My journey began as they all do, by taking the metro. A fellow assistant and friend of mine, Stephanie, had been telling me how she got stuck in the metro doors (they're vicious plastic barriers and shut on you if you're not fast enough). She was there for a while, and then a nice person with a Pass Navigo, the monthly/yearly metro pass, came along and got her through the doors. Well, I came upon someone in such a predicament on my way to the airport. I decided to try to help them through, but we both didn't move fast enough and I got stuck holding my suitcase on one side of the plastic barrier while my body was on the other. The lucky schmuck I helped out didn't even look back to say 'Thanks,' and I was stuck asking people 'Pouvez-vous m'aider à passer la barrière?' I didn't want to let go of my suitcase on the other side of the barrier, and swiping my own Pass Navigo again resulted in the red x of death. I suppose I was lucky enough, after about 10 people ignored me, a man came up with his magic metro pass and we both got through, though he almost lost an arm.
The rest of my journey was uneventful.... Rer to plane, plane to airport, metro to Athens. I actually took a real airline, and after being on EasyJet lately, it felt so roomy! And the flight attendants came by with newspapers and candy, so what's not to love?
The metro stop for my hotel was one and the same with the Acropolis. As I tried to get my bearing and find my hotel, I was in awe as I looked up at the huge rock in the middle of the city that held the Parthenon on top of it. On my walk from the metro to my hotel, suitcase in hand, I was surprised that there were men on the sidewalks trying to usher anyone and everyone into their restaurants. I tried to politely refuse, but it turned out I needed to refuse with a sneer on my face everywhere I went. That is one thing I never got used to - whether it was a restaurant or a store (not even necessarily a gift store), the people who worked there would try to force you to go in, and to me that was a great deterrent from even window shopping or stopping to look at menus, even if I was looking for a place to eat.
After checking in at my hotel and asking about available tours outside of the city, I went out to wander around and find somewhere to eat dinner. I walked in a big circle, and went through the Plaka area and then by Hadrian's Gate and the Temple of Zeus.
In the end, I went to the restaurant right by my hotel that had been so adamant with me when I walked by the first time with my suitcase. I was not really prepared for what awaited me that evening. It was around 7:30 or so, and I was under the miscomprehension that Greece followed more or less the same meal schedule as France. I later learned that the Greek are more on the Spanish schedule with lunch around 2, and dinner around 9 or later, but in all honesty, I never really saw many people in restaurants, no matter the time, probably due to the economic crisis in the country. When I went inside, there was only a German couple there, and pretty soon some live music started up. While I was waiting for my meal to come out, the waiters tried to teach us how to dance, but I had a hard time picking up the steps so I was basically walking in a circle with them. It was fun, but also rather awkward for me. When I was done eating my gyros, I had not eaten all of the meat and the waiter was concerned that I had not liked the meal, and then seemed offended that I asked for the check. The couple came up to me and told me that Americans don't ever sit and enjoy a meal and we're always rushing. He then insisted that I stay longer to enjoy the ambiance. I didn't heed his advice - I was tired, and I'd already been there well over an hour and a half, and sure, if I wasn't by myself maybe I would have stayed longer, but as it was, I wanted to wander around a little bit and then go back to my hotel.
The next morning I started out by going to the Acropolis. I slowly made my way up the hill, going by so many ruins, such as the Theater of Dionysus. As I got higher, I could see more of Athens spreading out in front of me.The archaeologists are attempting to reconstruct the Parthenon and other areas around the Acropolis, and it was interesting to see the new marble mixed in with the ancient marble. To think that these buildings have existed for millenniums is mind-blowing, and I think it's good that they are reconstructing so that we can get a good idea about how life was in Ancient Greece.
After wandering, I headed back down the hill. I was trying to go on a tour to Cape Sounion that afternoon, and the concierge told me to come back at noon so that she could give me a definitive answer. I had my camera out and was taking pictures along the way, and an older man yelled 'Welcome to Greece' my way, and I made the mistake of turning his way before I realized it. It wasn't that bad, but there are only so many times I can be hit on by a 50/60/70 year old man without getting annoyed. He invited me to get a drink with him, which I refused, and I got away from him as soon as I could by saying that I was meeting friends at noon and it was already 11:50. I may not have been meeting friends, but I did need to get back to the hotel to find out that I would not be able to go on the tour in the afternoon.
I went out again and this time headed to the Temple of Zeus. I walked around the exterior, and took my photos, of course.
