Somehow these European nights become very late, very quick, but that's just how it's going to go when we walk around museums and ruins and busy streets all day long, and then hang out with other hostel folk for some of the night (usually waiting for the computer to be totally free), before we attempt to update this and our photo site. But we're trying to balance things, and it seems to be working well so far.
After our long first real day in Athens, we of course had to sleep in for a while, but that's the one thing we're not stressing at all: whatever happens happens during our travels, the winds of fate seem to be steering us in the proper direction quite well thus far. So, on Friday we once again went to the gyro taverna near here (we've been there at least 5 times now, the cheap good food, nice owner, and pleasant atmosphere have completely won us over), before continuing our Athenian exploration. With our pass from the Acropolis, which cost 12 euros each, 5 other archeological sites are also included, so we've been trying to check them out as well, particularly since we've already effectively paid for them. So we checked out one of those ruins right away, the Temple of the Olympian Zeus, which was once the largest temple in all of Greece, though of the 100+ columns only about 15 remain, one of which toppled in the 19th century due to a terrible storm. But the site is still impressive, the detail work at the top of the columns is particularly well-rendered, and the urban pollution has not affected it as much as the Parthenon. Next to that temple is Hadrian's Gate, built much later by the emperor Hadrian, but still an impressive entrance, though Hadrian himself was somewhat self-centered. To wit: the gate, which had been built before Hadrian's time, reads one on side, roughly, that it is the entrance to the city of Theseus (the mythological hero), and on the other side Hadrian added, this is the entrance to the city not of Theseus, but rather of Hadrian. Sounds like a great guy, huh?
Afterwards, we walked to the nearby Zappeion, a big semi-impressive government-looking building, which was really just on our way to the 1896 Olympic Games stadium, which seats around 50,000+ and was re-used for this past Olympics in Athens as the finish for the marathon. Next we wandered about the vast National Gardens, which were a bit wild looking (particularly compared to the immaculate Botanical Gardens in Amsterdam), but they had a lot of nice fish ponds, including one which featured at least 25 turtles swimming around and sunning themselves (well, alternating between the two activities), plus a very dirty petting zoo that our guide (Let's Go Greece - very helpful!) had warned us about. We'd decided that we wanted to climb the Lycabetus Hill, which is several hundred meters high, another of the 7 hills in Athens, in order to get a different view of the city, and also there's an old church at the top which was nice, though small, so we ate a quick meal at Everest, a restaurant chain here serving sandwich/pizza/pastries amongst other things, so it was tasty but a bit generic - though our ravenous hunger wasn't too offended at all, before heading up Lycabetus. It was a bit difficult to find the path up the hill, since it wasn't exactly marked, but fortunately a few others were headed the same way, so up we climbed, amongst a quickly changing habitat - giant aloe plants and cacti soon surrounded us on all sides as we made the ascent. The walk was rough on our sore legs, but nothing really too grueling, and we soon made it to the slightly windy top. We knew in advance that the church occasionly had weddings, but it seemed that a Christening or something had just occured, because there was a whole slew of well-dressed Greeks, taking photos, with 2 young girls seemingly at the center of the whole scene. So that was an interesting dichotomy, random international tourists taking pictures of Athens around Greeks taking pictures of themselves!
After relaxing for a little while, we realized that the sunset that we had thought would be worth waiting for was definitely going to be obscured by the clouds and smog (Athens is a dirty, dirty city in many ways), so we headed down before the light waned too much. We got a bit turned around whil trying to head back to our hostel, since Athens' many streets are definitely not set up on any sort of grid system, but after a few wrong turns and map consultations, we regained our bearings and headed swiftly in the right direction. After resting briefly, our hunger got the better of us, so we hit up our favorite gyro place again, for some food and some Mythos beers. A football match was on, so we watched a bit at our hostel, before settling in at the computer for some late night updating (a familiar theme for us currently).
