Flying to the best view ever - with the best food ever.

1/19/10


Today we flew to Athens. I had a bit of a scare along the way. I thought I had everything, but really I somehow left my Bose headphone case at the Starbucks we went to. With my iPod. With tickets. With my passport. Just a slight scare, it was there though so no worries. What was scary was the price we paid at Starbucks. I spend the equivalent of five bucks on a caramel cream frappachino. I can't lie…it was wonderful. Tasted just like a caramel milkshake with a bit of ice. I have been avoiding any meal or place that screams American until this point. I caved when I tasted Carianna's. I managed to finish the last of Trials during that time.

There were also beautiful clouds that distracted me from my book. THEY'RE SO FLUFFY I COULD DIE! The sunset added a beautiful touch, although I was on the moon side of the plane so I took a few pictures. Driving into Athens was an experience in itself. People are crazy drivers here in Greece! The bus would come within inches (or just one) of hitting cars, trees, and other objects near the road. Of course there was also the view of Athens. It was an endless sprawl of buildings in every direction.

We were dropped off in the main square of Athens, the one where everyone riots and protests when there are problems. Great location right? Actually, it is. We followed a road down to the Hotel Plaka. I have been in an elevator three times this trip. My room is on the 3rd floor. The catch is that there is a mezzanine before the first floor, so I was really on the fourth. Will and I carried our bags up to the room. It was larger than our last two, with the exception of the bathroom, which was pretty small. They definitely managed to compact everything. The toilet has a flush where you pull up on this knob on top and then push down when you want it to stop flushing. We had a balcony so we rushed out there. We could see the acropolis and one of the buildings on top - not the Parthenon. We then decided to go on the roof. As you have seen two posts ago, amazing view! This view alone is worth the expense of this wonderful trip.

We met in the lobby to go to dinner. I can't even type the name of the place because of the symbols. It was something like Tuo Yappa (with the Y having three prongs on top and the last a had an accent). Oh my goodness was the food amazing! We started out with a Greek salad - tomatoes, red onion, bell pepper, capers, and olives. I feel like I am missing something...oh yeah! It had a block of feta cheese on top! The flavors combined nicely but the olives and capers were way to strong for me. I am glad I only took a small piece of an olive instead of the whole thing. Made that mistake with two capers at once. Complete salt blast. We next had tzatziki sauce, a kind of spiced yogurt sauce. We dipped fried zucchini into it and bread. There was also herb butter. Of course I was sold the second I heard butter, but the herbs added a nice touch to the flavor. After that came saganaki - fried cheese. I use to do this as a kid. I would heat up a frying pan and cook little pieces of cheese. Greasy…yes. Delicious…even more so. Same thing with the Saganaki, only this was a small block of cheese and covered in lemon juice. We loved it so much each table made another order on top of the two we had already had. We also got some green weed. Ok it wasn't a weed, but this plan reminded me of seaweed because of its look. We covered it in lemon juice and olive oil. I ordered Ambelourgou Lamb. They basically take a lamb steak and stuff the center with garlic and some sort of cheese. It was so good, but it definitely had the strongest lamb flavor I have yet had in my life. Something about it makes me not want to eat it while another part of me wants to keep munching away. I wonder if I am having a subconscious problem with eating a baby sheep.... The last thing we had for desert was yogurt with honey and walnut pieces. This may have been a highlight. Not because it was the best dish but because Greg said that it would be served at breakfast everywhere. The yogurt is thick, closer to sour cream in consistency. It fluffs (FLUFFY!) up when you mix the honey in.

Returning to the hotel we all gathered at the top of the hotel. It was amazing to spend all my time typing up there - look up and there the Parthenon was on the acropolis. This is what we had for our view. I can get over how amazing it is and how lucking we are to have this hotel. Every chance I get, I am going to come up there to type.