For the late evening meal that night (no one eats before 8 or 9 pm) we went to the main square, the Plaka, to a rooftop restaurant with views of the nearby lit up Acropolis and of the city.  The restaurants were crowded, the steps lined with customers at tables or sitting on the steps.  Souvlaki and gyros (pita bread stuffed with meat, tomatoes, onions, tzatziki and French fries) are served everywhere, as well as Greek salad of course.  Greek wine is available and is not bad at all, and there is also retsina, white wine made in pine barrels which is cheaper and watery.  Every meal seems to be…

Yesterday I made my way to the Acropolis, the most important ancient architecture in the western world.  Acropolis is really the name of one of eight hills within Athens, and is dominated by the Parthenon, a massive structure made of marble hauled from great distances.  Below it are ruins of a city from 300 years BC (the designation BC has changed recently to not reflect the birth of Christ but Im not sure what the new name is).  The Parthenon in particular is impressive only for its size and placing on high, many of the carvings and statues from it have been placed in the nearby Acropolis Museum.  I also…

Travelling through Toronto and Frankfurt, I arrived in Athens this afternoon.  Rather than brave the legendary taxi drivers from the airport (if you get a nice one he will very likely rip you off) I instead took the Metro train, which takes about the same amount of time and saves about 40 Euro or more than $50.  The hard part was keeping my wits about me to gather my bags and leave at the right exit after an hour on the train, since I couldn’t help but nod off a few times (it’s 9 hours ahead of the time at home). Leaving the metro station whose exit was lined with…

I leave for Athens in less than a week.  Some parts of Greece right now are 40 degrees, but should be starting to cool down in September. Here at home we have had hot weather for only the last week or two, but summer is winding down.  Mornings are cool and days are getting shorter. This week I was advised by my tour company that the activity level of my trip had been upgraded, mainly due to the day long trek into the biggest gorge in Europe, on the island of Crete.  That day we will leave our packs behind and carry only a small pack, so I decided I…