Day 2 -Athens

I was woken this morning extremely early only to find that there really was no reason. We wandered through Kifissia and found a small bakery where we got some sausage rolls for breakfast. After we quickly hopped on the Metro and traveled very far, we reached the Acropolis! The first exciting site we saw was the Theater of Dionysous. It was incredible. In fact, it was so incredible I don't know what to say about it besides that it was incredible. Next we hiked farther up the Acropolis where we marveled at the massive ancient Stoas. When I asked if I could climb on one of them Elisabeth replied, "Sure, it's not like it's ancient history or anything." Then dad found the perfect oppertunity to add his joke of the day and said "Emily, NOA STOA!!!!" LOL! We then continued even more up the Acropolis until we reached the famous gate! It was so amazing I once again don't have an adjective. Past the gate was the PARTHANON!!!!!! Even though you have probably read about it and thought WOW! It is even more WOW in real life! Also on top of the Acropolis was the old Temple of Athena and the famous olive tree. After we found our way back down the hill, we found a quaint, family owned, greek restaurant for lunch. Then we did some shopping. Mom saw a shop that was underground and made us enter. We soon found out that the man we had been talking to was the maker of the pots that mom was extremely interested in. We all had to pick out one for our rooms, and help her decide on which one to get for her. This process took appoximatly one hour and fifteen minutes. Subsequent to this little rampage, we stumbled upon Hadrians arch and the Temple of the Olympian Zeus. Zeus's temple was stupendous!!! Only fifteen of the original columns still stand today, but even only with these few, it is possible to imagine how massive the temple must have been. Then we realized that we only had thirty minutes to get to the changing of the guard at the Parliament building, or we would have to wait another hour. We pushed, shoved, squeezed, asked, and finally arived with ten minutes to spare. The changing of the guard would have been overrated had the outfits not been so entertaining. So, overall it was worth it. We were all very tired but dad thought that we would explore more of the local area and joined in at one of the festivals. We wandered down a long, narrow street to dads enjoyment and our misery. As we went through the street I stopped and got some roasted chestnuts, (I tryed them for you Nikki, since you couldnt believe I had never even seen one). I liked the taste better than the texture. We then finally and tiredly made our way back to Kifissia on the, what seemed like, neverending Metro ride. We ate at an italian restaurant and then went to see Maraisa, our greek friend who works at Starbucks. She loves us, and knows what we like so we don't even have to order. Now, we are back at the Claasens house, I am so tired so I'm gonna have to go to bed. Until tomorrow!