Afterwards at noon, Isabel, Igor, Linda and her husband Fred, and I took an all- afternoon trip into Athens to see the Acropolis. This is really the first day that I got to see the real Athens, not this suburb we were living in. What we saw in downtown Athens was superb! I took plenty of pictures, acting like the hundreds of other tourists we encountered. We took the metro to get there.

You have to buy the bus ticket at a kiosk, and then get the ticket validated by a machine turnstile upon entering the metro station platform. The ride to the Monastiraki Station was fascinating. We passed the Olympic Village and compound which was still under construction and a real mess. Surprisingly, we saw graffiti everywhere, on just about every building. It would be as modest as a couple of squiggles in Greek script, or as elaborate as the most complex multi-color 4x15-foot mural ‘tag’ you would find in Washington DC on the Green Line south of Silver Spring.

We exited the station and immediately found ourselves in a network of narrow streets with hundreds of people walking on them, vying for space with cars. The flow of people took us steadily upwards on Dioskouron Avenue towards the Acropolis mount, past numerous outdoor cafes along the way, and views of the city that became more spectacular at every turn.

The walkways soon changed from asphalt and coble stone to slippery marble as we neared the summit. Guards were everywhere with their whistles shouting at people ‘Don’t touch!’ even though all of the marble on the temples and construction areas were behind ropes. People still leaned over to touch the ancient stones. The pictures tell it all. The temples and the Parthenon were magnificent and a lot rougher close up than you might gather from the pretty photos you often see of them in books.

Scaffolding was everywhere as the workers – whom you never saw, have been rebuilding the monuments. Evidently, the entire Parthenon will eventually be a fully restored building with realistic cement replacing the missing limestone and marble pieces. Most of the damage to the Parthenon happened when munitions being stored inside by the Turks blew up around 1680. Prior to then, the temple had remained almost fully intact since ancient times.

The view from the top of the Acropolis mount was superb. You could see the entire city sprawled out to the horizon, and running up the sides of mountains like some white carpet. This view alone made the hike worth the effort, if for no other reason that to marvel at urban sprawl in a city of 7 million people. It's hard to imagine how different this view might have looked 2500 years ago.

We spent much of the afternoon until 5:00 PM touring the ancient ruins and the Agora down below, then had a lunch at an out door café jammed with people, and couples ogling each other. A little girl, probably 9 years old, ran from table to table tickling people with a feather for no apparent reason than to just be precocious. The adults all smiled and laughed at her antics. After a leisurely meal of Greek salad and bread dipped in a yogurt/cucumber spread, we walked through the outdoor bizarre which lined Ermou Street near the Monastiraki Station for at least a mile.

No food stores, just small shops where they sold T- shirts, Olympic memorabilia, rungs, art, jewelry and statuary. I never saw anyone on a bicycle in either the suburb of Kifissia or downtown Athens. Given how fast cars travel and how narrows the streets are, I bet it is quite a hazard. I have yet to see ANYONE I have encountered that is as overweight as the typical person you see at a Safeway in Maryland. The one or two people you see that are grossly overweight in Maryland on any given day seems to be non- existent in the parts of Athens I have seen so far. Also, I never saw anyone walking in Athens and eating. In the downtown area near the Akropolis, people only ate food in the infrequent food establishments, and aside from the occasional Kiosk, there were no stores that offered displays of candy bars and junk food. Among the man Greek conversations, we did hear English, German and Swedish from time to time. Everyone we encountered seemed to be dressed so well, and well groomed too. Not like the ultra-casual style that we seem to have universally adopted back home. Still, my Hawaiian shirt stood out among the more modestly dressed people we encountered. Bright colors other than white seem to be uncommon for some odd reason. I bought several new T-shirts which I will now wear so that I conform to the prevailing fashions of the day! Even in this warm climate, men wearing shorts is still not a common sight, with slacks or jeans by far the most popular style. To heck with that!