Athens Greece - 2 Days in the Actual City

 





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Athens Greece is a place I've wanted to visit for a long time now. Not just because I wanted to do the marathon, but because it's Greece. There's so much history to such an ancient history. Ideally I would love to spend a full two weeks just touring Greece and the Islands. That just wasn't possible, so I had to edit. Hence three days in Athens. There just wasn't time to see outside the city, but that's ok. I plan to go back at some point.

Obviously one of the main sites to see is the Acropolis. Sitting high on the mountain and overlooking the city, it's quite the monument. I went in November, and because I was going to the Athens Marathon it was still very crowded with tourists and people. While I can't imagine this place every being not busy, at least it wasn't the height of summer. That would just be miserable.

It was a bit of a hike to get up to it, but definitely worth it. And once you get to the top it really is a spectacular view of the entire city. The Greeks knew what they were doing when the built it where they did.






We took our time wandering through it and taking about 1000 pictures of the view. Can you blame me though?






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We then wandered through flee markets, the famous Arch, the food markets, parks, and so on. The weather was beautiful, and the whole city was fun to see. I'll continue to let the pictures just speak for themselves.

 

Running the Authentic Athens Greece Marathon

Athens Greece has what they call the authentic Athens marathon. This is THE marathon. The place where marathons came about to commemorate the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, who reported the victory and then died.





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If you're going to do a marathon, might as well do THE original marathon, right? The race begins in the city of Marathon. You then run through the hills to the city center of Athens. They even have medal plaques ingrained along the course at every kilometer along the road to Athens. It's really cool actually.

I caught the 5:30am bus that shuttled us from Athens up to Marathon. It was a really chilly morning, so waiting for the race to start was not so fun in my shorts. The race didn't start until 9am. With over 15,000 runners from all over the world it was a lot of people. With all those elite athletes, there were some very attractive men from around the world. While I didn't enjoy shivering in the morning cold, I did enjoy watching some very nicely chiseled men stretch and warm up. I'm human too. And I absolutely appreciate a good looking man.

Pre- race selfi

This is the best organized race I have ever done. With so many people, they have you line up according to your finish time. This means the fast, elite runners are at the very front so they can get out of the shoot first and fly through the course. They had lots of portable bathrooms set up, a baggage check station, water, hot coffee, music playing, it was a great atmosphere to get everyone excited and ready to go.

I'm a slow runner, so I was in the last group to start the race. The marathon started at 9am. I got to the starting line at 9:45am. The thought crossed my mind that some people were already at the halfway point of the marathon while I was just starting it. A bit of a depressing thought really.

The start of a race is always hard. You're in this massive clump of bodies, so you're pace is stunted until the crowd thins out a bit and you can move at whatever your pace is. I really wanted to finish this race in under 6 hours. That was my goal.

The course was quite pretty, with the sea on one side of the road you're running on. There were locals all along the course cheering and encouraging all the runners along. Water stations were every two miles, medic stations were about every 2 miles as well, but staggered from the water stations. Some stations had crackers, bananas, chocolates, lots of treats to help us runners get the calories we needed.

As part of this race, they wanted to honor that part of Greece that was devastated from severe fires last summer. That part was along the marathon course. They gave every runner a green bandana scarf and asked them to wear it when you got to that part of the race. It was quite sad to see the blackened hills, and locals were there dressed in black as well.

I knew this race was going to be challenging with lots of hills. What I didn't realize was that the first 20 miles was mostly an incline. There were a few spots were it would flatten out a little, or you'd get a little down hill section. But it seemed for the most part it was all uphill. Wasn't expecting that.

I pushed myself as hard as I could through those hills. About mile 14, I started feeling really dizzy. I figured I probably just hadn't eaten enough calories and need some food. So I ate a few of my running rations hoping that would help.

Then mile 16 I still felt really dizzy, and I really wanted to throw up. The thought kept crossing my mind every time I saw a medic that I wanted to throw up and lay down. I've never felt like this during a marathon before and I wasn't sure what was happening.

