The National Garden

While in Athens, we visited the National Garden. Unfortunately, we were only able to visit a small portion of it. However, I could not help but notice that various areas of the ground were raised to what looked like little underground tunnels. I took this as the defense to combat erosion since the city does not have any natural waterways. In fact, Athens has built over all three of its natural rivers.

While on our tour of the garden, we were told that the Queen who commissioned it's design imported over 500 species of plants and animals. Many of those plants were found to not be able to survive in the Mediterranean climate, however, those plants and animals that did survive have now become a part of the surrounding landscape. For instance the duck population has become overrun not only affecting the life of plants in the National Garden but also ducks can be seen throughout the city. We found all of this interesting since it could have a huge impact on people's health within the city.

So far, Athens has been good to us. =]

Today, we first took a Free Walking Tour (for all those planning to travel Europe, this is a really awesome concept- most of the major cities on the continent have a totally free walking tour! So just google whatever city you're planning on going to and find the free tour!). Our guide, George, gave us a really brief outline of the city and it's major, mostly historical, landmarks. The tour ended at the acropolis, after we had seen sites like the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus; we proceeded to explore the acropolis, taking in the Parthenon, the Temple of Nike, and other relics.

We were sitting at the top of the acropolis, looking at the remains of ancient Greece with modern Greece sprawling past the horizon behind it, when we started to wonder just how much this is costing the country and how they're preserving these relics when they're in such a deep recession. As well, the Greeks are petitioning the British- who have a large, very well preserved piece of the Parthenon on display the at British Museum (that we're going to see!!)- for the part of the Parthenon they took many years ago. However, the British Museum has provided a many number of reasons for why they can't return it. This has led to Greece building newer research facilities and museums so that they could better house the missing pieces. Is it possible though, that Britain could use Greece's current economic strain as another reason to not return one of their largest exhibits? Someday, when I can get internet with enough "umph" to actually download videos, I'll show you guys some bits of conversations we've been having about Greece.

Graffiti close to Monastiraki Station.

The Parthenon on the Acropolis.

A view of the city of Athens (ancient and modern cites!).

Luk and I waiting for Muk at the airport!

Sorry, I messed up and didn't save the first video we recorded when we got to the airport!
But this one is just as good! : )

Today we all finally made it safely to Athens, and tomorrow we will be posting another video and we will be starting our regular blog schedule (each of us posting a blog, 1 every 3 days).

Tuk

No need to worry Willie...

Luk, Tuk, and I are hugely enthusiastic Willie Nelson fans. Not only is he a boss on the guitar and has the voice of an angel but he is also striving to reduce his own carbon footprint and that of the United States. Willie Nelson has created his own brand of alternative energy called BioWillie. "I knew we needed to have something that would keep us from being so dependent on foreign oil, and when I heard about biodiesel, a light come on, and I said, 'Hey, here's the future for the farmers, the future for the environment, the future for the truckers, it seems like that's good for the whole world if we can start growing our own fuel instead of starting wars over it." You make a great point, Willie.

So on our excursion of Europe we will find ourselves with an entire glorious week in Italy. Rather than spend all of this time in Rome we decided to do a bit of exploring. So being our savvy selves, we decided to rent a car (a Fiat Panda) and drive from Rome to Florence and then onward to Venice and finally back up to Rome to snag our plane ride to the fair city of London. Being environmentally conscious as we are, we have decided to "feed" our Fiat Panda with biofuel whenever possible! Italian chemical groups Mossi & Ghisolfi broke ground on a 13 million gallons per year plant at Crestentino in northwest Italy. Production will begin in January and the new biofuel is predicted to reach most fuel stations. Biofuel is a non- petroleum based fuel composed of natural sources such as algae, animal fat, or vegetable oils. One major advantage of this type of fuel is that it is clean burning and renewable (unlike petroleum). Studies indicate that it can reduce tail pipe emissions by 80%. YOWZA!