Days in Athens.........



It's been over three years since we last set foot here in Greece. The kids have missed coming here as they consider this place home away from home, probably because they have come here so much as younger kids. Now as teenagers, this will be a new experience; it will be interesting to experience Greece with them with these new eyes of young adults, independent minded and opinionated!


Damn jetlag……now that we live in Ohio the time change is 7 hours and I was like maybe this time it will be better than the 10 hours we used to go through from San Diego…..the first night is always tricky….it goes fairly smoothly making you think the time change is going to be OK……you are so tired from the trip you just sleep that first night like normal. Sadly that is where normal ends. By the afternoon of the next day you are sleep walking, momentarily cured by the intake of food or drink, disillusioned as you lay your sleepy head on the pillow that night only to realize YOUR NOT SLEEPY!!!! Awake all darn night, taking homeopathic sleeping pills like candy with no effect. Getting desperate enough to take the NyQuil I brought, nothing. I roam around the apartment in Athens, cursing, pissed off, exhausted but not tired enough until 6am when your brain decides, hey it’s 11pm in Ohio, go to sleep!!! Arghhhhhhhhh

I am on coffee number 2 today! The nauseated jetlag feeling helped by drinking a bottle of Sprite, which I would never drink normally. But boy does it help!!! Tonight we will be having dinner and I plan to have a nice bottle of wine which should help me sleep a few hours joining the rest of sleeping Athens!!

Of course the minute we arrive in Greece we start to super focus on the delicious things we have missed, it’s the little things! If you let my kids loose in a grocery we could spend a small fortune but its so darn fun to hear their conversations and memories relived as they walk the store picking out their favorite things. I myself am partial to the mom and pop store shopping that happens…..bread store, fruit stand, fish and meat store, cheese shop, olive shop, coffee shop, cookie store….and I am more than happy to contribute to their livelihood. 

We have spent the first few days with Megali Giagia Evgenia and Megali Thea Ekaterini ….. great grandmother Evgenia and Great Aunt Keti…..who of course were only concerned with hugging and feeding the kids!! And our kids were more than happy to eat eat and eat their food!! These ladies were so happy to have visitors as they have been alone all during this pandemic! At 94 and 87 respectively they were animated and full of life and stories!! 


  

 

We filled our 3 days in Athens with great meals, visit to the Athens Archeological Museum, Lykavettos Hill with 360 degree views of all of Athens from its highest point, a quick stop at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider and many trips on the Athens Subway/Metro system!! And what was fantastic about this trip to Athens is that the kids were so interested in all that we did, saw, ate, etc! 


        

Our next stops are the island of Rhodes for 4 days……then off to the island of Paros for my sister in law Jenny’s wedding to her sweetheart Beppe!!!! More fun stuff to come on this blog! 


Enjoy!! 













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