When it became clear I was going to start my journey by heading east to Europe 🇪🇺 in May instead of west to New Zealand 🇳🇿in January , I immediately knew I would start in Greece and, in particular, get to Athens. As the “cradle of democracy,” Athens beckoned to the history buff in me, and I had always enjoyed Greek mythology (including “Clash of the Titans,” starring a young Harry Hamlin⎯though that may have been for a different reason than my fondness for mythology 😋). But most of the things I heard about Athens⎯and Greece in general for that matter, with the exception of the islands⎯were not positive. In fact, people had me convinced that the Acropolis 🏛️ was the only thing worth seeing in Athens and that the city did not merit more than a day and a half.

WRONG! And thank goodness my itinerary on this trip is so flexible, because I ended up staying almost five full days. I arrived in the early evening and by the time I ventured out of my Booking.com (private) lodgings, shadows were falling. 🌃 My apartment⎯with a terrific view of Acropolis Hill from the balcony⎯was not in the nicest part of town, and it didn’t feel super safe. I put on my “city dweller” attitude, paid attention to who was walking behind or past me, and made sure I was never without an escape route. After grabbing some dinner, I returned to my digs⎯careful to unlock and enter quickly through the very solid door to the building⎯and thought: “My friends were right about Athens.”

But oh what a little sunshine can do! ☀️ The next day when I set out to explore by foot around noon (a thing I often do on the first day in a new location), the city was welcoming and seemed not dangerous at all. 🌆 For lunch, I grabbed a wrap from an Indian 🇮🇳 restaurant I had read about in a travel guide and ate it on their second floor balcony overlooking a major commercial thoroughfare (it was indeed delicious). Next, I caught the changing of the guard in front of the Hellenic Parliament in Syntagma Square. I’ve seen the Swiss Guard at the Vatican🇻🇦, the soldiers in front of Buckingham Palace 🇬🇧, and now the Greek soldiers in Athens 🇬🇷⎯and while the Swiss Guard has the most stylish uniform and the British soldiers have tremendous focus and stamina, I have to give it to the Greek soldiers on artistic merit. 😁 They engage in this very formalized and ritualistic march that almost looks like a slow choreographed dance. If one didn’t know better, you might think they were doing a send up of the Monty Python “silly walk.” And their uniforms only add to the whimsy and further reduce the intimidation. But I’m having trouble coming up with a military victory to which the Greeks significantly contributed in modern times, so perhaps it should be no surprise that their changing of the guard is “fierce” (like Sasha) but not fierce. 😝