More about Athens

It's now been over a month since I've been back from my TDY in Athens - time to catch up on my blogging!


Athens has so many wonderful things about it:

The streets are lined with orange trees!  It smells so wonderful when I walk to work.

I found these greens at the corner grocery.  They grow along the ocean and are called almeira.  You're supposed to blanch them in boiling water and serve them with the ubiquitous olive oil and lemon.  I was too lazy to cook them and had them as a salad - yummy and a little salty from being by the sea.

Ouzo is an aperitif that has a licorice flavor.  It's clear until you add ice or water, then it becomes cloudy.  Super yummy and great to sip at the end of the day in a cafe.

And the ouzo goes so well with a little plate of snacks!

 For Greek Easter they roasted whole lambs on the spit.  Super tasty!

My dad and I tried to go to the Archaeological Museum, but they are about to close.  So - we peaked into a few rooms, saw a great mosaic of Medusa - and then went for a nice stroll.

We saw the Greek guards doing their special march in front of the President's Palace.

And we saw the Olympic Stadium.

This is one of my favorite sculptures - the Running Man.

And so much great food - the Gigantic beans, the Greek salad, and roasted peppers - super super yummy!

 

The Parthenon was pretty cool.  I visited it one day after work - amazing views, amazing ruins.  I downloaded a cool podcast and was able to just quietly explore - and get a lot of history and perspective.  Great way to do it - thanks to my friend for recommending it.

The Erecthion is one of the many beautiful temples atop the Acropolis.  But it's so very sad how the pollution has eroded the statues. Luckily the originals are in the museum so they don't erode more.









I had a great time in Athens - wonderful city, wonderful country, wonderful people!!!!!  I can't wait to go back.

Poseidon's Temple at Sounion

Everyone knows about the Parthenon in Athens - the big temple to the Goddess Athena that's on the Acropolis.  What I didn't know until I got here (and Joe the CLO told me), was that there are three temples that form an equilateral triangle.  There's the Parthenon, and the Temple of the Goddess Aphaia on Aegina, and the Temple of God Poseidon at Sounion.  Since I'd be visiting both the Parthenon and the temple on Aegina, I knew I needed to go to Poseidon's Temple as well.












The temple is set up on a hill overlooking the ocean.  It's the southern most point from Athens and was a great lookout point for ships approaching by sea.














It's beautiful to see the way it's constructed - all the blocks put together just so.

I always find it interesting what changes and what doesn't  - whether it's across cultures or over time.  At Sounion, you can see all the graffiti people from long ago left.  They carved their names into the marble in order to make their mark.

Cruising the Greek Islands

On the first weekend my dad was here visiting we took a cruise to the Greek Islands.  There's a great One Day Cruise that gets you out to 3 different islands.  It's nice because it gives you a little taste of different places - all in one day.  A great thing for us - although it was quite a long day.  We left the apartment at 6 AM and weren't back until 9 PM.  But we saw a lot!

We caught the boat down at the harbor and from there you could see all the buildings of Athens on the hills.  The ship had people from all over the world on it - Americans, Russians, Chinese, and - Brazilians!  Hearing the portuguese was a little slice of home.  And of course when there was dancing on the boat - the Brazilians were the first to join in - and then got everyone doing the samba!

The requisite "coming on board" picture.

















The ship took us to three islands - Hydra, Poros and Aegina.

First stop was Hydra.
















It's a beautiful island and one of the few that doesn't have cars.  There are just little winding paths throughout town and up the hillside.

Lot's of little shops and wonderful tavernas where you can sit and enjoy the sea and have some Greek beer.
















Next stop was the island of Poros.  It's a tiny island with the town spread on either side of a waterway.













The last island we visited was Aegina.  It's quite close to Athens - in fact many people live there and commute to Athens by ferry.  The island is fairly big and is know for it's pistachio groves.  We got some and they were wonderful.

It's also known for its Temple of the Goddess Aphaia.  This temple forms the third point in an equilateral triangle with the Parthenon and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion.  We took a tour up to see it - great views and you can see the temples in Athens and Sounion from there.

And then we visited the church of St. Nectarios which is also on the island.

Markets in Athens

One of my favorite ways to get to know a place is to visit their food markets - especially the farmer's markets and the central markets.  I love visiting the Mercado Sao Jose in Recife and wanted to see wat the market in Athens is like.  So - one of the days my dad was here, we checked out the markets.





On the way to the central market, we came across the farmer's market that sets up in front of the neighborhood church.  It was about 2 blocks long with lots of vendors.









The produce was amazing!  Mainly fruits and vegetables,

but there was also a nut and honey stall and some plant / herb stalls.















Then we headed to the Athens Central Market.  It's located near the Monastiraki Flea Market and surrounding it has lots of other stores selling various things.

We passed a store selling bridles and bells for goats.  And a store with lots of containers - glass bottles for olive oil and olives and wine - a huge variety - tin, glass, etc.

At the entrance to the meat section are shops selling dried fruits and candies.






The market is set up in a big hall that's open at the ends.  One long line is meats, and then there's a cross part with chickens and then another section for fish.

Warning - some of the photos below may be too much reality for some.

At the beginning of the meat section, they had baby chickens for sale.















And then the meat section began.  There were many, many stalls with skinned lambs (it's the Greek Easter weekend) to take home.

The folks there would butcher it for you - they did amazing things with their big butcher's cleavers.

Then there was the poultry and variety meat section. 

You could get a variety of offal (organs, etc.)

And there were also intestines for making sausage.

Then we checked out the fish section.  

The fish were just beautiful - so fresh and a huge variety.  

And of course there were the octopus that Greek cooking is so famous for.