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Published: February 1st 2023
The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears… ~ Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher
HE SAID... Today we were continuing to explore the ancient city of
Athens, before catching a train northward to Thessaloniki in the mid-afternoon.
We woke early and headed down to the intimate breakfast room at Hotel Attalos. As always, I opted for Greek yoghurt with muesli and cranberries, and we hydrated with endless cups of tea and juice. This comfy, compact and welcoming hotel in the heart of Athens was nothing short of exceptional, and we especially loved its breakfast offerings.
We had a scheduled walking tour of the Acropolis at 9:30am, and we were looking forward to it. We had been skirting the perimeter of this extraordinary ruin since arriving in Greece a few weeks earlier, but we were yet to enter it. We had looked upon it from most angles – from rooftop bars, from the foothills of Plaka and Monastiraki, from the narrow lanes of Anafiotika, from the shaded paths of the National Gardens, and from the busy streets of central Athens. The time had come to finally walk into the place, and we were excited!
We left the hotel reasonably early, and as soon as we set foot on Athinas Street and
started walking towards Monastiraki Square, there it was – the Acropolis – jutting into the sky directly in front of us. It occupies such a dominant place in the beating heart of Athens. Rather than taking a direct route to the ancient ruins, we opted for a scenic (and brisk) detour through Plaka’s steep and narrow streets, and it certainly got the heart pumping. Plaka’s architecture is breathtaking, and we would never tire of wandering its labyrinthine network of lanes and pathways.
We eventually emerged onto Theorias, a picturesque walking path that channels tourists from Plaka, Aerides and Monastiraki to the main Acropolis entrance. And today, like every other day, the tourist crowds were out in force. Big time. It’s difficult to convey just how crowded it was. The ancient site is a very popular tourist destination, and for good reason. If we wanted to wander the ruins, we had to grin and bear the crowds. We had no choice.
It was not only crowded. It was also hot. Really hot. And it was only early morning! We were still in the relative shade of the leafy Theorias. What on earth was it going to be like on
the exposed ruins? You didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know it was going to be exponentially hotter in direct sunlight. We braced ourselves and started walking shoulder to shoulder with all the other tourists…
We first looked down on the Odeon of Herodes Aticus (which was being set up for an upcoming concert), then looked up at the Temple of Athena Nike on our way through the crowded entrance. We made our way through the Propylaia, then stood under the western monumental columns of the Parthenon – which were shrouded in scaffolding.
As our certified guide waffled on (and I mean really waffled on), we watched in disbelief as an old bloke clambered up the inner stairs of the scaffolding. I wondered if he was part of an archaeological team, or a restoration team, or possibly even a construction team? He was, after all, struggling with a small backpack. Maybe it was full of heavy stonemasonry tools. But it was a Sunday, and no-one else was working – apart from the countless tour guides and security personnel strewn through the site. Yet they were oblivious to his slow ascent. They were too busy talking and
making sure none of us touched the marble. And all the while, the old bloke continued to climb the scaffolding.
He was not in good shape, having to rest after each set of metal stairs. As I glanced at the various groups around us, I noticed some people had started to point in the old bloke’s direction. When I looked back at our guide, she continued to waffle on without the slightest awareness of what was playing out behind her. She was reciting intricate historical details about the Parthenon, yet she didn’t once look at the structure she was describing. Rather, she held up pictures from a well-used folder that she clutched tightly to her body. Her well-rehearsed spiel was far more important than our tangible engagement with the site.
When I looked back at the old bloke (who was now close to the top of the scaffolding), I wondered if he was a terrorist. Did he have an armoury of guns in his heavy backpack? What would we do if he started shooting? When I looked back at our guide, she was still waffling, oblivious to this trespasser who threatened so much. When he finally reached the
top, he started to rummage in his backpack, and I started mapping out a few contingencies. Should I interrupt the guide, or was I over-reacting to an over-zealous archaeologist who had decided to work on a Sunday?
After a few minutes of scurrying around in an increasingly erratic state, the old bloke started unfolding banners from the top of the Parthenon. From the whispers going around the crowds, the banners seemed to convey a strong protest message. The banners were written in Greek, but it was clear the bloke was angry. Some of the banners were upside down, others were sideways. There were even a few national flags of different countries. The banners were plentiful, and when he’d finished unfurling them, they spanned the length of the Parthenon’s western scaffold. Suddenly (or should I say finally), our guide realised something was amiss. The look of incredulity on her face was priceless, especially when we pointed out that the old bloke had been ascending the Parthenon the entire time she had been talking.
