Ladan found us a great hotel at half price (and not coincidentally a front row seat to the recent protests over public service cutbacks) and they had a fabulous buffet breakfast of which we took full advantage. Unlimited bacon is about as good as it gets after 4 months here in the pork-free zone. We also bought as many stinky cheeses and sausages as we could put in our luggage since those delicacies just aren't very available in Turkey and are super expensive when you can find them. At one point in our smallish rental car I told the boys they simply had to do better with their hygiene only to trace the intense athletic shoe aroma to a couple of French cheeses Ladan had stuffed in the back of the car.
Athens was truly impressive in terms of monuments and completed the circle for us in terms of understanding who founded so many of the ancient cities in Turkey. The Acropolis is hard to believe even by modern standards and there seem to be temples and public buildings from 2000+ years ago strewn everywhere.
We also spent a good deal of time with the family of a woman we met through Ladan's great friend Vida. Dinners were never boring as their teenage son would get fed up with his father and slam the table with his hands shouting "Papa, why do you always have to [fill in the blank with some long sentence in Greek]". His dad would bang the table right back and after a few exchanges the conversation would be back to normal tones as if nothing had happened. We never really had much of a clue as to what was real or just drama but by the third night we were looking forward to the show. They're a terrific family and thanks to them our Athens trip was truly spectacular.
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