Greece: Churches, Cemeteries and Random sites around Athens...

So rather than creating a huge long blog post with the photos of Athens I figured I would break them up into sections. There was Random Photos from Athens, Olymic Stadium and Changing of the Gaurd, soon there will be the post from the Acropolis, but I had a bunch of pictures from random sites around Athens that I feel are must see's if you do come to Athens for a couple days. So I grouped them appropriately.

Enjoy!

This first statue is a lesser known statue but is interesting. It is made from a bunch of broken pieces of glass. It is relatively near Lycabettus so we headed here then we were going to hike up Lycabettus Hill; however it took us a little longer to get downtown due to tram works (imagine that) so we ended up saving the hill for another day when we had more time...







If you walk around Athens especially around the Plaka (central shopping) area - you will eventually run into one of the MANY old churches that roads have been built around. Here are a few pictures of a couple different ones we happened upon.







Athens also has a huge cemetery and whenever Josh and I travel we love walking through cemeteries. I know it sounds weird, but it is really interesting to see how different cultures view death and set up cemeteries. Unfortunately we didn't spend too much time here, we had been walking around all day and so I was pretty worn out, we said we would come back, but unfortunately ran out of time.

Here are a couple monuments that we saw here. Can you believe these are at a cemetery?











Here are a few pictures of different historical sites that you find around Athens.

First up - Temple of Zeus Athens









View of the Acropolis from the Temple of Zeus



An ancient love seat that Josh found – Josh made me include this - oh the things I do for love :)



Hadrian's Arch which leads into the Temple of Zeus - this view is looking back at the Acropolis.



An old theater near the Acropolis





The Ancient Agora, one place (other than the Acropolis) I really wanted to go see, fortunately the day before we left we were able to pop in for a look.





And this is why I wanted to visit this site... I wanted this picture (yep I am a dork :)

Greece: Athens - Olympic Stadium and Changing of the Guard

So, although I have blogged previously about both the changing of the guards and a soccer match at the olympic stadium here are a few pictures that didn't make those last posts.

While we were there as many of you know there was some unrest. One night when we went down to see the changing of the guard, there was a protest that was taking place. I snapped this photo, just before I got yelled at by one of the police men.

Greece: Random Athens Adventures

Well I am finally getting around to finishing the sorting of our pictures from Athens. Being there for 2 months you tend to collect a lot of photos and I am realizing most of them people really won't care to see :)

Anyway - here are the random photos from Athens - they were accumulated by both Josh and myself on our walkabouts in the city.

Enjoy!

Ha - so as Josh and I were watching the sunset from Lycabettus Hill the night before we left Athens, we noticed the soldiers come out to take the flag down. So I thought - oh this picture would be so cool so I specifically went to the spot I am in for the picture, then the soldier decided to come and stand right in front of me. At first I was pissed, I mean - really - I am sure he saw me there with a camera, not like I have a small point and shoot or anything, then I realized - HOLY CRAP - what a great shot.

I must say I am extremely grateful that he came and stood right in front of me - kind of made the photo.









Those blue doors are the Irish pub that we found... At least this one had Guinness, although they didn't know what a Poor man’s Black Velvet was...
Ha - I was on a work call when I took this one - the joys of working abroad.



Josh was waiting at the bar.







We were bored waiting for the train (which is different than the metro we found out a month in a half into our time in Athens)







Best patio idea ever... there was this house that we used to run by in Athens and they had this front patio that used grape vines for shade. LOVE IT!



World cup fever - we snapped this the first week of world cup. All the kids were out paying soccer.



Backgammon was EVERYWHERE! It was great - every park you would go into you would see a group of older gentleman sitting around a table playing backgammon. So of course I had to sneak a picture.







Once our parents got to Athens we found this great little Tabepna (Taverna in Greek :) I loved this booth in this restaurant. Sorry - can't remember the name of the place (I should remember to take pictures of the names of places I go eat. Note to self for next trip) OH - PS - first time using my new lens (woo hoo - you will see more in later posts that do it more justice)













Like this one... This is of the Monastiraki station square - new lens is 16-32mm f2.8. Unfortunately it only worked on the f2.8 when I got it, but I was able to hobble through the rest of the trip and have since gotten it repaired from Canon (which was very surprisingly easy and quick)





This was a Tabepna we found in the Plaka (main shopping area around the Acropolis) which was so charming - we had live entertainment and the food was really good... Again - don't remember the name sorry.