Adventures in Athens, Greece - Part 3

I feel a thousand times better today thanks to my baby taking care of me while I was sick. I usually don't like to take any kind of medicine but he gave me some stuff that really helped me get over the cold.

Now I'm sitting here watching Sponge Bob with only a few sniffles.

This is part 3, the final post, of my trip to Greece. The Paris one will be up next.

I guess I didn't space the photos out correctly coz this post seems to have a lot less photos than the others.

Our last day in Athens we visited the Temple of Zeus. I don't know why we waited until the last day since it was right across the street from our hotel.

This was the most massive building that we had seen yet. It originally had over 100 pillars but after much human destruction and earthquakes, only 15 or so remain.

This pillar got knocked down by a hurricane in the 1800s so I guess they just left it there.

Next we visited the National Park which used to be the private gardens of the Queen. It's now open to the public and we had a great time exploring it.

Much different from our dorky parks where benches and homeless people are the main attractions. This park had a lake, a small zoo, ancient statues, gardens and so on.

Beat that Central Park!!!

Must take photo on bridge! Like I said before, if I see a bridge I MUST get on it.

Very very tall tree that looks like it's being suffocated by the vines growing on it. I think it kept growing taller because the vines were blocking its sunlight.

Chicken! Or hen! Or whatever the F it is. They all look the same to me. I didn't know they had red eyes BTW.

I don't know what these things are either. God I feel so uneducated about animals now. I'm guessing they are some sort of goat or lamb thingy?

Look at this lil dude! I was trying to figure out how he got up there for the longest time then E.W. told me that he jumped up there. I learned something new that day!! Goats can jump!! Really high too apparently.

Messing around on stone bricks. The last pic I'm trying to hold my feet straight out like a gymnast. I was obviously unsuccessful.

Another rooster...or hen. I think this guy is a rooster because he looks more manly than the other one. He's got that "I'm the shit" look on his face.

On our way to Lycabettus Hill we passed many expensive designer boutiques and this one caught my eye. Anything that has rhinestones on it is like crack to me and i glued my face to the window display screaming "oooohhh...ahhhhh!" E.W. managed to rip me away from the display by telling me I might get something sparkly for Xmas *grins with joy*.

My $100 iPhone cover that I was once so proud of is no longer usable. The little crystals on the front all came off. :(

We took this trolley thing up Lycabettus Hill which is the tallest point in Athens. On the hill we had a 360 degree view of the entire city, something that we were looking forward to the whole trip.

The views were even more stunning that the previous hill we climbed. The pictures really don't do it justice. If you didn't know any better you would have thought these pics were taken from an airplane.

It was as if we were looking down from heaven.

Was so windy up there, thank god I brought a hair clip.

Aw aren't we cute? I kept nagging E.W. about holding my cam because had severe anxiety from the height. I'm generally not afraid of heights but it's a whole different story when you are looking down from so high up. Your mind starts playing tricks with you and you feel like you will fall off the edge even if you are 5 ft from the edge.

We were so high up it looked like the clouds were only a few feet above us. Felt like you could reach up and touch one! E.W. didn't agree but I think the photo speaks for itself.

My hand reaching up to the Greek heavens.

A perfect end to a perfect day. The sun setting in the distance illuminated the sea in the distance and created a picture perfect moment.

On the way home we walked by the Olympic Stadium that was used a long time ago. We were 4 mins too late to get in but was nice to see nonetheless.

We took a 3 hour flight to Paris where a whole other adventure took place that you will hear about in my next post :)

E.W. took this pic while I napped on the plane. Good Bye Greece!!!!!!!!!! Hello Paris!!!!!!

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UPDATE: I added a short video of Lycabettus Hill so you can somewhat enjoy the view that we got to witness. Make sure you play it in 360p or higher!

Tags: athens, greece, travel

Adventures in Athens, Greece - Part 2

I am officially sick and have been confined to the couch, drinking a ton of hot tea and drinking soup all day.

And to make matters worse, I think I got my furry baby chihuahua sick too. I didn't think people germs could be passed on to dogs but apparently they can. Gucci vomited on me once this morning and 3 more times this afternoon.

See my life isn't all fun and games. Laying home sick and in pain while getting vomited on by chihuahuas is a very real reality for me.

It took me forever to get this blog post up because I couldn't sit up for a long period of time without feeling light headed.

I'm actually typing this right now while laying on my couch with my sick furball passed out on my left shoulder so I can only type with my right hand. I'm afraid if I wake him up I will get vomited on again.

So back to my Greece trip...numero 2!

We visited Parliament one day which didn't interest me too much. I know the building has something to do with government and blahdity blah blah. I'm not stupid or anything, it's just that these topics bore me to death. Yes literally to death..like I will zone out when people start talking about politics, government or economics.

The one thing that did interest me was the funny pom pom shoes that the guards had to wear. I wonder if the guy that designed these military costumes hated soldiers or something. I think his main intention was to mortify these poor young men.

To make matters worse, every hour on the hour, the guards have to do a dorky dance which signifies the changing of the guards. Apparently this is a highly coveted position.

