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Yasu, from Athens, Greece!
Athens has such a bad reputation. More than a few travelers told us that it was crowded, dirty and noisy. But hey, we're from Houston! Besides, Jenni wanted to see the Acropolis. Joe has been here before and had his misgivings, but his wife can be persuasive. So we flew into the cradle of Western civilization to experience it for ourselves.

JENNI: And I loved Athens! It was definitely crowded and none too clean in some places, but it was vibrant, alive, and exciting! Or maybe I was just eager to come out of the beach-induced coma of inactivity on the islands…whatever the reason, I loved it. (Still don't love the people we met in Greece, but that's a small price to pay, I've decided.)

Athens has been such a prominent figure in history…from its origins as the seat of Greek civilization, to its role in advancing the Roman Empire, to the turbulence under Turkish rule…it's a wonderfully historical city with the buildings to prove it. We visited the Acropolis on a windy day that threatened rain. In fact, during most of our time in Athens it either rained or threatened rain, so please forgive the colorless quality of our pictures. But the gray skies did make for fewer tourists, so our visits to the major sights were relatively uncrowded. The Acropolis was just a short walk from our hotel, and we passed excavation sites closed to the public along the way - stuck right between buildings, hotels, subway lines and streets! Athens has encroached on its ancient history as far as it dares. Once we climbed to the top of the Acropolis, we went through the giant entrance gate to the Parthenon and temple, slipping on rocks slicked smooth by thousands of tourists' feet. The Parthenon is as large and imposing as it is reputed to be - and roped off a lot. The guidebooks tell us that some architectural fanciness was used to make the building look as strong and well built as it appears, but we couldn't see for ourselves because so much was roped off. You're supposed to be able to stand at one end of the front steps, with Joe at the other, and only see each other from the waist up. The base of the Parthenon was built on a slight upward curve, so it wouldn't appear to the eye that it was sinking in the middle. Also, the columns are slightly titled inwards such that if the two ends ones were extended up a mile, they would touch. And the columns themselves are slightly fatter in the middle. All this so the human eye doesn't perceive any weakness in the building.

To the left of the Parthenon is the three-tiered Erechtheion Temple (the real reason for the Acropolis's existence) where Poseidon hit the ground with his trident and Athena produced the olive tree. This is where you can see the much-photographed Caryatids holding up a porch (as we photographed in our picture above!)

JOE: The Parthenon is indeed impressive. Standing up on that ancient hill (called the acropolis), we could see the panorama of the wide, dark skyline of Athens. It's an inspiring feeling to know we are standing in the birthplace of democracy. Just to the north, we could see the ancient agora, or marketplace, where politicians and regular people alike would vote on important matters. In some of their votes, they would use little clay rings, some of which are still intact in the agora museum.

When we walked through the marketplace on a hazy, drizzly Sunday, we were walking in the footsteps of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who tread this legendary marketplace 2500 years ago in the 5th century BC. Socrates was put to death right here in the agora for "corrupting the youth" with his groundbreaking question-and-answer sessions about politics. It amazes us that we can walk right along these important paths that are now littered with broken columns and chunks of marble with hardly any hassle from guards or other tourists.

JENNI: Later that day we stumbled on the Temple of Olympian Zeus. I say "stumbled" because we weren't actively seeking it out, and actually got ourselves a little lost in a neighborhood looking for picnic supplies. We ate our little picnic right beside the largest temple in Greece, overlooking a fallen column knocked down by high winds and broken into several pieces 150 years ago. The temple is divided from the Acropolis by Hadrian's Arch. Hadrian, a Roman emperor, finished the Temple of Olympian Zeus (it had been under construction for 700 years!) and declared that the arch built in his name divide the Greek part of the city from the new, Roman part of the city. One side of the arch reads, "This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus" and the other side reads, "This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus". I could easily see a difference between the Greek architecture and the Roman…the Roman buildings we saw in Athens were gargantuan! This temple, and the arch, easily dwarfed everything around it.

JOE: Okay, you may know that I'm not a huge fan of museums. That said, I must say I was very impressed with the Archaeological Museum of Athens, especially the sculptures. The bronze statue of Poseidon throwing his trident (trident missing) is one of the cornerstones of the collection. The power of sculpture was an art form developed by these ancient Greeks (and later copied by the Romans) and is in full evidence among the many naked and semi-naked men, women, children and man-animals. All of them seem to have various limbs missing and noses chipped off but they are still stellar works of art. I have become a fan of sculptures. I still am not crazy about museums. But I am not crazy! I know when I'm in the presence of greatness.

JENNI: Athens is hosting the Olympics in 2004, but you can't tell just by looking around. It's like a big secret, and the event is only two years away! We passed a McDonald's with a huge announcement inside: "Athens 2004!" and there was a store in the airport selling Olympics stuff…but that was about it. Maybe Athens should be talking to the Atlantans who promoted the '96 Olympics like crazy. And there's so much more history behind the Olympics in Athens - not only were the original events held here in Greece thousands of years ago, but the present-day Olympics picked back up here too - in 1896! On one of our walks around on a cold blustery day, we came upon the Olympic stadium used more than 100 years ago. It was tiny! Nothing like the giant-sized stadiums of today. A huge poster showed us the difference between the old stadium and the newer one they're building outside town. It's like night and day.

I'm not sure I'd want to be here during the Olympics of 2004…Athens just might live up to its reputation then as a crowded, dirty city, made all the worse because it will be during the hottest months of the year! I wish the Athenians luck - they'll need it to host an Olympics in times of high-profile terrorism. As for us, we are forging ahead to Rome, where the Romans took Greek civilization and made it bigger, bloodier, and bolder!