First Day

First of all, I am the queen of jet lag avoidance. Second of all, Athens is amazing.

I got up at 6:30 and had breakfast, got organized, etc. Got to the Acropolis 15 minutes before it opened (at 8:00). Spent an hour and a half there, took a ridiculous amount of pictures, looked up at the Parthenon for a ridiculously long time, etc. Then I went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and did the exact same thing. I then walked all over the place trying to find the cemetary to see the grave/monument for Schliemann... It was worth it. It's like a miniature temple, or something. Kind of like Athena Nike, but that's Ionic and this was Doric. Very interesting frieze, too -- three of the sides look ancient, and the fourth side depicts 19th century builders and restorers. I'm glad I saw it.

I sat at a cafe after that and drank my first frappe -- it's coffee and milk and sugar whipped up and iced. I'm already hooked. I just started walking after that and eventually ran into the National Gardens. Let me tell you, it smells *really* good in there (except by the animals). I thought I'd cut through to the Benaki museum and the Museum of Cycladic Art, but instead I walked around lost for about half an hour. Not that I care -- I was lost in a garden. Plus there were turtles. How bad can that be? After that, I went to the Cycladic museum... I read all of these articles in Greek Archaeology about how these figurines might be fake, and I definitely have my doubts about some of them after seeing them up close. I was amused, anyway. And they have the best bookshop in the basement -- I bought a book of Cavafy's poems there, with the Greek and English versions of both put right next to each other. I really can't tell you how much I love this book. I also hit up another bookstore to buy Harry Potter in Greek, and I've since been wandering around Plaka. I don't really know what to do now. I'll probably just wander around again until I bump into something ancient. It's only 3:30 here, and the sun doesn't set until about 9:00.

Did I mention I'm having the time of my life?? If you couldn't tell. :-D