Athens sightseeing – Parliament, Acropolis, Temple of Olympian Zeus

---

Well we meant to get up early to head out, but slept until 11am when Papous called and woke us up! Damn!! Sooo then we missed breakfast too! Argh. We first walked over to Monastiraki Square and bought hats, well Rachel and I did because the sun was blistering hot. We then headed out by Metro to Syntagma Square to the Vodaphone store for some minutes for my European unlocked cell phone. I knew it would come in handy again.

Then we walked across the square to the Parliament building and watched the Evzones changing of the guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Rachel and I posed with the Evzone on the left, but Steve passed on the opportunity. We also got some video of the ceremonial changing of position which was pretty cool. The Evzones are an elite ceremonial unit that guards the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Hellenic Parliament and the Presidential Mansion. The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier takes place every hour.

At first we were a bit leery of going to Syntagma Square because that is where all of the austerity protests and ‘rioting’ had been taking place. But it was very quiet when we were there. There were still lots of banners up from the protesters, there was a tent city of protesters and one burned out kiosk but otherwise everyone was going about their normal business.
Next we took the Metro to the Acropolis stop and went in the South Slope Entrance. There was a group of high school or college kids dressed in togas doing some sort of photo shoot right at the booth were you bought tickets. Interestingly some of the togas were fastened or accessorized with duct tape.

The hats we bought came in handy as it was really hot walking up the steep slope without much shade. We walked by the Theatre of Dionysos, the Theatre of Herodes Atticus and up to the Acropolis itself! The Parthenon and other main buildings on the Acropolis were built by Pericles in the fifth century BC as a monument to the cultural and political achievements of the inhabitants of Athens. The term acropolis means upper city and many of the city states of ancient Greece are built around an acropolis where the inhabitants can go as a place of refuge in times of invasion. It's for this reason that the most sacred buildings are usually on the acropolis. It's the safest and most secure place in town. As little as 150 years ago there were still dwellings on the Acropolis of Athens.

It was extra hot on the Acropolis and there is very little shade. We took lots of photos of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion and each other. The 360 degree view of Athens from the Acropolis is awesome and we took some time to enjoy and take more photos of the view. After a while we were melting so we headed down and got some frozen slushies on the way. I had strawberry, Rachel had lemonade and Steve had orange, they were pretty delicious. There was a little post office next to the slushy place so we all wrote and mailed some postcards while we cooled off in the shade.

We walked over to the new Acropolis Museum which is just down the street. It was really awesome, even the building itself was pretty amazing and you can look down through the floor to see some even older ancient ruins under the building that they found when they were constructing the new museum. The only bummer here was that they don’t allow any photography. The old Acropolis Museum allowed photography as long as you didn’t use a flash. Oh well, Rachel got a couple photos before we saw the no photography sign, one in particular of the ‘cloak’ room.

From here we walked to Hadrian’s Arch (which is a monumental gateway leading to the Temple of Olympian Zeus) and the Temple of Olympian Zeus (a colossal ruined temple) since they’re right down the street from the Acropolis and the entrance fee was included in our Acropolis Tickets. Actually the Acropolis tickets give you entrance to 6 different sites for the one price of 12€s, it’s a pretty awesome deal! It was still really warm so we walked back to Syntagma Square along the Amalias Avenue, stopping for some tiropita (cheese pie) and bougatsa (cream pie) along the way.

We were so tired from all that walking and sightseeing that we ended up taking a 4 hour nap when we got back to the hotel! We got ready and went out in Psirri to begin celebrating Rachel’s birthday which was technically the next day. We walked around Psirri and it was pretty quiet because in the summer most Athenian’s head out to the seashore (Glyfada or Vouliagmeni) where it’s cooler than the city. So we ended up at a bar called Psirri and had fun people watching, especially the guys at the bar across the street who were trying to pick up one of the famous standard Greek wooden chairs with the reed seats with one hand from the bottom of one leg and lift it straight up into the air! Apparently it’s not possible, but it was fun to watch them try!! Pretty sure we got in around 3am.

---

Photos

Monastiraki
Street off Athinas St in Athens near the hotel Attalos

Transport
Still see these around Greece frequently

Syntagma Square
Protesters

Evzone
In front of Parliament

Small Church
Ascending the South Slope of the Acropolis

Rachel, Steve & Michelle
On the Acropolis

Erechtheion
On the Acropolis

Michelle, Steve & Rachel
On the Acropolis

Athens View
From the Acropolis

Temple of Olympian Zeus
View from Acropolis

Athens View
From the Acropolis

Hey Acropolis
Rachel & Michelle in front of the Parthenon

BP Station
Typical Greek gas station

Acropolis Museum
The outside open excavation of ruins that were discovered during construction of the museum

Acropolis Museum Model
Inside the museum

View of Acropolis
From inside the museum

Temple of Olympian Zeus
It's just enormous in scale

Fallen columns
Temple of Olympian Zeus

Temple of Olympian Zeus
Side view

Cool way to wait for the bus
I've never seen anything like this!

Ermou Street
One of the oldest churches in Athens, the Byzantine Church of Panaghia Kapnikarea

Hotel Attalos
Exterior shot