Exploring Athens

Since today we didn't have much planned besides our class from 2:30 to 4:30, I tagged along with some of my classmates and my professor back into down town Athens. It was nice being able to with a smaller group this time (there was only six of us, compared to 19), and we were able to accomplish everything on our list and more :)

For our first visit of the day we went to visit the Kanellopoulos museum, the museum that I was assigned to gather research on and try to persuade the class to that it's worth going to, and I must say that I was slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it was a cool museum, and there were plenty of interesting ancient utensils, jewelry, and pottery, but only a small selection of items were available for viewing. As in there was this whole museum that I had researched and looking forward to getting to see all of it, but most of it was closed, *pout!* After being denied access to some areas of the museum, we asked someone at the front desk if the currently closed galleries would be open another day. And indeed they were. They told us it was because they didn't have enough staff to open up more than a few galleries at the same time, I guess that's the consequence you have to pay for free admission. 


Here in Greece, timing is a little different. There is no such thing as late night trip to the grocery store for a snack and there are definitely no 24 hour Walmarts here. Everyone goes by Greek time, and time is a much more casual matter here. What surprises me the most here is nap time. Everyday from 2-5 is pretty much when everything closes down, all the shops, all the museums, and even all the bakeries! Now there are some exceptions like in tourist places, people will usually stay open during that time because they can't afford to lose business, but for more local shops it's break time. Sometimes the stores close for good at 2 and don't open till the next day. There's something you won't find in the US, we're always open, even on Sundays!

Now comes the good part, omnom!  After exploring for a while our tummies were grumbling at us. As a group we decided that we wanted something small and inexpensive for lunch. Luckily we had an experienced Dr. Kaplan with us to take us to one best places in town. We ended up heading going to a small pastry kind of shop with lots of different pies. I ended up getting a spinach pie (I even ordered it in Greek), that was only 1.40 Euros! This was my first time trying out spinach pie, and it was quite scrumptious! While enjoying our cheap but delicious meals, we noticed some tasty looking dessert pictures on the wall. After a short discussion I already knew I wanted in. So I went back for round 2 but this time for a yummy dessert! I was also able to order this dish in Greek, but it back fires on me when the handsome Greek guy responded back in Greek. Luckily he also spoke some English and asked me sugar or cinnamon, I said both please! This time dessert was a really good cream filled baked pastry with a flaky crust topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon (mmmmm). I was even nice enough to share!

Once we all had happy tummies, we did a little more exploring. We stumbled upon some really cool looking graffiti and even a Greek version of a Dollar Store (pretty much the same cheesy stuff in this store that's in the US). After we found our way back home through the metro, we quickly got ready for class. Tonight we decided to stay in and we made yummy grilled bacon and cheese sandwiches. Hopefully they will fuel us for our exciting Greek Dance class tomorrow. And seeing how I'm not that great with my hand eye coordination, I'm sure it will be entertaining!