This morning we took the 0945 flight to Athens to do some sightseeing. By 1230, we were in the very center of town, in a small park called Syntagma square. The parliament building is directly across the street from the square. The parliament building was originally built as a palace for the first King of Greece in 1836, shortly after Greece’s independence from Turkey. It is just shy of 7,000 square meters (75,300 feet). It is the first neo-classical building in Athens. In 1924, Greece became a republic. The “old palace” was used for an assortment of purposes until the end of 1929, when parliament and the senate were moved into the building. The building also houses a huge library and many offices for assorted heads of state, including the prime minister and cabinet secretary. The front of the parliament building is called Constitution Square, named for the revolution in 1843 where people gathered there and demanded a constitution from the king. There is still a lot of political activity at that spot, as well as festivals at Christmas and New Year. A monument dedicated to The Unknown Soldier is housed inside Constitution Square. Guards in traditional Greek uniforms are always in front of the monument, and every hour there is a changing of the guard, which is a popular tourist attraction.

Today the road in front of the parliament building was blocked off, and no pedestrians were allowed on that side of the street. There were zillions of police all around the building, some redirecting traffic, most just sitting there. Apparently, they were expecting a president of an Asian county’s arrival, so security was tight.

We checked into our hotel near Syntagma square, and then John took us on a walking tour of Athens. We headed west to the historic town hall on Athinas Street, one of the oldest streets in Athens. The town hall was built in 1872, also in neo-classical style. Inside, the walls are covered with beautiful paintings depicting war heroes. Across the street is the National Resistance Square, a small park with a pretty fountain and zillions of birds.

The streets of Athens are a maze of short, oddly angled roads with no rhyme or reason, as are the streets in most very old cities. There are a lot of jewelry stores and banks. We mean, really a lot of jewelry stores and banks. There are also quite a few fur stores, all with signs in Russian. Furs must not be socially unacceptable in Greece like they are in California. We were heading down a gently sloping hill, so it was an easy walk.

Once we were done at the town hall, John took us to see some more “historic” places, including the house John lived in when he was small and the location of his father’s business. We walked back towards Syntagma square, this time taking a different route than we had going down. We walked up Ermou Street, a street that has been THE hot shopping spot since the 19th century. Relatively recently, the street has been blocked to cars and is now a pedestrian mall. In the middle of what was once the street is a small Byzantine style church with two little domes called Kapnikarea. It has some pretty mosaics on the outside. One tourist guide said it was built somewhere between 400 and 460 AD, another tourist guide said built in the 10th century. Either way, it is definitely old. In the 1834, when the new Greek government started putting in a road system, the church was slated to be torn down, since it was inconveniently located literally in the middle of the planned street. The king’s father intervened and saved the small church. We find it interesting that this little church managed to survive over 150 years of crazy Greek drivers.

The walk back was a little harder, since it was uphill. When we reached Syntagma square, we turned north onto Voukourestiou Street, which is the Rodeo Drive of Athens. It is the most expensive shopping street in town, and is lined with very high end jewelry and clothes stores, such as Chopard. The hills became significantly steeper in this section of town. We walked up the steep hill for several blocks, before getting to his old neighborhood.

From there, we walked over to the apartment of one of John’s childhood friends. Once again, we passed through Syntagma square, this time walking east, past the parliament building and the national gardens. We passed the Premier’s office, called the Maximou Mansion (named after another politician who used the house as his residence), also in neo-classical style. We also passed the mansion the president lives in, which originally built as the residence of one of the crown princes of Greece. Here is one of the many guards in traditional uniform surrounding the parliament, national gardens, and mansions.

On a side note, Athens is much nicer today than it was last time we were here, six years ago. At the time, the Olympics were a year away and the city was undergoing a major beautification project. It seemed that every third building was being renovated, and the ones that weren’t needed to be. It was kind of dirty then, too. Now it is clean and beautiful.

Shortly after arriving at John’s friend’s house, we went to dinner at an awesome restaurant called the Magic Flute. It is the best food we have had yet in Greece. Unfortunately, Christi does not speak Greek, which has worked out OK up until now because in Greece everyone under 40 speaks English. They start teaching English in school when kids are 8. Quite a few older people speak English, as well. However, this friend of John’s spoke no English whatsoever. He talked on and on, and John refused to translate most of it. We are sure he was telling all kinds of juicy stories about the “good old days” when they were young. We know we missed out on some seriously good dirt that we would have loved to know.

John is flying back to the US tomorrow at 0600, so this was his farewell dinner. We are sad to see him go. It has been really nice spending time with him in his native environment. We definitely see a side of him in Greece that we never see in the States.