It was a beautiful day out so we took a hike up Filopappos Hill which was more like a mini mountain. At the base of the hill there was an old, charming house that had pretty flowers out on the porch. I snuck onto it to take a quick pic.

The hill was no easy climb. It was pretty rough terrain and the pathways were steep and rocky. But I'm not a prissy girl so I let my sparkling white Pumas get dirty.

Many many stray dogs lived on the hill because of the shade it provided. We had some extra water and let this cute furball have some. It looks like a puppy to me!!

Once again I was astonished at how Green Athens was. I have not added color to any of these photos! The grass really was THAT green. I even told E.W. that it was almost an unnatural shade of green...like something you would see in a cartoon.

The city skyline view. A little bit different from Philly huh? I love how all of the building are white.

E.W. must climb everything he sees...almost like a little kid. If he sees a rock, he must climb it. If he sees a cave, he must explore. Kinda makes me feel like a loser sometimes when I can't keep up with him.

I LOVE bridges!! I don't know why but something about bridges in forests makes me think of a secret garden that might be inhabited by faeries. My dream is to visit a real Japanese garden and stand on a little bridge overlooking a beautiful koi pond.

Finally reached top of the hill! The winds were hurricane strength and was hard to get a pic without hair whipping me in the face. How awesome that you can see the Parthenon in the background.

When E.W. got on top of that thing I almost had a heart attack. I get severe anxiety around cliffs and edges of tall buildings. And this was the highest cliff I had ever been on and winds were pushing us back and forth. I was pretty sure he was gonna fall over and I would be minus a boyfriend.

The photo kind of reminds me of that statue thing in Brazil, I have no clue what it's called.

Pretty pretty pretty!

Standing on the cliff and looking out over the city with my arms spread gave me the sensation on flying. It was incredible...I'm so jealous of birds.

Picture perfect moment.

This is the Temple of Hephaestus, the most well preserved temple in Athens. It was built 400 years before Christ.

See those little ants on the bottom right? That's us! Now you can get a sense of how crazy big this thing is.

It really makes you wonder...how the F did they get those huge chunks of marble that high back then when modern day machinery would have a problem getting it up there?


E.W. thought he took this shot because it's so good..but nope. It was all me :) Those photography classes in high school really paid off.

Another great shot...courtesy of E.W. We were so lucky with the weather that day.

These little clusters of flowers grew all over the place and in different color combination.
Dainty and pretty.

Another view of the Parthenon in the distance.

We took a stroll through the gardens which used to be Ancient Greece. All of those rocks were at once homes, gymnasiums, temples and schools.

The Temple of Hephaestus is at the top of the hill.



Greeks even had plumbing very similar to modern day plumbing! A lot of people in the middle ages, thousands of years after the Greeks, didn't even have plumbing.

If we would have kept progressing from the Greeks, we would be living on the moon, teleporting and all kinds of crazy stuff by now.

E.W. insisted that we run back to the Parthenon to take some more pics with the blue sky as our previous pics had a gray sky.

After much whining, sweating and panting from me, we reached the top 10 minutes before close. It was worth it I guess.

How can you ever get sick of this view????

We ate lunch at a nearby neighborhood. Had gyros with tatziki sauce. Was our third or fourth gyro that week. They def taste different in Greece than in US...more flavorful and tomatoes much sweeter.

Doggy was asleep so I put a piece of meat in front of him. His nose started moving in its sleep and slowly but surely his eyes started to open. Once fully awake, he realized what was in front of him and quickly gobbled it up.

At night we had a drink at our hotel bar which overlooked the Temple of Zeus and the Acropolis.

Everything is illuminated at night and gives off a whole Disney World like magical feeling.

We followed the recommendation of our bartender and hit up the hottest new nightclub in Athens called W.

E.W. can talk his way into any club so before we knew it we were escorted to the VIP area without having to pay a cover charge.

W was without a doubt my number 1 club experience EVER. Las Vegas, Amsterdam and New York don't even compare to Greek nightlife. I usually hate large nightclubs, but this place was stunningly lit and filled with beautiful people.

Our VIP bar area was on the second floor away from all of the madness. Thank god our section never got too full like the dance floor. Otherwise I would have been miserable.

The dance floor was madness and we didn't dare step onto it in fear of getting trampled. The music was a very light lyrical house type music which was so chill...like nothing I had ever experienced before....none of that BUMP BUMP BUMP jersey shore music crap that techno parties in US tend to play.

They even had go-go dancers who were just ok. I took a pic with one but I looked so retard drunk that I dare not post it.

Obviously I was pretty gone at this point. I was drinking my fav drink, Johnny Black on the rocks, all night.

Got a great shot of the lit up Parthenon on the way home. Only took us like 5 tries to get the right exposure.

And to end the post...a single flower against the full moon. It even matches my dress :)

Ok, good night..I'm going back to being sick and hopefully I will have enough energy to write another post tomorrow.

I have another exciting trip coming up soon but do not want to announce it until it has been 100% confirmed.

Nighty night xoxo.

Tags: athens, greece, travel