If you try and think of the 5 most influential cities that have ever graced our Planet, Athens would have to be one of them.  It is confirmed that it has had a permanent settlement of one kind or another since 5000BC which places it in the top 5 places in the world for 'continous settlement', therefore, you would expect a lot of old shit around.  There was of course a lot of 'old shit' but what caught our attention was the 'old shit' that is now there, graffit, junk, horrible looking buildings and really no get-up-and-go from anybody.  You can put that down to the current situation in Greece and I'm sure that it's part of the reason but overall the City left me wanting more, I was a little dissappointed at the end of the day with Athens.
Having said all that, Athens does have a couple of real drawing points, namely the Acropolis and the Panthenon, which we and half of Athens were visiting at the same time (and it's not even Tourist season).  The Acropolis is special because of its location, right on top of a flat hill in the centre of Athens.  It is so prominent that even if The Panthenon wasn't built there it would still be an attraction to all that visit just to be able to see Athens from above.  The fact that the Athenians decided to build they temples to Gods there is a blessing for all of us.  Right below the Acropolis is the Acropolis Museum and it contians all the finds that the Archeologists have made over the years investigating the surrounding areas.  That's a lie.  A lot of the earlier works were done by Archeologists from other countries, mostly English (fame), French (preservation) and German (the Occult), and lots of their important finds where shipped back to their home countries.  The American just bought (or stole) all of their pieces that are displayed in their museums.  To be fair to these earlier Archeologists, a lot of the time that they were working, the local people didn't actually care about the pieces that were being found and let them have them anyway.  It wasn't important to them then as it is now.  However what is displayed in the Museum is enough to be excited about.
The other Museum of note in Athens is the National Archeological Museum.  Once again it has some fascinating objects not just from Athens but all of Greece but one in particular is impressive; the Antikythera Mechanism.  It has been described as the worlds first computer as it is a mechanism that can be used to predict the movement of the Astromomical beings will alarming accuracy for something that has been dated to around 200BC.  Once again I have read about this is Magazines but never thought that Id's lay my peepers on it.  These are the little things that I like about travel, coming across something unexpected which can make you happy.  I'm sure when you read this you would think discovering something other than an old mechanical watch would make me happier but we are all different.  I just found it great to see.
Now we are off to the North and the cold ... again.  Here we come Helsinki and St Petersburg.