Bruises and Bows: Athens, Greece

On a last minute decision (about 2 1/2 weeks before) we decided we wanted to go on a trip for Spring Break. Greece was the perfect choice for us because the flight was under 5 hours, the weather was cool and there was lots to do. So off we went.

We woke up the kids around 4:30 am on April 1st, flew to Doha to connect with our flight to Athens where we landed around lunchtime

we went straight to our Apartment rental (I found on www.houstrip.com). Now that we are a family of 5 it is really hard to squeeze into a hotel room and for the same price we could stay in a whole apartment. This place was in such an amazing location – it was perfect for getting around Athens easily.

The apartment was quirky and unusual which added to the fun – Charles and I stayed a little terrified the kids would break something. This view was just ridiculous.

and this was our view by night…

but back to our first day.. We got settled in our place then set out to explore our surroundings and find some Greek food!

Through my research for our trip I saw that we had a restaurant nearby called Smile Cafe serving authentic greek food for great prices and it was kid friendly. score. lets go. For about $10: I got a greek salad, Huge Gyros and a glass of wine. (they pronounce Gyros like this: GEE (rhymes with bee but has same “g” sound as goat) then roll the “R” sound and add “os”. I never really knew how to say it properly before then. I should have taken pictures of our food but I was so hungry I basically inhaled it. SO, SO, SO GOOD!

They had a big bucket of rocks that all the travelers passing thru wrote on so each of the kids added to the collection.

we then strolled thru the streets of the plaka area

Audrey spotted the American flag, amused me by taking a picture in front of the Greek style slippers and then they both flipped out for the sling shot display – they both wanted one BAD! but we have learned that they will also want a different souvenir tomorrow and another the next day.. so we said lets just wait and get it on the last day if it is still the item you want. As you can imagine, this did not go over well. The kids were no longer going to cooperate with our leisurely stroll / window shopping and within minutes and the meltdowns started… ok. we’re done. back to the apartment we go. It had been a long day and it was time to rest. We grabbed a local bottle of wine, bathed the kids and enjoyed the view:

Day one was done. The next morning we were up and at ‘em and ready for the day. The time difference was only one hour so it wasn’t even noticeable. First things first…we walked over to the Parthenon/Acropolis to see the main attraction. It was SO INCREDIBLE!

some ruins on the way…

can you see the big marble door? I wish you could tell how HUGE it was in this picture.

I’m certainly no history or architecture buff, but I was blown away at the size and magnitude of this place that was built thousands of years ago. no cranes, no modern tools, drills etc.. how in the WORLD did they build this?? and carve all this marble?! it was such a sight to see. Mind boggling, Majestic and just MASSIVE… not to mention it is at the top of a VERY high hill. The Greeks had it going on… supa smart.

Views of the city from the Acropolis

Oh I just love that she does whatever I tell her to. She’ll thank me later for having such cool pictures all over the world. When Will asks, “Why don’t I have a picture like that?” I will reenact his fits/bad attitude in front of all his friends. I can’t wait.

We asked a Chinese tourist to take a picture of us in front of the Parthenon. I’m so glad she got that tree in the background instead of the rest of the ancient ruins. wow.

Julia is in there tucked in comfortably. I wore her for at least 5-6 hours a day like that. It helped me burn off all the feta and greek yogurt – which I will forever crave now that I’ve had the real stuff. ohmygoodness. heaven.

When we left, we spent about $30 on snacks from the overpriced concession stand and then headed to the bus stop (conveniently right at the exit) to hop on the big red bus. I pre-purchased tickets before we left Abu Dhabi as our means of transportation to see the city. After our entire trip I asked each of the kids separately what was their favorite thing we did and THIS was it. seriously?!

When you get on the bus they give you a pair of headphones for you to plug into the side of the bus and then you select your language. It was really interesting and was much more informative than me trying to figure out what everything was as we were looking at it.

This ancient site was discovered & unearthed during the building of the underground Metro system they built for the Olympics not to long ago.

this (below) is the Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896. Made of entirely marble and reconstructed from the remains of another ancient Greek stadium. The same site used to be the spot of another stadium dating back to 329 BC

Me and my girls!

