Acropolis
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2010
1
79
169
Trip End
Dec 02, 2010
Athens, Attica, Greece
Thursday, July 22, 2010
First we stopped at the old Olympic stadium which was the marathon finish and the archery final venue for the 2004 Olympic Games. We didn’t go in because we could see the whole thing from the outside. It was pretty impressive though. To think it had been there for centuries... just amazing. It was made of wood originally and now it is made of marble – I think it dates back to the first couple of centuries, so it's pretty old – doesn’t look overly old though
From here we did some of the Lonely Planet walking tour out of guidebook. So it took us into a big park where there was a palace of a sort, but the interesting thing, that it was hear that housed the Olympic Village in 2004. We walked through the botanic gardens which were really pretty. I was quite surprised by how green Athens was. It wasn't that way later on in the day in the historic part of the city, but it was so far, which was nice, especially considering how hot it was.
We went back to Syntagma Square which for us was the main hub of the town. There was the parliament building where there was some strange looking guard action. There are guards that do their funny walk everywhere around the world, but they had this big weird step action going on – I think I got a couple of photos mid step.
Then it was on a mission to buy water – which isn't too hard because they sell it everywhere, but no one will give you a price – but 50 cents for a small bottle and 1 euro for a large one – it's so cheap. I drank so much water today that I didn’t even really feel like eating. It's been a while since I have been that thirsty.
We found some churches to look at along the way and there were some interesting shops and restaurants along the way in Plaka. Then we walked from there to the Flea Market, which is a massive street of shops – so much of it was ripped off brands, but lots of greek sandals and clothes. It was interesting to look around, but I didn’t find anything to buy. Ive been having trouble actually making purchases lately. A lot of it is just crap you don't really need, so at least I'm saving some money, but not really accumulating many souvenirs.
There were lots of people selling fruit, doughnuts and bready pretzel rings, so we got some grapes and some peaches – best peaches I had had in ages – yum! So juicy too! Later on we hunted out a kebab place recommended in the guidebook. I didn’t have one but Ash said it was really good as it had a spicy tomato sauce that made it taste awesome!
We were trying to kill some time so that we didn’t go to the Acropolis in the heat of the day, so we tried to find a cinema with some air conditioning, but they weren’t open during the day. We went into an electronics store and had a nosey around, and we even went to McDonalds – which we don't do that very often, but they did have 1 euro milkshakes which was a bargain – it was even cheaper than coke, so woohoo! Got to love places that have air conditioning. It was just so warm and humid. It was 39 degrees that day and it only dropped to about 35 degrees in the evening – so horrible.
Well we finally decided to do it – walk up the hill to the Acropolis. It wasn't overly busy when we got there which was good. Apparently if you go in the morning when there are heaps of tourist groups, you can wait in the line for hours, but we didn’t have to wait at all. We have had a pretty good run in terms of waiting in line – we haven't really had to wait for anything – maybe 30 minutes to get through security at Versailles Palace on the second day and thats been about it.
I was a little disappointed that there wasn't any information on the Acropolis – no brochure or map, there was nothing and the signs weren’t overly informative. They merely discussed the restoration work, as there was heaps of scaffolding. Everywhere we go there is scaffolding, it's really ruining the photos, but oh well, what can you do.
As we walked up the hill we saw the Odeon of Herodes Atticus which is the small theatre- one of two at the Acropolis. It was in really good condition and is now used for performances. Unfortunately this is the only time you can actually go and have a walk around the theatre. It is really pretty. Next we saw the Temple of Athena Nike, but it was being reconstructed, so couldn’t really see much of it which was a shame.
The Parthenon, which is the main feature, is really huge. You can walk around the outside, but never on the inside. At the moment, there is a big crane in there anyway. The Parthenon is dedicated to Athena, the goddess of the city. Parthenon also means virgins apartment. The Parthenon was used for two things – the treasury and also to hold the statue of Athena – which I think has been lost. It is also the largest Doric temple in Greece.
So it was pretty impressive. We also read in our guidebook about one of the stories about how Athena became the patron of the city of Athens. There was a battle between Athena and Poseidon and the gods of Olympus decided that whoever could produce the most valuable legacy for mortals would win this honour. Athena – goddess of wisdom, produced an olive tree which is a symbol of peace and prosperity. Poseidon – god of the sea – struck a rock with his trident and a horse came out – symbolising strength and solitude. The gods decided that Athena’s gift better suited the citizens of Athens and she became the city’s patron deity. So I thought that was pretty interesting.
We headed out to the far side of the Acropolis and got some nice views over the city. We could see another hill a bit further away which I think we will walk up to try and get some good pictures of the whole of the acropolis. The final part of the Acropolis was the Erectheion which is meant to be meant of the most sacred part of the hill and is a sanctuary. It is here the Poseidon struck the ground and Athena produced the olive tree.
I thought the Acropolis would take ages – as when we were looking around the ruins in Rome, there was so much to see, but not so much here, which I guess was kind of good in the heat. We went up the hill around 5pm, so there was shade behind some of the trees and buildings, which really helped.
After this we had just about had enough, so we headed back to the hostel, via the supermarket for dinner. Not that we bought dinner food – yoghurt, smoothies and cold drinks was about all we had. I managed to hold of Mum tonight so it was good to chat and catch up. We were going to go to the cinema and watch a movie, since it would be cool, but we ended chatting to a whole lot of others. We had some really nice Californians in our room, and we also met and South African and Aussie guy who were in their gap year. It was cool to hear about everyone elses experiences and just talk to some other people. It's been a breath of fresh air – if only there was fresh air inside the hostel.
