“You might know of it as the Temple to Jupiter.”

So said my sister, after being met with confusion when asking whether we had visited the Temple of the Olympian Zeus.

Turned out we had visited it, but we hadn’t really realised what it was called.

And that’s the thing about Athens, you’re walking through a fairly ordinary looking city, and then you turn around, or you walk up a hill a bit and …BAM!…

…Hadrian’s Arc is standing, just kind of lurking there, near a perfectly normal-looking street.

And nearby, ruins of a temple built for the king of the Gods.

Fallen into disrepair, sure, but still ready to bring the drama. Remember when I italicised that ‘you walk up the hill a bit’ back there? That’s because there’s a LOT of hill leaping involved in a visit to Athens.

Wear comfy shoes.

Make like a mountain goat.

After we came down from the Acropolis, and after we inadvertently passed Zeus’ temple, and advertantly stuffed ourselves full of souvlaki, we spent the evening roaming the streets.

This is a completely different ruin in a different part of the city… And lo, its matching cat!There were actually a LOT of cats around. I have this theory that cats and ruins go pretty well together, but it might actually just be cats and ‘non-German-non-freezing weather’.

I played a game called ‘cat counter’, which basically involved me saying ‘look, there’s a cat’ every time I saw a cat.

The game was complete when Andy and all of my in-laws wanted to kill me.

Did I mention that I really like cats?

Also omnipresent- lovely orthodox round-roofed churches… and helium balloons!The next day was Christmas, so we did what Aussie do on Christmas, and went to the beach Not quite the beach required for a ‘traditional Aussie Christmas’, (nor, luckily, the horrible 45 degrees we normally get in Perth), but enough of a beach to quench our sea-lusting hearts for a few more days. ^ This guy has the right idea! And then, in international tradition, we went home and filled ourselves with food. BAM! Boxing day. In which we tried to walk off the Christmas dinner, but climbing the hills of Athens. Because the hills are where the views are!