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Published: July 20th 2008
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Communist Rally
How ironic, a communist rally in the birthplace of democracy Leaving Syracuse in the evening, we boarded the train for what would be our longest overland journey so far - the train would take us from the deep south of Sicily back across to the mainland before crossing the "Boot" and arriving at the port city of Bari where we would board a passenger ferry for a long overnight journey to the port of Patras in Greece. Then it was onto a local bus and finally, after almost 48 hours of travel (and having to put up with about 200 French teenagers on the ferry) we arrived in Athens.
Continuously occupied for the last 3,000 years, Athens has undoubtably had an impact on Western civilization in a way that few other cities can claim. Arriving in the town where Socrates taught young Athenians to think, we weren't sure what to expect as some people had warned us that Athens wasn't worth visiting because it was very dirty, crowded and polluted - maybe it was just our low expectations, but what we encountered was completely different.
Athens is a relatively clean, sprawling metropolitan city that offers many good restaurants and bars, as well as some of the most important archaeological
sites in the world. After an afternoon of wandering around the old town, we headed out for dinner with the intention of getting up nice and early the following day to beat the crowds to the Acropolis ("Sacred Rock") that sits above the Plaka area where we were staying.
At 10.30am the following day, we finally made our way out of the hotel and wandered around until we found the entrance to the Acropolis Archaeological Park - entering the historical precinct we thought we were "ok" as there were few tourists at the first couple of sights, namely the Stoa of Eumenes and the Theatre of Dionysos. However, as we crested the hill near the theater we realized that there was another entrance and it was then that we spied the swarms of people coming from the cruise ships that had docked in the harbour during the morning.
Climbing the stairs to the Acropolis proper was a painful experience as we got stuck behind masses of "older" people, all with the trademark sticker that indicates a cruise ship passenger - eventually we got to the top of the massive plateau and saw the Parthenon for the first time.
The Parthenon of Athens
Built in the 5th Century BC, the Parthenon is regarded as the penultimate example of Classical Greek architecture What a disappointment - it was covered in scaffolding and there were literally hundreds of people standing in front of and around it which severely impaired the impact it might otherwise have had.
Built in the 5th Century BC, the Parthenon was a temple to the Goddess Athena and today is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece and is considered to be the highest point in the development of the Doric style. While it is certainly impressive and I am glad that we visited it, the mass of people and the scaffolding combined made it a less than "spectacular" experience - for my money I was much more impressed with the Temple of Concordia in Agrigento, even though it was not quite as old as the Parthenon (it's basically a smaller version of the same temple).
After wandering around the Acropolis for a while (but somehow not making it to the Acropolis museum), we headed back down the mountain to the check out the Ancient Agora - the marketplace of ancient Athens in Greek times. Although there were still people around, the very well preserved Temple of Hephaestus (built in 415 BC) was relatively quiet and
Temple of Hephaestus
Built in 415 BC, this temple near the Roman Agora is one of the best preserved Greek temples we've seen on our travels we were able to enjoy the temple and its surroundings without pushing our way through tourist hordes.
We then set off to find the "best gyros in Athens" (according to Lonely Planet) and being unsuccessful, 'settled' for another restaurant which turned out to be extremely good and with an owner that gave great advice on where we should visit while in Athens (and beyond). We later realized that we had been at the "right" place, but the guy out the front and I had failed to understand one another......
After lunch, we visited the Library of Hadrian (built 132 AD), the Roman Agora (marketplace) and the impressive Tower of Winds, designed by a famous astronomer to be a water clock on the inside, a sundial on the outside and a weather vane on the top. We then set off to take a walk around the other sections of the city and wandering up to the Syntagma area came across a massive demonstration staged by the Greek Communist Party!! Imagine our surprise - here we are wandering around the Ancient Capital responsible for the invention of the West's finest Democratic ideals and there is a huge parade of people
with red flags adorned with hammer and sickle marching and shouting for better wages and working conditions - it makes you wonder what the ancient philosophers would have thought! Talk about Ironic!
Anyway, after all that walking we decided to call it a day and headed off to a bar for drinks (of course all the Athenians were drinking ice coffees and smoking like chimneys), before wandering into a busy pedestrian street and finding a restaurant that served very cheap and tasty gyros which we ate surrounded by locals. Athens is one of the only places we'd been so far where you felt like you're doing something wrong if you don't spend the entire time smoking.
The next day we spent several hours at the amazing National Archaeological Museum, which includes awesome objects from many periods of Greece's history, including the first "mechanical computer" known as the Antikythera mechanism and believed to be for the calculation of astronomical positions. Discovered in 1900, scientists have recently discovered that the cogs within the machine are as intricate as those used in medieval clocks meaning that the Greeks were more than a thousand years ahead of their time!! Our last major
Local Dog
This dog came by while I was taking photos and was a great poser! sight in Athens was the Temple of Olympian Zeus; a largely destroyed structure, but impressive because of the 104 massive Corinthian columns that would have formed the temple during its heyday. After a great dinner (at the place originally recommended by Lonely Planet), we took some night shots of the Acropolis before heading back to pack for our flight the next day to Santorini.
Arriving in Santorini, we got picked up by a taxi and driven to our accommodation in the beautiful village of Oia (pronounced "EEaah") where we were met by Rena, the fantastic owner of the place where we stayed. Having only booked it a few days before, we were pleasantly surprised to walk into a beautiful apartment with our own kitchen, bathroom and a fantastic deck that looked directly out to the sparkling Aegean Seas, caldera and blue domed houses that are Santorini's trademark.
The caldera was formed by a massive eruption 3,600 years ago and it is thought that it may have been this explosion and the resulting tsunami that caused the fall of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. Today, Santorini is an amazingly beautiful place with very little "to do"
so we spent the majority of our time there wandering through old village streets, taking photos of the blue domes and windmills, drinking wine on the deck and watching the sun set into the Aegean Sea.
All in all, it was a very relaxing four days and exactly what we needed to recharge the batteries before heading off to the next segment of our journey; Eastern Europe.
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Craig Goldsmith
non-member comment
Fantastic stuff
Love the Photos and the commentary Dan, I really like so many of your shots but particularly the old woman and the little dog. The view is amazing, and fancy the communist party that's a trip. Where are you at the moment, and how long do you have left of your trip ?