After leaving, I thought about grabbing a hop-on hop-off bus so that I could see more of the city and not be trapped underground or hopelessly lost while wandering. On my way to the stop, I noticed a covered area. Apparently, when they were digging to put in a new metro line, they came across the ruins of a Roman bath. They then re-routed the metro line, and began excavations of the ruins. Only in Greece!
I then got on the bus. I really enjoyed the ancient part of Athens, but I quickly saw that modern Athens was not quite the same. The city expanded so quickly that most buildings were built on low budgets and as such were not well constructed, they aren't aesthetically appealing, and now these buildings are permanent fixtures in the city. I had imagined the white, round stucco buildings of photos of the Greek islands, but Athens was far from that with the block buildings that weren't very well kept. Of course, I also saw cute churches everywhere, and the bus took us down a street where it seemed that anyone and everyone was selling anything that people would want to buy on the sidewalks and the street.
I decided to hop off the bus at the archaeological museum, but it was unfortunately closed by the time I got there. In the winter, most national museums and monuments closed around 3 pm for the day, so they really had to be done in the morning. I decided then to grab a coffee, and I just wandered in what I thought was the general direction of my hotel. Occasionally I would see the Acropolis or other indicators that told me I was going the right way, but soon I hit a dead end that overlooked part of what I think was the Ancient Agora. I went to the Agora later, and it was in the same general location, but across the street, so I'm not completely sure, but I still saw some nice ruins!
I realized I was on the opposite side of the Acropolis from my hotel, so I wandered through the Plaka area back to my hotel. I window shopped a little on the way, and even entertained a shopkeeper by getting her to show me some nice jewelry after she 'mistook' me for being Greek since I said 'Yassou (Hello)', but in the end I didn't buy anything. One of the few places open past 3 pm was the Acropolis Museum, which worked perfectly for me. The museum is built on top of ruins, and some of the floor is clear so that you can see down into the excavations. The museum was full of artifacts found in those ruins and around the Acropolis. Again - it's so amazing that those carvings have survived for so long! The museum also kept the facades from the Parthenon, and they even filled in areas so that you could see what the missing areas are believed to have looked like. I grabbed a spinach pie at the museum for dinner, and then I got a cream pastry (which turned out to be my weakness) from a pastry shop on the way back to my hotel.
The next day I went on a full day tour to Delphi. The bus came early, and I got to ride around for an hour while we picked people up from all of the other hotels (to only end up right next to my hotel again at our last stop, very efficient, eh?). The tour guide was great - she offered a lot of good information, but the majority of the people on the bus slept the majority of the way. She told us about all the places we were going by, such as Thebes, the city connected with the story of Oedipus. We stopped about two hours in at a tourist trap. Seriously, they had pastries, coffee, books, jewelry, post cards, countless knick-knacks, a huge restroom, and a fireplace. So, it was a cozy tourist trap. I was getting pretty tired, so I got my sugar fix with a coffee and some baklava.
We continued on to Delphi where the Temple of Apollo is located. Back in the day, an oracle spoke to people here. So, you could make a sacrifice, and then find out your fate. However, the oracle was always very ambiguous in her answers. The example given to us was that if a man asked whether his child would be a boy or a girl, the oracle would say "Boy not girl" which could be interpreted as "Boy not, girl" or "Boy, not girl." Take all predictions with a grain of salt! Also, the French were very influential in the excavations here. People had built their homes right on top of the ruins, and in the early 1900s they were bought out so that archaeologists could go through the ruins. Crazy that people were just living on top of this gorgeous hill oblivious to the history right beneath them. I can see how they would want the view from there, though. The view was very impressive, onto a valley, and not to mention the ruins of the Agora, treasuries, and the Temple.
After the visit we also went to the museum which housed not only the largest Sphinx in Greece, but also one of the best copper statues. It was found under the ruins, while most other copper statues from Ancient Greece only survived because they were shipwrecked and salvaged much later once they could be appreciated. Most others were melted down for the metal in times of war. The statue here was also very remarkable due to the detail in the eyes, which is one of the best-preserved.
We then stopped for lunch at another tourist trap. They served us spaghetti, which was pretty bland. The most interesting part was that I was sitting at a table with two groups of women, and I thought none of them were English speaking at first. The group on my left turned out to be Arab-Canadian, and the group on my right was Peruvian. I ended up acting as a pseudo-translator between the two groups, they were around the same ages and had more to ask each other, like about children or grandchildren. That was a real test of my Spanish! I did well enough, but I don't think I passed with flying colors, plus their accent was very different after having lived in Spain. There were many things the Peruvian women said that I had to tell them I didn't understand. That didn't discourage them, though, and they kept up a line of conversation until they reached something I understood.
