Ancient Athens

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August 28th 2010

Published: January 6th 2011

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Delek Delek

Parthenon

Obligatory shot of Athens's most famous landmark.

Thank God it was a short flight. Damn babies and toddlers.
It was a hot flight too - like Icarus's wings, the on-board air conditioning wasn't quite strong enough when in close proximity to the blazing Greek sun. And now that I think about it, I think clapping on landing may in fact be an Orthodox tradition rather than an Eastern European one - although you could in fact say that Greece far enough east (two time zones to be exact) to be considered part of Eastern Europe. Anyway...

I have always regarded Athens as a must-see - the history and importance of what is here is just too significant to miss. Many who have been here have said that it's a dirty, grimy city, not a place you would want to spend too much time in. But I wanted to make my own judgement.
I was also quite excited about being in Athens because I would be meeting up with a whole crew of people here including Gkee and Sags - after being alone for a week, I was looking forward to the company of some old friends and eight days of sun, sand, shots and sailing in the

View From The Acropolis

Looking north-west across the city from the Acropolis, with the Erechtheion in the foreground.

Greek Islands.

Having shat myself after realising I could be liable for a 300€ fine for not validating my ticket on the long, infrequent, but otherwise efficient metro ride from the airport (they should really make tourists who don't know any better more aware of the validation requirement at the airport - just saying), I managed to avoid having to play "ignorant tourist" to escape the fine and arrive unscathed in Monastiraki.

Just about the first thing I see as I exit the station are ruins, more specifically, the ruins of Hadrian's Library. And to my right, is the Acropolis, lit up and standing proudly and peerlessly upon it's hill. Due to the age of the ruins you are immediately awed by the history that surrounds you, as well as the fame and importance attached to them. I find I only tend to feel this sense of awe when I see a famous landmark for the first time, such as the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben. The Acropolis is definitely in the same category.
Within walking distance to just about everything, AthenStyle hostel was well located and was only a 2-min walk from Monastiraki. The American lady working

Theatre of Dionysus

This impressive and spectacular once held 17,000 people.

there was really helpful as well. Clean and well laid out with colourful, funky décor, and all the amenities a traveller needs including a rooftop bar, breakfast, internet, Wi-Fi and a large chill-out area in the foyer, it certainly lived up to it's 98%!s(MISSING)atisfaction rating on Hostelworld.

Having not eaten since my meal in Chania's Venetian Harbour, I walked back to Monastiraki in search of some food. One of the many outdoor restaurants in the area had a large blackboard proclaiming "We Are The Best". Well, I'll have to try that place!
My first impression of the guy in charge of the restaurant was that he was another of those rude, uninterested service workers like those I had encountered in Crete, as he sat me down at my table. But he actually turned out to be quite nice and even had a bit of charisma - one of those middle-aged men who is always a bit too nice to the ladies.
He certainly wasn't too nice to his staff, as he yelled at them Gordon Ramsay style. I'm sure that at one stage, that the meat carver told him to fuck off in Greek. Sitting by the cash register was

Temple Of Hephaestus

Impressively intact.

a cute old man, presumably his father, who just sat there mumbling advice and talking to himself like old men do. I found the whole thing quite amusing in a charming way. The pork souvlaki I ordered was excellent.
On the way back to the hostel is an ice-cream shop. It was about 30 degrees in the evening so you definitely feel like one - but 4€ for a couple of scoops of ice cream is a bit too expensive. Not that it stopped me.

The next day I set out to see all the sights.
The one piece of advice that gets handed down to every Athens-bound tourist is to buy the 12€ multipass that gives you access to not only the Acropolis but just about every other major sight in Athens. I was no exception and it certainly saves you money. Especially when you tend to waste money on ice-cream.
The first sight I visited was the impressive Ancient Agora, which actually covers quite a lot of land. The agora, as it's definition suggests, started out as a market place but soon became the focal point of the city where administrative and government buildings became located. The

Corinthian Columns

The outside of the Stoa of Attalos.

most impressive buildings were the remarkably well-preserved Temple of Hephaestus and the restored and slightly reconstructed Stoa of Attalos with it's Corinthian columns and smooth marble floors, which houses the agora's museum.
My next point of call was Hadrian's Library before I got to the Roman Agora, where the only real feature was the Tower Of The Winds, used in ancient times for astronomical purposes.
Too lazy to try and find somewhere cheap to eat, I got sucked into having lunch at tourist-priced restaurant right next to the Roman Agora before making my way through the semi-upscale shopping district of Plaka to Hadrian's Arch, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Greece's largest temple, of which only a few of it's huge 17m-high columns remain.
Nearby the temple I stumbled upon The Zappeion - an official building of sorts used to hold conferences and ceremonies rather than a tribute to Frank Zappa - and the Panathenaic Stadium, first built and used in the 4th century BC,and was the venue of the first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896.
Then I was stuffed. What I haven't told you is that all this walking was done in scorching, 36-degree, late-August heat

