City of motorcycles

Jon has done some reading about Athens and says that many of the street musicians are actually academy-trained and are displaced people rather than the beggars I am so used to seeing. We stopped to listen to this gentleman play the clarinet for a while. He was quite good. Jon tossed some coins into his hat as a thank you.

Walking around Athens is easy enough as the weather is quite nice for the Christmas holidays. There are zillions of motorcycles everywhere. The boys decided that they would come back another time, buy motorcycles and then just ride and hit the beaches. Some of the streets go straight up. Somehow we never seem to find ourselves going downhill.

We have been all over the ancient sites – the ones that we can find, that is. We are getting to be pros on the Metro because the stops are written in Greek and in a Latinized Greek alphabet. The subway is immaculate. It is a pleasure to be here – if only I spoke the language. French is useless here, but a combination of English and hand gestures goes a long way. We came back through the Plaka in the daylight and it is just as busy in mid-afternoon.

We are just around the corner from this. It is quite a sight at any time of day. There are Santas with ponies for children to ride. A merry-go-round and thousands of balloons. It is like being at the fair every day. There are restaurants along the outside ring. Even a free wi-fi café.