MSC Sinfonia: Athens, Greece

I'm jumping a head of myself with these cruise blogs, this was our second cruise in 2014, Eastern Mediterranean. I finally finished editing the pictures and got inspired to write the post.

Athens was the 3rd stop on our Christmas Cruise through the Mediterranean in December 2014.

This was the first stop that we booked an excursion with MSC. Usually we follow the Rick Steves book (this time I remembered the books!) but since MSC was having a special and Drew's always trying to talk me into "going with the flow", we decided to splurge (it actually saved us money) and do a tour with the company.

We started off at the Port of Piraeus, which is outside of the Athens, got on the bus and headed the the most famous point in all of Greece, the Parthenon.

I'm not really one for tour groups, and the tour group was a bi-lingual one where the guide spoke in Spanish and English, personally I felt like he spent more time with the Spanish speaking group, so once we got to the Parthenon and got our tickets Drew and I went on our own tour, basically I walked around and he followed to make sure I didn't get abducted (he's so protective). I think he just wants to sell me off to the highest bidder. Haha.

See all the scaffolding?

Under Construction

From the top of the Parthenon you can see all of Athens. It's pretty amazing to think that Ancient Greeks built it as a place of worship to the God's. Up at the Parthenon they were doing major construction. We always have the worst luck when visiting places. Maybe December isn't the best time to travel, but a Christmas cruise is pretty sweet.

Cell Phone Pics:

Sidles' on top of the Acropolis December 2014

Our guide gave us free time and a meeting point. So Drew and I decided to go exploring to find some souvenir's. We ended up finding several shops that sold almost the exact same thing, but then we found  jewelry shop that sold charms for my charm bracelet. We ended up finding a necklace charm of the Parthenon that I was sure would fit on my bracelet. The shop keepers were so nice to us. You don't usually hear about Greek hospitality, but everywhere we went later on that day and even at our stop in Olympia the people were very friendly. 

After leaving the Parthenon we stopped off at the Olympic Stadium. Our guide told us that stadium was built to host the 2004 Olympic Games, and since then it has been abandoned. They spent ~$15 MILLION on this Stadium and now it is abandoned, no wonder Greece's economy is in the tank.

Someone likes to Photo bomb

After climbing back on the bus we headed off to the Old Town of Plaka. There were lots of souvenir shops all over the place, but what Drew and I both really wanted was food. Greek food in Greece, the foodie in me was so excited! We walked for a bit and found a place that served Souvlaki (Kaboobs), Pita's and Gyro's. Drew and I stuffed our faces with the amazing food. We spent our free time eating and ended up rushing back to the bus, but we were not the last ones back on the bus, so that what really matters. 

My meal it was amazing!

Drew stuffing his face

I enjoyed Athens. like every port I wish we would've had more time, but that's mostly because of the food. I sure love Greek food.