Today, being Sunday, is definitely a day of relaxation for many Greeks, as the streets seemed a bit busier and the cafes as well, but we spent the majority of our day at the National Archeological Museum, which features many vast collections of ancient statues, vases, earthenware, as well as extensive funereal gold and other decorations, many dating back over 6,000 years ago. Greece is definitely regarded as an ancient cradle of civilization, and today it was very easy to see why. We saw gold masks from the Micanaeans, bronze statues of Greek and Roman gods, marble statues of dignitaries, and many artifacts from the famed Antikythera shipwreck, including the Antikythera Mechanism, an early copper device with gears (probably the earliest ever device of its kind) that was used to gauge the passing of time in regards to the seasons. In some ways a bit much to take in all at once (a different type of culture shock), but we endured through it all, even after our minds had reached maximum stimulation. We then enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a cafe near the museum that we had noticed while walking there, and we had a great lunch for only 6 euros for us both; a quarter of a chicken and some lamb-pattie sandwiches filled us up completely. We then headed to the Keramikos, the ancient cemetary of Athens (part of our Acropolis pass), but it was honestly not very exciting. The museum there featured a couple nice statues, but the site itself was somewhat overrun by grass, and a large section was roped off for some unexplained reason, and there simply wasn't all that much to really look at. But that's how it goes sometimes, so the highlight ended up being our watching nature at work when we stumbled upon a pair of frisky turtles. Turtles (as well as stray dogs and cats) seem to be at a lot of the ruins around here, but these two were pretty crazy, one kept nipping and headbutting the other... but it was a good break from all the culture, and we had a good laugh with some older Greek tourists who were there as well.
After that, we returned to Hostel San Remo (which is pretty far north from most of the ruins, though close to the archeological museum), hit up the gyro restaurant again (if you ate there, you'd be going back just as often, we promise you!) for a leisurely dinner, before hanging out at our hostel up until now, mostly chatting with a nice American we've met, named Peter, who has been living in Europe for the last 5 years, first studying in Norway and currently working in Holland as a translator. It's really too bad the hostelling phenomenon hasn't taken over America like it has the rest of the world, they are so affordable compared to hotels, and provide a unique international experience that is constantly changing. The next time you travel anywhere that has one, we really recommend you stay at a hostel for at least one night - they may be a bit rough around the edges in some ways, but they (at least so far) have all been clean, safe, and filled with lots of genuinely nice people all on differing global adventures of varying lengths. Most people that we meet are on shorter trips than our own, while some are just in hostels temporarily while looking for work, housing, or both, but everyone speaks English regardless of what country they come from, and the staff is always courteous and helpful. Since it's 3 a.m. it's prime time to get off the soapbox, but we'll keep you up to date as best we can, though we'll be travelling much of Thursday on our way to Cairo, Egypt.

Real quick, since it's late and we have to get up early to go to a museum, but our photo site has been mostly brought up to date (finally). The pictures we took with our disposable cameras our now labelled, though still out of order, and fresh pictures taken with our digital camera (having been repaired and then stuck in Spanish customs for a few days) from Greece are up, but not yet labelled. Have a good night, we'll post about our day today and whatever the future may hold soon!

Faithful readers: we're now in Athens, Greece, and we just experienced an unexpectedly fabulous night courtesy of the Greeks and their hospitality. But to learn about that, you must first read about our adventures in obtaining our package (and therefore our digital camera), which we have compared to "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle." If you haven't seen that movie, you're depriving yourself of a real treat, so stop reading, watch the film, and then continue:

Real quick, we did see a bunch of great museums in Madrid: the free secondary exhibit of the Thyssen Museum (featuring works by two Spanish painters); the simply massive Prado Museum - it features art, mostly painting, from 1100 - 1900, and has what must have been thousands of priceless works of art, as well as an incredible exhibit detailing new infrared painting-scanning techniques that enable the artist's initial drawings (underneath the paint) to be seen - which is simply amazing, not only for showing off their attention to detail and skill even in the preliminary stages of the painting, but also for the fact that one can see the various changes that are made - items not painted, or adjusted, or viewpoints that are changed; and lastly the Reina Sophia Museum, which features mostly modern art, though of all types from paintings to structures to things that we were quite sure are simply not art (white canvasses with solitary black lines, and monchrome canvasses lined up, for example), though tragically the majority of their Dali and Picasso paintings were closed for the day due to the temperature or something equally weak like that - which wouldn't have been too big a deal, accept those were the two artists we mainly went to see, and we weren't notified of that fact until after we'd already paid and tried to go the Picasso and Dali rooms - thoughtful...

