Frolicking Among the Ruins; Athens, Greece

I can officially yell the word, "OPA," and guiltlessly eat blocks of feta cheese because, hey, we went to Greece, and I'm married to a Greek, which automatically makes me Greek, right?  YES.

This trip was spent admiring the ancient Grecian ruins, eating delicious food, and spending time with my husband's Greek family in Athens.  One of the oldest cities in the world, and the capital of Greece, this weekend getaway was a good choice. We also were able to share this weekend with T's sister who jetted over from France to meet us! I married into a culturally diverse family. 

And now, a little overview of our adventure!

Day 1:

After arriving in Athens and getting settled in our cute little Airbnb, T and I headed to spend the evening with his family!  Imagine My Big Fat Greek Wedding and you'll get a perfect vision of how our night went.  Lots of family members, hugs, loud conversation, and wine was the perfect way to start our night.  They wined and dined us at a traditional Greek restaurant they often frequent, so I was basically drooling in anticipation of this dinner.  Lamb, pork, chicken liver, greek salad, FETA, and the best tzatziki sauce in the world were just a few of the items we devoured that night.  We left full and happy, ready to start our full day of sightseeing the next morning!

Hipster pic.

 

For real though, look at Theo's uncle...second uncle? Too many relatives to keep up how they are all related...totally played a lead in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  

Day 2: Greek Ruins 

This day was jammed pack with sightseeing.  The Acropolis, Zeus Temple, Temple of Athena, Olympic Stadium just to name a few.  It was truly remarkable to see these structures, some dating back to the 5th century (500-401 BC).  I snapped roughly 78 pictures of the stray cats in Athens, but didn't get one good picture of the Parthenon.  

Odeon of Herodes theatre completed in 161 AD

View of the Temple of Zeus built between 472-456 BC

One of my favorite pictures from this trip, the Temple of Athena Nike built in 420 BC

Athena's sacred olive tree.  Legend says that Zeus presented a contest between Athena and Poseidon for the ownership of Athens.  During the battle, Poseidon smashed his trident on the Acropolis land and a salt spring was created while Athena produced an olive tree with thousands of  ripe olives.  The city is named Athens, can you guess who won?  The Athenians chose Athena's gift of the olive tree and from then on the tree became a symbol of Greece.  The olive tree above is not the original tree of Athena, but is believed that this tree was planted in the same place as the original.  

Greek Mythology rocks my socks.  

After we hiked back down from the Acropolis, we headed over to get a close up view of the Temple of Zeus.  

View of Acropolis from the Temple of Zeus 

Awkwardly posing with Acropolis 

And a few more pictures of the Temple! 

After checking out these ruins, we headed to the Panathenaic Stadium, which hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.  SO friggin' awesome.  This stadium was orignially built in 566 BC and has been renovated many times since.  It also holds the title of being the only stadium in the world built entirely by marble.  We walked through a super nifty exhibit about the previous games and saw many of the Olympic torches on display.  It was truly remarkable to see!  To finish our visit here, the three of us ran a lap around the track.  T ran it barefoot....no thank you. 

Last but not least, a few artsy pictures of the city.  Obviously including doors and plants because that's all I take pictures of.  And cats. Always cats.   

This was another amazing get-away to experience with family especially my sister-in-law.  I'm looking forward to getting back to Greece to explore the islands! Until then I will be dreaming of tzatziki sauce.  

OPA! 

Until Next Time, 

Always