Day 2 in Athens

Day 2 was spent getting to know Athens a little better. We used the buses and the trolley buses to get around and do some exploring. The weather was sunny and very warm - 33 degrees celsius for most of the day.

This shot was taken in Syntagma Square where a new crowd of pedestrians faced the lights every few minutes throughout the day - they just kept on coming!






Something that surprised us was the amount of grafitti around the city. I guess they have their vandals like the rest of us do and their 'art' appears in all parts of the city we visited from the 'dive' area near our hotel to the high class shopping areas.











Within a few blocks of our hotel we came across a very large market area. Numerous butchers called to potential customers to buy their goods while others simply wielded a knife to gain attention!

The fishmongers' area of the market was equally interesting with all sorts of species of fish for sale.








The fruit and vegetables section was across the road and it too seemed to go for miles. You could buy almost anything that took your fancy. The huge tomatoes looked particularly inviting as did the strawberries, cherries and olives.






In the afternoon we spent some time looking at the fashion shops with their enormous range of designs and colours. It is certainly a city to shop for clothes in. We were amazed at the number of shopping bags we saw coming out of shops - people really do buy the goods! Unfortunately we weren't buyers!

We loved all the outdoor restaurants and took advantage of one at lunchtime to rest our feet and to have a Greek salad. People watching was something else we did a lot of - the place is ripe for it!

At the end of the day we felt that Athens had a little more to offer than the crumbling and patched up monuments we saw on day 1. We actually had an exciting and enjoyable day.