Nafplio-Greece's First Capital-But Who Cares About That Right?

So our second stop on our Grecian tour was Nafplio, which is in the Peloponnese peninsula. It was in fact the first capital of an independent Greece but now it is more famous for its 3 fortresses. That's right people, 3. Sadly, we only got to visit one; which just happens to be the biggest and best one anyway ;) This place was HUGE! Seriously. It had a great view of the village and the sea (which is it's point I suppose.) We stayed at this great little hotel called Pension Dafni. The owner was super helpful and gave us great advice on where to eat and even called the port where we needed to catch our ferry to Hydra to check what time the boat left. We would stay there again. The town itself is small but really nice. Apparently it gets really busy in the summer time so we visited at the perfect time. Not many people except the occasional tourist and all the locals. We got in kind of late so we just had time to eat, go to bed, get up, see the fortress, then hit the road to catch our ferry. So here are some photos of this cool fortress.

Athina; a City of Crowds, Cops, and Oh Yea, the Akropolis

So we went to Greece this last weekend for a mini-holiday. I've decided to do a post on one day at a time, so I don't overwhelm you with awesomeness! We arrived in Athina (Athens in case the Greek is too difficult to understand) Thursday night around 9 PM. This was after our 40+ minute metro ride from the airport, so needless to say we were a little tired. Thankfully our hotel was right by the metro station. Off to bed we went ready for our first day of exploring!

When we got out the next morning to see some sites, this is what we came across....

Ok Ok....just kidding!! It's pretty close though ;) There were a TON of cops. Later we asked the nice man at the hotel if that was because of carnival and he said "No, it's normal because of our crime rate. Too many robberies." To which I replied "Has it helped?" Thankfully, all the po-po's has helped bring down the number of pick-pockets in the areas where the cops are. They aren't everywhere, and where they are not, it was creepy. Thankfully we didn't have any close encounters of the robbing kind-my bag was safely tucked the entire trip!

So first stop on our Athina day was the National Archaeological Museum. Now folks, this treasure trove of ancient Greek art is hidden away in a sketchy area. We were concerned that we had wandered a little far to find it but alas, we did. There were a lot of famous and great pieces in this place-so many in fact that it was a little overwhelming how much they would put in one case! Out of all that we saw, this was our favorite...

it looks like they're having a dance party. We kinda almost did a mini dance right there to join in ;) So after moseying around for a few hours, we headed off to our next stop, the main event.....

We kinda got lost. Well, not really. We just got a little turned around and up side alleys and in funny places. We knew where the Akropolis was the whole time, just not sure where the stinkin' entrance was! Many of the streets we went down did look like this.....

But we FINALLY made it!! And oh boy was it a site to see. It really is as awesome as people say it is. We are soo happy that we have a wide angle lens-it allows us to get shots like this....

We goofed off for quite a while trying to get that perfect shot. You'll have to check out our shutterfly account to see all those bad boys! We did get some good views of that dirty, dirty city.

And some that look like we are respectable, nice Americans, unlike some of our countrymen who we encountered and wanted to clobber because they are so stupid and ignorant. You know who you are out there.....no more shenanigans!!


Now I know some of you will not like this photo-too bad! I LOVE IT!! I really don't know what it is about it that make my little heart go "hey that's an awesome pic!" but I think it's great and you can keep quiet if you hate it!


Just a little more Akropolis view with some Athina behind it. They are doing some restoration on the whole site which is awesome! But the view of scaffolding around the place did deplete the sense of awe.



On the way back to the hotel to grab our rental car and go forth into the unknown, we walked by the Olympic Stadium. Matt didn't want to pay to go in so we just looked from the outside. I wanted to stand on the gold medal winners podium but I guess I'll just have to make do with jumping like I've won Olympic gold. Watch out world, this is the pose that I will strike, when I win the gold for being a total idiot!


Stay tuned for the next installment-Nafplio!!!