I drank lots of water at every station and grabbed food and bananas whenever I could, hoping that would help me feel better. Now, every athlete knows that you hydrate for a race in the days leading up to it, not the day of. While I had tried to stay on top of drinking water and resting my body, I knew I hadn't drunken enough. But it didn't dawn on me that I could possible be dehydrated. I just kept moving forward.

Mile 20 I had my usual mental breakdown - why am i doing this? what was I thinking? I hate this? I want to be done, I'm never doing this again, etc. etc. This is also the point where the incline stopped. Because my muscles had gotten so used to going up hill, they didn't want to bend to adjust to going downhill. I was painfully stiff.


Mile 23. I was so ready to be done

But I kept moving. I had another little meltdown at mile 23 but forced myself to walk through it. Mile 24 is tough for me. I'm so close to being done, but it's still an eternity away and time stands still. What feels like 2 hours of walking is only about 5 minutes. I get really impatient, my body is crazy stiff and sore, and I just need this whole thing to be over.

Then you have people at mile 25.5 saying how close you are and don't stop and you're almost there.

And I want to slap them or flip them off. For them less than a mile is not far. After 25 another mile is an eternity in every way.

Finally I made it to the finish line and got my medal. It took me 6hours and 15 minutes. Not what I wanted, but considering the hills not horrible either. The time limit on the course was 8 hours.

I went back to my hotel, showered, then went and ate with my friends who had come along with me to cheer me on. I was so stiff and sore walking post shower. Bending and moving takes a lot of effort.

I also discovered that my urine was a wine red color. That's never happened to me before, so I was concerned. Turns out I was severely dehydrated. Which explained why I felt so incredibly off during the entire race. Luckily it cleared up, I drank lots of liquids, and gave myself some extra time to recover in the weeks post race.

Of course I'm glad I finished this race. I would never regret that. It's a challenging, amazing, iconic course that I think every marathon runner should do. It's well organized, well taken care of, and lots of cheerleaders along the course which is always wonderful.

I didn't have any emotional epiphanies or life changing experiences, other than I got to participate in a pretty amazing and special thing. Hopefully my next marathon won't quite take me 6 hours. That's my goal.

Athens Greece - I Heart Gyros

Alright,

I have definitely been slacking on the travel blog. I know. I have no excuse, other than I've just been lazy.

However, since I did recently get back from an overseas trip, I intend to rectify my laziness. Of course I haven't gotten all my pictures uploaded (I keep forgetting to do that), but I can start off with a few basic pictures to get anyone who's reading this jealous.

This trip started with a few days in Athens Greece. Finally I'm off to some place I haven't been before. By the time I got into the city and to the hotel, it was fairly late. All I really had time to do was get some food, take a shower, then crash for the night. Because it was late when I got in, I decided to take a cab to my hotel, something I've not ever done. Luckily my driver was friendly, told me all about Athens, and even showed me a video slide show of sites worth seeing during my stay. I was quite impressed, even through my jet lag.

Luckily there was a local spot not far from the hotel where I could get some yummy and cheap gyros. I love gyros. And over the course of a few days I ate here multiple times.

Funny thing about Athens is stray cats roam everywhere. They go in and out of restaurants, stores, etc. They are shooed out of restaurants, however it's only a matter of time before they find their way back in from another entrance. It was quite cute. And I love the fact that the whole city really jumps in and takes care of all the stray cats. Most of them looked well fed, well groomed, and just well loved. The brave ones would even come rub against you in greeting. Totally adorable. I wish more society took care of stray animals so well.

So far, day one of my trip to Athens is off to a good start.

Hampstead Court Palace

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The next stop on the adventure was Hampstead Court, most notably known as one of Henry VIII palaces. There's also currently a really interesting documentary of this palace on Netflix. I recommend watching it. This was also our last site to see before we left England.

It's always a sad day when you have to leave England.
This day was slightly dampened by the weather. Ha, yes, that pun was completely intended. It was freezing rain, wind, and bitter cold. This time the clouds didn't part and sun shine through when we stepped out of the car. So it remained cold and miserable the whole time. Guess my strategic timing was off this day.

Anyway, the palace is quite spectacular. When telling my dad I wanted to make a stop here, he didn't seem too excited about it. Just one more palace, and considering we drove by it twice without realizing it, he was quite underwhelmed at braving the rain for this.

