20,000 steps

At work, I'm currently participating in a pedometer challenge. Each day, you're supposed to log the number of steps you take. As a rule, 10,000 steps equals approximately 5 miles. I'm a fairly active person, but if I don't go out of my way to walk or run, I won't come anywhere near 10,000 steps.

Yesterday (Friday), I logged nearly 20,000 steps, and the hiking portion of our trip hasn't even started! We walked almost 10 miles around Athens, exploring museums, ancient ruins, and kitschy markets. 

Chris and I started our day at the New Acropolis Museum, which is a short walk from our hotel. The museum is built atop an old Christian settlement. In fact, they installed glass floors so you can see the ruins beneath you.

The New Acropolis Museum houses many of the artifacts recovered from the Acropolis, including the Caryatids from the Erechthion, about which I studied extensively in AP Art History.

After we left the museum, we started walking toward the ancient Agora, which is where all of the important business took place in Ancient Greece. By this time, rain was threatening and we didn't have an umbrella. We finally found the main entrance to the Agora.

The Agora was definitely a must-see site. It's a huge open space dotted with old ruins, temples and crumbling marble statues. 

When it started pouring, we ducked into the Stoa, a reproduction of an old, columned building. 

Just as we were about to leave, we saw this little guy:

We made our way back to the hotel and collapsed, exhausted from jet lag. I looked up some restaurants on Trip Advisor and decided to check out Strofi, a tiny little restaurant at the base of the Acropolis. Even though we didn't have a reservation, the wait staff let us sit on the balcony as long as we promised to be done by 9pm.

Strofi was delightful. They gave us complimentary ouzo, which is very strong and tastes like anise. We ordered a bottle of Greek wine and a Greek salad, which is entirely comprised of vegetables (no lettuce). I then had veal stew cooked in a clay pot and Chris had lamb stuffed with feta. Both dishes were delicious.

When we got back to the hotel, we went upstairs to the roof top garden, where we enjoyed some coffee. We eyed the girl by herself at the bar and figured she might be with the REI trip, so I introduced myself. She's from Boston and just booked the trip to Greece 10 days ago! We also met another trip goer who is from St. John in the Virgin Islands. She's older and lost her husband about 18 months ago, so has been biding her time traveling all over the place.

They were both very friendly and we promised to meet up in the morning to go sightseeing together.