July 3 Athens after 40 years

 We’ve arrived in Athens: from a 5 Star lux hotel to 2.5 Star hostel in a mere 12 hours. I’ve been transported back to backpacking here in the 1980s with my darling kids, such fantastic brave travel companions. 

Almost 40 years ago with Anne-Marie and Nathan. They were so cute (and I was sooo much thinner!) 

We were rag-tag lotus-eaters living for a time in Elysium (on the sniff of an oily rag most of the time!). Of our six months wanderings, we spent over 4 marvellous weeks in Greece. So now for me, 40 years later, there’s so much to explore, so many memories to revisit, so much to share with Lindsay in this wonderful City of the Violet Crown.

View from the rooftop  of our hotel including the Acropolis

This morning (after not enough sleep last night - 1st night weirdness plus), Lins and I strolled the local streets around noon looking for food and generally sticky-beaking into tiny shops standing cheek by jowl spilling their goods far out onto the sidewalks - one could buy just about anything there from tools to bedding, from antiques to travel goods. We then dropped into an oh-so-typical local Greek souvlaki hole-in-the-wall to eat. I ordered a glass of local wine (not retsina, they’d run out!), which turned out to be more schooner-sized, and a pork gyros; Lins a beer and Greek sausage. Delicious. 

Loads of nuts

Sweet yummies then bin after bin of all sorts of olives

My ‘glass’ of wine came out in a filled to the brim ‘tankard’ with shot glass

That night we had a welcome drink of Mastika, a liqueur from the resin from the mastic tree, a small tree native to the Mediterranean region. Supposed to taste a bit of pine but it tasted fruity to me. It’s supposed to be drunk at the end of a meal but we had it with ice and soda, rather refreshing. It is claimed to have medicinal properties and to aid digestion - I’m about to go eat dinner!

 “City of light, with thy violet crown, beloved of the poets, thou art the bulwark of Greece.”

 (C5 BC poet Pindar).  A wonderful first day!