But once we made it through the gates to the opening view, his lack of excitement quickly changed. He was quite impressed and excited to see what this place was like.

And it is very grand and opulent. Unfortunately it was also Easter weekend, so it was really packed with tourists and tons of kids doing some kind of Easter egg hunt. Up until this point we had not run into any tourist crowds. The huge plus of traveling during the off season. I guess it was only fair that we hit a crowd and some point.





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But I digress.

They had actors dressed in the time period, as well as acting out the part of a maid, or the queen, or even King Henry the VIII himself. You could ask them questions about the time period, their life, anything and they would tell you what you wanted to know. Some of it was really interesting.

This particular table display is all made from folded napkins. Apparently folded napkin displays were a big deal back then. And some of these creatures are fairly amazing.

Who knew napkin folding could be such an art form?

After wandering the palace for a few hours, I wanted to go out onto the grounds for a few minutes. Sadly we really couldn't explore. It was all a giant muddy mess. Neither of us wanted to wade through all that, plus the freezing rain was coming down even harder. Quite disappointing because the grounds are spectacular and go on for ever. There's even a giant maze garden.



I love a maze garden. But I didn't get to see this one. It's been a long time since I've been that cold and miserable. I couldn't feel my toes. Living in Texas has really made my a wimp to cold.

So instead I just took a few pictures of these amazing trees, and we went on our way back to London. I'll have to stop back here again someday just so I can get a chance to explore the amazing grounds.
   

Canterbury and Dover England

                                           

I've been wanting to go to the southern part of England and see Canterbury and Dover for awhile now. In all the trips I've made to England, I've never quite been able to make it to this part of the country. This time I was determined to make it happen. We also happened to be in this part of the world over Easter weekend, so timing of things was a bit tricky.

 

 Fortunately I had found a nice looking B&B in Canterbury, lost in the English countryside. After getting stuck in horrendous English traffic, finding this hidden place in the dark was a bit tricky, and somewhat frustrating. But we found it, and our host was kind, accommodating, and wonderful. We were the only guests the two nights we were there, so that also made things nice. Breakfast was a beautiful array of fruit, yogurt, and a full English breakfast. I even had some wonderful English tea as well.

I also didn't quite realize how many lovely walks there would be in this part of the countryside as well. Next time I will definitely plan some time for hiking. It was so beautiful, and a bit muddy.

But our first stop was the famous Canterbury Cathedral. We wanted to try to get there early so we could beat the crowd and get in a lot of sightseeing that day. Because this was Easter weekend, much of the main portion was closed for the Easter program practice.

I was disappointed we couldn't see the main area, but then I didn't even think of Easter when I was planning my trip.


I'll pay better attention to that next time. However, the parts of the cathedral we did get to see were still lovely and beautiful. It's amazing how many beautiful buildings can last for so long in the history of the world. 
 After stopping at the cathedral, we then took a drive down to Dover Castle. It was a beautiful drive, and we lucked out with not too many tourists. However, it was incredibly windy. Makes sense since it's on a cliff overlooking the English channel. It was a clear enough day that we could even see France. Amazing. I didn't realize that Dover castle is spread throughout the cliff, with many buildings to see on different levels.







We first went to see the tunnels used during the war. Of course they don't allow pictures in this part of the castle, but it was fascinating to see and hear the stories of how they were used, and what happened during WWII. From there we wandered up the steep cliff face to see the other parts of the castle, complete with an ancient Roman lighthouse. It was definitely worth seeing, and we spent most of the day there exploring. So easy to do. And the views were pretty amazing too.










 After seeing the castle, I had to make one last stop to see the famous Cliffs of Dover.
The walk along the cliffs is long, and steep in some areas.
 My dad doesn't like heights, so we didn't walk too far before deciding to turn back. Plus the wind had picked up even more, and the rain was starting to come down hard. Cold, wind and rain on a cliff didn't seem like the best of combinations, so we didn't stay long. We ended our day in a cozy, warm pub before heading back to our B&B for the night. Definitely a fun day, with surprising sunny clear weather. We timed our visit well.