If you’ve ever wondered how to blatantly trespass – in plain sight – one of the most iconic and heavily staffed tourist sites on the planet,
it’s simply a matter of timing. Just wait until the tour guides start talking. All jokes aside, I still find it hard to believe that this old bloke was able to access the Parthenon scaffolding so easily.
Theories abounded as to what he was protesting. I heard a few people saying he was demanding the immediate expulsion of Macedonians from Greece, but others discounted this. Whatever his problem, it was apparent he held right wing nationalistic views, and he was not happy with people he considered to be ‘non-Greek’ having influence in his country. His voice was clearly heard, because he made the news that night, and he was all over the local newspapers the following day.
Police eventually arrived on site, but they simply stood around the base of the Parthenon while he screamed at them from his temporary fortress. Apparently, he was threatening to jump if they tried to access the scaffolding. What could they do? To our amazement, the Acropolis wasn’t evacuated. We simply continued our walking tour, as did every other tourist. Every so often his screaming voice would carry to where we were standing. Our waffling guide simply continued to waffle.
I
asked one question throughout the whole tour, and it was this: What was the old bloke protesting? She shook her head and said she didn’t know. But of course, she knew exactly what he was up to. She could read his banners. I can only assume she was embarrassed by his right-wing views, and she didn’t want to ruin our experience of the Acropolis. While I understood her reluctance to discuss politics, it would have been the perfect opportunity to engage us. The Acropolis is incredibly important to the Greek people, and it has been the centre of many protests over the years. She could have contextualised our tour to what was playing out in front of us. But instead, she opted to ignore it. There was nothing we could do. I listened to comments from other people as we walked around the site, but I couldn’t fully grasp the old bloke’s
call to action.
We kept calm and carried on. Our guide hurried us away from the Parthenon and marched us to the nearby Porch of the Caryatids. When she stopped to recite more facts and figures from her trusty folder, we were left standing in searing sunlight.
Luckily, some of us were able to seek shade under Athena’s Olive Tree. It was at this point that I stopped listening altogether, although truth be told it may have been earlier. We walked past the Temple of Poseidon, then managed to take a few selfies in front of the eastern columns of the Parthenon, which luckily were not under scaffolding.
We then made our way to the lookout at the Flag of Greece on the far eastern end of the Acropolis, which afforded fantastic views of the Athenian cityscape and of the Acropolis itself. On our way back from the lookout, we looked up in awe at the pediments, metopes and frieze of the Parthenon.
Our guided walking tour was over. Phew! We were wilting in the searing mid-morning sun, so we sought shade wherever we could find it. We felt like sheep on a hot summer day, gathering under trees (which were few and far between) with a bunch of sweaty strangers. As we slowly made our way out of the Acropolis, we listened intently to the mutterings of tourists about the lone protester. Everyone was astonished how easily he’d gained access to the Parthenon without
resistance. Guards were being paid to warn people against touching its marble columns, yet no-one was being paid to warn people against climbing the structure and hanging protest banners from its metopes…
Having exited the Acropolis, we found solace from the sun on leafy Theorias. We also found ourselves at the base of Areopagus Hill – which once housed the Shrine of the Unknown God. We’d climbed this dusty outcrop the previous day, and it offered amazing views of the sprawling Athenian cityscape. However, we opted against clambering the exposed rocks on this occasion, as the midday sun was searing and we only had a few hours before our train journey to Thessaloniki.
We wandered back to the busy weekend streets of Monastiraki and headed to Thanasis, a specialist
kebab (skewered meat cooked on a grilled) eatery just off Monastiraki Square. This place is popular with tourists, both foreign and Greek, and for good reason. We ordered the house speciality – Thanasis Kebab – which was described on the menu as
four juicy grilled kebabs with pita, onions and roasted tomato. I cooled down with a cold Mythos beer as we waited for our meal. When the
kebabs were placed in front of us on a large plate, sitting atop the pita bread and smothered in roasted tomato and onion, we couldn’t believe our eyes. They were amazing, and the fresh hot pita bread was extraordinary. In fact, the pita bread was so good, we ordered some more. What an incredible lunch!
