First Site in Athens

I arrived in Athens at 10pm, with worker strikes in full swing. The Greek government was voting in unpopular austerity measures to raise the retirement age, lower wages, and make it easier to fire employees. Hard to stomach, yes, but what can they do when the country is out of money? Anything except take it out on the citizens, say the thousands of striking workers. So the buses were down, the metro was down (except to briefly shuttle everyone into Syntagma for a protest), the ferries were down, and the garbage collection was down.

Not pictured: piles of garbage bags on every other street corner

Eventually the airport started running its own shuttle into the city, so I got a ride.

The Panathenaic Stadium, where the bus dropped me in the city center.

Built entirely of Pentilic marble, the original was  constructed 2300 years ago.

There are special seats for the king and queen--actually, two seats for each so they always have the best view, no matter where the action is.

Ancient herms, two-faced busts associated with competition. My audio guide  informs me that the young face is looking toward the judges, focused on the competition, but the old face is looking wistfully toward the arena  (: :\

The tunnel for the athletes to enter the arena.  "As we climb upward, we penetrate deeper and deeper into the passage, which now looks more like a cave due to the collapse of its roof over the centuries."

And you can see the Acropolis from the top! ...Which is really not such a  big deal; you can see the Acropolis from most of Athens.

I made it to the finish block days before anyone else, to have my picture taken by some random tourist  to whom I might have lied about my intentions regarding the coming Marathon. I don't think he actually believed I was entering, but I'm not entirely sure. He very sincerely wished me good luck.