosen a great time of year to visit the City. The weather had been cool with occassional showers and our fellow tourists are few in numbers. Perhaps tomorrow will bring a busier city.