After we arrived in Athens late in the evening, tired but invigorated by our time in Meteora, we had just one more full day before we flew home.  We’d already seen the major archeological/historical sites in Athens, along with lots more in Athens with Theo Nikiphoros as our guide.  So we decided to spend some time at the National Archeological Museum, to see some of the most significant of the archeological finds in Greek history.

Here are a few pictures of our favorites:

See the bird at the bottom of this one?

It was a interesting way to spend our day – and a welcome relief from the heat of the city!  My favorite part of the museum was probably the frescoes that were taken from Akrotiri, which is an archeological site on the island of Santorini.  When we were there, the site was closed and so we weren’t able to go in.  It was really cool to get to see the frescoes, which were taken directly from buildings excavated there.

And, now I know a lot of useful Greek phrases, such as:
καλα Πλάκα μου κάνεις  What? Are you kidding me?  (As in – Give me a break! – Useful for teasing relatives!
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στην υγειά σας  Cheers!
μόνο νερό παρακαλώ  Only water please
σε ευχαριστώ  Thank you!
γειά σας σκυλάκια  Hello little doggies! – Fair warning – don’t say this to stray Greek dogs unless you want them to follow you all over town.  And if you do make such a mistake and they do follow you, the best thing is to look for a bakery that has a back door and escape through there. (P.S. Sometimes there are times when it is best not to show off the little Greek that you do know!)
καρπούζια  watermelons