Freshly fed, we plugged the coordinates for the garden into maps and followed the blinking blue dot towards our destination. Athens is hot, like really hot. We picked the gardens hoping to find a bit of respite in the shade of a tree or two. Saying that I had beads of sweat rolling down my body is not giving due credit to the waterfall that was occurring. We drank a liter of water and had soda/iced tea at lunch and I swear, all of that liquid ran for the nearest exit through my pores as we hiked the mere 20 minutes to the garden. I was, literally, a hot mess. And so was Alex.
By the time we arrived at the National Garden, neither of us were in any shape to do anything but find water and sit in the shade. Is this really Minnesotan of us? Are we Mediterranean wimps? Possibly so. We didn't care. Our garden trip turned into a cafe-hopping excursion as we found the only spot in the garden that served food and quickly downed another liter of water, iced tea and tasty mango sorbet. Oh, we also hustled by a really cool looking book fair when we were still one-track-minded about water, but books were no match for thirst. Sitting at our second cafe in less than an hour, we made the decision to head back to the Airbnb and do laundry. Two days in Athens and we spend one on a desperate wander and then laundry day. We're okay with that.
We've been traveling for over a week now and all of our clothes were dirty. We had no laundry facilities until our current apartment. Let's just say that the time spent on the islands were days of very creative clothing choices. So having clean clothes today really was a gift. Most of the Airbnbs we are staying in from now on have washing machines, but few have dryers. Here in Athens, the entire place is now draped in the entire contents of our backpacks, drying in the really, really hot Athens atmosphere. It's a beautiful sight.
Later, after the sun's violent mid-day rays were settling into a balmy evening, I headed out on my own to explore the old town in Athens, a neighborhood called Plaka. Alex stayed home to write and to hang out on the balcony. Plaka is super touristy, and it was crowded with diners and shoppers when I arrived. First things first, I grabbed an ice cream cone, which was yummy but too melty. I felt like a kid, what with my sticky hands and forearms. Not a pretty sight. After a good wash, I took in more of the sights, focusing less on all of the shops and more on the surprising number of ancient ruins just lying about in Athens. Before coming here, I thought all of the antiquity action in Athens was at the Acropolis. Wrong. Every few blocks there's a random Ionic column or a little chapel or a chained off section of ruins. And then there's the graffiti- just everywhere. There has to be a book written somewhere about the juxtaposition of ancient and modern in this city, and I wanna read it.
I grabbed some deli treats for Alex and me and headed back to home base as the sun set on Athens. We ate our goodies while listening to explosions and an intense soundtrack coming from the outdoor cinema next door. American Man with Tom Cruise was playing, which is the last thing Alex and I wanted to see but we were fine hearing it. We talked of our day, of Athens and of tomorrow's plan to get up early and go see the Acropolis. Wonder if I'll manage to get up in time to make that happen?
The Cruise movie is American Made, too bad you guys didn't watch you could have given us an early review isn't opening in the US until the end of September. Does have 88% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Based on true events that eventually almost brought down the Reagan administration With the Iran Contra scandal.
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