A visit to Athens

So we got back safely from Athens and I have to admit that these have been my lifetime vacations. I have seen and been to beautiful places but none compare to what we have seen in the Eternal City of Athena...

A comic says funny things and a comedian says things funny, so, I will try to say Touristy things ?!?!?!

Before the pictures, let me set you up on how we wanted to travel to how we actually travelled.

First off, we wanted to take the night train to Rome, so we could experience the sleeping cars. But that involve traveling 8 hours during the night. (I know - What's up with that ?) And since our flight was leaving at 16:00 hours we would have been in Rome way too early. So we decided on taking the Saturday morning train that departed at 07:30 and arrived in Rome at +/- 12:30. So we had time to have lunch before taking the aeroplane.

We decided on a airplane company called FastJet and to book by Internet because they were suppose to be dirt cheap. At 75 euros each it was a very good deal, as you would think. It was not. It started real cheap but we realized that had made a mistake on the departure date. So we tried to cancel the registration and to redo it but the phone number given was no good and we could not find out how to do it on their Internet site. So we did the next best thing we changed the date from the 14th to the 15th and we were charged for that (50 euros). And now the price was jacked to 250 euros each instead of the original 75. Hook, line, and sinker, right ???

Next when we got to the airport, they are allowing only 1 bag per customer. So since, we each had a bag that was the admitted size, we still could not be allowed on because Sylvie had her purse and I carry a man bag when I go out. We managed to get my bag in my suitcase and we decided to only have 1 bag checked (30 euros). Anyway to make my story shorter...

e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g was extra...

Now that we know, next time I'm gonna wear everything I plan to bring on myself. 4 pairs of pants, 6 t-shirts, 2 jackets, 6 pairs of socks and 6 undergarments... They may weight the suitcases but they do not weigh us. It's just that I will walk funny !!!

Anyway we did manage to get to the Athens Airport and we were shocked to see that there was no frontier to cross. You just walk on because you are still within Europe. They only check you on the departure. Not so much for the passport and papers but for security reason. We sure are not used to this. Speaking of security I was surprise when they made me open my suitcase because I had stuff that the detector could not recognize. It was because I had 2 tablets and they kept telling me I had another ?!?!? Finally I remember having brought my GPS thinking it would be useful. But the kicker was when she also added that they wanted the small knife that was in my bag in the suitcase, even if it was a small 5 cm one they did not allow it on board no matter when I told them... My loss !!!

Then we took the Metro and we went to meet our guess at the designated Metro Station... More on that in the next Blog since there is sooooo much to say and see...

This time I'm going to post pictures of what the day in day out life of today's people in Athens. I will explain certain pictures and others are self explanatory... ENJOY !!!

Nota Bene: Sylvie has parked her own pictures here -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvienoel/sets/72157634337379964/

Here's a series of pictures showing the day to day life in Athens. What the streets and the people look like. It is as big as Milan, Rome, New York City, Toronto or Montreal.

English is present everywhere. We were told that Greeks learn English first and they learn Greek in School. But some time you see a sign and you cannot make out what it is even if you have Google Translate because we do not have ; rounds, squares and triangles.......

This was not the Best Buy that we know but at the corner it was the Starbucks that we do all know because of the over price cup of coffee with your name on it... For the Canadian people I'm sorry to report that their is no Tim Horton anywhere in Europe. Maybe I should start it here...

As far as Ruins goes it has a smorgasbord of rocks, columns and part of walls all over the city. We may not be real archaeologist but we do like to take pictures of old ruins... 

We paid to see a few but the majority you can take pictures of them from outside the sites.

 More scenes from the streets of Athens...

Recents posters that I saw near where we lived. I can't believe that the groups they were showing were the actual REAL ones... But then again, what do I know !

More ruins but this time it had a plaque and I did photograph the English part because the rest was Greek to me. 
I'm sorry ! I could not help it !! The devil made me do it !!!

You will see further that Athens has a galore of graffitis. 
I had found that one interesting.

More street views... When I saw this motorcycle I could not help think that the driver must want to be a badass but protected :-)

Voici l'extérieur du musée d'archéologie de Grèce. Les photos de l'intérieur feront l'objet d'un Blog à eux seules...

Le stade olympique qui a été érigé pour les premiers jeux de l'ère moderne sous Pierre de Coubertin.

On voit, ici, ou nous habitions à Athènes durant notre séjour sur la rue Solomou. L'extérieur ne paye pas de mine mais l'intérieur était confortable et spacieux. C'était parfait ! Le fait que tout est recouvert de graffitis montre qu'il y a quand même un certain charme et que le quartier est vivant. 

Wiki de >Melina Mercouri - Actrice - chanteuse - politicienne

Comme nous n'avions toujours pas de confirmation pour notre retour en bateau nous avons été chanceux car nous avons trouvé un de leur bureau par hasard. Nous avons bien fait car la réservation n'avais pas été faite.

On avait entendu parler du Marché d'Athènes comme quoi il fallait aller le voir. Et bien c'est vrai... C'est le plus gros Marché que je n'ai jamais vu. Il y a une section pour tout. Les viandes, les poissons, les épices et les noix, les tissus, etc. Gigantesque !

Le journal METRO est réellement Universelle. Je l'avais vu à New York en me disant que ce n'était probablement qu'en Amérique qu'ils existaient. J'étais dans l'erreur !

L'équivalent du Central Park de NYC.

Ben oui ! Ce que vous voyez c'est un perroquet sauvage. Il y en a beaucoup dans le parc. C'était un "Lifer" pour nous !!!

Et tout grand parc se doit d'avoir un zoo. Il y en avait un mais il faisait un peu pitié.

Encore une fois c'est tout du Grec pour moi !!!

Les prochaines images sont du quartier Français d'Athènes. Ce secteur n'est pas sous la jurisdiction de la Grèce et il semble y avoir beaucoup de gens qui y vivent. Le secteur est muré et sous haute surveillance. Les photos suivantes ont été prise de la bibliothèque française qui ferait palir la plus grand librairie française du Canada.

The Friday night, before we left, Vivianne from the place where we stayed, took us to a free concert on the grass. I love those. City Center and we listened to great classical, modern music  and even a Rock Group that was not bad at all... 

Sylvie et la gentille Vivianne qui s'est dévoué à nous rendre notre séjour agréable. Je vous aime......

To end this first part, I would like to finish with a troubling picture I took in Athens to make you understand that we, as Americans, we cannot fantome what the name of a business means like in this last picture.
Good luck finding what it is.........