We last left you late, late on our final night in Madrid, so after only about 4 hours (that's generous) of sleep, we awoke around 9 a.m. on Thursday, packed up all of our belongings, checked our email (which is more fun than you'd think when you're travelling), and tried, quickly, one last time to get our package from the local DHL drop-off point. Obviously it was not there, but after a call to DHL (fortunately the owner/main employee was very kind, he frequently called DHL on our behalf for free), we learned that our package was en route, but that information was of no good to us, since we had a 1 p.m. flight to London (& then on to Athens), and thus we headed to the nearest metro stop, which was fortunately right across the street. However, fate was on our side, since when we arrived at the British Airways counter, they informed us that our flight was going to be several hours late, and since we had a connecting flight (which we would therefore miss), we were actually going to be placed on their parter airline Iberia's direct flight to Athens. So that fact alone was great, since London was numerous hours of flight time out of our way, but the even better news was that our new flight was not until 6 p.m., which gave us several hours to attempt to hunt down our package. After a surpisingly good airport lunch (the baguette sandwiches are prime everywhere in Europe), we headed to the bus stop that we needed to be at in order to catch a bus to the cargo area of the airport, where the main Madrid DHL office is located. Once again, fate was on our side, since we had just missed the bus (meaning we had to wait about an hour), but right away an American guy from California arrived, and explained that he also had to go to the cargo area, and it was only a short walk and he could take us there in about 10 minutes. So after the walk, which was then followed by a visit to the wrong DHL office (business and personal packages are seperate, though apparently one is just supposed to know that), we got where we needed to be, only to discover that all the employees not only solely spoke Spanish, but they also spoke Spanish muy rapido. But we lucked out again (sensing a trend here?) and the only other customer there spoke fluent English, and was able to serve as a translator. After much discussion, and a few phone calls to the driver, DHL nicely arranged for our package to be dropped off at an actual DHL location, in downtown Madrid. We were going to have to take a bus, in order to get on the metro, but our kindly translator volunteered to give us a ride back to the airport metro stop, which was simply wonderful and saved us a lot of walking and hassle. And after our metro ride... we finally got our freaking package!
We'd like to note that the majority of the headache was not due to DHL, but rather the painfully redundant Spanish infrastructure, which somehow required a multiple-day customs approval-process; this was well verified by numerous people, including our translator who often sends packages for his work. Though, the mystery as to why they couldn't deliver the package on Wednesday, and also why they never ever called us, will never be answered, but all's well that ends well, right?
So if you're ever sending or receiving packages internationally, heed this advice: be patient, and don't box yourself in with a tight time schedule!
After much rejoicing we returned to the Barajas airport, wandered around for a bit before eating another round of sandwiches, and then caught our flight to Madrid. Our Iberia flight was quite nice, and we had a great dinner, though unfortunately despite our extreme exhaustion we weren't really able to sleep at all on the flight, but that's how it goes when the excitement of travel keeps you awake!
We arrived in Athens, then, right around 11:30 at night, grabbed our bags, and hopped on a waiting bus bound for downtown (since the Suburban Train, which would have been much faster and more direct, had already stopped service for the evening). The main station, Syndagma, is relatively near our hostel, but when it's past midnight in a foreign city, walking around looking like the tourists we are is simply not smart travelling, so after a brief search for our connecting bus (which was nowhere to be found), we simply grabbed a taxi. Of course our drive spoke no English, and we absolutely no Greek (Anderson's one Greek class in college was not only over 4 years ago, but was also in ancient Greek, which is just a bit different than what is spoken today), but fortunately that must be a common situation, since the driver called someone on his cell phone who acted as a translating go-between, and after a brief GPS-system search for the small street that our hostel is on, we were quickly on our way. The hostel wasn't far, and was exactly where it was supposed to be (thankfully), and after a nice sigh of contentment we paid what was due (though we backed down from our initial 7-night commitment, we're currently staying for 4 nights - through Monday morning, because we may want to head to Mt. Olympus for a 3,000 meter hike of "fun" :-), and headed to the European first floor to our room.
Despite our prior exhaustion, we hit it off wonderfully with our roommates (most hostel rooms are multi-bed, 4 in the current case), a couple from South Africa, Iain & Claire, on a similar around-the-world journey, though they were on their last night in Athens before heading to Turkey, Syria, Jordan, & Israel. Instead of sleeping right away, we ended up chatting about travelling, American politics, and life in America versus South Africa until the wee hours, which was a lot of fun. There is the possibility that we might also meet up in India, since they are eventually headed there after their time in the Middle East. We are rapidly discovering that the true joy of international travel, particularly involving the hostelling lifestyle, is that you must expect the unexpected.
After sleeping late (it's not like we've got work in the morning :-), we started our first day in Athens by heading to a nearby restaurant, recommended by Iain & Claire, which was not only amazingly cheap (5 euros for 2 gyros - which is pronounced like gyrate, for the record - and a bottle of Coke), but also delicious, and with an English-speaking proprietor. Not that we want to be culturally-insensitive, but gesturing and mispronounciation can sometimes only take you so far! After a brief stop back at our hostel, which is quite nice, just like all the others we have stayed at thus far, we started our Athenian experience the right way, by heading to the massive Acropolis, where many ruins of Ancient Greece still lie in surpisingly good condition. Walking through Athens is a little crazy, the traffic is typical European, death-defying jaywalking is inevitable, and tiny shops chock full of unusual wares are seemingly everywhere, but on our way we took care of a few needed errands: getting some stamps, cashing a few traveller's checks, replacing Anderson's sunglasses (two pairs lost already...), grabbing a map of Athens, and getting some much needed water (which is finally affordable - 1.5 liters for only a euro), before walking up the steep hill at the Acropolis' base.
