Today was all about being a tourist!
We woke up this morning and got around. I didn't sleep much last night, I woke up about every hour - so I was wide awake to get Brian up and out of bed on time.
Ruth's husband was going to the store this morning and offered to take us to the train station so that we didn't have to pay a taxi - SWEET!
We rode to the train station, and I'm starting to kind of remember where we are at when we turn on roads. Kind of being the key word. With words of advice and armed with maps, we hit the train station for the first time. We bought our ticket and they are only 1.20 a piece! Cheap! We got on the train and headed in for Athens. At one point we have to switch train lines, and we of course went the wrong way. Totally my fault. I saw a sign that started with "A" and ended in "opli" and I figured it was the Akropoli (Acropolis in greek). Just kidding - it wasn't. Apparently the signs tell you which way the train is headed and they post the last stop on the signs. No big deal, went one train stop down and then headed backwards.
We got off the train station and our noses were asulted in the best way with yummy smelling pizza. Seriously, it was 10am and we were ready for lunch it smelt so good! We wondered down the street and got in line to get the tickets for the Acropolis. It was a long line. Like seriously long. We were not expecting that for 10am on a Thursday. As we are standing there and starting to sweat...a lady comes over and says there are two lines! No one was using the second booth! So we hurry on up and we get in rather quickly. We decided to get the combo pack which allows you entrance into lots of historical sites and it was only 12 euros each. Not too bad. We start the treck up. and up. and up. and up. There are small sites on the way up and the great thing is that they had signs in greek and english explaining what everything was. The theatre was really neat and Brian enjoyed that. I thought the seats that were carved for comfort was crazy! Thats a lot of effort back in the day!!!
Keep going up, lots of ruins that are basically big rocks at this point. The cool thing was when the sign would have a picture of what it would have looked like in it's prime. That was neat! It's amazing to see how everything changes throughout the years/centuries. I can't wait for the day of augmented reality when its all projected to what it used to be and people walking around in time period clothes then show what's left now. That will be incredible.
Keep going up. Now, when we say up - I'm not joking. Up and Up and Up. The acropolis used to be the safe haven if Athens was ever attacked and so it had to be pretty high up there...and it was!
We finally get to the top and there are tons of people! We are basically cattle hearded into the main area and then we can walk around. The huge pillars and buildings are breathtaking and then when you throw in the view of the whole city, its mind blowing. The city is huge. HUGE. It spans out in all directions and it is just amazing. We walked around all of that area and read signs. There was a lot of info on the initial reconstruction attempts about 100 yrs or so ago and they all messed up. So now they are going back and restoring again so that the structures last. Intersting history though. Once we had our fill, we headed back down.
Once we were down, we hapily enjoyed some frozen lemonade to cool down. I swear, I've never sweat that much!!! It was HOT. Then we went up this rock formation that they used to use for judgement of criminals, kind of like a prehistoric court room. Not only did you get a great view of the city, but you can see the acropolis pretty well from here too.
By this time we are starving. We wanted to try some gyros. We walked around the building surrounding the Acropolis and found a hole in the wall selling gyros. Those things are cheap! We got a huge bottle of water and two large gyros for 5.40 and they were delicious!! Yummy yummy yummy. We want to go back for more. Then we got gelato and it was just as good. Not too bad to eat a really filling lunch for less than 10 euros.
We were then going to go to the Acropolis museum for the rest of the day before heading home. While we were standing in line we saw the hold up, every had to go through a metal detector. I asked Brian if he had his knife on him and he said yes. Well crap. Guess we will have to go back later. We have plenty of time, so I'm sure we will make it in. We didn't finish our combo pack today, so we have to go back and finish walking through all the other sites anyway and it's not like we are lacking on time. By this time, we are both tired from being in the sun all day so we headed back to the train to catch one to head home.
Two stops out from home and the train stopped like usual at a stop...and then the lights flickered and then it asked everyone to get off because that train was done for the day....okay....weird. So we do and we wait for another to come through and we make it back to the station. Grab a taxi and head home.
We hung out for a bit and then decided to go to the pool and take a swim and lay in the sun for a bit. That was lovely and relaxing. Now we are just hanging out in the apartment, planning out some other activities for Athens and Brian will be cooking soon. Really, just recouping from a long day of walking in the sun.
Today was great because I felt like a tourist on vacation and not stressed about the IVF. When we did get home, we got an update on how things were going. So as of yesterday...
They collected 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature, they injected all of them with Brians sperm and they came in this morning and 6 of them had fertilized. So currently we have 6 growing embryos in the lab. Grow little ones grow!!! Right now the plan is to implant one on day 5 - which would be monday and we will get an update everyday about how they are all doing.
Today was a great day. :)
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