On the way back, we stopped at a town that I kept thinking they were calling Agrabah ala Aladdin, but it was actually Arachova. We were dropped off at a gift store that specialized in tapestries, but nothing really caught my eye. I walked down to get a view of the clock tower over the town, and then it was time to go.
The following day I actually got into the Cape Sounion tour, but it wasn't leaving until the afternoon. So, I decided to explore a little bit in the morning. I started out by climbing up the Filopappos and Pnyx Hills. They're both very close to the Acropolis and offer a spectacular view. I enjoyed wandering through the woods. One of the things about Athens is that there are stray dogs everywhere. One of them came across my path as I was climbing, and he seemed harmless enough. Then, there was a high-pitched bark that sounded painful, his ears perked up, and he ran to the trouble. A few minutes later, a pack of dogs came running my way, and it seemed they were being egged on a bit by a very questionable looking man that remained 50 ft away from me. They rushed me, growling, baring their teeth, and barking. I froze, and pulled my arms into my body. I do not like dogs one bit, and this 'attack' hasn't helped to change my opinion. The man was yelling something, to me or the dogs, I don't know, but I decided to just stay still until the dogs calmed. They seemed like they were deciding to move on, backed up a little bit, then the man said something, and they got agitated again. There was a bark in the distance and they ran off and the man seemed to follow them. I'm grateful nothing happened, but this scared me quite a bit. I was then a bit jumpy and very wary of all of the stray dogs I came across from then on.
I didn't stick around the hill much longer, and then I went to the Ancient Agora. It's pretty much all in ruins, with stones laid out and numbered for future reconstruction attempts. There was one stoa that had been reconstructed by an American university in the mid 20th century, and now houses a museum which wasn't open for the day yet, and I didn't feel like waiting around. I instead wandered the grounds and bumped into an older couple that had been on the tour with me the previous day. I spoke with them a bit and found out they would be going on the Cape Sounion tour in the afternoon as well. They continued on their way to the museum, and I went up to the Temple of Hephaestus, which looked a little like a mini-Parthenon. It was used as a museum for many years, but now they're trying to preserve it and they were working on reconstruction.
I left and took the metro to Piraeus, a city that touches Athens and is the connection with the sea. I walked over to the water upon getting out of the metro, and I saw the harbor full of cruise ships and I there were trucks pouring dirt into the water to construct something.
I walked along the harbor and just explored. I came across a market that mainly sold fruit, vegetables, sea food, and meat.
I had been told that the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier was worth seeing, so I took the metro back to Syntagma (or Constitution) square. While waiting, I spotted some men with polaroid cameras, and it seemed that their gimmick was to drop bird food onto the ground near you, coax you to stick out your arm, then pigeons would jump up onto your arms, shoulders, head, and they would take your photo, for a price. One of them caught me watching, came over to me, dropped the bird food, and I was rushed by pigeons. So dogs and birds in one day, how lucky can a girl get? I had no desire to let the rats that fly anywhere near me, so I told the man no, and walked away from the onslaught of wings coming my way, and since he was Greek he insisted with me and I glared at him and walked away. :-). But the changing of the guard was quite interesting. The guards basically wear kilts and shoes with huge fuzzy balls on them, and they kick their legs up, then drag their shoes along the ground to make a squeaking sound, and somewhere in there the shoes also sound like tap shoes.
From there I walked down the main shopping street that seemed like it should be the equivalent of Fifth Avenue or the Champs-Elysees, but even it looked pretty worn down. It also made me a bit sick to see two kids, under ten years old each, playing the accordion to make money on opposite sides of the street, with their parents standing in between them keeping an eye on them while drinking beer. That just throws your life in perspective to see how poorly people will treat their children.
I grabbed a 'traditional kebab' for lunch, which was literally just mystery meat (mixture of lamb and beef) on a stick, and I had trouble finishing even half of it since I normally don't eat a ton of meat, even though it was quite tasty.
There was a bit of confusion about my tour that afternoon. I had indicated I wanted to be picked up from their pickup spot that was fairly close to my hotel since I didn't want to waste an hour sitting on the bus again. Well, despite me being there and signalling to the bus, it just went right past me. I thought it might come back... A few minutes later I got a call from my hotel, and the bus had gone there instead. It wasn't a huge deal, but I walked the five minutes down to wear the bus was waiting, and got on for the trip to Cape Sounion.
