Popping my laundromat cherry...

DAY 3
I finally got a solid 6.5 hours of sleep last night and awoke to the wake-up call shocked that it was morning already. Although I’ve been sleeping in my compression socks (hi, I’m an old lady...but at least they’re cute ones), my legs were sore. J and I have been walking so much lately and it’s starting to take a little toll on my calves and feet, but we’ve gotta see and do as much as we can for now so I’ll live. 

After breakfast (where I finally had some delicious spanokopita) it was finally time for our Acropolis tour. Obviously the Acropolis is the premiere site here in Athens, so to be here two full days already and not do it was tough, but we had our scheduled tour today and were so ready to learn about The Acropolis and its history and significance. Our tour was early in the morning to beat the heat and the crowds as best as we could. We met our guide in the lobby and made our way to the Acropolis which, as to be expected, was pretty spectacular. The architecture, the history, and the enormity of it was absolutely incredible. Our guide, Kostas, was so knowledgeable and so nice and we were so happy that we had one for this site because we felt like we were getting as much out of it as possible and got to learn so much.  

Up at the top of the Acropolis, in front of the Parthenon, J and I saw a couple holding up the Cubs W flag proudly. We got so excited because J had hers as well and we ran up to them with it and immediately whistles started to blow and we were all getting yelled at. Apparently, flags of any sort are banned up there and it’s seen as being disrespectful. We felt bad about that and apologized profusely to our guide because if we had known this, we never would have taken it out. One of the Acropolis staff even thought someone in our group took a picture of us with the flag and demanded to see her phone and her pictures so she could delete them. It was a pretty intense reaction (big understatement), but I guess I understand it. And once again, if we had known that having flags of any kind was not allowed, it wouldn’t even had been brought. Lesson learned. 

Overall, going to the Acropolis and having a guided tour was pretty awesome and totally worth doing. He was so full of information and so happy to answer any questions we had. And we had a lot. We had seen so much over the last few days that we still had many unanswered in our heads (that we hadn’t already googled ourselves) that we did not hesitate to ask him. 

We left the Acropolis soaked in sweat AND of knowledge and headed back to the van and got a somewhat guided tour of Athens. J and I had already seen everything on this tour, but were happy to take in more information that we didn’t already know. We also stopped back at the Parliament to see the guards in their Sunday white uniform. It’s different than Monday through Saturday so we had to get a peak. Also, I never even realized there was a tomb of an unknown soldier there when we were there yesterday. I had just assumed they were guarding the palace. On Sundays at 11, there is also apparently a longer, more intricate changing of the guards, but we had missed that part, which we were actually okay with at this point. 

After the tour, we were dropped off at the city center and made our way to the Acropolis Museum. The line was kind of long, but actually moved decently fast by European standards. We moved through the museum pretty quickly starting on the third (and top) floor and making our way down. The museum had a ton of all the pieces of the Acropolis that were left behind, some restored and some not. There also happened to be some kind of hidden city or something that had been discovered under where the museum was built, so there were clear floors where you could see what had been excavated already. It was pretty cool. But other than that, lots more statues of Gods and Goddesses and lots more vases. Not surprising, this seems to be a thing here. 

From there, we grabbed a quick bite to eat (another awesome gyro) and then were off to our final destination of the day, the Kerameikos Archeological Site. Now that J and I are professional riders of the Athens subway system, we got a round trip ticket and made our way there super easily. The neighborhood where we got off the train (Gazi) seemed young with some fun looking bars and clubs (i.e., stuff you’d see in the States). When we finally got to the site, we were so hot and tired, but bought our entrance tickets and quickly went through their little museum of more of the same archeological stuff we saw yesterday and today and made our way to the actual site. It’s basically a burial ground from a very, very, very long time ago. There wasn’t great signange or placards providing us with information so we kind just made our own stories up. This place was underwhelming, but we felt we had to go because I had read about it and I didn’t want to feel like we missed out on any important sites while here, especially if we had the time. But it was so brutally hot out and we were so dehydrated and tired so we didn’t stay too long and finally trained it back to the hotel. As soon as we got there, we changed into our bathing suits and went up to the pool again. It’s so nice to have that option and just jump in and chill and refresh in the water. 

Now it was really into an adventure...we went to do laundry. Three days of very sweaty clothes and I was getting anxious of having them sit for the next two weeks. We were on a mission to find a laundromat. At the hotel, each piece of laundry is so expensive to get washed and I didn't feel like handwashing this stuff, so we did a little research and found a laundromat decently close to our hotel. Without internet access though (even though we screenshotted directions), it was a struggle to find the place with all Greek street signs (no English translations in this part of town...legit one block away from everything else), but luckily asked a very handsome man on the street to help us out. He pulled up his Google maps to help us out and led us in the right direction. After some nervousness of finding the place, we finally found it and got our laundry in. This was the very first time in my life I’ve used a laundromat. In all my 12 years in NYC, I always had a laundry room in my building so never had to use one. So of all places, Athens, Greece popped my laundromat cherry. I was just so relieved to have my clothes clean as we leave for the cruise ship tomorrow. Hopefully there will be access to washing machines there, but I’m not too hopeful. I’ve always hand-washed stuff in the bathroom sink on my other long European trips, but this time, I just felt it got sooo sweaty and gross, that I’d never feel like they were clean if I hand-washed it myself. I still may have to along the rest of this trip, but we shall see. I know I have enough clothes with me here, but the thought of some of these dirty clothes sitting in a bag for an extended period of time just grossed me out more than usual. What can I say? I’m kind of a neat freak when it comes to that stuff. 

We took a cab home from the laundromat and turns out we were given bad directions from the start and it was MUCH closer to our hotel than we walked originally. So if we go again when we return to Athens next week, we now know the short way there. We will most likely either send our laundry out to a service (which wasn’t an option today) or go back there. 

When we got back from laundry, we brought our clothes back and booked it to dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. We got tzatziki, spicy feta dip, Greek salad, and traditional mousaka. Everything was fantastic and we left super full and happy. In fact, every meal we’ve had here in Greece has been so delicious. 

Finally, we went back to the hotel to call it a night. It was the earliest we’ve been home these last three days. We had originally planned to go out, but were just fried from the sun and heat and walking all day. Tomorrow, we have the morning here in Athens and then head out to the cruise ship for the Greek islands and Turkey portion of this trip. So much more to see and do. And hopefully some beach time too!!