Off to nearby Piraeus

After yet another late start--we're old and tired--we headed to Piraeus today, the nearby port town where Plato set the Republic, and where Socrates et al. used to hang. Today it is nothing more than an embarking point for all of the island cruises. It is said to have a great, often overlooked archaeological museum, so we ventured forth by subway (modern and very nice), and then hiked the 20 blocks in the windy, dusty, and mostly empty streets to the museum only to find it, yet again, closed. No reason. Just shut up tight on a Saturday. We retreated to a Greek tourist lunch of dried pork, pita bread, that great white gooey stuff, onions, etc., and hauled ass back to Athens to see the Cycladic Museum before it, too, closed. Housed in a magnificent old house in the embassy quarter, this museum features a great collection of cycladic art...that is, art from the Cyclades island chain dating to something like 2600 BC. Small and pleasant museum...made smaller because the floor with the Greek antiquities was closed (a theme?). We didn't spend a lot of time in the other wing which featured a very contemporary performance art exhibit (Leslie wouldn't let me).

We set off in the morning by bus to Nafplios on the coast, and hopefully a day trip to Mycenae (to Agammemnon's palace) and Epidaurus. We're still giving it hell, but we're seriously beginning to drag. We're debating making the 923 step flight of stairs up to the castle above Nafplios...

More later.

Oh, and in response to Jane: Yes, it is hot, very hot. And yes, it is crowded...everyone is in my way, as usual.

LATER NOTE...

We enjoyed one of the best meals of the trip tonight, at a restaurant recommended by our ouzo bar owner. A little more upscale than my little taverna, this place, consisting of 2 or 3 separate buildings surrounding a piazza, served the best lamb chops I've ever put in my piehole...Leslie kept grunting while eating his "lamb baked in ceramic pot"...so much grunting while eating his, presumably in enjoyment, in fact that it made the English broad at the table next to us uncomfortable. Speaking of which, Leslie chatted it up with this English couple, both with big hair and lots of crazy ideas (they stank of Republicanism). OK, they hated lawyers, but they didn't offer anything I hadn't heard...he was some kind of construction worker, and didn't see any good point in the law. I suggested that, in lieu of judges and juries, he let the Queen decide disputes, the "old fashioned way," but he ignored me. Then Mr. Man started lecturing the professor on the problem of all those English kids going to college to study psychology...Leslie interrupted, "No, I teach philosophy." The wise Brit answered, "Same thing," and launched into a dissertation on the waste that is higher education. The Misses chimed in then to offer her appraisal that kids are running things in England now, and teachers are paid no respect. She proposed that the schools return to beating students...it's the only way, she said, the "old fashioned way." They were off to a cruise the next morning...maybe it'll sink.