Adventures in Athens

Hello from Crete!

We are beginning the last leg of our journey and if things turn out as we anticipate, it will be a wonderful end. For now, though, I will tell you about our adventures in Athens. We had a real blessing on all three of our flights to Athens. We thought we would face paying excess weight charges again for our luggage, but that did not happen. The gate agent said nothing and checked all three of them straight through. In addition, all three of our flights into Athens had been upgraded to first class!!! We have no idea how or why things turned out this way other than God's hand was in it, so we just said thank you Lord and flew in comfort.

Greece is a country of approximately 11M people and nearly half of them live in Athens! This is not a joke, this is a fact. Athens is a very big, heavily populated city. We think perhaps this crowded atmosphere was the catalyst of the driving news we have to report. The only thing of interest here is the vast number of motorcycles on the streets. Maynard tried unsuccessfully to capture a video of how they all weave their way up to the front of the line at a stop light. When it turns green they all shoot out ahead of the cars sort of like a swarm of bees.

We also wanted to share the wide variation in gas prices we have seen in each location.

Turkey - $12/gallon
UAE - $1.20/gallon
Egypt - $0.95/gallon
Morocco - $3.50/gallon
Greece - $4.50/gallon

So, I guess I am grateful for US gas prices after all. Hmmmmm. I thought I wasn’t before we came on this trip, but unless we want to live in the UAE or Egypt we have it better than we thought.

OK. Back to Athens………..

Most of the time we have spent wandering the city, some on our own and some with a tour guide. The tour guide was really helpful for bringing all of the history into perspective. We saw the Acropolis, which includes the Parthenon, the Roman Theatre, the Theatre of Dionysos, Mars Hills, etc. It was really cool to stand on Mars Hill and imagine Paul making his defense on that very spot two thousand years ago. We also walked the ancient market. It was amazing to see all of this, but quite disheartening to see the vast amount of graffiti painted all over the city even in the areas surrounding these significant monuments of history.


Sheryl in front of the Roman Theatre with the Parthenon in the background


Maynard in front of the Parthenon


Maynard pretending he is Paul on top of Mars Hill


One of the most preserved ancient temples to the gods

We also saw the changing of the guard at both the Parliament and the Presidential Residence. The video shows what that looks like. Our guide told us it is a significant honor to be selected for this duty.





We did not go visit the Temple of Zeus, but the balcony of our room overlooked it so we saw it against a backdrop of mountains every day. I love this moonlight picture Maynard captured from our balcony.



I think perhaps my favorite aspect of Athens was the food. Every day I had some mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and feta – usually more than once. I ate them at breakfast and lunch or dinner. I LOVED eating the Greek flavors. And we were both so grateful to be able to eat and drink the water and food without concern after being in so many countries where we couldn’t.

The downside of this stop has been feeling the impact of the weakened dollar against the Euro in combination with higher prices than we experience in the US. This was pretty consistent throughout the city no matter where we were. We stopped at a seaside café on our last day and shared a delicious meal of chicken with mushrooms, salad, and two cups of coffee and it cost us the equivalent of $75! It was really wonderful food and sitting on an open deck overlooking the Mediterranean Sea was an amazing experience, but it was another expensive meal. It would have felt expensive regardless, but even more so in comparison to our last meal in Morocco which was quite nice and only cost the equivalent of $5 per person!!! It was another cultural whiplash moment.

Hope you have enjoyed this issue of the Belson Big Adventure Times. I guess there will only be one or perhaps two more issues before we put this reporter to rest. Stay tuned for next time!

Love,
Maynard and Sheryl