We arrived around noon local time and found our tour buses waiting for us at the airport. We drove through the dry brown lands dotted with olive trees, heading toward the city. Orange trees lined the narrow one-way streets of Athens, startling in their casual fecundity (1).
    After settling in at our hotel near Omonia square, we headed out for a stroll southward towards the Acropolis (2). It was a tourist area, complete with a busker playing, of all things, a digeridoo (3), and plenty of random churches to stumble across and stare at (4). Shops lined the streets selling everything from clothes and shoes (5), to more obviously tourist-oriented goods. The setting sun backlit the crowds of visitors and locals (6), and painted the Tower of the Winds and the Acropolis in warm shades of gold (7). We also met our first of what would be many stray animals on our travels (8).
    Heading back, we stopped for a dinner of bread and tapenade, a tomato salad, octopus in wine, and pork souvlaki (9). Leaving the restaurant after sunset, I got completely turned around and we ended up walking the wrong way. Directions from a local (conducted in Greek) only led us further away from our hotel and we were eventually saved by our Lonely Planet map and Tree's cartographic finesse.

< previous | index | next >