Beat the Heat

 

It's a biggie

We decided in honor of my birthday and the heat to escape Athens. We originally thought that we'd go to an island, but our friend Marilena noted that with the wind, the water would be choppy and the hour ride might be unpleasant. So instead we rented a car and drove to Sounion and the beach.

The drive was hairy in Athens and the car was pretty primitive, but once outside the city, it was a nice drive along the coast. The temple did not disappoint. We arrived right at lunchtime, so had a nice lunch with a view of the temple while sitting in the shade and the breeze. We walked up to the temple (which is now 20 euros!) and searched a long time for Byron's graffiti signature. After Phil and I gave up, Melissa found it. Alex's great camera was the only one that could capture the picture.

It is at the bottom of the second block, in the light area, like it has been cleaned.

Close up

Love this shot

It was very breezy...I did not get a weird haircut!

After we had enough of the temple, Melissa found us a great less-developed beach. We were able to get a table on the sand (and it was a sand beach, not so common in Greece) in the shade for the price of some very welcome drinks.

We sat and had slushies or beer and swam and enjoyed the weather. After a couple of hours we drove back to Athens. Phil and Alex dropped Melissa and me off near our Airbnb. I managed (in Greek) to talk to a pharmacist about some hydrocortisone (which he didn't have!) and then we went home and started to cook for dinner. Dimitris and Marilena were joining us at 8:30pm. Phil made lamb yiovetse (which both Marilena and Dimitris were impressed by!). I did a version of my manitaropita (mushroom pita) with some slightly different ingredients and watermelon salad. We were not quite done when they showed up, so both of them helped fill and fold the manitaropita. Marilena had not done the little ones before (she had done a lot of big ones, where you just use a whole sheet to fill up a tray) so we got to teach her how. Dimitris had learned from his mom.

It was a very fun dinner, ending with a cake and candles that Alex and Melissa had worked very hard to find. Definitely a memorable day!

The birthday crowd