We went to the Acropolis today to see the Parthenon. The first few pics are of Athens as we were going up to the Acropolis. We stayed there for several hours- I have many, many pics on my camera. As usual it was hot but there was really a strong wind which kept us cool. On the way down we walked thru the ancient city of Agora and visited a museum. Then we went to see the Greek guards. See pics.

After that we took the subway to the bus depot to see if we could go to Cape Sounion to see Poisideon’s Temple. We could so we got on a bus which drove ongoing the coast for 2 hours to get to Cape Sounion. The view was great. The bus followed the coastline of the Aegean Sea. Half the fun is the bus ride – seemingly speeding bus drivers on narrow winding and switchback roads. It is even better at night. Poisideon’s Temple was fabulous and the views breathtaking. Again I have many more pics on my camera. There was a restaurant there, so we decided to eat something because we would not get back to Athens until 11pm. I forgot that everyone goes to Cape Sounion to watch the sunset. Marsha and I had a bread salad and Stephanie had a Greek salad. Again it is 11:30 and we are discussing what to do tomorrow.

Almost forgot – Cape Sounion had gale force winds. Breezy does not describe how strong the wind was blowing. As we were waiting for the return bus the lights went on to illuminate the Temple. It was really stunning. We all took several pics, but the wind was blowing so hard we are not sure if they came out clearly enough

We had a nice train ride-arrived about 4 pm and checked into our hotel. We are now in a laundromat doing our wash!!! I know it doesn’t seem scenic, but necessary. Besides the laundry has great wifi. The owner of the laundry is named Igor. He came to Greece from Russia 22 years ago and speaks great English.
After the laundry we went back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went downtown. It was late and we had not eaten all day so we headed straight for a restaurant. Stephanie and I had Kevin and stuffed grape leaves and Marsha had veggie moussaka and a Greek salad. It was 11pm by the time we were done so we headed back to the hotel.
The subway in Athens is also great. It is clean and efficient and we have now mastered the now to purchase to tickets at the machines n the subways.

We arrived in Kalabaka and checked into our charming hotel. This town is also a delight – not the big city tourist town. When we got off the train we needed to find our hotel, but had no map. Stephanie stayed with the suitcases while Marsha and I went up the hill (of course) to town to find the hotel. We bumped into some Japanese tourists we met on the train and they had a guidebook of Kalabaka with a map. The book was in Japanese, but Marsha looked at the map and found the way to the hotel. This city is known for the monasteries that are located on top of the mountains. The 1st 2 pics are the view from our balcony.
By the time we checked in it was 4pm and the owner of the hotel told us to take a taxi and the most scenic route to the monasteries. It was beautiful. We took some pictures from the taxi window. There is also a picture of Marsha and Stephanie in their Sunday best. We had to put on the skirts so we could enter the monastery. We also walked down the mountain. It took us over an hour because the footing was not always the best. I have a ton of pictures on my camera. We ate dinner in town, but I was hungry and tired and forgot to take pictures. Stephanie had moussaka, Marsha had an eggplant medley, and I had eggplant stuffed with meat and cheese. We then went to the hotel because we have an 8am train. It is now Friday morning and we are at a little train station waiting for our connecting train to Athens. The people here are friendly and trying to teach us Greek. I will upload this when I get WIFI. One of the men at the station gave us a melon ft his farm. A nice gesture, but we are trying to lighten out load, not carry heavy melons.

We took an 11am bus from Sofia to Thessalonikia. The bus was a nice, clean, air conditioned tour bus with only 5 passengers. Right after we were on the road a “stewardess” for lack of a better word came around and gave us water, a fruit muffin, and a wet nap. The route was mostly on a brand new highway system. We made 2 scheduled stops in very little towns in Bulgaria and then did the border crossing which only took 5 minutes for customs to clear us. When we arrived at Thessalonikia it was at a remote bus station. They transported us to the main city bus station. We found the bus we needed to take to our hotel – the driver was a great help – we were checked in by 6pm. Then we hit the streets again. Again it was hot! We are much further south and it shows in the temp. We took in some of the sights – see pics- The pic of the statue Stephanie thought looked like the 3 of us looking at a map. About 9pm we stopped for dinner – Greek salad, roasted peppers and tzasitki. The restaurant had musicians playing music. Greeks are party people. Marsha and I had some Ouzo, and then our waiter brought us dessert on the house. We returned to the hotel because tomorrow we are going Kalambaka.

Still having a good time.