After an awesome couple weeks in Turkey, we returned to Greece. Why such a short visit? Well, we had already planned to meet our college friends in Paris during their spring break and had roundtrip tickets flying out of Athens.
So we stopped by the little town where our favorite stray pup lives. After a few minutes of searching the beach, he found Dan and followed Dan back to the van. This time he seemed thinner and more independent. Maybe if we stayed longer than a lunch break, he would have been more of a snuggle bug.
But as much as I want to adopt him, I’m just not sure. I don’t think he would love to be cooped up in a van and on a leash. Maybe he’d adjust. But maybe not.
When he we said our goodbyes, he trotted down the street to play with his dog friends laying on a sunny patch of grass. Until next time, Flan. We will be back next month.
And then we made it to Athens! The drive to this spot was not the most pleasant. Our GPS sends us down some questionable routes in the dark through a narrow road that we barely squeezed through because of illegally parked cars and our side ladder. We actually parked next to our traveling friends Jon and Meg (Hairventures). We met them back in 2016 while wild camping on Tecolote Beach in Baja California, Mexico and then again while we were in Albania.
View out our van’s window.
This parking spot, which is just street parking, was a perfect place to easily walk into the main area of Athens.
On our first day day here, we just walked around to take in the sights.
Caterpillar choo choo train! Ha.
Back at the van to find our friends’ kid awake and ready to play.
Took a walk to the playground together.
The Acropolis at sunset. We were going to save visiting the Acropolis until after we return from Paris but we just found out its cheaper to go now because we are still in the off-season. When we return, it will be in-season. Five tickets add up quickly so we’ll be exploring these ruins at half price tomorrow.
At the end of our first full day in Athens, we ended up at a restaurant where locals hangout with our traveling friends @hairventures.
We shared a table full of appetizers and main courses at Taverna “T’ aschimopapo” (Aka The Ugly Duckling.
We casually asked the waiter about some art that hung on their walls. That triggered a series of events which made the rest of the night a blur. The artist is an expat Briton who is dating the owner of the restaurant. He joined us at our table for the rest of the night chatting and drawing with our kids. The owner sent over bottles of tsipouro (raki/grappa), wine, beer and dessert and the waiter told us that we were like family. So I guess we are Greek now.
This will be one of our fondest memories of Greece, for sure.
Kids stayed entertained with some Ikea Mesh bags I happened to have with me 🙂
And by taking over my camera duties. Hehe.
Fun night for us all.
Our new artist friend.
Luka’s dragon art.
Luka is so over to tonight’s shenanigans. It’s getting late.
This is me trying to give Dan my “it’s time to go, stop talking” look. He doesn’t get it sometimes.
Walking back to the van. Couldn’t resist snapping a photo of the street art.
The next day we visited the Acropolis!
Walking up the hill, this is the first ruin you visit.
Hello, Parthenon!
Look! There’s no one else here but us!
Just kidding.
It’s our first time seeing the original ruins. I guess we shouldn’t count visiting the Parthenon replica in Tennessee back in 2010. Ha.
It’s considered off-season at the moment but there is still plenty of people here. In the winter months (November through March), tickets are half price so we paid 10 euros each instead of 20.
There are sooo many people posing for photos here in all kinds of interesting poses. Dan couldn’t resist in joining them.
Visiting sights with kids usually looks like this.
And to round off our visit, how about bathroom selfie in ancient Greece? Sure, why not!
Before we left Athens, we snapped about a few photos of street art.
And ate at a yummy Indian restaurant. Twice.
I will insert Dan’s video in this post once he finishes it. In the meantime, here are my little Instagram videos to accompany this post.
Thanks for following along,
Marlene
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