Living it up like the ancient Greeks

Athens felt a little like Spain to me: built up to be cute for tourists but happening, with a real pulse, and slightly less developed/cheaper than Western European countries. Greece in general seemed to have a lot of stray animals and a fair amount of abandoned construction projects --perhaps the after effects of a once much healthier tourism-fueled economy. It also progresses very quickly from the cute, friendly, consumer-driven tourist center of Athens to the grittier, grumpier, no-English-spoken "suburbs"--our trips to and from Athens' industrial port city of Pireas were a little less than picturesque. The Athenian transportation system leaves a little to be desired as well. The city's entire bus and metro system was shut down on the day we arrived, and when we returned the metro was running but with several stops closed, making it necessary to use a replacement bus service for part of the line. When we tried to get to the airport the next day the end stretch of the line was out of service, so we again had to rely on a taxi. Irritating, but at least it puts my annoyance with Parisian train strikes into perspective (train systems here are required by law to maintain minimum service, so it's never entirely impossible to get where you need to go).

Here's the view of the hilltop Acropolis from our hostel balcony. We got a private room and bathroom, kitchenette and sweet balcony for 25 euros a night each. Definitely the best value hostel I've ever stayed in:

Laura, enjoying said balcony after taking a car to a rickety island bus to a ferry to a train to a line replacement bus to another train to get there (ah, disfunctional Greek public transportation):

Big communist protest group we ran into while walking around. We never managed to figure out exactly what they were protesting, but considering the current financial crisis I'd say the government's handling of the country's finances is a good bet:

Cool graffiti found halfway up the Acropolis hill:The cool thing about Athens is that it's a bustling, modern city, but then everywhere you turn you see remnants of something from the 5th century. Wild. There was even an underground monument area in the middle of Monastiraki plaza, where you could look through glass as you walked across to see the stone foundations of ancient houses around a long since dried river.

Monastiraki plaza at night (you can just see the Acropolis lit up in the background):
We splurged on a nice dinner for our last night, being sure to get our fill of stuffed vine leaves, feta, zucchini balls, lamb, moussaka and a honey-cake dessert called galactobourico. After heading back to the hostel we enjoyed a night view of the Acropolis over 3-euro pints of Mythos (Greece's go-to cheap beer) at our hostel's rooftop bar:

Around Aegina

On our last day in Aegina we had to take a local bus to the port on the other side of the island to catch our ferry back to the mainland. The bus was rickety, and Laura needed a Dramamine to brave the curvy mountain roads, but the ride through the little inland houses and stretches of pine-covered hills was surprisingly scenic.
This side of the island was much more populated, as you can tell from the crowd at the café we ate lunch in.
For dessert, we bought some strawberries off a purple track-suited vendor who operated from her boat. I had to go aboard to pay.
View of the shoreline, with its many motorcycles and a Greek Orthodox church:
Boats!
The water in the harbor was amazingly clear, which afforded a good view of the many sizes and types of fish. These gray ones seemed to be eating algae off the bottoms of boats.
We look so legit with our backpacks. (The blue and black one on the ground is mine).

Yamas!

Although we flew in and out of Athens, most of our time in Greece was spent on the island of Aegina (pronounced "egg-eena" with the emphasis on the first syllable), which is about 45 minutes away from the mainland by ferry. We had a little trouble getting there due to non-running bus and metro systems, which meant everyone at the airport was queuing for taxis. After we made it through the line and the 45 euro taxi ride we found ourselves at Athens' port city, the dreary, deserted and industrial Pireas, ten minutes after our intended ferry had left.

Luckily, we were still able to catch the last ferry out two hours later. Here is our first view of Aegina, whose port seemed all the more picturesque after our two hours of purgatory in Pireas. It was almost worth missing the first ferry to see the full moon rise over the island.
Our hotel, the family-run Kavos Bay, was at Agia Marina on the quieter Western side of the island
Due to our early, non-peak season arrival and the recent economic crises, we were the only tourists at our hotel (and almost on our side of the island). The result was that the island's many bars, restaurants and hotels were open but oddly empty--and exclusively ours! This is the patio of our hotel.
We also had the beach all to ourselves. The water was a bit cold yet, but definitely swimmable with a good dose of sunbathing before and after.
The coastline was pretty rocky. On our first morning we clambered around the rocks and across little coves to check out the tidal pools. The rest of the time we just found sunny rocks to lay on.

There were a lot of fossils in the rocks:
The only shot I got of myself was of my feet:
Look how clear that water is!
The little glimpses I got of corals, urchins and aquarium-worthy fish are making me really consider taking a scuba class.

We got VIP treatment in the town, where we were among the only clients. We ate out every night--"Greek salads" (cucumbers and tomatoes topped with a huge square of feta), fried feta, feta and peppers (seeing a pattern yet?), fresh fish, stuffed vine leaves and Greek variations on kebabs. We also spent a long evening with Mike at Mike's bar, a chill South African-Greek who gave us free shots of "rako", the island moonshine, and brought us fruit cocktails with sparklers in them. Yamas! ("cheers," in Greek)
Our hostel was about a mile's walk along coastline and through pine forest trails from the Agia Marina town center.

Watching the ferries and the fishermen made our St. Mary's spirits long for sailing
We woke up on our last morning to watch the sunrise...
...though we all agreed that the full moon over the water was more beautiful.