Great to be in Greece!

Our worst transit plan involved missing the shuttle and pushing our two suitcases uphill for a mile in Positano (they are rather heavy—four people for a month), taking a nauseating bus for an hour to Sorrento, taking an unairconditioned train for over an hour to Naples. It was the hottest day of our trip yet—it was the middle of the day and we were feeling the mid-90s temperature. Here we had a fun, hot break with friends that gets its own post later! Then it was back onto a train to Rome, then another train down toward the airport and a walk to our hotel, a few hours of sleep, a 4:45am cab ride to the airport, flight to Athens, another cab ride to our place in the city, and here, finally, thankfully, we got to check in early—hallelujah. Unsurprisingly, everyone was grouchy. The kids were homesick for the kittens, and we were all tired of schlepping our crap around.

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Chris’ huge bag is for himself. My huge bag is for both kids and me. Chris is not a light packer.

“I think we should have hired a driver to take us back to Naples,” I said to Chris. “It’s simpler to just have the two big bags, but I think next time I’d have the kids bring their own so it won’t be so heavy.” “The real problem is too much stuff,” said Chris. “I’m finally coming around to your way—next time I’m going to pack less.” Here I said nothing and sat in shocked silence. He repeated this view later. Amazing. People can change.

Anyway, so we were kind of dazed and groggy when we left the hotel a few hours later after an “I didn’t come to Athens to sit in a hotel!” speech. The wall of 100-degree heat was almost tangible.

We walked around the acropolis museum first to let it cool off a little more outside. Here I learned the obvious information that Athens, or Athena, is named for the goddess Athena, whose seated statue occupied the Parthenon in the Acropolis, that recognizable icon you can see from everywhere in the city. Now this seems laughably obvious, but I never thought about it before.

From up on the Acropolis, you can see clear to the coast on one side and the mountains all around. Athens is a beautiful city! Cyprus and pine scents on the breeze replaced Italy’s jasmine. The air above the city shimmered in the heat—light blue, white, gold, stone.

The touristy Plaka neighborhood around most of the tourist sites is extremely clean and charming with cafes and shops selling stuff I didn’t know I wanted. Sun-bleached stones worn smooth underfoot let you look down at your (new leather Greek) sandals and imagine yourself 2500 years ago, trading olive oil and rumors about the coming Persian invasion.

Isaac and Eloise scrambled around on Mars Hill, where Paul spoke to the people of Athens. Isaac was making goofy faces whenever I asked him to smile, so I asked him how many smiling photos is reasonable to ask for each day, and he agreed to smile for five.

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Piano music drifted over the slopes of the Acropolis as a pianist warmed up for tonight’s concert. I think Chris is planning a future trip to Greece just to get to go see something in that amphitheater. We, unfortunately, had to eat dinner, so we joined the rest of the people taking their before-dinner stroll, bought the kids some roasted corn from a street vendor, and found a souvlaki place. My memories of the summer I spent in Cairo are the smell of jasmine, roasted corn, and that funky smell of spilled stuff baked onto hot pavement at the end of the day. Here in Athens we enjoyed the corn without the street funk (for now).

As the day darkened, we ate our first Greek food with the Acropolis lit up behind us against the night sky. Everyone loved what they ordered for once, and the weariness of transit gave way to the excitement of being introduced to a new city—that moment when you know you’re really going to get along well!