Afternoon in Athens

The Acropolis

As we departed the Acropolis, we experienced first hand the effectiveness of a walled city with a narrow gate against invasion. 

Jordan and Amy hold off Barbarians at the Gate

With ingress and egress squeezed through the same passageway, it was a struggle to go anywhere.  If we had swords and spears, we could have held off an otherwise overwhelming force of invaders a long time.

Eventually, we battled our way out without needing to smite anyone.

The downhill march brought us past souvenir vendors on the sidewalks and in shops, and we bought a few trinkets.  Julie bought a black and gold Greek shot glass to display in our living room, and Katie bought some key chains.

Gyros

We perused restaurant menus looking for street gyros, which we always enjoy in Greece, but gyros always refers to the kind of spit-cooked meat but not always the folded pita sandwich Americans call gyros.  Fortunately, most of the menus have photos to inform diners who don't understand the language.

After asking several places, we came to a sidewalk cafe with rolled-out cloth awnings where we could see others ordering exactly what we wanted by the rotating vertical spit along the sidewalk.

With a few sprinkles of rain hinting of an imminent cloud burst, I hustled back to gather the troops so we could seize a table, and hunger turned our herd of cats into an efficient assault team.

The restaurant owner pulled two tables together under an awning and handed us menus. 

"Gyros?" I asked.

Katie's Mythos, Jordan, Amy, Wes, Julie and Jay

He pointed to a dinner platter on the menu, which certainly looked delicious but wasn't what we had in mind.  I pointed to some girls eating the folded pita sandwich nearby, and he said that was take-out food.

"Can we eat it here?"

"No problem."

Circling my finger to indicate everyone at the table, I indicated we all wanted one.  Pointing to myself, "Mythos."  Aroud the table, Jay and Katie went with beer also, with Julie and Amy ordering Diet Pepsis.  While this photo makes it look like Jordan must be working on his second Mythos, he was actually drinking Pepsi and blinked as Katie snapped the photo.

Jay and Katie eating souvlakis.

The owner brought us a basket of rustic bread accompanied by vinegar and oil along with our drinks to enjoy before our sandwiches arrived.  Mythos is a light, refreshing beer that tastes just right in Greece, especially after defending our fortress from invading Spartans.

The gyros, which are most often called souvlakis in Athens, were fantastic.  I had a second one.  By the way, just to confuse you even more, souvlakis may also describe a shiskabob instead the pita sandwich, so your best bet is to find a picture or someone actually eating what you want and point to it.

baklava

The owner complimented me on my beautiful family as he brought us a dessert of yogurt and honey at no charge.

This kind of genuine hospitality is an Eastern Mediterranean specialty.

We finished off the two plates without any problem.

We also ordered a couple of baklavas, and they were also amazing. 

They were much larger than we expected, but we managed to finish them both.

Theater of Dionysos with Athens in background.

With a big tip it came to 45 Euro.  Greece definitely has family friendly pricing.

By the time we finished our meal, the rain had passed, having spritzed us just enough to cool us down.

At that point, we had already enjoyed a full day's adventures, and we could have simply walked back across the square to board the Green Line back to the ship, but instead we hiked into downtown.

Katie and Jay at National Archaeological Museum.

Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing the modern city of Athens, although for me modern cities usually pale by comparison to their ancient ruins. 

We had a destination in mind, the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and following our map we eventually arrived.

Surprisingly on free museum day, it was not crowded at all.  There are nice artifacts and sculptures on display, including a famous rendering of Poseidon hurling his trident, although the trident had been stripped away at some point.  The athletic pose is not different from that of a quarterback poised to toss a pass on a football card, although the quarterback is generally not naked.

Katie, Jay, Amy and Jordan in Viking Crown Lounge.

We allowed an extra hour to get back to the ship, which is fortunate because the line we needed was shut down at the nearest Metro station, so we had to do some extra walking to get to the next station.

That night, we enjoyed another great meal and terrific entertainment as our floating resort headed for another of the greatest ports in history.