a visit to Nafplio revealed my Greek-ness

Katerina drove us out to Nafplio so I could see a little bit more of Greece than just Athens. Greece is so beautiful! The drive out was through some really picturesque landscape.........seaside resorts along the way.
nafplio is this nice quaint little town that was Greek's first capital. it also has an acropolis...which is the Greek term for the city wall...so essentially every city would have an acropolis...(the trick being..theres only one Parthenon ofcourse!)
anyway..there we were... walked around town...had some nice Greek coffee (ok...I was a traitor and had Viennese chocolate instead!) followed by some shopping at a very very nice local produce shop of honey, olives and Greek liquers. The shop is run by a computer programmer who had gotten tired of the big city life and given up his big corporate career to pursue his passion and hobby turned career of managing this delicatesen shop. what a story huh! remember that most movies and books are inspired by true life. so there you go.
had a really really nice lunch....and this was where my Greek identity was revealed. well considering the amount of feta cheese I consumed.......it was quite impossible to think Im anything but Greek. In true Greek spirit I decided to also have bread dipped in Olive oil, with feta, tomatoes and origano for dinner as well.
Olive oil is such a good invention! but then again...so is feta cheese!

Making new friends in Ancient Agora

so there I was exploring this wonder of the world.....not really expecting Id also find yet another friendly voice atop this ancient temple. turns out..not only did I run into Sangeeta and Preeti from South Africa again...and also bumping into the 2 German tourists from yesterday.....but the guard in charge of protecting all this sacred antiquity...Marios....also made friends with me.
we started on a friendly casual conversation about Greece, Thailand, EU, and their respective people...ending up in quite an interesting political discussion......and later in the evening at a local cafe more political discussion over _____ (fill in the blanks by Katerina-pedia for the greek liquer).

Also encountered a few other friendly helpful locals over the course of my day....... a guy offereing to help the minute he saw me pull out a map....and a few other similar incidents. So just as I was telling Katerina...the Greeks have been nice to me.....and must admit..Greek boys arent bad looking either :)
ohhh and they all speak quite a fair bit of English! thats certainly made my life easier...cos otherwise this is what things look like:
Jyoti with a map of Athens....street names in English
Jyoti walking about on the streets and hopping on and off buses..checking out the street signs...all in Greek :p
you get the idea......

Exploring Ancient Greece

I was at the Acropolis today.....yes the famous one...Parthenon. truly truly amazing! Describing it in words is so inadequate. I spent almost the entire day there...and what a pleasant day it was....bright sunshine...temperatures must have been around 20 or 22 degrees C. I could finally get rid of the layers of warm clothing I have had to wear these past 3 weeks!

after the Parthenon I decided to take the tram out to the beach area.....by the time I got there it was already dark though...but still felt good :)

and yes..Im taking things slow...........

Kale Mera Athina

First off...I have to say...Athens is lovely!! and Ive met some really really nice people here.
took the first day a bit slow.....went into city centre taking the metro from Kiffissia...where our greek-chairgoddess Katerina lives with her sweet sweet Mom Vicky, and Dimitri...and her brother Stathios (well he partially lives here...physically in Romania..but through phone calls in Kiffisia)
so I got to Thisseo...one station further than the Monastiraki...walked back towards Monastiraki....saw the entrance to Ancient Agora...but decided Id come back when I have a full day to explore. checked out the little nice things in the Plaka market. I just love it all!!

hopped on some unknown bus....ended up at the Archealogical musuem.....quite nice. hopped on some other bus....went past the barracks, the hilton...kept going..until I must have got to some really residential area..off the bus, on to the metro back to Syntagma......across the road is Parliament house....saw the end of the changing of the guards...well will have to come back to see this one again wont I.....