Monday, September 28, 2009

Athens, Day 1, Historical Greece...

oh my goodness, Athens is so cool. honestly i was not sure what i thought about it right when we got off the subway at Syntagma Square, but once we got to Monastiraki Square, got a gyro for only 1.80 euros, and then to the flea market, i was fine. (Found all these cool things that i am going to make into necklaces, lots of haggling!)
then we started our adventure up to the Parthenon and all the ruins. we were so fortunate to be able to go on National Tourism Day, so it was free. of all the days in the year! it was so cool. matt got lots of great photos and i did too! it was so windy though. at one point i thought i was going to blow off this one plateau for sure! so much for trying to look good for photos! oh well, i guess it is just about being there. it was a lot of fun. then we went to Anafiotika. it was this little village under the Acropolis that resembled an island village. white washed streets and tons of cats. at one point we spotted 13 on a rooftop.
then we walked through the Plaka and enjoyed shopping around and eatting at a nice little cafe on the sidewalks of the Plaka.

Hotel Niki!

Monastiraki Square

Acropolis grounds...



Matty shooting!

us in front of the Parthenon. taken by some friends we met up on the "windiest place on earth!", who were honeymooning from Boston and we ended up seeing them at our hotel later on. they were leaving Athens to go to Mykonos, Santorini and Crete the next day! WOW! what a honeymoon!

the view!

Herodes Atticus Theater

detail showing marble restoration!

Dionysos Theater


my new friend! there are dogs just wondering around everywhere. i loved it b/c this guy made an effort to come ALL THE WAY up to the acropolis. not an easy task, to chill. he just slept and slept!

matt making fun of me since i was taking a picture of the street dog, with the Parthenon behind me! what can i say?


very windy hilltop we stood up on!

New Acropolis Museum, FREE for National Tourism Day, just like the Acropolis was!!!

cute little greek booties. matt wanted them him his size.

the first of many cat encounters!


holy cow, we spotted like 13 in this one area!

Anafiotika

red geraniums again for Euince!



perfect ending to our first night in Athens!

Acropolis at night!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

last day in Paris...

what a day. i cannot believe we are going to be in Athens, Greece, TOMORROW! it is all flying by too fast! i guess, what do you expect when you pack so many big stops into 2 1/2 weeks. but we would not have changed it for anything. this sampling of Europe is more than we could ever have asked for! so glad we planned it and executed the adventure that is among us!

caffe creme for "take away" (and matt got a hot chocolate) THEY WERE TINY!

we savored every sip! you had too...

Puces St. Ouen Flea Market, kinda crazy getting there, but well worth it. they had so many great treasures.

this stall was awesome. all the treasures were from closed-down toy factories in France. so they were these odd trinkets in masses. ode to Brian Neal Sensabaugh!!! He would have LOVED this shop!



eye balls...

Pierre (aka matty's souvenir)

matty being matty!!! :)

Native American Indian Headress! SO COOL! $2000 EUROS. I WISH I COULD HAVE THIS ON DISPLAY IN MY HOME. I LOVE ALL HEADRESSES!


me looking through First Day stamps

Lovin' it! stamps



awesome crane

awesome bobble head cow. 135 euros! yikes. should have been 30 and we'd have boughten it...to go with our other white square body cow.

sacre coeur

Montmarte

Pigeons loving the view all nestled in for a nap!

C'est Paris! (this is Paris)

Italian Gelato in le gran Paris!

Moulin Rouge

Eiffel Tower again

and again!

"french" kissing! check out the old lady trying to ignore or just totally used to it by now!

chillaxin' SORE FEET!

view from the park where we took a breather before dinner!

checkin' out my paper treasures!


The Hawthorne's do Paris!