Dad Hits 100!!

That's right, Dad hit 100!! And yes, he does look amazing for his age, but we're talking about one hundred countries, silly! He is officially a member of the Traveler's Century Club* and one of the cool kids!**

We all rendezvoused in Greece, Dad's 100th country, to celebrate the occasion. In grand family tradition, there was a banner that we TRIED to photograph all over town.*** More on the trying part, soon.

Dad has been traveling for the past two weeks throughout Europe to get his last few countries in before Greece. Greece is a country he has always wanted to visit so it was the perfect meet-up spot. We all met up in Athens and headed for the Acropolis first.

Naturally, as every good celebration does, we began with a very formal ceremony in one of the Acropolis theaters. I officially welcomed Dad into the club and presented him with his 100 country pin.****

I then presented him with his banner and we were posing for pictures when an Acropolis guide came running over.

It turns out that there is a rule***** that there can be no signs or posters in the Acropolis. We had to delete all of our pictures with the sign****** in front of the guide before he would allow us to move on.*******

So, ah well. We continued upward and onward!

Once up top, the views were fantastic!

We attempted to take a sign picture up top******** and tried to be real quick about it.

Funnily enough, another guard found and informed us that there were no signs allowed and that we would have to delete the pictures. We apologized, said we had no idea, and dutifully deleted the above pictures. 

From then on, we kept it above board and just took dozens of pictures of ourselves sans signs.

Following the Parthenon and a visit to the Acropolis museum, we generally wandered the streets of the Plaka. Highlights included:

The next day we left the sign at home********* and headed for the Agora. We roamed what used to be the marketplace and stocked up on column pictures.

 Column like you see 'em.

 Editorial Column.

 Column Response.

 Column Mockery.

 Column Maybe.

 Column by your name.

We had a capitol time.

The rest of the day was spent eating. We opted for a light********** lunch of dozens of appetizers before a walking food tour of Athens.

The food tour included pastries like Koulouri, spanikopita, and bougatsa.

We had a delicious deli plate with less delicious ouzo.

There were olives, and more forms of alcoholic turpentine, and, of course, loukoumades.

And just when we couldn't possibly eat another bite, souvlaki.

Greece is delicious.

What else? The family stayed true to their usual shenanigans of posing with statues and plants.***********

We arrived today in Cyprus for our next stop and, SPOILER ALERT- no one is fighting the sign here!

More from Cyprus another day! Congratulations on your 100th, Dad!!

-KT

*You already know what it is, but just in case: https://travelerscenturyclub.org/

**

***https://teachersummer.blogspot.com/2016/04/century-club.html

****Yeah, there's a pin. Who wants to join now?!?!

*****Apparently unwritten rule because I have searched for it and not found it.

******And we obviously undeleted them later from the "Recently Deleted" folder.

*******Oh and after I demanded to see some official guide ID and we tried to slink off but he hunted us down and was yelling about deleting pictures while other tourists watched helplessly.

********We are rebels and we'll never ever be any good.

*********For safety. 

**********He's not heavy, he's my lunch.

***********And also AT tried on a hat and I'll save that for a future time. But know that the hat in these pictures is legit hers.