day 2 - athens

good night it is windy today! it actually sounds like cats hissing and screaming from inside the hotel! but my ventures out were awesome and athens has started to become magical to me :) i went to the national archaeological museum and it was unbelievable. so much to see and they close early on the weekends so i kind of had to rush through it a bit. here are just a few pics:

wall art from mycenea (sp?) i believe:


a siren (love those sassy sisters):


for erin - a sea goddess:


aphrodite, pan and eros:


i met a funny boy who worked at the museum cafe named eliah. we talked for a while and i got to say i am from new york for the first time. i know it sounds dorky but it was so exciting for me. the museum cafe is awesome, btw. they have these adorable nooks with white leather booth type seating. very modern, white and immaculate. the sandwich and cappucino were fantastic and it was really cheap.

i also saw this crazy open air market - they were slinging fish and meat everywhere. there were some pigs heads on a rope and the people were a little - um - saucy i suppose is a good word - with them. one of the pigs had a sausage coming out of it's mouth (i think i laughed out loud!) and the other was smoking a cigarette. everyone was yelling and it was pretty chaotic. but it was entertaining, to say the least!

i had to buy a camera bag and an alarm clock (given the wake up calls i'm getting aren't properly waking me up - i miss the westin and my many follow up wake up call requests!) the greek people have been very sweet - the guy in the camera store went above and beyond being helpful. he asked me where i was from and when i said new york he looked shocked. he told me i didn't have the ny accent and i just laughed and said i was raised on the west coast.

i'm going to wander over to plaka later for dinner and shopping if the wind dies down a bit.

MWAH!

tiff