Even though there were a lot of people everywhere we went, we still enjoyed Athens. Mostly. We visited the National Archaeological Museum and the Acropolis. We had lunch in some restaurant I don’t remember, and we did a little shopping in an area near the Acropolis.
The National Archaeological Museum was nice, but I think if we had to do this over again, we would skip the museum. Lots of sculptures and art works, but it just wasn’t that interesting. It probably had to do with the fact that our guide for the day wasn’t that good. She didn’t seem to care if we could hear her or not, or if we had any questions. We probably could have visited the museum on our own.
The Acropolis was much more interesting. It was a hot day though, and hiking up the hill with no breeze to cool us was a little tough. And it didn’t help that the path up was narrow and with so many people making the trek up, we were moving at a snail’s pace under the hot sun. Once we made it up, the view was spectacular. We had a 360 degree view of the city, and the breeze on top cooled us off quite a bit. It was a bit too windy at times though, as the dirt and dust from the restoration work was kicked up.
Lunch was next. The restaurant looked nice, but the service wasn’t that good. There were 6 of us in our group, and they wanted to squeeze us into a table for 5. It made no sense at all, as an available table for 6 was right next to the table for 5. We finally talked them into letting us sit at the table for 6 (where we probably would have sat anyway if they didn’t agree to it). At first we had a bottle of red wine, but no water. We wanted water. It took a couple requests before we got a bottle of water. And even then we got only one bottle of water. Do they not know that 1/2 a cup of water per person isn’t enough? Maybe they think everyone drinks wine and nothing else. Perhaps they forgot we’re not Greek. I don’t know what restaurants to recommend, but this is definitely a place I would recommend against going to in a big group.
We finally had some free time to wander around. We walked down the shopping area and got some miscellaneous souvenirs. We also bought a bottle of coke at a price that actually was resonable! I think it was maybe 1 euro for the 355ml bottle. Most other places probably would have charged 3 euros, equivalent to about $4!
After the day was over, I can say I went to the place Yanni performed at.