After our short stay in Istanbul, it was time to move on to Athens.

View from my hotel room; the hotel had a view of the Acropolis, but my room was on the 1st floor (i.e. 2nd floor in the US), and there was this school in the way; the view from the rooftop garden was pretty good, though. This was the last picture I took during the Colloquium trip before my camera died for good.
A decent-sized group of us arrived early on the Wednesday travel-day in Athens. We touched down a little after noon, and after getting settled into our hotels it was about half-past one. We were pretty hungry, so of course first on the itinerary was lunch. I had spent almost the entire flight from Istanbul to Athens reading my guide-book on Athens and familiarizing myself with the lay of the land. This proved fairly useful – especially since there were a couple restaurant recommendations in the area of our hotel. The first one was a bust – closed despite their posted hours – but the second one turned out great. Unbeknownst to us, the mysteriously closed restaurant was the first hint of a running theme for our Athens trip. Continue reading