Blogs from Attica, Greece, Europe - page 126

When I told my mother I was going to Athens, she asked me why! If there was one capital in Europe she absolutely didn't like it was that one. Maybe, she told me, it has the Acropolis, but the rest... I thought that was kind of a pesimistic idea of the European democracy's birthplace. I mean a city with such a history must have more than some ancient ruins on a hill-top. But I must admit that my mother was right. Athens is definetly not my favourite place for a vacation. The city seems almost sad. The houses build in a period not known for the greatest architecture and it is impossible to breath anything just slightly reminding you of fresh air. But there were other things in Athens. I finally got company again and the ... read more

Upon landing in Athens, Greece landscape started to unfold. It's a vast, barren landscape, and it looks hot, dusty, ininviting, and did I mention hot? Undulating hills dotted with clumps of brushes, no trees in sight. Athens is an inspiring modern town whose skyline is filled with TV antennas. Except for the Acropolis, I can be anywhere in a third world country. Wonder what happened to the old buildings that must have been there. In Italy, they've been turned into grand museums that charge hefty admission fees. Surely Athens must have had a share of these old buildings, no? It has, after all, one of the oldest civilisations in the world. The pollution in Greece is unbearable. Everywhere we look is covered with this brown muck that is pollution. However, the Greeks are easily the most ... read more

Well, I'm here. My flight arrived two nights ago very late. I spent that night in the airport with a woman from Arizona who was going to see her daughter in Crete. Thankfully, the hotel showed mercy and let me have a room before check-in (mostly, because I wandered to the first chair and fell asleep). Last night my roomie and I went to the Acropolis at night. You can't go in, but there are tons of people out and about. We found a great cliff that overlooked the city. It was very pretty. Today, I went to the Roman Agora, the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora. After that, I did a bit of window shopping in the flea market area. I have learned to love the cheap wonderfulness of gyros! Where else in Europe can ... read more

Hello from sunny Athens, Greece! Before telling you about this ....... interesting ....... place I want to add a few more observations from Turkey. Turkish streets have an odd feature that I have never seen anywhere else (although I haven't been many places) and that I cannot find a reasonable explanation for. American consumers like to buy everything in one store, hence the growth of places like Wal-Mart and Target. Turkish consumers, on the other hand, apparently prefer to have 25 stores on the same block selling the same exact goods. For example, I walked through one street and saw 25 stores selling luggage. Each store had slightly different inventories, and some stores had themes -- all backpacks or all huge bags --- but for the most part, each store sold the same bags from the ... read more

Hi Everyone. It is 9:36p here and we are getting ready to settle in for the night. We spent the day in Athens today and it was a really nice city. We went on an guided tour since we have never been here before. First we went to the Parthenon but as soon as we got there it started to rain pretty hard and I refused to walk in the rain so Mom and I stayed in the bus and Brittany and Dad walked up to see it. I told Mom she shouldn't worry about not seeing the Parthenon because she can see it in the movie Hurcules. We also saw the original Olympic stadium built in 1886 and the new one as well from the last Olympic games. There were a lot of stadiums built ... read more