Athens! - Ruins, ruins, ruins! (Including the economy :/)

First day in Athens - man I thought the dozens of half constructed buildings we saw in Santorini were a bad sign of the Greek economy but there are so many abandoned buildings, closed businesses and homeless people it beggars belief. We walked down the main shopping street and there were three closed shops and two burnt out buildings in the same block.  Cee has a big heart and she feels the weight of it, it's been hard on her at times. We have been giving change to the homeless (amputees in particular),

I have been really looking forward to coming to Greece, the history here is incredible and also abundant! As soon as the Greeks try and dig anywhere or build anything they encounter ruins or artifacts. We saw some bronze statues that were found 2m down where they were trying to fix some plumbing, we went into a gift shop that had to have a glass floor because it was built on ruins, numerous subway stations have archeological displays of things found in construction and when they tried to build a new museum for the artifacts from the Acropolis they found a whole ruined city block under the site - so they built it on stilts so you can see the site and the museum!

Now for the breakdown:

We arrived Friday afternoon and decided not to pull punches and headed straight for the Acropolis and spent the afternoon exploring the ruins in the blazing heat.

On Saturday we explored the Monastiraki flea markets, went to the Roman Agora, the Agora Museum (actually inside a rebuilt Greek Stoa),  Philopappos hill, Pnyx and the Acropolis Museum (busy day - back at 10!)

On Sunday we watched the changing of the guards at parliament, went to the National Archeological museum and saw the parts of the Antikythera (and three working reproductions!) then climbed Lycabettus hill for views of the city (ok we cheated and took a funicular half way!)

Today we had a lazy sleep in (we are on holiday!), went on a mission to the laundromat with practically all our washing (it cost €20!) and had a stroll about the National Gardens (which also has ruins haphazardly strewn about it).

Tomorrow we head for Corinth and even more ruins.

Oh and a bird pooped on Celia's hat and left a stain - it's ruined!