Happy Mother's Day! (for all the mom's I know - and soon to be one's too!)

I felt it coming on for days, but after sleeping for about 15 hours, it appears that I am sick. Needless to say, I was a bit slow to get up, leaving Diego and Ulises to the domestic work of making coffee, hanging up the clothes, and pondering what to do with the day.

We decide to head out to the Acropolis, it is free on Sundays and should be a relatively easy day when we get there. We arrive at the Ancient Agora, and walk around for a few hours, touring through the museum, the Temple of Hephaestus (made all the more ancient as we listed to “the girl from eponima” being played from one of the luxury hotels near by), and the Church of the Holy Apostles. I am sure that I will be corrected by one of my more learned friends (chip in any time Jose), but the Agora was essentially the city center, the seat of commerce (found in the form of open air and housed markets in a series of Stoa located throughout the city), entertainment (with gymnasiums, and sometimes amphitheaters), religion (with series of temples, and later churches), and government (with designated areas for each city’s representatives to assemble). As power shifted, the new powers built their governmental and religious seats on the location of those previous – resulting in a giant mish mash of ancient and kind of ancient ruins.

After wandering around the Agora, we had an unsatisfactory Greek salad (the experience of seeing all the illegal handbag merchants play cat and mouse with the cops while also dodging the tourist tram was worth it though), and headed up to the Acropolis.

What a site, of course it is old, and of course it is impressive, but it is amazing. Despite being covered in scaffolding, and covered in tourists, it doesn’t fail to impress. My one issue is that the amount of restoration is so extensive, that I started to feel like I was in Disney World and not at one of the oldest sites known to modern man. There is a fine line between Restoration and Reproduction – throw in a slot machine and an all you can eat buffet and you could be in Vegas. As we round the corner to head towards the Erechtheion, we experience what is soon to be a normal occurrence – “Closed, the Acropolis is closed, please move this way” followed by the sounds of the numerous whistles and the stalking of vigilant employees….

Seriously, this place closed 3 hours before it is supposed to – but what are you to do other than drag your feet and be the last folks out.

We walked along the streets of the Thessoloniki book fair and marvel that a city can host an outdoor book fair that lasts for miles and miles. Making our way back to the metro and ultimately the apartment.

On Sunday nearly all the stores are closed, and it is Mother’s Day here as well, so we take our scruffy underdressed selves out for dinner at The Cross Restaurant down the road from our apartment, and after thoroughly filling our bellies, catch some impromptu fireworks over the rooftops of the neighborhood.