The bus took us along the coast, which was gorgeous. About an hour later, we arrived to see Poseidon's Temple at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea. So beautiful! Apparently before they roped off access to the columns it was common for people to go write their names on the temple, one of the most famous signatures being that of Lord Byron. He spent time writing there, and wanted to make his mark on history, I suppose. Now, there are a lot of other names there, mostly Jack loves Jill sorts of inscriptions.
Even though it was a short trip, I think I preferred Poseidon's Temple and the view from Cape Sounion to the rest of the things I did. And all of the tour guides seemed to have been taught what things to say, but in a way I would have thought they'd all have slightly different tid-bits to talk about on the different tours. However, when leaving Athens, they all pointed out the same buildings and related their history. The most interesting tidbit I learned each time we were on a highway was about the 'mini-chapels' on the sides of the road. They were actually meant to be the equivalent of crosses left on the side of the road in the states, meant to mark where a loved on had died in a car accident. Inside these chapels there is supposed to be a candle, water, and oil, and a picture of the loved one. Passersby can light the candle, and the family can go there to mourn and respect the memory of the person.
My last day I went on the Argolis tour, which visited a lot of places, but the tour guide wasn't that great and I didn't feel as connected with the places. It may have been all of the history coming at me, though. Our first stop was at the Corinth Canal which connects the Aegean and Ionian Seas. The idea for the canal started in the 7th century, but was started and postponed on and off until its completion in the late 1800s. In between, there was a road where boats where dragged onto land and pushed or pulled over to the other side since it took less time than going around the peninsula.
The next stop was at the Epidauros Theater, which is well-known for its acoustics. Every summer there are Greek tragedies and comedies performed in the theater. We didn't really get a demonstration because there were so many people, but I was told that you can hear a person ripping a newspaper from the focal point all the way to the last row in the theater.
For me, the best part of the scenery was the sea of olive trees. As we drove along, I would see an olive tree that I thought was the largest one I had ever seen, then I'd see an even bigger one! Olive trees are meant to be pruned every year, so the indicator of age is the size of the trunk. Several of us were curious about the trees, and when we asked the guide, she told us that some of the trees could easily be over 2000 years old! To think that people have been taking care of those trees all that time!
Our next stop was at the Cyclopean Walls (so named because the boulders of the walls are so large that it was believed only a cyclops could carry them up the hill) which dates from the Mycenean period. There was also the Lion's Gate and many bee-hive (underground) tombs.
We also stopped by a specific tomb. To be honest, I don't remember who it was said to have housed (possible Aristotle), and even then it was deemed very unlikely that he was actually ever there since it dates a bit after his time. But the tomb was actually home to many people and their belongings. They would be left in the first room for a while, then when someone else died they'd be moved to the next room, and the new person would be left in the first room. Over the years, grave robbers stold all of the jewels that were buried with the people, and there's a little bit of evidence that the tomb itself was decorated with bronze and gold at one point.
We also stopped at a place and had a good lunch at a tourist trap: chicken kebabs, salad, fries, and a delectable orange. I sat with some Australian women who had just retired and were doing a month-long vacation sans their families. It seemed like they were staying busy and enjoying life. On the way back to Athens we stopped in at a pottery and sculpture store that demonstrated how they create their merchandise (nothing you haven't heard before), but they had several things I would have bought had it been possible to take them back with me comfortably.
And finally, I went for my last meal in Greece. I was geared up to do the opposite of my first night, or at least try to be more sociable and enjoy the Greek music and lifestyle. Opa! I waited until around 9 to go out, then I wandered a bit. I was still put off by the pushiness of the hosts, and ended up walking in a circle. I decided to start over, and just go into the first place that looked busy. I was ushered into a restaurant full of people, but it didn't have the cheerful ambiance of the restaurant from my first night. The waiters were rather rude, and they either rushed or ignored me, depending on the moment. There wasn't even live music. The one good thing I'll say is that the food was de-li-cious! I wanted fried zucchini for my first course, but the waiter told me they weren't serving it that night, so I went for zucchini balls instead that had zucchini, cheese, and mint in them, and were fried. Then, I had moussaka for the main course, which is a bit like shepherd's pie, with eggplant, probably ground lamb, tomato paste, and a potato-like layer. For dessert I had baklava. This was the second time I tried it, and to be honest I didn't love it (which is probably good for my hips, although the cream pastries were a respectable replacement). It was a very good meal in all, though.
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