Athens

We told the girls they could stay up as late as they chose if they could be happy and not whine or bicker with each other all day; otherwise they had to go to bed on time. Today was a much happier day! But they all went to bed on time. ;)

Today we explored Athens on foot (and a little on the Happy Train). We saw: the Panathenaic Stadium, tried to go to the Hellenic Children's Museum (but sadly it was closed), the National Garden, Syntagma Square (& saw the changing of the guards), the merchant trolley by the Acropolis, and Monastiraki (flea market). We also tried

to go to the Children's Art Museum in Plaka but it closed 45 min. beforehand.

When we were at the Acropolis on Saturday, there was a merchant who was selling handmade Athenian headbands, instead of the factory made ones. They were heavier and seemed more durable. After looking at all the places, the girls decided they wanted those ones (that was the only place we had seen them), so we went back and the older three got a headband and Emma got a key necklace (which she wanted to try in every door thereafter). The merchant remembered us and gave each girl a gift bracelet that he put on their arm. So kind! On our walk back down, there was a violinist playing a beautiful melody and Peter twirled all the girls and then danced with me for a few minutes. So fun!

We told the girls we'd get gelato and haven't yet, so today was the day! We found a shop about 11:30 and decided to do it before lunch. Everyone chose two scoops and needless to say we weren't hungry for lunch for a while. ;) Several of us had Belgium chocolate with chocolate chunks (the chocolate was so thick!), some salted caramel with almonds, and others cookies and cream. They were all quite delicious! Everyone finished theirs but Emma. Pretty impressive!

When we were walking in another area, a man came up and started tying an African bracelet on each girl's wrist saying "Hakuna Matata" and "stay in school", but then expected to be paid. Surprise!

Peter had some cheese pie and was delighted. The girls had pizza. As they were eating, we saw a doughnut hole shop and it said without egg on the sign- so I went and investigated. They really didn't have egg! We enjoyed the cinnamon and sugar ones especially! Yum! We tried to walk in another museum, but it was also closed. "Tomorrow" they said. Today was not our day for museums!

I really wanted a gyro for dinner tonight and we finally found a spot that had them (I thought they'd be on every street corner!). Medusa's

Grill House. :) The girls loved that! We were headed up to Mount Lycabettus to ride the tram up at sunset, and then ride the Happy Train route, but as we ate we could tell the girls were exhausted, so we opted to just ride the Happy Train to as close to our apartment as it went and call it a night. It turns out that was a very good call.

We went back to Syntagma Square to catch the Happy Train and the trains kept passing and not stopping. We asked some policemen and were directed to another street, and finally caught up with it. The girls were quite tired tonight after all our walking! We were trying to see things we hadn't seen yet today, but the microphone wasn't working, and the worker seemed like she'd had a long day because she wasn't helpful with where to get off. We were sitting just behind her, and the more interaction she had with the girls, we could see her soften. And then she smiled and started pointing out different sites to us. She asked again where we were trying to get off and found her glasses so she could see her phone better- and she was able to help us! We hope she has a much better night!

Theme today: I will have a positive outlook!

Things we learned:
Emma: I liked both the trains and doing the rock shop [playing "shop" with rocks at Hadrian's arch].
Clara: I loved watching the guards switch.
Leesie: I liked going shopping and feeding the pigeons.
Addy: The Happy Train doesn't go to every stop every time and that's kind of frustrating- because we were trying to get on it and two trains passed us. And we finally ran to the next one. I also learned that I can walk pretty far!
But walking can be pretty tiring!
Kathy: I learned that traveling is so very different with kids! Even

when I think I'm adjusting for it! You do what you can do and just be happy about what you can see and take the time to enjoy it.
Peter: The girls were great walkers today and they can do a day with very little complaining/fighting/whining- they did pretty good!

Miracles/Blessings:
- At the Panathenaic Stadium we went to the ticket office and told him how many tickets we needed and he printed them out and gave them to us and told us he wasn't going to charge us! (It would have been 50 euros, so it was a large amount not to charge!). So very kind!!
- We didn't get everything on our list done, but we got to see some really important things on our list.