Day 11 - Athens Stream Day, The Panathenaic Stadium, The Acropolis

On Day 11 we woke up and had some breakfast at the rooftop buffet from our hotel. 

The day's plan was for me (Mack) to go stream on Twitch for a bit and then come back to pick up Deanna for some additional sightseeing. 

I started out having some configuration issues which was frustrating by managed to get the stream working and headed out. 

I took chat on a walk through the same neighborhoods that we explored the evening before. We walked over to Hadrian's Library and along the way I snapped some photos of street art when I saw it. 

At one point we passed another old Byzantine style church in the middle of a square.

I continued on and stopped at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The guards were doing a little movement of some sort, so I snapped a quick picture and carried on. We looped back by the Roman Baths and the Gate of Hadrian. 

Around 2pm it was time for me to grab Deanna. I went upstairs into our hotel room and grabbed Deanna to come along. 

We both set out walking towards the Panathenaic Stadium. It was probably around 90 degrees out while we were walking up some long sloped roads in the blazing hot sun. We were sweating pretty bad, but kept on our way to the stadium. It was about a 20 minute walk on the surface streets and wasn't very flat at all as the google maps directions indicated When we reached the stadium there was a line at the ticket booth about 10 deep and not moving very fast. We decided it wasn't worth waiting in the blazing heat for tickets, so we went over to the front of the stadium and took pictures there instead. After our brief photoshoot we made our way across the street into the National Garden. The path through the park was flat and cool from the sun. I think this was the way we should have initially walked to the stadium and not up the surface streets and hills. 

After we emerged from the park we were back on the hot streets of Athens. We continued up to The Acropolis hill. Getting into the ruins with my streaming gear was something I was worried about. I know that several other IRL streamers have made it in with their cameras, but I always hate dealing with the "is it professional?" questions as you try to get in. As we approached I pushed my shoulder mount camera down and into my armpit as to show that it was not on. They scanned our tickets and we were about to pass through when the lady at the door said something in Greek to the other door person. Then she says in English, "is this a drone?" and I laughed out loud and said, "no no, definitely not a drone," and then walked off. lol, we were in. 

We walked up the slopes of the Acropolis and looked at the historic areas on display. There was the amphitheater and a few other cool things to see. 

Then we went up the steep path to the top of the hill and spent some time looking at the Parthenon. The history of the place is incredible. We also had a really cool view from the top of the hill of all of Athens. There were a good number of cats roaming about and sunbathing too.

We quickly had our fill of the crowds of tour groups on the Acropolis and began making our way down the other slope to the exit. After exiting we walked back down to the small town alleys of restaurants and shops. We found a place in a very busy alley and setup my stream gear on the table and ordered food. We ordered a Greek salad, an arugula salad, large beans, cheese croquettes, and a pork gyro. All of the food at this place was delicious. The gyro was a highlight for sure. 

On our walk back to the hotel I had a gelato with pistachio and Stracciatella flavors. We sat and enjoyed some street kitty action while closing out the stream for the day. When we went back to our hotel I picked up my laundry from the reception desk. I had sent out a few shirts and some other small items to be cleaned. They came back nicely folded and ready to wear. I was glad I decided to use this service. 

That was the end of our 11th day on this trip. 

 Remember all photos will be linked here: Full Photo Dump

Day 10 - Athens Thunderstorms

On our first morning in Athens we woke up and went to our rooftop to check out the included breakfast and the views. 

The breakfast was a buffet style with lots of variety. There were eggs, bacon, sausage, vegetables, fruit, yogurt, pastries, salad, olives, and drinks made to order. 

From the rooftop of our hotel we could see a perfect unobstructed view of the Acropolis hill and ruins of the Parthenon. We sat there and enjoyed our coffee and soaked in the view and city sounds. 

After breakfast we wanted to go visit the Athens Central Market. We got ready and headed out onto the street. We started heading out towards the market and passed by lots of interesting things. At one point we passed by the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We went over and took some photos through the gate and over the fence. It was a large space and there were some people who paid to enter walking around inside. 

We continued on the same road and came upon the Arch of Hadrian which used to be a road through the city center of Athens. We kept walking up the road and only a few minutes later came up on ruins of the Roman Baths By The Zappeion. We spent some time really looking at these ruins closely from the balcony above them. The entire display was really cool to see and makes you visualize what the area may have looked like back in it's prime. 

While we were standing there the sky seemed to open up and start dumping rain. Luckily we were now under the covered roof of the bath ruins. The roar of the rain on the roof was deafening. I took a small video of it and continued taking photos of the river of water as it grew in the street gutters. We waited in the safety of the bath roof for what seemed like 30 minutes and the rain somewhat slowed down. We decided to make a break to head back to our hotel. We had umbrellas but the rain was so intense that both of our backpacks were drenched along with our shoes and legs. Not long after we left the cover the rain picked back up and we were in some very heavy rain. 

We ran from tree to tree trying to get more cover from the downpour, but it didn't help much. When we reached the area by Hadrian's Arch, there were huge puddles we had to traverse. We carefully chose a path and hopped from place to place until we could make it back to a sidewalk and continue on our way. We made it back to our hotel and took some time to decompress and dry off from that walk. 

We did some research on places to eat nearby and settled on a place called Smile. We went outside during a break in the storm and made our way to the restaurant. We were immediately greeted by a lady with a smile and eagerness to welcome us. We sat down, ordered some drinks and food and then the rain started again. Dish after dish came out and we just sat there enjoying the rain, the good service, and the good food. It was a nice consolation prize for not making it to the Central Market earlier in the day. 

After dinner we went for a stroll through the neighborhoods at the foot of the Acropolis hill. We walked through narrow roadways lined with trinket shops and restaurants. We looked at some souvenirs here and there and constantly had to jump on the sidewalks to avoid the speeding cars or motor scooters that were heading through these roads. This area was really cute. Even with lots of tourists and walking traffic it was still fun to see and explore. 

After walking awhile we came upon some additional ruins that were on display. We were now looking at Hadrian's Library. The lighting on the ruins were nearly perfect as the sun was dipping off in the distance, so we took a couple photos before continuing our walk. We kept on down some narrow shop walking streets. We kept on beyond lots and lots of restaurants. 

We started to get hungry so we went back to one restaurant that had some festive band playing. The host was very excited to help us and a bit pushy, but he seemed nice enough. We were aware that we were in a very touristy food zone. We ordered some food and what came out was pretty good. But then we were waiting for our main courses to come out and it seemed like they never would. We waited about 30 minutes for them to come out until we told our server to cancel them and bring our check. We wrapped up and left because we had to wait so long and also we were a bit full from our appetizers anyway. 

Our walk home was even more enjoyable as the Athens air cooled a little. The lights also turned on at all the sites we had past by earlier in the day, so the new perspective was great. We enjoyed our walk and went back to our rooftop bar for a drink and some snacks. 

We finished the day on top of our hotel enjoying the well lit acropolis from afar while sipping on our cocktails. 

Oldest Byzantine Church in Athens

Deanna and the Acropolis

What a nice start to our time in Greece. 

That is the end of Day 10. 

Remember all photos will be linked here: Full Photo Dump