Athens Day .5

We landed about 9:00 and hopped in a cab that proceeded to find the biggest traffic jam in town. He said he was trying to avoid a protest that was happening in the city center. Just minutes before he was doing almost twice the 70 KPH speed limit and was on a fixed rate fare, so we took him at his word. 

After some monkeying around we made it to the apartment we rented and had a 60 minute power nap. This along with 5 days of melatonin was Patti's new jet lag killing trick, we will see how it works out.  Coming out of that super power sleep was very rough.

Having been in Asia the last two trips it was a nice change to be unafraid of the water.  Opening your mouth in the shower, not necessarily to drink, but for some unconscious reason is a tough habit to break. Alas, but still you were not supposed to flush the toilet paper and trying to open the stubborn and tiny trash bin with your foot while in a most compromised position is a challenge we will leave behind in Greece. 

It was about 1:00 when we got rolling and we were just going to get a lay of the land and save the big site seeing for tomorrow. We grabbed some lunch in a comfy lounge bistro. Bad move as the kids, despite Riley's chipper appearance, about passed out on the couch-like seating.

We then visited the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church. I was able to capture an image of the building that rivaled the guidebook we were using, how fortunate was that!  However, it suffered in a earth quake in 1989 and has had scaffolding surrounding it ever since so not much accomplished in my professional photographer career with that one. 
After -

Before - 

Nearby were a number of shops selling religious icons and various items used in the Eastern Orthodox Church including vestments of various sorts and colors that were all very beautiful. We found this priest, who apparently was in the market for some new duds. He had a gaggle of woman outside the store voting on what he was trying on. This one was the winner and now was in 'lets make a deal' mode. "See, I give you 1 Euro.  Ha, I tell you what I give you."  Or at least that was the best I could make out.

The girls were perched here on a meandering back alley walk that we did just below the Acropolis. 

The Greeks seem quite taken with the girls blue eyes and are especially excited to see that we all have them.  Well, mine are hazel.  Blue for me, I think, depends on what I am wearing.  We watched with our blue eyes a nervous shopkeeper as a gaggle of local kids came in and wondered out of her shop with toys that they might not have already owned. That was tough to call and you could see that fact in the eyes of the shopkeeper. 

We hit a local market on the way home and the kids prepared a great feast for us. Took some melatonin and just about fell into bed. 

Follow the Day .5 link for images.