Athens and the Acropolis
That's me blocking the view of Athens' crushes of buildings. On top of Lycabettus hill you can see part of another open-air theater.
Landed in Greece on Wednesday and the impact was immediate. From the plane windows I could see HSBC advertisements painted on the passenger walkways. The writing was all in Greek!
The next hit was from the heat. It was 33ۡ C, a good ten degrees hotter than London. Palm trees in Athens aren't restricted to gardening stores and cicadas everywhere are busy making their almost-annoying music. Takes me back to Japan.
And when you buy water, you don't buy those wussy little 500 mL sizes, you go for the 1.5 L.
Getting around is a little tougher because it takes some work to commit even the anglicized street names to memory. We're staying in Zorba's hostel on "Gkiylfordou." Try to find that on the map.
Even more amusing is the fact that the word is actually the grecianized, then anglicized form of the English word "Guilford." (Isn't this a test of machine translation that we're failing here?)
A random shot from the first day's wanderings in Athens.
When we'd first arrived, Mike and I stood in the airport looking for the nearby Victoria Square instead of Gkiylfordou. A couple friendly Aussies overheard our struggles and offered help. Turns out, they'd just got off the same flight from Gatwick and were heading to the same hostel. We split a taxi with them and were at the hostel in less than thirty minutes.
The cab driver, also very outgoing, taught us to say "thank you" in Greek but warned us not to use it too much. When asked why, he responded simply, "beware the Greeks."
The City of Athens
A seafood market near Athinia Street, not that we had any idea where we were.
In keeping with the driver's warning, Mike and I had heard stories from other travelers about how sketchy the city is—"watch your bags and pockets"—but had no bad experiences. Lucky us, I guess, but we're also pretty paranoid so that probably worked in our favour.
The most interesting thing for me had to be the Greek salesmanship. On our first day we wandered into a restaurant patio, considering a drink or a bite and one of the servers approached us. Within moments he'd convinced us to have a seat and take a look at the menu.
In the half-hour we stayed we saw him reel in at least four other hesitant diners.
I'm not saying the restaurant was bad, either. I was quite happy eating my Moussaka, shaded by umbrellas nestled between the whitewashed buildings. The heat relaxes you, slows things down, giving you a chance to enjoy the food. Everybody looks like they're on vacation.
The Athenian Acropolis
The theatre of Dionysos seen from above.
A €12 ticket gets you access to the Acropolis, the Agora, and everything else in the area including the Hephaistion. Since we were only in Athens for a couple days and I had to work, I only saw the Acropolis.
Apparently, we'd picked a good day for the short climb. There was a breeze which kept us relatively cool. On the way up we saw the theaters of Dionysos and Herodes Atticus. By theaters, I mean tonnes of stone steps arranged in a half-circle with the stage at the bottom. Same basic idea but outdoors and made of stone.
The Atticus theater is still in use; it's very well-kept and has a bunch of lights mounted above the stage and around the seating area. I couldn't help but wonder what it'd be like at night, what it'd be like to see a show there.
The Parthenon.
The entrance to the summit of the Acropolis is marked by the Propylaea. More stone steps leading up and through rows of columns. Magnificent.
Unfortunately, both the Propylaia and the Parthenon were being restored so modern scaffolding and a crane altered the impression. Still, they were both impressive. The Parthenon is huge, and some of the inner frieze sculpture is still there. I really don't know what to say about it... I couldn't stop staring with wonder.
Free from scaffolding, though, was the Erecthion. I can remember my Art History prof talking of the odd design for this building. Most of the structures followed a pretty specific layout. And there aren't too many that have stone-sculpted maidens (kariatids) instead of columns.
The Erecthion with its group of Kariatids holding up part of the roof.
And the view. You can see the white-walled buildings of Athens crammed in as tightly as possible. They leave wandering geometric paths between them which offer bits of shade as reprieve from the sun.
Before we got to Greece, Mike and I were warned by more than one person that Athens is a bit dodgy. Maybe it's a result of lowered expectations but we both really liked the city and I would certainly like to spend more time there.