Acropolis Now!!

---

Athens is wonderful.
On Thursday night we visited a restaurant recommended to us by our friends Mandis, Panagiotis and Eleni (welcome aboard guys). It was very good although we ordered what we thought was whitebait. But this whitebait must have been sired by sharks cause they were huge. We wimped it and chose not to eat the heads. But hey the waitress gave us 2 free beers(Heineken) for no reason at all, cause we were nice customers.
While we were at the restaurant a young family came in with their 2 year old. I watched him throughout the meal. Mike he ate just like you did when you were 2. The way the mum fussed over him, cut his food and spoke to him encouragingly brought home very strongly to me that what unites us as human beings is greater than what divides us. I know and understand this at an intellectual level but watching this family was one of the more poignant moments on this trip.

Yesterday we got up early to go to the Acropolis cause it's free on Good Friday (did i mention it's easter here?). We were there sharp and early at 9am to find out that it didn't open till 12. We decided to walk to the Old Cemetery figuring there might be some ancients buried there. I guess we need to see "old" as a relative term here because when we arrived there were heaps of people there to tend the graves of departed relatives. Unfortunately there wasn't a Jason Pericles or a Skye Socrates in sight to tend the grave of their ancient forebears. Bit of a wasted morning really... until we came upon the site of the 1896 Olympic games. You walk off the street to the entrance and the track is there in front of you. It was closed but we could see all of it.

We returned to the Acropolis to be part of a massive throng of people all with the same idea as us. Still it is breathtaking as you walk up and up and finally arrive at the summit. The Parthenon and all of the historical sites are being restored. This means in many cases replacing the original marble with marble copies in order to preserve the integrity of the structure. In 100 years visitors may see none of the original!) 3 hours well spent. We then headed to the theatre of Dionysius, the site of the first performances of Aechylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes.
Unfortunately we could only sit in the "cheap seats", without backs, and couldn't get on stage.
All in all a fascinating day.

That night we returned to the Acropolis to have dinner at a local restaurant GODS RESTAURANT. We're sitting there and i hear an Australian accent. "You're not from around here are you?" i ask.
He introduces himself as "Nick the Greek". He and his mate are from Perth. He moved here 5 years ago to set up a backpackers and then serviced apartments near the Acropolis. Nick used to play in the band FROM THE SUBURBS. This was the band headed by Dave Warner (all you at the Library ask Michael Newsome for a rundown).
"I'm just a suburban boy, just a suburban boy and i know what it's like to be rejected."


Now Mike i know you're just hankering to hear the album so if you go to my CD collection....
What's that?
Maybe later?
OK but don't forget.

Nick the Greek then bought us some kind of 190 proof aniseed based liqueur (not Ouzo) which he then demanded we skoll. Whoooaaaaaa!!
Then it was off to church. We arrived just in time to see the procession of the floral representation of Christ's coffin, surrounded by people with candles, around the streets near the Acropolis. Our taxi home had to detour as a very big procession was taking place further along, where a major street had a police cordon across it
All in all another great day.

Today we visited the new Acropolis museum and then did the Agora. Great stuff.It seems a long time since we arrived.

Tomorrow we head to the Pelloponese and Argos, Mycenae, Sparta and Olympia. Oh Frabjous day. Kalloo Kallay

---

Comments

[Stacey]

he chortled in his joy