Greece: Day Five (Athens)

Today was a late sleep-in day. We didn’t even get out of our room until 11am! We are on vacation after all! We started our day by taking a taxi over to Syntagma Square and visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Kaleigh and Ashlyn were ecstatic about ALL OF THE PIGEONS nearby and so we bought official Athens pigeon-feeding food for them. (Ok, ok…so it was a lady sitting at a table selling pigeon food for 1 euro…nevermind the fact that we had perfectly stale bread that we brought from the hotel in our backpack. Pigeons deserve better, right?). The police then shooed all of us back to the sidewalk because the Changing of the Guard was about to take place and there was evidently also a marching band and a group of soldiers headed our way.


After all of this excitement, we walked down to the National Garden and enjoyed more pigeons, yet again! Then we went off in search of the playground and a duckpond. The only problem was that all of the signs were in Greek…so it was all Greek to us…ha ha! We took the middle road (like the rest of the world) and wound up right where we wanted to be. Kaleigh and Ashlyn bolted into the playground and were at first overwhelmed by the sheer number of children playing there. They quickly found the swings and we played there for about 30 minutes before asking to find the duck pond. We next found a turtle pond where there must have been about 50 turtles. While we never found the duck pond, we did find what we think was some type of small zoo…there were different fenced in areas with peacocks (and pigeons), roosters/ducks/chickens (and pigeons), donkeys and small goats (and pigeons), and finally…pigeons. Did we mention that we saw some pigeons? We think that some of these pigeons have actually eaten other pigeons.


After a substantial amount of time in the park, we walked down to The Plaka for some lunch. Lisa ordered a small plate of souvlaki…Dwayne some grilled octopus (very common dish here in Athens), and the girls had spaghetti noodles sans sauce. We had planned to do a little souvenir shopping, but Ashlyn declared she was tired…which is something she rarely admits to…so we took a break and went back to the hotel. That break turned into an over 2-hour nap for Kaleigh, Ashlyn, and Dwayne. It was much needed rest for everyone. We spent the rest of the evening back down in the Plaka area…shopping and stopping for dinner at a terrific little Greek restaurant that promised live music! Dwayne bought Lisa a beautiful contemporary painting depicting the Mother and Child that Lisa really liked for the expression and colors used in the painting. Today Lisa officially has earned her Master's degree from Hollins University...so it was a little bonus gift for Lisa (other than the trip to Greece!).