It seems that all of the ancient ruins here, as though suffering from the passing of two millenia and numerous conquering invaders weren't enough, are also suffering from the ravages of modern pollution, so many parts of the white marble are lined (usually underneath) with a fine layer of seemingly permanent black soot. Of course, it's not soot at all, which is rather depressing, but it does the seem that the Greek government is putting out tremendous efforts (perhaps the stimulation of the economy from the 2004 Olympics has helped) to re-restore things. Most ruins have been restored several times over the ages, but the restoration techniques of the present day have a bit of an edge over the 1840s, so much of the general Acropolis is under construction, but that doesn't really infringe on being a tourist, it just means there are stacks of miscellaneous marble all over the place.
Enough about restoration though, the Acropolis itself is incredible, with its view of modern Athens alone being quite impressive, but the major buildings (Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, Theater of Dionysus, etc.) were amazing feats of architecture in their day, and even though that was over 2000 years ago, the detail in craftsmanship on such a massive scale is simply stunning. There is also a nice and extensive museum, included in admission (as are 5 other major historical sites, to be seen by us over the weekend), that features many items too precious to be left to the elements (natural and man-made). The whole area is made of fine white marble, so the paths are slick from years of wear, and the hilltop practically shines under the sunlight. Not trying to exaggerate here, but pictures simply do not do justice to this ancient marvel. After wandering around, and happily taking pictures once again (!), we headed down the hill's backside, and wandered about a large park full of walking paths for a while, which also featured a few ancient ruins, including the remnants of one of the world's oldest roads, as well as a monument to a 2nd century A.D. Roman ruler, the Filopapou. We were actually trying to locate Socrates' Prison, which even though it was on our map is apparently invisible or something, but we will probably try to locate it again tomorrow - being Philsophy majors it seems appropriate!
We stopped at a nearby crepe shop, intending to share a crepe merely to tide ourselves over for dinner, but it ended up being so massive that it pretty much filled us up, making that two cheap and tasty meals in Athens thus far. We were then headed back to our hostel, though we decided to take the shorter, and more fun, route, involving cutting through side streets in the correct "general direction," and since we had worked up a bit of a thirst, when a man across the street at a bar gestured at us to come over, we assumed he was a proactive employee and took him up on the offer. After our beers came, it quickly became apparent from talking to him (in English obviously, though his thick Greek accent at times made things just a little difficult to discerne), that he was actually just a customer hanging out there. However, he was an older gentlemen (we seem to attract them, probably Liz's doing), and it's always nice to chat with local people, so that really didn't matter. After finishing our Amstel's he invited us to walk down the street to a different establishment, which we understood as being where he was headed anyway. So now of course a bit of sketchiness enters the picture, but we decided to go with the flow, ready to make haste if necessary. When we arrived at a cafe just down the street, it immediately became apparent that he was actually its owner, and that he had just been relaxing down the street. This is where the Greek hospitality enters the picture, as we were treated like royalty by him (Vasili is his name we discovered) and his fellow 60-something male Greek regulars. Despite our numerous requests to pay for our drinks, and a denied attempt to treat everyone to a round of ouzo, Vasili insisted on giving us all our Amstel's on the house, along with several tapas plates: peanuts, fresh apples, and plums. As though that were not enough, one of his friends, after buying us a round, also ordered a delicious cabbage dish and bread for our dinner. We were simply overwhelmed by everyone's unprovoked kindness and generosity, and we were really not sure how we could reciprocate. But we chatted away, listened to all sorts of traditional Greek music, and thus we got to experience a genuine Greek night out. He had mentioned dancing a bit, so we decided that dancing would be at least some sort of minimum repayment, and so we found ourselves dancing at a Greek cafe to the delight of a bunch of clapping Greek gentlemen. After we had finished, we were treated to some traditional Greek dancing by several of Vasili's friends, which was interesting to watch, and a plate was even broken (a Greek tradition during dancing). It ended up being an amazing experience, and we have already decided that we are definitely going to go back in a few days to actually pay for a proper meal at his cafe.
Now we are back at our hostel, which is called San Remo by the way, but since it is now about 3 a.m., we have got to go to bed, since there is yet another day of adventures awaiting us. Oh, and the next time you're at a Greek restaurant, don't hesitate to order a gyro, but just remember there's no need to pronounce it 'your-o'!