The first gyro!

It only seemed appropriate to post this first entry as I eat my first gyro of the trip. I had always imagined that the streets of Athens would be lined with gyro stands, but I had to really hunt to find a place near the main academic building. It was definitely worth the walk. Yumm.

Athens is simultaneously dirty and beautiful. Wild dogs roam the streets (we even encountered a pack on the second night here - at first it was terrifying, but they ended up following us almost like bodyguards, barking madly at any man we passed) and they have a crazy amount of graffiti. But the Acropolis is more beautiful at sunset than I could ever imagine, the public gardens are lush and people-friendly, and the buildings are bright, cheery, and not too tall.

The main academic building here is in a neighborhood called Pagrati, and its mostly residential. We're right next to the Stadium, so there are also loads of tourists milling about taking pictures - the tourists are pretty easy to spot, and I'm sorry to say that I've already seen some Americans behaving badly: There are guards outside the presidential palace who are supposed to not move, a la the guards in the red coats in London, and the other day some Americans were trying to make them laugh and taking pictures with them (the policemen standing near me didn't look terribly amused) - I was on the other side of the street, but I still felt embarassed about the whole thing.

Otherwise things here are great - the people are very friendly and for the most part happy to try and communicate via a combinationg of some English, some Greek, and a whole lot of hand signals (although when I ordered my gyro in Greek today, the woman at the counter looked at me like I was nuts...). Pictures to come soon!