Happy Birthday to Me

The plan was to get to the Acropolis for opening at 8. We are slow and aren't ready to leave until just after 8. As we walk towards the Acropolis we stop for a light breakfast.

As we weave our way to the secondary entrance my friend attracts a four legged friend. The dog follows along with us. It barks at random cars as though it's protecting us.

This small church is right next to

Do you think they are upset the neighbors blocked their view?

In the square outside the churches. 

As we pass another dog they start barking and chasing each other. Next thing I know both dogs are following us. We pass a building with dogs on two different balconies. Another bark fest. The first dog drops off but the second dog follows us almost to Acropolis entrance. Since we start at the secondary entrance we start at the theater of Dionysus.

Even back then they had the expensive section. 

Looking down at the stage. 

Herodes Theater - this was covered in dirt when it was rediscovered in the 1800s.

Entrance to the Acropolis. It's not too busy yet. 

The world famous Parthenon. I will need to come back when the scaffolding is gone. 

The backside isn't so bad. It's amazing reading about the history of this building. It's been a temple, church, mosque and ammunition store. 

Zeus Temple. 

Hadrian's Library.

Porch of the maidens.

It's getting busier as we leave.

Next is the ancient agora. 

This is from an old roman water wheel.

The rebuilt stoa that houses a museum.

Why do you make a jar with pointed bottom?

The great drain. The Romans and their water works.

Temple of Hespaestus.

We are pretty tired and hungry by now. We head out and find a restaurant based on the stay.com app. 

We score a table in the shade with a view. 

Nuts with our beers

Prosciutto and arugula pizza for me

Mushroom risotto for Aparna.

I've decided I won't post pictures of what our friends are eating but this is the exception. This pizza has everything he would eat but he can't get by the fact that it's covered with cheese slices. If you look closely you can see the squares.

We get up enough energy to see Hadrian's Library. 

This of course was destroyed and rebuilt over the ages. 

This is part of a church in the site.

Roman dwellings discovered underneath during excavations. At this point the sun is beating down and there is very little shade. We make our way back to the apartment to pick up our bags. What should be a 15 minute walk is close to a half hour as we drag along. We grab our bags and pile into a taxi. Even with AC it's hot. With three of us in the back seat we stick together. I put my water bottle between Aparna and I to keep our legs from sticking. 40 minutes or so and we are finally at the airport. 

With Sky Express we get lounge access. The lounges are outside of security but we get fast pass for the security lane. 

A little chocolate and red wine for me. 

We head out of the lounge and security is easy but you need to take out our cameras and iPads. I even have to take off the lens cover. The signs for our gate take us away from where we cleared security then downstairs and back in the direction we came from upstairs. I think we are below where we came in for security. Since it's a small plane we take a shuttle out on the tarmac. 

Our plane. 

My buddy picked row 2 as its exit row and he's tall. He also thought we'd get off first. Well we load from the back and we checked bags so getting off fast isn't much of an issue. 

This is row 1 in front of me. These are not seats for the stewardess. 

Our friends have normal bulkhead seats. 

It's hard to tell from this picture but this is in front of my friends. They pack luggage in the area where the front door is. I guess other people don't pack light like we do. 

Two women sit down in the seats in front of us. Then a guy comes from the cockpit and trades seats with the lady in front of me. She takes her camera into the cockpit. This is how we take off. It's only a 25 minute flight and it's roasting in here. The air barely comes out of the vent. Any longer and I might pass out. About 15 minutes later the lady emerges from the cockpit and changes seats with the othe lady who goes into the cockpit. The first lady continues to take a ton of pictures out the windows. We land with the other lady in the cockpit. 

A bus picks us up from the tarmac. It's a short ride to the building. We walk up to a locked door. A few minutes later a security officer comes by and unlocks the door. We grab our bags and find our driver. It's a quick 15 minute drive to the hotel. We get checked in and they take us down to the restaurant for a drink and talk about all the amenities and tours we can take. Apparently this was a converted winery. I just really want to shower at this point. Finally we get to our rooms. We have a lofted room.

The bed is upstairs.

The view from our bed. 

I can finally shower.

At this point I don't care. 

We relax and have drinks on the patio. We decide to wait for sunset. My buddy and I take a quick dip in the pool. It's quite refreshing. 

It's getting close. 

The road to the ferry dock. My buddy is having fun watching buses and trucks pass on the turns. His wife imagines a seven year old version of her husband with a truck in each hand pointing at each other and him saying will they make it. 

The dusk colors our hotel nicely.

Not a bad warm up for dinner.

We head out in a taxi to nearby town for dinner. It's a cute little place. 

We share some appetizers. 

Tomato croquettes 

Fried feta with honey. It has a really smooth texture and is surprisingly mild. Maybe it's fresh feta.

Some beet thing. Good thing it was on the house only Aparna likes beets. I did try some. 

Smoked ham - it started out good but there was something tangy that kept building the more you ate. 

Aparna had pork belly with pearl onion. 

Desserts and a birthday drink. 

We headed back for a night cap. The bartender was nice but couldn't stop talking about basketball. When he found out it was our birthdays (I actually made it up till midnight) he took care of us. He gave us drinks from what looked like large water jugs. Again I should have taken pictures. I think one was just an industrial size ouzo from the kitchen but I think the other one was moonshine.