Today started off very early and a little sad, with the departure of the Nanas. They left before the crack of dawn, at 3:30am. Mom said that she was going to wake up with them and make sure that there were no problems with the taxi that they had ordered. But as she woke up at 4:15 in a panic because her Fitbit had run out of battery so her alarm didn’t go off, the Nanas were long gone. They made it to the airport and through security very quickly, and were sitting at their gate drinking tea by 4:45.
After Mom stopped panicking, she decided that she was going to go for a walk, and decided that she was going to walk to the top of a hill next to the acropolis. She got up to the top before sunrise, and got a 360 degree view of Athens. She decided to stay up there to watch the sunrise, and was not disappointed.
People started waking up well after she got back, meaning like, 9, but Griffin and I started moving around 10:15. Connor and Kayla were packing up all of their stuff because they were going to Germany for a week, and their flight was at 3:30pm. So they went around packing up all of their stuff and getting ready to go. They were taking the metro to the airport, and to get to the airport line, they had to go to the stop that we have been going to to walk around the acropolis and the center of Athens. The rest of us decided to go with them and just walk around Athens some more, and see whatever we could. We said our goodbyes after we got off of the first metro, Connor and Kayla went to the airport line, and the rest of us were going up into Athens.
After we left Connor and Kayla, we walked over to the National Garden. The garden was a lovely park with lots of trees and flowers, and there were paths winding all throughout it. The biggest staple of the park for me… were the goats. Yep, there were pens of goats with massive horns.
Also in this park, was this pond that was filled with docks and geese.
After the big pond, we walked over to this other pond that was a little smaller, but it was filled to the brim with turtles. I mean, everywhere you looked, turtle, they were everywhere.
After we left the park, we started in walking towards the Temple of Olympian Zeus, or, what remains of it. The temple is now only but a few columns held up by scaffolding, but you are still able to see how huge it used to be, the columns are larger than the ones at the Parthenon, and you can see how far they stretched.
Next to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, was the Arch of Hadrian. Looking underneath the arch, you have a clear view of the Acropolis.
After that, we decided to walk over to the Olympic Stadium, which is a lot smaller than you think. The stadium looks bigger than it is, and is almost completely made of marble. Probably not very comfortable for the spectators!
We then went to get some lunch. We began by looking around the Olympic Stadium for a place that served souvlaki that was not too expensive. We found this place that looked perfect, but there were no open tables, so we continued looking. After looking for a little bit, we decided to check back at that restaurant to see if a table had opened up. Luckily, after only a couple minutes of waiting, a table opened up for us. We ordered our food and ate, it was delicious. I got a chicken souvlaki platter, griffin got a pizza with pork gyro meat, Mom got a chicken gyro, and Dad got a lamb gyro.
After we had stuffed ourselves, we decided to walk up to the top of the other hill adjacent to the acropolis. Upon walking up to the top, we were given a wonderful view of the acropolis and the entire city of Athens.
After we walked down, Griffin got a craving for ice cream, so we started to head back in the direction of the metro station, because we knew that there were several places near it that had gelato/ice cream. On the way, much to Griffins disdain, we stopped at Mars Hill, a rock that was next to the Parthenon that offered a nice view of the city.
Once we got back down near the metro station, we found an ice cream place that looked good. We ordered our ice cream and sat down to enjoy it. Mom got Snickers and dark chocolate, Dad got cherry cheesecake, Griffin got mixed berry and mango sorbet, and I got Snickers and Oreo. It was delicious. (Parent note: being able to enjoy peanuts is the one benefit of being without Connor today!)
Once we finished our ice cream, we decided to head back to the apartment. Dad and Mom wanted to walk, but Griffin and I decided to take the metro home, as we were tired and did not feel like walking the 45 minutes it would take to get back to the apartment. So we took the key and some coins, and got on the metro. We got home and chilled out until Mom and Dad got back. (Parent note: on the last day of the trip, a goal finally reached - the kids taking the metro on their own! They have become very metro savvy!)
After little while after they got back, we went to the grocery store to get everything that we’d need for the following day of travel. (Parent note: snacks, snacks, and more snacks, for more than 24 hours of travel!)
Once we got back, we prepped everything we could for the next day’s early start. Once we got packed up, we are dinner, which was minimal for some people, as we had had a large late lunch. After dinner we got ready and went to bed, hoping to get as much sleep as possible for the early flight.
Comments