Things You probably don't know about Athens, Part 2

Athens is all about the strays.  We found adorable kitties everywhere.  And nearly all of them were snuggly and soft and very sweet.

These three little guys were hanging around the little zoo inside the National Gardens.

This one was particularly sweet.  She was in the Agora, and made little biscuits with her feet like Felix does.

This little cutie was in the Roman Forum.

Athens has dogs too.  Lots of stray dogs.  But they don't euthanize there, they just sterilize.  I have a theory that all the dogs we saw with the same blue collars were the ones the animal people had gotten already.  They just laid around and didn't bother anyone.  They didn't beg, or sniff you, or bark.  It was amazing really.  They also looked well fed, so maybe those weren't strays?  Who knows.  Regardless, there were dogs everywhere too.

Things you probably don't know about Athens, Part 1

Apparently, when the Sahara has a big sandstorm, Athens suddenly has smog.  Except it's not smog.  It's sand.  I was convinced that Athens was a dirty, nasty city.  DS kept telling me it was beautiful before I got there; sunny, clear, perfect temperatures.  All I saw was clouds and sand smog.  So here are some smog pictures, all but the last taken from the Acropolis*.  After looking at a map, I'm fairly certain we would have seen sea if not for that sand.  So that sucks, but how often do you get to come home and say you experienced the effects of a Saharan sandstorm??

That's Hadrian's theater, which is part of the Acropolis tour.

This is a view of the Agora from the Acropolis.

The Temple of Zeus, with the Olympic Stadium from the first modern Olympics in the background.

General city.  Pretty crowded!

* As it turns out, if you're short for time, you can see pretty much everything of interest from the Acropolis.  So go there with a camera that has a good optical zoom, and you're set!