On our way back to Hotel Attalos, we picked up a small tub of ice cream from Kokkion, an exquisite gelato and ice cream shop just around the corner from the hotel. We headed to the hotel’s rooftop bar and quickly shared the ice cream (before it melted), then retreated to our room to organise our packs. We had a four-hour train journey to Thessaloniki, and we were seriously looking forward to it.
SHE SAID... I woke up a little excited, but also very aware that it was going to be a long day. We were spending the first half of the day exploring a bit more of
Athens and then catching a train to Thessaloniki.
Breakfast at Hotel Attalos was a quick affair, with the only notable fact that there were tiny squares of
bougatsa (custard phyllo pie) in the
pie section of the bain-marie! I was extremely happy with this discovery. We then rushed back to our room for a quick family Zoom call to wish Ruthanne (our sister-in-law) a Happy Birthday. Our family is spread across four different time zones in Dubai, London, Melbourne, and Athens… and it had required a bit of juggling to get a time that worked for all of us.
Then came the
pièce de résistance of most trips to Athens – a visit to the Acropolis! While it conjured up a joyous feeling, I also felt slightly flustered knowing we were about to spend a very hot morning traipsing through the Acropolis with hundreds and hundreds of other tourists!
This was an included group activity, and we all walked to the Acropolis with a local guide called Alice. The walk itself was lovely, but we were fitted with earpieces and the 10 of us looked like a bunch of super touristy tourists as we navigated our way through Monastiraki Square, the Plaka neighbourhood, and then up a whole lot of stairs to reach the stony path that leads to the entrance of the Acropolis.
It was only 9:30am but already
super-hot, and the entrance was filling up quickly as a long line of buses started rapidly spewing a sea of people into the ticket booth area. There are two entrances to the Acropolis, and we were at the busier main entrance. The small entrance near the Akropolis metro station is probably the much better way to enter. However, Alice wanted to give us the experience of walking into the complex via the grand gateway – the way people were meant to enter the city. I could totally see her point. However, when we voiced our dismay at the crowds, her reply was that it was much worse in the afternoons, and worse again in peak season. I think it was her polite way of telling us to suck it up! 😄
A bit of historical background on the Acropolis:
It’s claimed the city is one of the oldest in the world, having been continuously inhabited for close to 5000 years. I’m not sure of this figure, but regardless, it’s mind blowing to think that we were standing on grounds that had been first inhabited in neolithic times. The Acropolis was a normal city until 510 BC when the Delphic
Oracle deemed it was to be a city solely for the gods. This city for the gods evolved, and over time the extravagant classical temples were built – whose ruins we were about to look at. The Acropolis has suffered a lot of raiding and plundering by the several empires that fought over Athens throughout the centuries, so piecing together its remains is a complex and time-consuming process.
After a very long explanation by Alice at the entrance, we finally started walking up the marble walkway and towards the Propylaia (main entrance gate). In fairness, it may be that Alice didn’t talk for very long, but I was already very hot and bothered. I was also getting irritated that literally hundreds of people were streaming past us into the complex… and we were losing our early entrance advantage by the minute. I just wanted to get going and see what I wanted to see.
We first visited a viewing area above the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. The restored Odeon has a unique back wall (that looks like a Roman aqueduct), and the city of Athens acts as a beautiful backdrop to the stage. It’s now frequently used for
music performances.
As we walked up the zigzag ramp to the monumental Propylaia, I could see the tiny but extremely beautiful Temple of Athena Nike to one side above us. I absolutely loved how the morning light was illuminating its dainty Ionic columns.
It didn’t take much imagination to see how grand and awe-inspiring this entrance would have once been, although I was surprised to see that the walkway through this gigantic entrance was very narrow. Whether by design or accident, the bottleneck caused by the narrow entrance makes the entry into the massive Acropolis complex even more spectacular – with the Parthenon directly at the end of the inclined marble path. Another advantage of the bottleneck was that while shuffling past the grand fluted Doric columns of the Propylaia, I had ample time to absorb their might and beauty.
We headed straight for the western side of the Parthenon. This sprawling structure with those famous Doric columns was constructed in 438 BC as a tribute to the goddess Athena. It’s the largest Doric temple in the world, and even though we were looking at a ruin in the midst of restoration (and partly under scaffolding); its
magnificence was still very palpable.