Panathenaic Stadium

Built in the 4th century BC and the venue of the first Olympic Games of the modern era.

and was exhausting. At times I wondered if it was all worth it, as after a while ruins are just ruins - really old blocks of stone. The National Gardens provided some much-needed shade as I chilled on a park bench for a while.
Once I had regained some energy I walked to the Greek Parliament and the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier - a memorial to all that died fighting in the World Wars - where I witnessed the changing of the guards. Once you've seen a guard change you've really seen them all. Just before the guards changed about seven tourist buses rocked up, unloading their cargo. Hordes of kids and old folk all clambered over, cameras in hand to witness the most boring of rituals. Having slaved away under the scorching sun, I resented the comfort of their air-conditioned bus. Grrrr.
The final sights I saw on this most sapping of city tours was the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, the Stoa of Eumenes and the sacred caves of the gods beneath the Acropolis.
After all that, air-conditioning had never felt so good as I had a much-deserved siesta back at the hostel.

My time in solitude

View From The Bar

Looking straight at The Acropolis - quite a view to have while sipping a beer.

finally came to an end in the evening as I met up with Gkee's cousin John, John's girlfriend Joy, John's brother Aaron, and Aaron's friend Adam. You follow all that?
The roof top bar was pretty impressive with a perfect view of the Acropolis - some setting, for a few beers.
While myself, John, Joy and Aaron all lived in London, Adam had come over all the way from New Zealand to get here. It was cool to hang out with someone still actually living in New Zealand - I was laughing at stuff I hadn't heard in years.
Before long, we were joined upstairs by Gkee and Sags. While I was in Crete, Gkee and Sags had been swanning all over the Peloponnese to places I would like to eventually get to, like Olympia, Sparta and Nafplio. By all accounts it was an amazing trip - having to sleep in the rental car because they couldn't afford accommodation was just part of the adventure.
We could easily have drunk the rest of the night away, but a group call was made to go get some dinner - and there was only one place where we could go.
You should

Meat

Tucking into the meat platters at "We Are The Best"

have seen the smile on the restaurant owner's face when I came back to "We Are The Best" - while bringing six of my friends with me. Suddenly the service was twice as good as it was the previous night and he was twice as nice.
While Joy ordered the special - a delicious dish of mincemeat sausages served on pita bread and smothered in yoghurt and paprika that I should've gone for - the rest of us had three huge mixed meat platters between the rest of us. Most of it admittedly came off the doner skewer but you can't go too wrong with copious amounts of meat and chips. Not to mention the tzatziki - yum. So happy was the owner with our custom, that he gave us all a free beer.
Suddenly a whole lot of African and Asian guys went sprinting past our table, all with large tarpaulin bags and rolled-up mats. The annoying guys that sell you knock-off handbags and DVDs on the streets were being chased by cops. Hilarious. We told the cops which way they went, but they just laughed with us.
We all had an early date with the Acropolis the next

The Parthenon, Again

Alternative shot of the Parthenon.

day, so most of us hit the sack.

To beat the heat and most of the other tourists, we were at the Acropolis by 9.30am.
Behind the ticket gates, the spectacular Theatre of Dionysis suddenly appeared like the entree before the main course.
Walking through the ancient columns and into the searing heat of the early morning sun, the iconic Parthenon stood before us. It made me feel giddy. There are a few other buildings within the compound that are pretty impressive, but none match the grandeur of the Acropolis's centrepiece. The only unfortunate thing was the necessary evil of scaffoldings and cranes that took away slightly from the overall picture.
Atop a hill, the Acropolis also provided for some fantastic views across the city.
It was a good thing we came early - but the time we left at 10.30am, the place was absolutely rammed with tourists.

Having done my literally exhaustive tour of the city the day before, I recommended to the others to do a bus tour rather than walk it - and while everyone else was on the tour, I had some rather more mundane tasks to accomplish - to buy some sunscreen and

Orthodox Church

Atop Lykavittos Hill.

shower gel.
Heading into the less touristy area of Omonia to find a supermarket, I noticed that every second store was a hardware store. There must've been at least a thousand of them in the area. Very strange. And who would've thought sunscreen would cost so much - there was nothing under 10€. Anyway...

