Athens - Day One

My flight to Athens was more or less uneventful except for the two obnoxious children seated next to me on the flight. I can understand babies crying on a plane, really, but if the kid is five, is it too much to expect them to be somewhat well behaved, and not turning the plane into a jungle gym, especially if they are seated next to a stranger? Also, a plane isn't a roller coaster so there is no reason to scream during lift off. Just saying.

I had a layover in Zurich and was rather tempted to buy a lot of chocolate - I guess we'll see about that one on my return flight. While I was in Switzerland for two hours, though, I realized that I have never had any interest in visiting the country. I'm not opposed to it, I just don't have strong opinions on it, either way - I guess I'm neutral. I mean I've been to Berlin, I've been to Vienna but have no interest in the other German speaking country in Europe? It might be that when I think of Switzerland I think of mountains mostly, and then banks. Vienna, on the other hand, I really wanted to see but Austria seems to come up a lot more often in history books than Switzerland (plus you've got all the cultural figures - various musicians, Freud, Sissi).

I got into Athens this afternoon so I've only gone to the National Archealogical Museum so far (which was very cool). On my way there, I realized that I had my British Museum bag (okay, not much of a realization, I always have that bag with me). Considering that one of the reasons the British Museum's collection is as impressive as it is has a lot to do with them taking artifacts from other countries, including Greece (they have about half the Parthenon on display), I'm not sure if that was the wisest choice to be flashing around here. Oops. Honestly though, with all the collections of Greek art in all the museums around Europe, I'm surprised there's any still left in Greece - Vienna had the Ephesus (spelling?) which was a collection of artifacts from a city they decided to dig up at some point, and basically every city I go to, I end up looking at Greek and Roman sculpture in a museum (I think that's what half my pictures were of when I went to Paris - don't think I'd ever put any in my house but I love seeing the collections).

Another cool thing about the museum: they had one room devoted to Athena sculptures. Anyone who's read this blog for a while and knows about my tattoo obviously knows of my fondness for that particular Greek goddess. Of course, being in Athens, I'd hope they'd focus on her.

Also, I've noticed some street vendors selling oregano flavored Lays. I'm definitely going to have to try a bag of those before I leave - I love oregano (actually another reason I'm so excited about this weekend - the food and the spices!) - sounds a lot better than ketchup flavored chips.

Anyway, off to figure out the game plan for the rest of the weekend!