(it’s awesome for this post that the iPhone keyboard auto-suggested that emoji)

So we arrived in Athens, sans luggage, on a Friday afternoon. We would board the cruise ship Monday morning. On Saturday, we still mostly expected our suitcase to be delivered, so we wanted to stay relatively close to home in case they called. We walked around, visited a museum, ate in cafes, and… just in case… did a bit of clothes shopping.

But we weren’t alone. We noticed them almost as soon as we walked out of our Airbnb apartment… groups of mostly middle-aged people, too big and pale to be Greeks, sporting heavy metal band shirts.

It turned out that (besides us being there) the biggest thing in Athens that weekend was the Iron Maiden concert.

We saw more of them throughout the weekend. On Sunday some fans were definitely looking the worse for wear.