The happenings of Wednesday September 25, 2024 through Thursday September 26, 2024 in Athens, Greece
We slept in late again. The older boys appreciated this. The twins, who were waking up before 8:00AM consistently, did not. They were bored and I was too tired to find interesting things for them to do in the morning, but today was different. There were two activities on today’s schedule: A walking tour and an interactive mystery theater show in the form of a Greek Tragedy play (per the boys’ request.)
It took almost two months before I was willing to sign up for a free walking tour. By Athens, I figured that the boys had enough experience with guided tours that we could try out a non-kid-oriented tour and see how it went. Sadly, Chaim remained home because he had to work.
The boys and I arrived at our meeting point just before 2:30PM, where we met our tour guide, Nick. We lucked out. Nick is a young man in his twenties from Australia who had a serious “cool dude” vibe. His parents were Greek, he went to Greek Sunday School, and he described his upbringing as a very close parallel to the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Nick was also great with the boys who glommed onto him immediately.
Eitan and Amichai were riveted. They are obsessed with Greek gods and Greek mythology, and they thought Nick was “so cool.” They paid close attention through the almost three-hour tour, asking and answering questions throughout. Shai and Matanel were interested in the idea of the tour but their little legs were exhausted after days of walking and hiking. I spent most of our tour managing their needs and carrying them when they fell behind. Exhausting as it was, it was also good exercise. A few times, all four boys were walking at different paces. It was hard to keep track of everyone, but I trusted the universe (and may have prayed a tiny bit) that all would work out fine. The universe answered because in our tour group was a lovely couple from Italy who, without me even asking, made a point of waiting for whichever of the boys fell behind before moving on with the rest of the group. I barely knew their names and they were watching my children for me so that I could tend to each boy’s needs. Although I could have managed on my own, I was incredibly grateful for these angels.
Along our tour, we stopped outside the Temple of Zeus, Zeppion, Olympic Stadium, the Roman Agora, and the Church of Saint Panteleimon of Acharnai. We walked through the National Garden, which has a lovely zoo and was about ten degrees cooler than the rest of the city, and through the Flea Market in Plaka that we had ventured through by ourselves the day before. Full of information and exhausted from walking, we relaxed with some much-needed ice cream before winding our way through the streets to find the Living Museum of Athens.
We arrived at the Living Museum of Athens twenty minutes before our scheduled show. It was hard to find a sign for the museum and I wondered if it was closed. Hungry and unsure if we were in the right place, we began searching for food. We stopped at Overoll Croissanterie across the street taken in by the enormous size of their baked goods. The croissants were huge! As we stood their gaping at the food before us, a man walked up to me and asked if we were scheduled for the Living Museum Show. I said yes and he invited me back in fifteen minutes. As happens when we don’t have enough food, Eitan became hangry. We continued our search for food and eventually came up on a kiosk with some snack bars and candy. Against my better judgement, I let him have some candy just to level out his blood sugar. I knew full well this would come back to haunt us with some kind of dental issue, but this was now and that was somewhere in the future. Blood sugars better, we returned to the Living Museum where we were invited upstairs to knock on a door that looked like the entrance to an apartment. It probably had been at some point.
We knocked and were greeted by a man in a toga already in character. Inside the apartment was a mostly empty room with a chalkboard on the far wall, some ancient looking pots in the opposite corner, and beanbags and chairs in the center lined up with a sheet of paper and pen on each seat. We were the first to arrive, so the boys had a chance to play some ancient games with the toga wearing man from the past. One game included trying to toss a coin onto a small surface that was floating in water without the coin bouncing into the water. The boys accepted the challenge with enthusiasm.
Another family arrived and we were invited to take a seat. The murder mystery, a.k.a Greek Tragedy, had begun in earnest. We were beginner detectives, studying criminal sciences with a famous police detective. It was our job to listen carefully as our host took on each character’s personality and recounted the tale from each perspective. The older boys were fully engaged the whole time. They read the pre-written questions dutifully and asked a ton of additional questions. The twins grew a little antsy, but our host was patient and excellent, handing them props to play with while he continued acting. Ultimately, we solved the mystery under his guidance. We all felt very proud of ourselves. I highly recommend the experience for other families looking for something interesting and different to do that both adults and kids would enjoy.
We arrived home well after 8:30PM, but this time the boys were exhausted by the long day. After an exhausting day around town, all of the boys voted that the next day would be a lazy day at home with no outings. They all fell asleep by 9:30PM. I, stupidly, laid awake for hours trying to figure out Sunday.
Thursday was as lazy as it gets. Everyone slept in incredibly late. I spent the morning reading books to Shai and Matanel and then everyone did some math. Late in the day I took the boys for a short walk to a minimart because we needed fruit they would eat, and I believe in at least one outing a day if we can make it happen. From an outsider’s perspective it could be called a wasted day in Athens. But from our perspective, it was the perfect recovery day and everything we needed to be ready for the Acropolis the next day.