It’s an understatement of titanic proportions, but I’m going to say it anyway – the Parthenon is amazing! I’m a sucker for a beautiful architectural column, and the fluted Doric columns here were stunning. Apparently, the architect of the temple employed a fairly advanced design technique of tricking the eye into seeing straight lines by constructing slightly concave horizontal surfaces and slightly convex vertical columns. I’ve thought about this concave / convex optical illusion a lot, and it really fascinates me. When looking at anything of such a large scale, the human eye will distort any straight lines it sees. So, they compensated for our visual distortions by building wonky lines! 😊
The building was understandably roped off, and we had to stand quite a distance away. The columns were easy enough to see, but the detailed architectural features were less discernible. They think the triangular pediments and the band of metopes above the columns would have been brightly coloured and gilded, which I suppose would have made it more visible to the mere mortals who visited this citadel. It was at this point that I started realising what a good idea it
had been to pop into the Acropolis Museum the day before this visit. I don’t think I would have appreciated the ruins half as much without the background information I’d gleaned from the museum.
We then moved towards the Erechtheion building with its famous Porch of the Caryatids. The Erechtheion was built in 406 BC on the sacred spot as described in the founding myth of ancient Athens. According to the myth, Poseidon (god of earthquakes and the seas) and Athena (his niece and goddess of war and wisdom) both wanted to claim the city and have it named after them. In the presence of the other Olympian gods and the mortal citizens of the city, they met on the sacred hill of the Acropolis to compete for the city.
Poseidon moved first and struck his trident on the ground. The earth shook and seawater sprang from the hole in the ground, and this was Poseidon’s gift to the people of Athens. However, already having access to rivers and a sea, Poseidon’s gift was met with little enthusiasm. Athena made her move by kneeling on the ground and planting an olive tree. Athena’s gift was a source of
timber, fruit and olive oil, and thus deemed superior. She was proclaimed the winner of the competition… and the city was called Athens.
We moved to the northern side of the Erechtheion to look at the sacred olive tree. I had expected to see a seriously old specimen, but apparently an old tree that had stood in this spot had been burnt by invaders. This token young tree was out in the open now, but had once been in an internal courtyard. I love internal courtyards, and one with a gnarly old olive tree would have been so fabulous to see!
Further along sat the Temple of Poseidon. I was amused that even though Poseidon lost the battle, the citizens still hedged their bets and made sure the Erechtheion belonged to both Athena and Poseidon! I loved this dual temple complex and couldn’t stop taking photographs of the Caryatids. I think I may have already mentioned that all the original Caryatids (and other sculptures and architectural features from the Acropolis) had been moved to the museum. Almost everything we were looking at onsite had been replaced with plaster cast replicas.
While walking to the eastern side of
the Parthenon, we walked up some steps to a small bastion that flies the giant Greek flag. It was crowded and there was some jostling, but it had a great view. I scanned the city streets below me until I found Athinas Street, and then followed it north for a few blocks until I found our hotel. We had spent many hours looking at the Acropolis from our hotel rooftop, and it was fitting to now view our hotel from the Acropolis.
We retreated to the welcome shade of some trees for a water and toilet break. It had been a long hot morning, and the site had little to no shade. I wondered if at some point when the restorations are more advanced, the guardians of this complex will consider planting more trees to soften the space and provide much-needed shade for future generations of visitors.
While the group used the bathrooms and rested, Andrew and I walked over to admire the side of the Parthenon that wasn’t under scaffolding. It wasn’t as restored as the western face, but it was amazing to gaze on nonetheless.
It was time to start exiting the complex, and we
walked via the Theatre of Dionysus. The theatre is still under restoration, with only 20 of the original 64 stone tiers having survived human pilfering and the ravages of time. Alice explained that the ancient Greek actor and poet Thespis had performed at the theatre. And since he’d been the first person to ever appear on a stage as an actor, he gave his name to the word ‘thespian’… a fancy term for an actor (specifically a theatre actor).
Alice had been talking into our earpieces from the time we’d left the hotel that morning until the tour ended at Monastiraki Square that afternoon. So it was quite something that this piece of information about Thespis was only the second or third thing I actually absorbed!
I suppose we’ve had worse guides and she wasn’t really bad, but I kept losing the thread of her lengthy and tangent-filled storytelling. I was also not that keen on the way she kept interweaving mythology and historical facts, or how she refused to answer questions until she’d reached the specific spot in her spiel where that information fitted in. The guides at the Acropolis are heavily regulated, and I wondered if
all the guides are trained to tell the same looong and boooring stories, or if this was Alice’s own concoction. Either way, I wasn’t a fan.