The only other thing that I wanted to see in Athens was Lykavittos Hill. When the others had got back to the hostel, they didn't really have any plans, so the boys ended up coming with me.
There is supposed to be a funicular that can take you to the top but after walking around the base of the hill for a while, it was nowhere to be found. I asked a local where it was, and he pointed us in the right direction - except it wasn't really the right direction at all, as we still couldn't find it. We decided to keep walking up the hill trying to find it, but after about 10 minutes, we were just about at the top anyway so we just walked it. It was er, slightly further away and steeper than it looked and in the punishing

Meal With A View

Posh restaurant atop Lykavittos Hill, though it was a tad hot to be sitting outside.

sun, we were well and truly stuffed and sweating when we got to the top. My legs were sure getting a good workout on this trip.
It was all just about worth it though - the view was amazing. Lykavittos Hill is much higher than the Acropolis, so you could see out much further. There is a posh restaurant up there too, where we bought some water, although the staff seemed rather annoyed about it.
We were all pretty sure that the funicular didn't in fact exist - there was no sign of it up the top either. Just a figment of Lonely Planet's imagination. Or they thought it'd be a good joke.
On our way back down, we noticed we were definitely in a more affluent part of Athens - the houses up here were flash. The stores and office buildings on the main road below the hill also seemed a bit posh.
We kind of lost our way a bit on the way back down and ended up passing the university before finally finding a metro station.

Some final beers on the hostel roof overlooking the Acropolis was a great way to wind down after all the

Hostel Outing

There were seventeen of us from the hostel enjoying a meal together - awesome.

hiking we did that day, and we ended up talking to some fellow hostellers including a Californian girl, and Lithuanian lady, an Argentinian girl, an Aussie guy and a Kiwi guy. I had a very interesting conversation with the Californian girl, who had just been teaching English in Turkey for a year, and had studied Middle East politics.
Also joining us was Joy's friend Julia, her boyfriend Ian, and three of Julia's friends, all of whom were going to join us on our cruise of the Greek Islands.
Before long, it was agreed between everyone that it was time to get some food.

After watching some of the best break-dancing I have ever seen in Monastiraki, guess where we ended up.
You should have seen the look on the restaurant owner's face when we showed up.
I had come by myself the first night, brought six friends with me the second night, and tonight I had brought no less than seventeen others with me. He was in shock, so happy. I was the guy's best friend!
To show his gratitude he shouted everyone a glass of ouzo each - and he even showed us all how to drink it.

The Restaurant Owner

I was his best friend ever for bringing him so much business!

Deposit some ice in a glass, pour in the ouzo and then shake it like a Polaroid picture. The clear ouzo then goes milky and you sip away.
I made sure that this time I wouldn't miss out on the "special" - delicious.
This was one of the more memorable hostel outings I've been on - certainly one the restaurant owner is never going to forget.

Most people had really early ferries to catch to Mykonos for the start of the boat cruise, so about half our crew hit the sack. The rest of us were keen to check out the nightlife - it was a Saturday night after all.
The Californian girl seemed to know where she was going, so we all followed her to Gazi, where most of the Greek nightlife is congregated.
We had to walk down a path though a park (of sorts) - which felt about a kilometre long - which was lined the whole way by what looked like gypsies selling a plethora of random goods. The random stuff on sale ranged from AM/FM clock radios, combs, toasters, your usual range of knock-off DVDs, toothpaste and mobile phones. I'm pret-ty sure that they

Gazi

Nightlife hotspot where we partied.

were all stolen goods - and there was tons of it.

We finally arrive at Gazi and enter this cool-looking bar/club that I don't remember the name of.
There were a lot of fancy leather couches in the place and the music was pretty upbeat - definitely clubby music. Having started drinking quite a while back, we were all keen for a boogie but seemed to be the only people in the place who were. We admittedly were also the drunkest people in there, but the locals were quite content just to sit back and look cool. The five Kiwis, one Aussie, one Lithuanian and one Californian tried to show these Greeks how to party but they just wouldn't, which was kind of frustrating.
By the end of the night though, it didn't matter too much - we'd all had too many tequilas (with oranges and no salt) to care. At one point Aaron pushed Adam over and he totally took out the Aussie dude and some locals.
We must've left around 4am, but we had completely lost Aaron and Adam - hopefully their drunken homing devices would guide them home. If not, then they could probably buy a

The Crew

Partying it up - good times. From left; Californian, Sags, Kiwi, Aaron, Adam, Lithuanian, Aussie.

map and SAT-nav from one of the black market gypsies.

We arrived back at the hostel around 4.30am, so Sags and I had approximately 1 1/2 hours to sleep before having to get up again to catch our ferry. The Californian wasn't so lucky as she literally got back, freshened up, and took off with all her luggage, bound for the airport to catch a 20+ hour flight back to California. That will be hell - not that we were much better off...

And so it's true - Athens is pretty much a dirty, grimy city full of crazy drivers with not much to it apart from it's ruins. While certainly not my favourite city in the world, the sights are a must-see and there is enough here for you to have a good time - and we certainly had one plenty of those on our last tequila-fuelled night. The price we paid for it though, was pretty heavy...

Andio,
Derek

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