Notes From Abroad: Athens, Day 2

 

On our second day in Athens, G still wasn't feeling great.  Fr G took Little M to the Agora in the morning so she could see a little of what we'll be studying for our ancient history stream and Plutarch's lives this school year.  Especially important to me for her were the ostracon in the museum there.  She was a little less enthused, but I hope that having her undivided philologist PhD father's attention helped cement the Agora in her imagination.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures to document their morning.

After lunch, we decided G was feeling well enough to make a jaunt to the Archaeological Museum.  We wandered through the galleries, and he found places to rest along the way.  Little M and I were fascinated, not only by the collections, but also by the artists who were sketching different artifacts.  I resolved to work more to hone my artistic skills.

High on everyone's list of places to visit was a little comic book store near the university.  The sky had clouded (unheard of in Athens in the summer!) but the heat was still pretty intense, so we paused at a bar filled with students on our way to the shop and ordered refreshing drinks.  G and I loved the spicy ginger beer available, and T ordered his favorite again.  Fortified, we descended upon the tiny shop and began pulling books off the shelf, to the consternation of the shopkeeper.  I could see him cringe as my kids pulled down Τεντέν and Λούκυ Λούκ and Άλιξ and Αστερίξ, and he would hastily rearrange the shelves as they paged through their choices.  It wasn't until he realized that we were actually purchasing what we were holding (and we were holding a LOT of books) that he started recommending different titles to Fr G.  We left with several hefty sacks to lug back to the apartment. 

But our day wasn't over!  Looking at the overcast sky and appreciating the slight breeze, Fr G and I thought it was a good time to climb the Acropolis. The kids and I jumped off the Metro a stop early to wait for him to drop off the books.  The kids were already complaining about our unexpected detour to the Acropolis; making the trip to the top with pounds and pounds of books would have been too much.  I got the kids some ice cream to enjoy while we waited for Fr. G, and then we were ascending the slippery, worn marble to the top.  When Fr G was last there, in 2023, he said the line was insane and the heat intense.  This time, there was no wait, and the heat was bearable, thanks to the cloud cover.  I couldn't believe the changes!  Despite the permanence of the Parthenon, the reconstruction was much further along than the last time I was there.  The scaffolding had largely disappeared, too.  

By now, though, G was beginning to feel poorly again, so our stay at the top was shorter than normal.  All the pictures I took have my children's faces in them, so I have fewer to post from our time there.  After a quick view of the Areopagus, I walked home; Fr G and the kids rode the Metro, with the four tickets we still had after I lost one.  We had a quiet dinner in, and lots of rest for the exhausted kids.