Athens, Greece

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I’ve just visited Athens, and I’m on my way to Santorini in the Greek Islands. I’m sitting on an Aussie-made fast catamaran as I write. I’m smiling because I chose the “woosh” boat (52 euro, 5 hours) over the slower one (33 euro, 9 hours). The slower one left Piraeus (Athens port) before us, and we overtook it within ten minutes of leaving the harbour...

Athens is a sprawling city, with a population of 4 million, which I think is the same as Melbourne. Fortunately, if you’re interested in “seeing the sights”, you could just about do most of them in a day, as they are all within a central area. I know that’s not fair to say that of any city, particularly one with so much history, but, if you’re on a time budget…

I stayed at Athens Backpackers, which is a pretty good setup with a rooftop view of the Acropolis. They ran a bar up there every night, which was also a great way to meet fellow travellers. I shared a room with Ben, a guy from Canada, and a girl from London.

Kathryn got us all up early, and we trotted off to the Acropolis shortly after it opened at 8am. That didn’t seem to drop the temperature much for us below 25 degrees, but it did ensure that we had fewer crowds. (With little shade, I reckon I drank a few litres of water this day. Hats off to the Greeks for providing water chillers and loos for free, unlike the bloody Italians, who would probably levy a charge for wearing said hat if they could). On our departure from the area an hour or so later, we were met with a sea of cruise ship tour groups coming up the hill at us. Literally thousands of people…

The Acropolis and the surrounding monuments are under constant restoration, so there was lots of scaffolding, but you could still see everything amongst it. It looks like it will take a while! Quite incredible stuff though. Where necessary, the pillars are being renewed with new marble, which has all of it’s new smoothness and beauty to it. Quite a contrast to the windblown and eroded, yet still beautiful, marble of 2000 years vintage. As per usual for this trip, a flat photo does no justice to the scale and magnitude of seeing sights like these in person.

After the Acropolis, we visited the surrounding ruins area called Ancient Agora. It is the site of an ancient city, and there have been many excavations in the area which have revealed lots of artefacts dating back thousands of years. Lots of these are on display in a building called the Stoa of Attalus, reconstructed in the 30’s with wads of money from Mr Rockefeller of New York fame. In it’s day, the building would have been the local shopping and meeting area.

After a lunch consisting of what-else-while-in-Greece but a souvlaki, we strolled around for another few kilometers, which included sights like the Panathinaikon (Olympic) stadium, and the Temple of Zeus, more “old rocks”, but more accessible and close up. Once again, the scale of these temples impresses, even if it’s wondering where they got the money and the organization to do this all those years ago. (is it the word slave I’m looking for?!)

Yesterday I hung around the hostel for a while, and I was able to call James and Sarah again, which is always a great pleasure. (I miss you heaps!) I eventually made it out and visited the National Archeological museum, where they had artifacts from grave sites from the 16th century BC. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a record! I was never a history buff at school (OK, I hated it), but pretty cool, nevertheless. Gold leaf jewelery, burial gifts, as well as arrow heads from the site of the battle of Thermopylae (of the movie “300” fame).

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