A busy city week

Weekly Update

Greetings from a cloudy afternoon in Athens! Emily here, sharing from the outskirts of the Athina neighborhood opposite of our last accommodation. An important lesson we learned this week was incorporating more balance and making time for necessary evils like filing taxes but also time to rest and restore our nervous systems. We also deeply felt the importance of supporting each other and leaning in on one another during more heightened times of stress. With that spirit in mind, I share this weekly update with you while Sheridan diligently works on those adulting aspects of reporting to the IRS.

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After much worry and stress of the dreaded bed bug discovery, we settled on a boutique hotel called Newel Acropolis near some awesome sites of the Olympic Stadium and Arch of Hadrian within walking distance. A big appeal (especially for me) was the access to a gym and sauna. Upon a deep inspection of the new digs for any potential pests, we were able to finally rest easy that we were in a clean and comfortable environment. The breakfast buffet included exceeded our expectations and despite being located on a busy street (my do the Greek motorcyclists love to honk!) we were close to the tour we booked for the Acropolis. Our first day was spent acclimating to our new environment and included getting a delicious traditional Greek meal complete with melitzanes (Greek name for eggplant) calamari, and even rooster pasta (yes we do think it was an actual rooster and not a lost in translation name as we initially suspected). We caught the sunset on Philopappos Hill which was the most stunning sunset experience of the trip so far (highly recommend! We weren’t the only ones with this brilliant idea, the hill was quite populated).
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On day 2 we booked a guided tour with Athina Walking Tours of the Acropolis and museum conveniently located a few blocks from our accommodations. We had the lovely guide Anastasia who brought the Acropolis to life with tales of Greek mythology and history including starting at the first ancient site where theater as we know today was born! She shared tales of the god of wine Dionysus, god of modern medicine Asclepius (and explained our modern day symbol of medicine of 2 snakes originating from his temple below the Acropolis where Athenians would go to heal and get bitten by snakes, or so the priests who potentially drugged them with herbs proclaimed), and the temple of Athina, the goddess of wisdom, craft and warfare. We saw the temple of Nike (also known as the god of victory) and had our time in the sun at the infamous Parthenon, which interestingly enough only took 9 years to construct, but has been undergoing renovations since 1975! After exploring the actual archeological site, we got a full tour of the museum which was thoughtfully crafted to fully represent the pieces of the original Parthenon which were not present in the current iteration of its construction among many statues, pieces of pottery, and even a Lego Acropolis showing the many different eras of the Acropolis from different sieges including Roman, Persian, and Greek. The day ended with a casual encounter of protesters near the capital government building. Unbeknownst to us, the current public education system is under threat of foreign private institutions, and therefore students and teachers alike peacefully marched the Syntagma square surrounded by police in swat gear fighting for the protection of public higher education and against foreign private institutions opening in Athens.

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The remaining days in the Acropolis neighborhood included Sheridan tirelessly working on revamping the Advntr Coffee brand while I explored the local parks, Royal Olympic Stadium, and fully utilized the amenities of the hotel (what a glorious sauna it was!). We transitioned to our new apartment on the slightly sketchier side of town near Omonia square and sample the local Lebanese Halal wraps. Our first full day included a 11 hour day trip to tour Delphi where the temple of Apollo is located and was once seen as the center of the world in the 3 BC century. Here Romans and Greeks alike would make the long trek, often spanning 5-7 days, to seek oracle from the Pythias. The history was fascinating and the landscape was incredible with large mountains surrounding every side. A stunning theater also was located here and that is where the first plays without music were born. The first actor Thespis began his career which is the origin of the modern day term Thespian. The museum included original statue of the Charioteer which was buried in the ruins from the great earthquake of 373 BC and was constructed of bronze. After a long day the tour stopped for lunch before returning back to Athens.

The remaining time in our last accommodation in Athens has mostly been spent taking care of logistics although we did make time for a day trip to Piraeus and had one of the best meals of the trip at Che Restaurant with Cuban vibes that included amazing seafood paella and churros. We walked along the beach, gazed at the incredible port and fancy boats, and meandered back to our neighborhood. We truly look forward to getting to the mountains and exploring Meteora tomorrow as we have come to recognize neither of us are true city people.

Final Thoughts

Hey this is Sheridan! I am grateful of Emily composing the bulk of this week's email update. I have been very occupied this week trying to get self-employed taxes done and other online work before we travel to Meteora and start backpacking Sri Lanka, where the Wifi will be lacking in both. Since I know this is already a couple days behind schedule she offered to help out, which is very kind of her!

We also just spent the past few hours cleaning out all of our items because we found.....bed bug eggs when sitting down to plan more of Sri Lanka today. So our items are now conveniently stored in trash bags on the balcony and tonight is going to be lacking in sleep. Both of us have had small new red bites, which we were on the fence about if they are or not from bed bugs, but finding those we know for sure. This is unfortunate because we assumed IF we brought them with us that they would be in the larval stage unable to lay eggs. That we found them makes this even worse. The plus side is that soon in Sri Lanka it will be 90+ degrees outside and sunny. Both that and the humidity should help us eradicate them. Until then we have 5 nights in a very cloudy, cold Metora to try and contain the situation too.

I also would like to add that with Meteora and next week's newsletter will be the last for a little while. This was quite an amazing venture, one that I truly love by sharing the travels and life. I want to continue to do this but currently it might be a little ahead of what should be a work priority for me. Sri Lanka will be busy and Bali will be where I settle in the villa to get my projects more streamlined and up-and-running. The hope will be maybe around the tail-end of the Bali stay I have everything else in order and can pick this up again.

With that announced I have sent out a refund for the month of February, hopefully you see that on your various payment statements but if not PLEASE let me know after next week's newsletter. I will keep an eye out and will make sure to keep everyone in the loop for the future date of this again, version 2, plus other intimate travel aspects.

That is all for now, I am about to plan some of Sri Lanka while trying not to look cross at every stray piece of dust as a bed bug.

-Sheridan

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Sheridan C. Chasing horizons and capturing untamed beauty. Let's embark on rugged journeys together!

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