Athens Days 1-2

EDIT: I got all the pictures up for this particular post.

EDIT: pictures are going to have to wait. It's 2:30 in the morning and they're not uploading at all. I'll add them as soon as I am able.

Alrighty I finally have an internet connection if you could call it that. I vaguely remember dial up being faster. I will try to post as many pictures as I can, I have tons of them from day 2, but given the slow internet I may not get all my pictures up online for a while.

Day 1:

So I arrived alright in Athens although Finding my hostel was a completely different story. Let me just say the bus stops are entirely unlabeled and the street names are almost in the same situation. I did a lot of wandering before finally find my way here and promptly crashed after making me bed the first day. I did go out wandering that night for an hour or so and picked up some bread and water for my room. Other than that my first day wasn't to productive.

Day 2:
I got up around 9 today And wandered around Pangrati for an hour or so before heading back to the hostel in search of a good map. After my two wandering I recognise a few streets near by but a lot of the residential buildings look entirely the same in my area and again the street signs are impossible to see if and when they do exist.

When I got back to the hostel the kind Lady in the office gave me a map and we had a very broken (in my part) converstaion in Greek about how should go about getting to the Acropolis. She then was kind enough to make sure I got every thing my repeating her instructions in English. I was able to understand quite abit although relaying what I wanted to say was a bit more challenging.

With my map in hand I set out for the acropolis. I decided to walk and stop at a number of sites along the way recommended to my by the office lady. First on the list was the Olympic Stadium from the 1800's it was recently restored for the Athens Olympics and was quite stunning the 70,000 person stadium seats being entirely marble. After the stadium I passed by a large fountain infront of the Congress Hall and Exibition Center. There was also a nice park in and around there where I found a turtle. After the Congress Hall I continued on the Haden's Arch. Just past the arch I was able to glimpse the acropolis and it's various monuments proudly sitting ontop of it. To excited to try and find the entrance to the archeological area (which I had accidntally passed) I continued in the direction of the acropolis. I did accidentally pass the enterance though in my defense it wasn't marked. At the entrance I was informed that American students are well infiantly more disliked then all other students are my entrance fee was not free like all other students but half the normal fee. Granted I was still grateful to only have to pay six euros rather than twelve. Once I had my ticket I made sure to walk around the entire base of the acropolis before ascending to the Parthenon. The entire site was breathtaking to say the least despite all the scaffolding and other obstructions due to restoration efforts. After making sure to read all the signs and see everything I wandered down to the Ancient Agora (an ancient market area) There was a nice museum which I didn't enter as it wasn't part of my ticket for the acropolis, though outside the museum there were a number of partial marble statues and tablets. As well as a beautiful little church and another temple off a little further away. However I was feeling a little ill and after making it up to the temple I decided to head back to the hostel. And more or less turn in for the day. Tomorrow I plan on making use of the rest of my acropolis tickets and seeing what I missed today, as well as trying to arrange to get to Santorini.

Me in front of the Olympic stadium, the person taking my photo failed to notice the lens cover got stuck. Oh well.

Very random turtle I found in a park on my way to the Acropolis.
Fountain and Congress HallGiant mostly marble theater on slope of AcropolisMe trying to take a photo of my self in front of the gateway to the top of the Acropolis.My favorite building on top of the acropolis which is not the Parthenon.The Parthenon sadly covered in scaffolding and cranes sticking out the top. I tried to hide this as best I could.Rubble from previous incarnations of the temples used to rebuild the walls after a war.
Curch in the Ancient Agora area.
Stone tablet in ancient Greek. Outside of the Ancient Agora Museum.Another Temple in the Ancient Agora areaThe Acropolis after I descended. This was actually taken before I visited the Ancient Agora area, but I think this is a better picture to end on.