Home of Athena

---

So next we spent one night in Athens, and honestly there’s really not a great deal to talk about . Other than the Acropolis and the Parthenon (which I’ll get to in a minute), Athens itself is kind of a
dive, practically 3rd world, and not at all what I expected. You hear stories of Greece and you picture the cute little white houses and little Greek restaurants everywhere, and sun-tanned Greeks all over
the place. Athens just wasn’t this. It was rundown, dirty, and all round just a shitty place, I guess with the state of the economy in near collapse it’s to be expected, but yeah, it certainly hit me by
surprise.

Ok, so in spite of my previous comments the Acropolis really is worth a visit. High above the city of Athens, it just echoes the sheer power and grandeur of the former Athenian Empire, a real contrast to the Athens of today. Obviously the highlight of the Acropolis is the Parthenon, which was built around 440BC, and given the trials and tribulations that it’s undertaken still stands majestically. It really is amazing to imagine these places 2000 years ago, and you really begin to understand how very young our own country is in comparison. If you visit the Acropolis you will most likely find scaffolding over parts of it. In fact it has been there for 30 years, and they did mention that it was nearing being fully restored. And I heard some people complaining about the scaffolding ruining their photos, but come one guys, they’re thousands of years old, without the scaffolding they wouldn’t be here at all, and if we want them still to be standing for our grandkids, there will be a lot more maintenance in the future.

Personally I love the stories of Greek mythology. And if you read enough books you’ll find the stories vary from source to source, so it didn’t surprise me when the Greek guide we had told me a version of the story of Athens that I had never before heard. My favourite version (and probably most heard) is the one where Poseidon and Athena, atop the Acropolis, <span><span><span>were to compete for the affection of the people buy giving them one gift, the one who gave the better gift would lay claim to the city. So Poseidon gave them a fountain with endless flowing water, but it turns out that the water was salty like the sea and not really of much use. Whereas Athena planted an olive tree giving the people food, shade and oil. The people loved Athena’s gift immensely and subsequently the city was named Athens. Great tale :-) . The version the guide told us had Poseidon giving the people a white horse. I hadn’t heard that one before but there you go.



So anyway that night we had an optional traditional Greek dinner which was ok, again, plenty of Contiki cheese, but alright. It was an early night for everyone that night as the bus was leaving at 6am. Owch!!

---