Ringing in the New Year in Athens, Greece

We spent about a week in Athens, Greece with our final evening on New Year's Eve. Chuck spent the last decade engrossed in philosophy books and the teachings of Socrates and the socratic method leading him to many modern day philosophers, so going to the 'birthplace of western civilization' has been on our list of places to go.

Athens is full of wonderful sites to see and plenty of museums. However, just because a place has these things doesn't mean it will make a good tourist destination. Athens could be great, but the tourism industry hasn't capitalized on the assets within Athens.

I won't dwell on the negatives...but basically there are hundreds if not thousands of stray dogs and cats roaming the streets, parks, and tourist sites; there is graffiti everywhere, on marble (real smart), on buildings, on statues, everywhere; and walking on the sidewalk was a constant game of chicken against the locals (I felt like we were being challenged to see who would step aside first).

Here's what we did....

Archeological stuff:
Acropolis including the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena
Odeon of Herodes Atticus (Herodeion) near the entrance to the Acropolis
Ancient Agora
Stoa of Attalos
Roman Agora
Half-day trip to Cape Sounion to see Poseidon’s temple
Library of Hadrian near Monistiraki square
Tower of the Winds near Monistiraki square
Temple of Olympian Zeus
Hadrian's Arch near the National Garden

Museums:
Athens National History Museum
Athens City Museum
Athens Archeological Museum
Archeological Museum of Piraeus
Maritime Museum in Piraeus
Athens National Art Gallery

Other Sights:
National Garden
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Parliament Building
Byzantine Churches
National Library
National Academy
Panathenaic Stadium (used for the Olympics)
Syntagma Square

We took 498 pictures, so sifting through them is taking more time than I anticipated. The general Athens slideshow is posted. Up next is the graffiti slideshow.

Note: Depending upon the speed of your PC and the internet connection, it may take time for all the slides to load. There are just under 50 pictures in the Athens slideshow.