Day 2 in Greece...too much

After a late start, we head to the Archeological Museum where we find a stunning but exhausting collection of art and stuff from prehistory through the classical Greece ages. Around nearly every turn, Dr. M would gasp..."my god, I've seen a picture of that statue all of my life...here it is!" We dug the Cycladic statues, with their stylized portraits of folks, but got really blown away by the mask of Agammemnon, and assorted shiny stuff. Unlike Cairo and Naples, the museum here is organized and everything is presented beautifully (lit very well for the photos!) It is all too much to catalog here, but take my word for it, it was worth the 7 Euros and bucket of sweat it took to get us in.

A mediocre lunch (in a hip spot that attracted us because it was equipped with electric fans that spewed mist...but it featured a post-modern "Greek salad," served without Kalamata olives or cucumbers...thus it was not a Greek salad) was followed by a trip to the Agora, where we once again walked in the footsteps of Socrates, et al., climbed up to the Temple of Hephaistos (where Leslie confessed a very personal secret and cried), and onward through the complex of ruins spread out beneath the Acropolis. (For those not in the know, the Agora was where the Greek folks conducted their business--shopping, paying taxes, eating--and where Socrates, Leslie's hero, pissed people off by arguing with them. Not unlike Leslie. Then, if they wanted to pray, they headed up the hill to the Acropolis to the temple of Athena Nike (they could also catch the latest show at the Theater of Dionysus up on the hill). And justice was rendered over on a neighborhing hill above the Agora, the Aereopagus, where the first murder trials were held. Great stuff.

Leslie hauled my sagging ass all around the Plaka, the old district, for some authentic tourist souvenir shopping. Some real crap, some of which he bought (a white Socrates head and a nasty calendar).

We headed back to our ouzo bar once night fell...Leslie ever hopeful that the most beautiful woman in the world would return...with or without her new husband. Of course, she didn't show, so we drowned his sorrow in Greek beer and Greek wine and, dare I say, absinthe (licorice to the hilt), and argued with some American college boys about some unmentionable American vernacular.

Because he was lit with absinthe, Leslie consented to return to my favorite little Greek taverna. Tonight was a much greater success...he had pork chops, and was elated; I, I am embarrassed to say, ordered the same meal I had last night, the pasta and lamb...which is perfect. Ask Ricky W. We also had our wine out of the red tin cup. And the singing guitar duo played a special romantic song just for us. (OK, maybe not). Leslie was bummed that he did not encounter his "Helen" again...I was bummed because he called me, without provocation, fat. So we ended the night on a tainted, if buzzed, note.

We have screwed up, and cannot go to Delphi tomorrow (the tour buses don't run on Saturdays). So we will go to the nearby port town of Piraeus. We leave for Napflios the following date, spend 2 days there, and return to our beloved Athens for a night or two before returning to what's left of America.