The tour was a great blend of seeing the old stuff and the current marketplaces of the city..

at one of the bus stops, the driver said there would be a 5 minute break. Audrey announced that she needed to go to the bathroom so we all got off the bus (knowing it would take longer than 5 min). No biggie since another bus comes every 30 minutes so we used the opportunity to take a lunch break. Kids got happy meals, Charles and I got Gyros from next door and Julia got baby food. everyone was happy. We finished up and headed down to the bus stop just in time to see the big red bus driving off. ugh. we did not want to wait another 30 minutes so we continued our tour on foot.

It was a long walk back to the area we were staying, but a nice one. I was dying to try real Greek FroYo so we stopped in at a place called SnoYo where they sold Greek Yogurt and Greek Frozen Yogurt with a spread of toppings. OH MY WORRRRD. Nothing like any other frozen yogurt. The texture was the same as whipped butter and it was insanely good. I craved it for the rest of our trip.

Here’s Mr. Pouty Pants – he hated it. Good news for me. I took out the gummies and I ate his too.

Next top the Parthenon Museum. (I’m looking back realizing we really packed in in this day!!..) This museum was absolutely gorgeous. It was a recent build and man the Greeks know how to do it right. The museum entrance was a glass floor that covered the ancient ruins of the city… really cool to walk over it –

the kids were fascinated!

In the middle it was open so you could see all the way down. This clear floor was even inside the museum so you could see the old city.. very cool!

below are models of the city back in 400’s BC

Cameras were not allowed inside the rest of the museum, so unfortunately I can’t show you any of the other cool stuff we saw…

On our way back I just couldn’t wrap my head around how they even built the foundation..

Almost done with day 2.. back to the apartment for a break and enjoyed the orange trees lining the streets.. the orange blossoms smelled sooo good!

After a little R&R in the room we headed back out for dinner – we took a different route and got lost! We walked for literally an hour the kids were DONE from our long day and our extra long walk…

We decided to eat at this place once we got back on the right track…

Trip advisor and Rick Steves both recommended it so we felt like we should give it a try. When we got in, we expected to choose from a menu… like a normal restaurant – no, this was super home-style. He called us up to the kitchen area and showed us what he had cooked so we could choose from those options. Oh, Ok. cool. we ordered a couple things for the table and shared it. Very authentic Greek food. So delicious! too bad the kids were OVER THIS DAY. This was the least enjoyable dinner because the kids refused to eat, they were exhausted from our loooooong day, it was late.. the baby was fussy – it was just stressing me out. eat and go.

However, This was my amazing view all day:

Oh and since there was no crib available and we were not going to travel with our pack-n-play, Julia and I shared a bed – during naps (well, the ones she was not taking in the baby carrier) I would just put pillows under the sheets to form a barrier all around her and used a noise maker app on my phone.

We were in for the night and the next morning I did some laundry in the apartment to find out there was no dryer. I could clearly see that there was not an appliance for a dryer but in Europe (and even in some places here in Abu Dhabi) it is the same appliance – just a different setting. Not. the. case. So we did it local style and had to hang out all of our clothes to dry for the day. A dryer is one thing I never want to live without.

Off we go to start day 3 (our final day) in Athens. We pushed the kids pretty hard the day before, so we decided to hit the zoo this day. It was pretty far away so we decided to experience the Metro station and let the kids ride a train. Will was THRILLED.

I researched the zoo ahead of time and knew that they had a dolphin show at 11:00 every day so we rushed there to try and make it on time. We got there about 10 minutes late, but got to catch the tail end of the show so it was all good.

Audrey trying to catch the poor bird

This was such a nice day – very relaxed, the kids were fully entertained and just one of those days where everything just seems right. The zoo was beautiful – we enjoyed it so much! We spent a little over 3 hours there and called a taxi to bring us back to the train station. Just across from the train station exit were lots of restaurants and café’s… Once again I did my research ahead of time and picked one that had high ratings on Trip Advisor and it did not disappoint. This was probably the longest most relaxed dinner we had on the entire trip. They kids cooperated REALLY well since this was our last night and we were dangling the promise of the slingshot in front of them… (aaaand maybe because they got to run and play all day at the zoo?!) All they had to do was make it through dinner and we were headed to get their souvenir… man they wanted those slingshots bad.

Yes, I got the beer, he got the wine. They would always hand it to him assuming the man would want the beer.. ha. That is what happens when you bring a Louisiana girl to Greece. I love Mythos!! if you get a chance you should try it!

Julia was thoroughly entertained by the spoon.