Athens

Athens is hot, dusty, and windy - but a lot of fun. The archeological sites are impressive!

First & foremost is the Acropolis - with the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike. We went during the evening, which was wise - because there are tons of tour buses dropping tons & tons of people off during the day. It's also less hot in the evening. But - did I mention that it's windy? Let me emphasize that again. There was dust blowing everywhere!

Other highlites of Athens include some hills that I climbed - Filopappou (which offers a fantastic view of the Acropolis), and Lykavittos (which doesn't have a working cable car to the top, regardless of what any guidebook says. It was a hot climb!)

Filopappou hill has a special memory for me - I grabbed some fruit from a small store one morning, and climbed to the top of the hill. There was nobody else on the hill - I had it all to myself, complete with a fantastic view. It was a very relaxing part of the day.

Other parts of Athens stood out too. The National Garden was nice (albeit much smaller than I expected). The Temple of Olympian Zeus was cool.

The guidebooks made Athens out to be a not-very-nice city. I found the areas with all the archeological sites, and the neighborhoods that have been designated pedistrian-only, to be very nice. The rest of Athens is a regular, busy, big city - a lot like Bangkok.
Athens does have a very nice metro, though. It's very modern, and much cleaner than I expected - a great way to get around!

And, even though I don't normally like Greek food - I had some very good meals in Athens & Santorini.

Now I'm back in Amsterdam, and heading off to Paris tomorrow morning. Can't wait for the train ride!