ATHENS, GREECE

Hello Everyone:

"Greece, is the word, is the word, that you heard, it’s got groove, it’s got meaning!" (Sorry I couldn’t resist) -for those of you too young to get that reference, ask your parents.

Anyway we flew from Rome to Greece, Athens on Sunday morning.  We got on the metro right at the airport. (why can’t L.A. be this easy to get around?) We went through the town and it looked like just another city, except everything was painted white or almost white. Really pretty and a bit warmer than Rome.  (Yay!) Then the metro took us underground for awhile and then we got off at our stop about 3 minutes from our hotel.  As we came up from the terminal, I was expecting the town to look similar to Rome since their cultures are so similar. Yea, it’s NOTHING like Rome! The people and place seemed to be in more poverty than Rome, but much more happy and gregarious!!!

Sunday is the day they have their street fair and market and we were let off right in the middle of that.  The streets were alive with people everywhere selling homemade goods, musicians in the street playing beautiful traditional music and the yummy smells of Greek food floating in the air. The Acropolis sits high on a mountain and is quite a backdrop for the city, from any angle.  Also, it was the last day of the Mardi Gras/Carnival so people, especially kids, were dressed in all kinds of costumes.   Athens gave us quite a first impression!!

We were in the town of Plaka. Here we could walk to quite a few famous historic sites. As we walked around we could see the coexistence of different art eras, just like in Rome. There were old city ruins, right next to well-preserved churches. Or name brand department stores right down the street from small little intimate souvenir shops, fancy restaurants right around the corner from traditional little family restaurants.

We got checked into our hotel and rested a bit.  We ended up sleeping longer than we expected but we went out that night to a restaurant at what we thought was 11:00 p.m. (but was really 12:00 a.m.) yet people were STILL out partying and eating and having a good time like it was 7:30 p.m.!  We ended up eating some yummy Greek salads at a family owned restaurant that had these 2 local musicians playing.  They were playing traditional Greek rhythms on guitar accompanied by a Bouzouki guitar. One was singing and they were incredible! We were enjoying it so much but we were tired and wanted to leave but someone told them that we were from L.A. so from then on; he dedicated every single song to us!  So we had to stay! That’s where we heard, “Ompa” for the first time and it was confirmed in our minds that we loved Greece!

Seer with our favorite Greek muscians

The next day we went to the Acropolis of Athens or The Citadel. This is a historical site that you cannot miss!! The Parthenon and other main building on this hill were built back in the 5th century BC as a monument to the cultural and political achievements of the inhabitants of Athens.  It looks a bit like the ruins in Rome but we learned that they actually had it first.  The Romans conquered them but were so impressed with their designs and art that they copied them. Athens is the city where democracy was born and most of the wise men of ancient times. The Greeks were very smart and prided themselves as being great philosophers and thinkers and were less barbaric than the Romans. Personally, we loved them because they put a lot of emphasis on art and theater and the Acropolis was for everyone to come and enjoy not just “the elite”.

A VIEW OF THE RESTAURANT

As we walked, we found ourselves on the road where the Apostle Paul walked.  It’s even called “Apostolou Paulou” still to this day.  It was surreal. We could see Mars Hill where he gave his famous Areopagus sermon.  *(The Areopagus sermon refers to a sermon delivered by Paul in Athens describe in Acts 17:16-34. The Areopagus sermon is the most dramatic and fullest speech of his missionary career about the Unknown God)   We found a spot and read some of his words from the bible, just so we can experience what it must have been like for him.  That was a pretty special moment.

The Dionysis Amphitheater

The Partheon

In front of Dionysis Amphitheater

We then walked through old Athens and we learned that it was originally a walkway that was full of statues of their old Greek gods.  But what we didn't know was that they would stop and worship these gods along the way to the Acropolis.  But when the nation became a Christian nation instead, they erected Christian churches there too.  (In the Byzantine period, the Parthenon was also turned into a church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary).


We stopped by the only one left and the oldest church of the Apostles and imagined what it might have been like to worship there with them. I thought it was so cool that it was still standing, because it's dated 1000AD! And here I was impressed by the 1000 year old Bled Castle! We also went to the Acropolis Museum, which by the way is always FREE and saw a really amazing artifacts and statues that tell their whole wonderful mixed history. A must for everyone coming to Greece!