We touched down in Athens this morning at 9 a.m. local time. Between Tim and I both, we probably got about four hours of restless sleep on the flight, despite our best efforts with Benadryl. 😉 We were met at the airport by a taxi driver who took us straight to our hotel. Both of us were hoping against hope that our room would be ready, and we could maybe have a quick nap, but at the very least a shower before we hit the trail. Alas, that was not our fortune. They stored our luggage for us and sent us on our not-so-merry way. Our travel agent had suggested vouchers for a “hop-on, hop-off” bus to tour Athens on our first day, so we headed to the bus with no intention of doing any hopping off.

After a 90-minute bus ride around all the major sites in Athens, we returned to our starting point and headed back to the hotel, hoping enough time had passed for them to have our room ready. We stopped for some ice cream (many of you know my affinity for ice cream, particularly when I am in Europe!), and got to our room to freshen up a bit.

Though we both felt a nap might be in order, we didn’t communicate that very well to the other person, so we ended up getting right back out after just a few blissful minutes of stretching out on the bed. We decided to visit the National Archaeological Museum, which is billed as one of the most important museums in the world.

Outside the Museum

Ode to a Greecian Urn

The golden mask of Agamemnon, one of the treasures that makes this museum so important.

Tim said the last time he was in Greece, this is what he would have been doing… talking to his mopey, whiney girlfriend. I had him reinact how this made him feel.

I have to admit, I drew a blank for a second when I walked into the WC at the museum and saw this.

At some points in the museum, I was not sure I could put one foot in front of the other, I was so tired. I couldn’t even focus on what I was reading or seeing after a certain point. Tim said he felt the same. We decided we would make one more stop after the museum, eat our first real meal of the day, and head back to the hotel. We caught the bus and headed over to the National Garden for a little walk, and then decided to have dinner in the roof-top restaurant at our hotel. We were rewarded for this choice with views of the Acropolis as we dined, and I had a crustacean friend who looked like he wanted to give me a hug before my meal.

The view from our table

Crayfish Rizoto

We thought we would get in bed by 8, but it’s 10 p.m. here, and we’re just ready to crawl in bed. We have a 6:30 wake-up for a half-day tour of the Acropolis and a few other sites around Athens. Maybe we’ll get to bed early tomorrow! 🙂