Ancient Athens and Cyclades - Athens 2011 April 19

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I’m writing in the Titania Hotel in Athens after a nap, a shower and rearranging my luggage. The flights on Lufthansa were uneventful, although the quality of the transatlantic flight was noticeably better than the “interior” flight from Frankfurt to Athens.

The most charming part of the trip was meeting (in the Frankfurt waiting lounge) a Greek woman who had transplanted herself to North America, but now ten years retired, spends four to five months a year (in summer apparently) in a home she has in the Peloponnese. (She showed me the location on my inadequate Google map.) I think she just likes talking - but she was quite taken when she learned I was from Calgary. As a young nurse in the early 1960s, she worked in High Prairie and Edmonton, and visited Jasper, Banff and Calgary. She moved to Montreal for six years because her sister was attending nursing school in the Royal Victoria Hospital. They found winters too cold and moved to New York, their home for forty years. She insistently asked me to visit her in New York and Greece, giving me her address and taking my card.

My first impressions of Athens are that the Highways are very new – result of sprucing up for the Olympics? The buildings are jumbled together – few looking spruced up. For example, we saw several high-classical Greek buildings virtually surrounded by the block-shaped ones now favoured and fronted by a bus-stop and traffic. Jarring juxtaposition. Similarly, the Titania Hotel is very modern, squeezed in between older, building-block buildings. More to learn, no doubt.

After dinner. Second impressions: the high-classical buildings are Neoclassical and part of Athens University. This goes with “Academia” being the name of the bus stop – sounded out using my memory of Greek letters (learned in the last few months). Some of us walked back from dinner with a couple who knew the route after spending a few days here. We all recognized the suicidal traffic patterns of Italy, also present here. On the way to dinner, the guide explained that the city was being paved over with “brainless” (his word) fifties and sixties architecture. They saved the important Neo-classical buildings still remaining, many of which have been restored fairly recently.

For dinner (in the Plaka, old restored part of Athens): mixed appetizers including fish roe paste and vine leaves, Greek salad (very fresh after airplane food), and my choice of lamb knuckle simmered in a delicate lemon sauce. Our conversation was lively and informative, as everyone on the tour, from guide to guests, has had a responsible career, interest in art/architecture/history, experience in travel, and a love of walking.

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Photos

Arch of Hadrian
Ancient monuments surrounded by sixties blocks

University
Down the road from my hotel, the beautiful Neoclassical buildings of the university

National Library
Have to admire the library!

Comments

[Isabel Gibson]

A power line runs through it
I see you have shots suitable for adding to my (so far, virtual) photo blog - A Power Line Runs Through It - honouring photos that have inescapable power lines! Sometimes, there just isn't another place to stand. Your description of your first dinner left me reconsidering my own choices for tonight - a good thing!