Athens: 6/26/14

Today we were ported in Athens for a full day.  I had booked a private tour guide & driver for Kyle and I for the day to get the most out of time (this is what I did for most cities).  When you get off the ship the private guides are waiting, holding signs with your name.  People without private tours usually booked via the boat and they are in large groups on big buses, therefore they have to wait on everyone to get off before leaving the port.

The first place we went was the Acropolis which is the hill in Athens that houses important buildings including the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion, and the temple of Athena Nike.  This was to beat the crowds and the heat!  I was very thankful for getting their early as it was getting very crowded by the time we left there!  Also extremely hot!  We were told that it got up to 114 degrees while in Athens... It was a very hot day!!  Here are some pictures from these amazing Ancient Greek structures on the hill:

Of course, the Parthenon:

in the Propylaia:

 Temple of Athena Nike

Next stop was the temple of Zeus, the God of Gods in Greek mythology.  It was originally 104 pillars, but not many remain.  

Next we visited the old Olympic stadium and then the parliament to watch the changing of the guards.  We had a very interesting experience at parliament!  One of the guards literally ate shit while marching.  Their commander guy freaked and was yelling for no one to take photos.  Well, our gopro video caught it, and it is really funny.  I'm thinking it could be a YouTube hit.... Or I may send it to tosh.o because they would definitely love it!  In the guys defense, what they do is not easy and takes incredible strength & control.  Here are a couple pictures of the stadium & guard change, pre-fall, and then that amazing video is below the pics.  Enjoy!

Next we went to view Athens from a very large hill with amazing views of the city.  I had no idea how big of a city Athens is.  There are over 5.5 million people living there.  Crazy!

By this time we were getting hungry, so we made a quick stop through the souvenier shopping area, and then sat for an amazing Greek lunch.  After lunch were a few more stops through ruins like the Ancient Agora.  The coolest of these was the temple of Hephaistos, the God of Fire.  It was the most in-tact of the temples we saw which was neat.  

My overall synapse of Athens: the city is kind of dirty, with too many stray dogs and cats running around, however, there is amazing history there and everyone should visit it once to experience.