Here is a picture for my mom, who claims she can look up pictures of scenery on the internet if she wants and would prefer to see pictures of people on my blog. Do we look happy in the photo? That's because it had been about 5 hours since disaster struck and we had begun to adjust to our new situation.
We had plans yesterday to visit the Acropolis. After a leisurely breakfast of boiled eggs, bread, cheese, coffee, and juice, Matta and I headed out and took the tram downtown. We disembarked near the stadium and while I was snapping pictures, Matta was rummaging through her backpack. All of a sudden, I looked up to see a frantic Matta, arms waving as if she were trying to swim through the air, racing towards me. "They took my wallet! They took my wallet!" It seems while we were on the tram, someone had boldly reached in to Matta's backpack and removed her wallet. This was an amazing feat since she had many wallet-like things in her backpack and they managed to remove the one with her money and credit cards. In addition, I had been standing right next to Matta the whole time and didn't observe anyone messing around with her backpack. Never-the-less, Matta lost all her credit cards, 330 euros (which she had just withdrawn to use over the weekend), and her identification card.
If I had been Matta, at that point, I wouldn't have had the heart to go on and spend the day at the Acropolis. But Matta quickly called her banks to shut down her accounts and then said, "O.K. Let's go!" I had no choice but to follow along, disheartenly.
Little by little, as the day rolled by and we became used to the idea that the wallet was gone for good.... I began to enjoy myself. The Acropolis was an amazing adventure! The Parthenon sits at the top of the Acropolis (which is a large hill) among many other ancient structures. The view of the city is breathtaking. I wish I could find different words to use in my descriptions other than amazing, incredible, beautiful, breathtaking, etc.... these words are so predictable and overused. But I'm completely at a loss to express myself creatively.
I was excited to see the Hill of Areopagus. It was on this rock that the Apostle Paul enlightened the Athenians as to the name of their "Unknown God'. The rock also has a strong place in Greek mythology as it was here that trials took place to exact punishment on wrong-doers. Here it was that the Greek god of war was put on trial for killing the son of Poseidon. And from around the 7th century BC until Roman times, the rock was used for actual trials, mostly of convicted murderers.
I wish I could post pictures, but I've run into a bit of a snag. Matta's computer does not have a slot that can take my camera card and I didn't travel with my cable. In addition, Matta's camera is malfunctioning and can not communicate with her camera card so she can only take pictures using her internal memory (which holds only 7 pictures). But once I get home, I will post all sorts of wonderful and "breathtaking" photos.
After the Acropolis, Matta and I met up with a friend of hers for lunch. I ate so much food that when it was time for supper, I still had not finished digesting my lunch and I went to bed without eating! Amazing!
I did borrow Matta's camera yesterday morning to take a picture of her making orange juice. 
Where is Matta? Well, it is very difficult to capture her as she is a constant blur of energy and movement!
Yes, you do look happy. Thanks for posting pics with people I know (and one I don't know). Sounds as if you are having such a wonderful time that I just might need to change my mind about visiting Greece some day.
ReplyDeleteLove to you both.