Athens: tourist day

Last night, we went to the ALBA business school at American College to listen to a talk from the CEO of the National Bank of Greece. It was interesting to sit in a room filled with business school students from Athens.  Overall, the CEO seemed more optimistic about Greece's current situation, but the Greek students didn't seem to agree when we spoke with them in the lobby after the presentation. 

Later that evening, Jenny and I explored the neighborhood near our hotel. It sort of reminds me of Rockport with all the boutiques and restaurant.  We split an appetizer (balsamic mushrooms), a salad and penne with chicken and bacon.  The view of the acropolis from our table was so pretty.  We then visited a pharmacy to pick up some cough syrup for Jenny.  Pharmacies in Europe are like little mini Sephoras. We had fun playing around with the different Greek cosmetics and bought facial treatments to do before bed.  We're so wild and crazy. Haha 

This morning, we drove to the acropolis, where we slowly walked to the top to see the Parthenon.  Standing so closely to such old old buildings was so cool. If only it weren't for the renovations, it would have been perfect.  Our tour guide, Lula, was awfully long winded, but very enthusiastic. Jenny and I also spent some time with our professor who pointed out a bomb shelter on the top of this hill from World War II. Being in Athens really reminds you as an American that your country is so young.  I've heard Londoners say "There are buildings on my street that are older than your entire country."  Since I have been volunteering this school year and studying American History with a high school junior, I get a renewed perspective on the World Wars.  It's been a nice refresher but also helps me see these places I'm visiting and studying in school differently.  The weather was perfect today. Apollo has clearly rewarded us with sunshine. 

Before lunch, we visited the National Archeological Museum. It is smaller than I anticipated and at this point a lot of the antiquities are starting to look the same.  There was a beautiful contemporary mosaic exhibit in the courtyard. Also, the temporary exhibit was about a ship wreck that had been uncovered a while ago.  It was a cargo ship from 220ish BCE carrying lots of antiquities.  Some of the sculptures had been partially stuck in there bed and had eroded unevenly.  There was also an exhibit about a mechanism they uncovered and how they have spent decades just trying to figure out all it does. It seems to be a astrological predictor of some sort and there were plenty of fun posters about gears.  

We had lunch in the Plaka neighborhood where we ate last night and then were released for the afternoon.  Jenny and I sauntered around, visiting various shops. We stopped for coffee and Greek frozen yogurt for a bit.  After bumping into some people from our trip, we discovered that the Greek air traffic controllers are planning to strike tomorrow and a lot of people from our trip are getting stuck in Athens for an extra day. We should be fine by Saturday though.  There are worse places to be stuck for a day. 

Right now we are relaxing by the pool before heading out to our farewell dinner. Tomorrow we are on our own and plan to see more of Athens.  

Photo: Jenny and me at the Parthenon 

Athens Day 1

JThis morning we had a 9am gathering time. Our first visit was to Alpha Bank in downtown Athens. What is really fun about being in Athens is that our professor is an Athens native and has no problem interjecting into our tour guide's ongoing narrative. We met with Alpha Bank's chief economist who was significantly more optimistic than you might have expected. Overall, the Greeks seem to be on the upswing, at least in spirit.

Fun facts:

-Alpha Bank is one of the oldest private banks in Greece

-Greece's GDP is down 16% since 2009

-A lot of money was spent getting ready for the 2004 Olympics. There were a lot of short term improvements, but they need to find new uses for some of the sites.  

After Alpha Bank, we got lunch at Titania's Olive Garden, which is the hotel's rooftop restaurant. We had some amazing amazing food. We started with a salad that was mostly tomatoes. I am afraid I am going to burn out on tomatoes, didn't know it was possible. The restaurant had amazing views of the acropolis and we took some pictures.

After lunch, we headed to S&B, a mining company. S&B is in the fortunate position of having most of its customers outside of Greece, so they are mostly isolated from "the crisis". We had a brief tour of the labs, which were significantly less tidy than the labs I am used to. 

Fun facts:

-S&B did €470 million in sales in 2012.

-They are highly diversified. No customer is responsible for more than 5% of their annual revenues. Only 7% of their sales are domestic.

-S&B is family owned (61% of shares)

-Acquired NYCO (of upstate NY) in 2012

This evening, we had a Northeastern Alumni event at Athens College (actually a primary and secondary school). It was really fun and a very different experience from Istanbul.
It's 11 here and we have another early start tomorrow. Will try to elaborate on this post tomorrow!