Athens, Greece

Before we came here, everything Roy and I read about Athens seemed unnecessarily harsh- that it was crowded, polluted and kind of a sh**hole. But as seasoned, open-minded backpacking hippies, we turned up our noses at those obviously narrow-minded, xenophobic reviews and pooh-poohed them all. And I'm glad that we did, because now that we're here, I have to say, I think Athens is....kind of a sh**thole. It's really crowded, polluted, and mother of God- SMOKY AS HELL (I was blowing out black snot for days and convinced I had coal miner's lung until I read in our Lonely Planet guidebook that Greece leads the European Union in the number of people who smoke).

Thankfully, aside from the underwhelming appearance of the city, everything else has been dynamite.

Flight(s) over? Timely, quiet and seamless (fellow hippies will be impressed to know that we fit over 2 weeks of clothes/toiletries/shoes in one single large backpack that we didn't even have to check in)!

Weather? Either overcast or cool each day. It's rained every afternoon/evening, but by then Blueberry's Mama is already snuggled in bed reading a cheesy true crime novel that keeps her up half the night in fear...prompting Roy to tell her to throw those damn books away (but that we all know she is too cheap to do).

Food? Dear lord...the absolute best, ever!!! Souvlaki! Gyros! Moussaka! Greek yogurt! I can't stop eating!!!

The sights? We have greatly enjoyed seeing Lyvatikkis Hill(sp?), all the main sites of the Acropolis/Parthenon, the backalleys of Plaka, the Olympic stadium of the first modern Olympics (marble seating for 70,000?! Cool!!!), the changing of the guards at Parliament (men in skirts and little poofy black bedroom slippers marching around with guns), etc.

The hotel? Divine. It's clean, beautiful, in the heart of town, near a million great restaurants and affordable (while it also happens to be somewhat near a few prostitutes and drug dealers... this could end up being pret-ty darn convenient should we decide to have a few 'friends' over for some 'cocktails' on our last night here).

Today we booked our onward tickets to a little village in Central Greece where we hope to shlep up to a montastery perched atop a beautiful cliff and spend a night there. From there we catch a train again and spend a night in Thessaloniki before taking the overnight train to Istanbul (we have our own little compartment for that segment, which thrills me because I love nothing more than overnight train travel)!!!

Toodles!