Day 13: Patros Greece to Athens

We disembarked the ferry a little early, around 12:30 Greek time. We've now entered our final time zone- GMT+3.

We had eaten lunch on the ferry, so the boys went down for naps, assisted by a white noise machine piped through the car speakers, personal blankets and pillows for all, and multiple stern warnings to HESH UP and GIT TA SLEEP!

We drove across the Greek peninsula from Patras, past Corinth and into Athens. Interesting Hellenic driving tip- when there is a moderate shoulder, you drive on it so that other cars can pass you in what remains of the single lane.
There is construction right now along most of the road, so we enjoyed the drive at 60kph(about 40mph) the whole way. Really beautiful, and striking to drive past Corinth and imagine the Apostle Paul sailing up the bay, looking at the same mountains as we were!

We made it into Athens without trouble, and found it easier to navigate than Rome OR Barcelona, despite its reputation- I think the Metro has eased the traffic considerably.

The Athens place is great- big and open and artsy- reminds us of our friend Shelby, who would probably have a similar apartment here, sans nude photographs and gin...

Because of the state that Greece is in right now we figured this was the most likely place to have our car busted into.  So, as we've done with many places we completely emptied the van of any temptations.  It's much less taxing when there's an elevator that opens to our apartment door and past that apartment door is wonderful, beautiful, life giving AC!  With the van unloaded and sweaty, sticky, too much energy boys terrorizing the place we decided to search for a place to eat.  I got on the Air BnB app and found the map for where we are staying and looked for little circles with forks in them on the map, indicating restaurants.  I clicked on the one that is literally just around the corner from us and we decided to go there.  Not Greek food, but we didn't really care.  While the boys have been eating PB&J a lot lately and able to get protein that way, it has been much harder for me to keep a consistent flow of protein down my gullet.  Sitting down and eating at this Brazilian cuisine restaurant was a dream come true.  I realized while I was eating, trying to ignore my still queezy stomach, that it was the first actual meal I'd had in nearly 2 1/2 days.  That very well could have added to the nasty feeling I had been having.  Not all of it, but certainly part of it.  I've never been truly "stoned", but I very much wonder if the Scopolamine patch that I had on on the ferry and the ambien I took because I felt too sick to sleep made a wicked stoning combination.  I felt like a whisp, a very nauseated whispy cloud floating around observing things, but not really able to process or partake.  Yuck.  Really I think it was a combo of not eating enough, not drinking enough, not sleeping enough, spending a LOT of time in extreme heat and eating things that are on my migraine trigger list.  :/  Bad combo.  Anyway, the Brazilian restaurant was PERFECT.  The food was incredible and it was the first time in over two years that we haven't had to PAY for water!  They brought it out in a pitcher, and filled our glasses over and over again.  It.was.BEAUTIFUL!  

An Australian owner and a Brazilian server

Adorable outdoor seating

We were eaten alive the second we sat down, so they brought out mosquito coils and lit them and then brought a little tube of after bite.  It was great!

A park for play!

You can't really see it, and this is more for our memory than for your information, but there was a park back there that the boys were simply delighted to hunt down an entrance to.  I sat in the protection of the mosquito coils and rolled ointment on my swelling bites while they played and got et.  

After our late dinner and short walk back up to our place we put the boys to bed and soon after crashed ourselves.