Greece Day 1: Athens and the Acropolis!

Hello again from Piraeus! So, I should say that even while we aren't 100% satisfied with the apartment, our view can't be beat:

This morning, Sarah and I found the metro (a 20 minute walk away) and took to to the Acropolis! It was pretty cool. What was even cooler was that even though the internet and the ticket booths' signs all indicated that the cheapest we would be paying for a ticket as students was 6 euros, every single historical part of the Agora we entered was completely free with our student visas! So that was already a good start to the day. The first thing we visited was Hadrian's Library. 

(This looks like an oil stain, but it's actually all that remains of an 11th Century fresco on the wall of Hadrian's Library). 

Then we hiked the looong trail up the hill to the Parthenon! Verdict: pretty impressive, even though it's covered with scaffolding.

Observation #1: The dog culture in Athens is incredible. While there are many cats (I took about 10 different photos of Sarah petting different cats), there are a LOT of dogs sleeping everywhere. They have collars (so they aren't strays), and we even saw a bunch of them that apparently climbed alllll the way up to the Acropolis, just to take a nap with a good view. It's so strange!

Observation #2: People in Athens are very nice. Sarah bought some shoes that she was obviously willing to pay full price for because she was really excited about them and she handed the full amount of money over right away, but the people who owned the place instantly gave her some of the money back. And when I found a copy of Othello in Greek and was about to hand over the amount written on the cover, the bookstore owner told me that I could have it for half the price. So that's something I obviously like about this place.


Tomorrow: An island or two!