Thursday May 21
WOW! We are having so much fun. On Tuesday we arrived at our apartment met Katerina, our land lady. We walked around the town and got some groceries for making food. There is a fruit and veggie market right outside our apartment and fish (stinky!) and meat (eek!) market across the street. We tried to get into in the evening Klimataria taverna but it was full! We went to a contemporary modal music show that Caleb and my parents liked but I thought it was boring and a bit pretentious. It was at the fanciest record store I have ever seen and the musicians were playing super gentle and quiet which is not my thing, but there was a cute little toddler girl and a dog so it was ok. The place was called Underflow record store and they had MUGA merch “make Underflow great again” haha. Then we were hungry and the door guy Alex (after Caleb bonded with him over metal music) recommended a 24 hour restaraunt and it was good. Sophie got chicken nuggets, Caleb and I got burgers, Aba got stuffed cabbage, and the waiter even gave us Mastika shots on the house! I didn’t like the music but the food and drinks made me feel better. 🙂
On Wednesday we went to the Acropolis! We saw the theater of Dionysus, Odeion, Temple of Athena, Erechtheion and Parthenon. It was cool to sneak near the tour groups and overhear the guides explaining history and significance. We went to a total tourist trap place for lunch, Caleb and I got chicken gyro, Sophie got hot dog, Aba got greek salad and mousakka, and Mom got baked feta on tomatoes and dolmas! Then Mom and Aba went home on the subway with Sophie while Caleb and I walked and adventured around. We planned to walk home but then we saw a special rock Aeropagus which was the seat of the Supreme Court of Athens and where Apostle Paul gave a famous sermon. The hill looked down over the Ancient Agora and we wanted to explore it but we needed tickets so we just walked around the town. We went into a crowded touristy area, got gelato, and explored a flea market and found a record store where I got a Stelios book! We asked a guy working where to find traditional music and dancing and he said maybe in another decade but not really anymore right in that area in center of Athens, but he recommended to look in the neighborhoods of Plaka and Psirri. We went home and Aba and I did some research to find Rebetadika places, we found an excellent place called Argo and I made a reservation in Greek 🙂 It was everything I wanted and more! The menu was all in Greek and everyone there was Greek except us. The band was bouzouki, guitar, and singer and they played so many songs I know, by Stelios Kazantidis, Sotiria Bellou, and even a Thanassis song I learned from my Greek teacher Antigoni! We danced and sang and I couldn’t stop crying because I was overflowing with joy! We danced a mean Hasapiko with a cool guy, we met this super fun woman from Chios island and she thought we were from the islands because we were dancing, and the singer Stella couldn’t believe we are American YAY! She even got me up to sing harmony on the last chorus of Zigkouala! Also all the food was so amazing, we got eggplant rolls, garlic mushrooms, bougiourdi (spicy baked cheese and tomato), greek salad, steak, lamb chops and Sophie got chicken and for dessert yummy chocolate trunk fudge thing. Aba texted Katerina that we were there and she called the owner and got us each a drink which was so kind! Sophie started falling asleep around 12:30-1ish so Aba took her home while me and Caleb and mom stayed till the end at 2am, also an OG (old greek) lady gave me thumbs up for singing and dancing! Horray! Everyone was so fun and everything was just right and aligned. BH SO MUCH LOVE AND JOY!!!
Friday May 22
On Thursday, me Caleb and Aba hiked up Mt. Lycabettus and we could see a 360 view of Athens from way up high! Caleb got records and shipped them to US and met some cool metal guys in the flea market. Last night we went to a bar to hear really nice Smyrnaika music but I decided to leave after the first set because I got a scary email from my school about my graduation degree not being conferred because of missing requirements but they made a mistake NOT me, so I was upset last night but now I know it is ok. So me and Caleb and Sophie left early and mom and dad stayed for the second set. Today we went to the Ancient Agora of Athens which was so amazing and full of history! We saw Temple of Hephaestus, Simon the cobbler shop ruins (who was the first guy to write down Socrates dialogues), prison of Socrates ruins, Stoa of Attalos which is now the museum with a bunch of old jugs and statues and stuff. They had Ostraka, the voting system used to kick out the least liked citizen for 10 years! They needed a group of 6000 people and they would all write the name of the guy they didn’t like and the guy with the most votes got kicked out for 10 years bye bye! We also saw ruins of a water clock that they used to keep time for meetings of court and senate and stuff. We also read that they found an ancient tablet with Sukkot symbols from Jewish synagogue! Yay! Then we went to a yummy restaraunt and got so much yummy food! Chicken, beef, salad, eggplant bougiourdi, zucchini croquets, fava, everything was delish! We packed up leftovers for dinner tonight. Now Caleb and I just showered and we are going to have coffee and go walk to a square with lots of cool things to see. Happy Shavuot and Shabbat Shalom!
Sunday May 24
On Friday Caleb and I walked around Athens and saw Hadrian’s arch, Roman baths, Temple of Zeus, and statues of Alexander the Great and Lord Byron! We ran into some amazing street musicians busking, one was a Greek American guy playing bouzouki called Bobby Damore who lived in Brooklyn for a while and he has been to Golden Fest and knows some Balkan dancing people from NYC, and the other guy was playing oud and singing Turkish songs. We also walked through a street with restaraunt with some shmaltzy live music and joined a syrtaki. It was fun and spontaneous and cool! We got back to our apartment, packed up our bags, and me Aba and Caleb went out to the rooftop bar for a beer and we could see the parthenon all lit up! It was so beautiful and a great conclusion to our Athens adventures.