I’ve just realised how much I’ve written about the Acropolis, and I should apologise for the long blog. However, my motivation to record everything I saw (and learned) stems from the fact that I have regretted not being more meticulous in my notes when I visited other monumental places like Angkor Wat. I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake again, so please excuse the nerdy details.
Before we leave the Acropolis though, there’s one more story I want to share. The ruins of the Parthenon, Erechtheion and other buildings were incredibly impressive; but at one stage, the monuments had almost been upstaged by a dramatic incident.
When Alice was talking to us in front of the Parthenon, it went on for so long that I almost lost the will to live (excuse my hyperbole). While absorbed in my own thoughts and looking around at the rest of the little clusters of people with their guides, I happened to spot a guy walking up the Parthenon’s scaffolding on the inside of
the temple. He was rather unfit looking and was carrying a backpack and some water. He huffed and puffed as he clambered up the scaffolding. I knew there were no workers around on a Sunday so my immediate thought was that this could end in a rather grim outcome! However, I reasoned with myself that if he was planning on jumping, he wouldn’t have bothered carrying such a large bottle of water.
Andrew had also spotted the guy and later confessed that he’d briefly considered that this guy could have had a gun! But interestingly, we both quelled our concerns by deciding that security would definitely have seen and stopped him if he shouldn’t have been there – especially considering that the guy had walked through multiple cordoned off areas that were very much in the open.
It was only after he got to the top and started unfurling flags that everyone went into panic mode. He turned out to be a right-wing nut protesting a whole raft of things he was angry about. ‘Macedonia is Greek’ was his biggest banner. But rather comically he’d hung it sideways. And hundreds of people simultaneously cocked their heads to the
left to try and read it! Other people he was angry at included the people of Crete, the USA, Israel, and a local football team.
By the time we’d completed a circuit of the Acropolis and were preparing to leave, there was a gaggle of police gesticulating at him from the bottom. It seems he was threatening to jump if they attempted to climb up to him. There were also ambulances and fire trucks on standby. We later discovered that it took eight hours to get him down, and we calculated that would have been just after the tourists had been herded out for the site’s 6pm closing time. A bit of drama to remember our Acropolis visit by!
Andrew and I returned to our hotel to use the bathroom and have a cup of tea in the hotel’s air-conditioned lounge (we’d already checked out of our room that morning). Hotel Attalos really was a very comfortable place with extremely obliging staff.
It was lunch time, and we’d loved our
souvlakis so much the day before that we wanted to try another similar place. Georgia (our group leader) recommended Thanasis on Mitropoleos street for
kebabs (skewered meat
cooked on a grilled). It wasn’t far from Monastiraki Square, and we’d walked past this very touristy looking place many times… but had never considered that it could have excellent local food. We picked one of the tables in the restaurant’s sprawling outdoor space and ordered their special
kebab, which was a
kofta (ground meat) style
kebab. The pita bread was fluffy and amazingly delicious, and the meat was very tender and flavourful.
I always seek dessert after meaty meals, and we headed for my favourite ice creamery – Kokkion – which was near our hotel. I’d been working my way through their menu since arriving in Athens, and this time I grabbed an excellent raw almond and tonka bean ice cream to enjoy on the hotel’s rooftop. It seemed a bit poetic that we had a view of the Acropolis while discussing our visit that morning.
We had a few more cups of tea in the hotel’s lounge and got changed for our upcoming train trip to Thessaloniki. Even though it was seriously hot outside, I always assume that public transport is going to be freezing and dress accordingly. Plus, we wouldn’t be arriving in Thessaloniki until
the evening.
It had been great returning to Athens for a day and a half. It was a nice feeling that we’d got to know the city’s neighbourhoods well enough to navigate ourselves to places without maps or directions. And I think we’d been very successful in conquering all the items on our ‘very old things of Athens’ list. 😊
We’ll be back in Athens in a week or so, so it wasn’t ‘goodbye’ at this stage, but rather a ‘see you soon’. But for now, I was getting excited about our first intercity train trip!
Next we travel north to Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city.
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Brodie
non-member comment
A big day out
I wish I could say I paid more attention when we visited. The heat and humanity did me in. Was the guide from Intrepid?