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Published: September 9th 2006
Stone caricature of an ancient theater mask
One of our favorite ancient artifacts at Athen's National Archaeological Museum.We spent all night on a most uncomfortable bus riding from The Pink Palace hostel on Corfu Island to Athens, Greece. My knees suffered from the sumo wrestler look-alike in front of me that pushed the reclining seat feature to its limits as he snored peacefully through the night. I had injured my neck earlier, having crashed into Bryan while body surfing a big wave, and found it impossible to find a comfortable position. Although Bryan managed to sleep a little bit, he readily agreed with my complaints as we waited outside a mini-market at 4:00 AM in the morning on those that needed a potty break. We arrived in downtown Athens at about 7:00 AM and our first priority was to find some strong coffee and breakfast.
We walked several blocks before finding a little square with a fountain and patio restaurant that appeared to have several men enjoying a morning cup of jo. Having been introduced to Greek coffee by Siros, our bartender friend on Corfu, Bryan quickly ordered a double and I a Nescafe. We had learned that regular, filtered, brewed coffee is difficult to find in Greece. A Greek coffee is, simply, very fine grounds spooned
into a cup with boiling water poured on top. The grounds are then stirred and you wait for them to settle to the bottom before drinking. It’s important to be careful when you get to the bottom or you will end up with a mouth full of grinds. The more we drank these Greek coffees, the better we became at judging when they were ready to drink and how far to push that last sip. While ordering our breakfast, the owner of the restaurant, Marino, told us he was born in New York and moved to Athens when he was a boy. He seemed pleased to talk with us and it was a warm welcome to the city. We made Marino’s our breakfast stop for the remainder of our stay in Athens, enjoying eggs, sausage, French fries, coffee, and a little Marino visit each morning.
We found a hotel just kitty-corner to the square and the price seemed reasonable for a major city. Our room was on the fourth floor and from our balcony I first spotted the Acropolis. It was situated on a hill that sat above this sprawling city and even from a distance the famous Parthenon
was clearly visible in its solid and everlasting state. Once again, I was thrown back through history as I wondered what it must have been like for the people of Athens to watch this place of worship and government erected in honor of the Greek gods. Bryan and I decided we would catch up on our sleep and then spend the following day at the National Archaeological Museum. This way, when we walked around the Acropolis, we’d have some background knowledge to help us understand what we were seeing.
Marino, and a couple of his coffee drinking buddies, gave us directions to the National Archaeological Museum the next morning and, although we got very lost, we still made it there with the whole afternoon to explore the different rooms. We were immediately happy to see that everything was written in English as well as Greek, unlike our experience with the Louvre Museum in Paris. What a joy it was to mill about each piece and read information on anything that peaked our interest. We drank in a collection of artifacts to include Prehistoric items, sculptures, bronze works, Egyptian collections, and ancient pottery; all ranging in dates from the 16th
c. BC to Roman times. The museum didn’t provide us with the Archeological history of the Acropolis that we were hoping (and it may have been that we just missed it) but we left feeling like we were able to take a large step back in history and a peak at the life of the peoples of the Aegean area.
The next morning we stood on our balcony looking at the Acropolis and agreed it would be an easy walk there. We figured that if we kept the hill in our sites, finding our way shouldn‘t be much trouble. What we didn’t realize was that view from the fourth floor is very different than the view when standing on the narrow streets below and we soon lost our bearings and our patience as the heat and city maze got to us. Being lost in this overgrown metropolis in 95 degree heat, two days in a row, was beyond frustrating and fortunately this zigzag journey became worthwhile when, quite by accident, we turned into the meat and fish market. This was not a little market but more of a giant meat and fish bazaar with hundreds of stalls selling everything
Erecthion
See the history of this building described in the blog. you could possibly imagine and some things you might not. Slabs of meat swung precariously close, some as large as half a cow (that’s probably what they were) as we wondered down the isles. The smaller animals hung whole from hooks through their heads with their skins stripped. These were set off by goat’s heads, giant hooves, tongues, ears, and entrails, neighboring fish that ranged from long, folding eels, shrimp as big as my foot, and massive squid with glossy eyes the size of gumballs. Several times I grabbed Bryan‘s arm, with my nose turned up, and asked, “What is that?“ to which he’d respond, with a look of bewilderment, “I don’t know.“ I’m usually the first one to order the “meat-lovers” pizza, but standing in the meat bazaar I found myself sympathizing with Marina and her vegetarianism; How much easier it is for me to eat meat when it’s purchased in its Safeway Styrofoam packaging far removed from any reminder of the animal it comes from.
We eventually walked up the hill leading to the shadeless Acropolis and paid the 24 euro entrance fee (that‘s about $32) for the two of us to be allowed to walk around
the grounds. The powers that be have their customers in a fix when faced with these large fees because, as in our case, what is one going to do when they’ve traveled half way around the world to see such a site? We decided that perhaps the money was going towards preserving the structures (as there was ugly scaffolding everywhere) and that helped to soften the blow.
At the Acropolis, we viewed the Theatre of Dionysos, the Erecthion, and the Parthenon. All thoughts of expensive tickets, heat, and tired feet melted away as we walked among these ancient ruins. 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. Coincidentally, my daughter, Marina, had been learning about Greek history and as I stood in front of The Erecthion I recalled her email about the story of it‘s origins. The Erecthion sits on the most sacred site of the Acropolis where Poseidon and Athena had their contest over who would be the Patron of the city. Poseidon thrust his trident into the rock and a spring burst forth,
I asked the Roman God to take my picture.
He may be a God, but his composition needs a little work. while Athena touched the ground with a spear and an olive tree grew. Athena was declared the winner and the great city of Athens was named for her. I was drawn to this building because of the porch of the maidens or Caryatids, and the fact that my daughter had taught me the history behind this structure.
At the base of the Acropolis hill, we found ourselves on a different street than the one we had ascended, and discovered a flea market. Who can resist a flea market? Bryan had been wanting to stock up on more camping gear, (i.e. A small gas burner so we could cook) especially since our Swiss Alps expedition where he had been unable to light a fire (he’d like me to mention there was little wood and high altitude) and we had lived on peanuts and apricots. He found one in a little army type store that folded up into a small pouch and came with a free canister of gas. He added this and a fishing rod he had purchased that morning from a street peddler, to his growing backpack.
Bryan and I do not enjoy large crowds and the time
Athens from the Acropolis hill.
I don't think any picture could do justice to the sprawling mass (hodge-podge might be a better word) of Athens. that we spend in these great cities is fascinating but taxes us both, so we decided it was time to continue our search for that secluded, quiet island. We had enjoyed our time on Corfu, but the tourists had prevented us from feeling like we had found what we were looking for and there were many more Greek islands we could choose from. We spent some time on the internet researching the different Cyclades and settled on Sifnos. It was our best bet and we decided to give it a try before heading in to Turkey. The next morning we found ourselves cruising out of the port of Piraeus on another high speed ferry; this time skimming along the Agean Sea.
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Sam Turner
non-member comment
My coffee
Hi you two: I'm having MY coffee (sans grounds) as I read through your blogs. What fun! Sam