Another Day in Athens

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Today I set off for the Ancient Agora in the morning. This is where all of the social life of Ancient Athens happened, and where Socrates walked around and caused so much trouble. It was nice, overall. The Agora is just down from the Acropolis, so there were beautiful views up to the Parthenon. Then I left and got horribly lost for awhile. Sometimes I get sick of maps and just walk around by instinct. This might sound crazy, but you'd be shocked how many places I've just happened upon that I was looking for the entire time. The best places aren't on any maps, as the great Herman Melville said.

But today that was not the case, and I walked and walked and walked, trying to find the Keramikos, which was the old Athenian cemetery. But I did go through a great flea market on the way, where there was basically just a bunch of junk thrown all over the place. There were some great things, though (but I did find the box just full of used combs a little strange). Finally found the Keramikos, which was a huge disappointment. It was one of those places where you felt like you were just walking around a bunch of old rocks. You couldn't tell what they used to be, and I left upset by that.

Then walked all the way across town to the Archeological Museum. This is, hands down, probably the most important museum on Greek statues in the world. A wonderful place. Kind of like the Louvre, where you walk into any room and there's some famous work in it. Called it quits for the day after that, and relaxed with a cup of coffee for a couple of hours. I got to talking to a nice old Greek guy, though, and I asked him about the current debt crisis. He at least was absolutely certain that Greece would drop out of the EU and go back to the drachma. Wow! That's a disturbing thought. They say that that could lead to another worldwide recession. He also (and I thought this was funny) kept on calling Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, a blood-sucking vampire. Made me glad I was an American.

On a different note, got a Greek copy of Brave New World today. Very happy about that.

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Photos

In the Agora
The temple in the distance is the Temple of Hephaestos.

Temple of Hephaestos
This is the best preserved Doric temple in all of Greece.

Areopagus Hill
This is when I was lost.

Statue of Zeus throwing a thunderbolt
This was so well preserved because they found it in the ocean.

Artemision Jockey
They also pulled this from the ocean.

The "Death-Mask" of Agamemnon
He was supposedly who led the Greeks in the Trojan War.