In Awe in Athens

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The day began with Sharon telling me that she didn’t think she was feeling well enough to go out and climb the Acropolis. We breakfasted in the Lido and I stuck to the oatmeal. Sharon managed scrambled eggs and a piece of white toast.

I went to the Showroom to wait for the tour, managing the backpack with camera and large bottle of water from the stateroom. “The Best of Athens” was by far the most popular tour, and we were dismissed by sections to go find the “Arrivals” sign and pass through the access controls. The busses were waiting outside. Again we had a woman tour guide, and again she spoke with that beautiful fluent Greek accented English. She apologized for the significant amount of graffiti that appeared practically everywhere from isolated walls, bridge underpasses to downtown buildings. In her words, “It is the work of young hoods.” With the economic conditions, the young idol youths have nothing better to do and too much time on their hands, and the vandalized for the most part haven’t enough money to clean up the problem. There are many who may have felt that Greece hasn’t been doing what it needs to take care of the country’s financial debt situation; however, it is the people who have been bearing the burden. Already saddled with a 13% Value Added Tax (VAT) (or sales tax), the latest austerity measures have pushed that to 23%. This also applies to all sealed groceries. Many who have lost their jobs have moved back to where they grew up, a place where they moved away from in the first place because there were no jobs.

We spotted some ruins atop the Acropolis from the bus, which presented us an imposing view. Although the Acropolis is not the highest spot in the region, it is an imposing view of the downtown Athens area and it’s understandable why the ancient Greeks chose it as its sacred site honoring Athena. As legend goes Zeus sought one of the eleven other major gods to be the guardian of this community; and, both Poseidon and Athena wanted this honor. They began fighting and their feud caused many disasters such as earthquakes and floods in the region, which greatly displeased Zeus. He ordered the two to make peace with the denizens, and that each should offer them a gift, and allow the Greeks to choose their guardian deity. Poseidon threw down his trident into the ground and from it a spring of salt water flowed forth, but the Greeks were not very appreciative of this. Next Athena planted an olive tree, and the Greeks were impressed with its fruit and the leaves; so, Athena became their worshipped deity and gave her name to Athens.

Our first stop was at the Olympic Stadium built for the first of the modern Olympics in 1896. It is the only all marble stadium in the world. One side says that the stadium seats 60,000 people. Another sign says that it seats 69,000 people. Our guide explained that the higher number is a very recent estimate. Due to there being no actual seats in the stadium, only rows of marble benches, the actual seating depends on who is doing the sitting. With the recent austerity measures, Greeks are becoming much thinner. We had twenty minutes to take pictures or buy postcards or grab a cup of coffee from a local café. When I returned to the bus, in a long row of busses I couldn’t figure out which bus was mine, and I’d forgotten to take a good look at the bus or its license plate. Sharon wasn’t with me to help, so I figure this one’s on her if I get stranded in Athens. None of the busses had the Number 7 in its window for our tour group number. I thought, I really should have just taken a picture of the bus with my phone. Eventually, there were several of us now scratching our heads as to where the bus was, one of us saw the number 7 flag being waved frantically by our guide to attract everyone’s attention. The bus had advanced forward about ten bus spaces and we were back where we’d gotten off.

We drove up to the parking and drop-off are for the Acropolis. We still had a considerable climb to get to the entrance, and more steps and slopes to negotiate to get to the top. I was grateful that the initial ascending walkway was mostly shaded by trees on either side. There were not overwhelming crowds at the entrance, which I gather can be the case during the summer. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to negotiate this climb during Athens’s highest temperatures, which our guide informed us happened in 2011 when the temperatures hit 116 degrees Fahrenheit (or 47 degrees Celsius) in the shade. Crowds can also surge in size on those “Free Days” when the European Union declares that certain historic sites within the community should be open to the public at no charge. This happens twenty times a year, which our guide seemed somewhat bitter that the EU imposes this additional burden on a country already trying to crawl out of its financial troubles, and twenty times per year one of Greece’s main sources of income, tourism, is usurped.

There is a temple commemorating the battle between Athena and Poseidon, for which several stone woman pose as large columns. The Parthenon stands nearby, dwarfing this large temple. The Parthenon is the main temple to Athena and once stood as an enclosed inner building surrounded by many large columns of marble. These columns once supported a roof covering the Parthenon. Today a large crane stands in the middle of the Parthenon to assist with the reconstruction of the ruble and many marble pieces laying around the hilltop. The Parthenon itself limits access to visitor who must remain outside the perimeter of the building. Our guide warned us to remain on the pathways, in particular on the concrete parts of the walkway where footing will be good. Many places the stone below appears where the concrete has been worn away, and these spots can be hazardously slippery, even when they are not wet. Later at lunch a gentleman at my table said that he saw a woman, not from our ship that did fall and had hit her head quite badly and was bleeding quite profusely. Our guide have a very detailed talk about the history and mythology behind the Acropolis, and we had 30 minutes at the end to explore or take pictures on our own before meeting back by the entrance. As luck would have it, the arthritis in my ankle began to give me some piercing complaints, not helped by the uneven walking surfaces. I headed back down a bit early; but still only needed 10 minutes to get to the meeting spot. I found a seat in the shade and was eyeing the iced lemonade offered at the adjacent cantina. Our guide showed up with her number 7 flag, and we made our way to the bus.

We next stopped at the museum in Athens with most of the ancient relics of the region, offering Greek, Roman and even Egyptian artifacts. The guide told us that the museum wouldn’t allow any backpacks inside; unless, it could be worn over just one arm (and weren’t unduly large). I left mine on the bus. It wasn’t clear to me why so many people chose to take a backpack into the museum anyway; even the guide had a knitted backpack that she attempted to go inside with hanging it over just one arm. Some had already checked their backpack at the free coat and bag check. The guard wouldn’t let her in and after a brief discussion she relented and walked over to the checker. Then another official came running waving his hands and said “No, no, no.” Another discussion ensued. The discussions in Greek and were very animated and sounded more like arguments. She said, over our tour headsets, that because we were a group we needed to check-in our bags outside with the group check. There was another discussion when they insisted that she take the key for the whole group, and that she was responsible for the items checked should anything go missing. She took it all in stride. We all got our tickets, and as you passed into each exhibit, you needed to scan your bar coded ticket. There were many exhibits of pottery and jugs, and some very large jugs. There were also quite a few statues. Our guide noted that the Greek statues were very enduring, usually of the Gods. Statues of real humans were usually limited to exceptional athletes or a particularly successful general… never of politicians or rulers. By contrast, the Roman Statues were invariably of their emperors. Due to the time it can take to make a statues, the Romans began the practice of sculpting just the head of the emperor, and replacing the head of the previous emperor on statues. This was particularly practical especially when the emperor is changing every few years. All of the Greek male statues appear in the nude, and virtually all of them had their hands broken off and one other part broken off.

We had a lunch buffet at the Radisson in Athens. I enjoyed the Greek Salad and the Greek meatballs. The dolmas (rice, spices and mint rolled in grape leaves and olive oil) were the best I can remember. I also enjoyed the spanakopita. And the baklava dessert was out of this world. Red and white wine was offered, along with bottled water.

Our final stop was to spend about twenty minutes shopping for souvenirs. Our guide assured us that the same souvenirs would be available at later stops on our itinerary (such as Santorini), but the best prices could be had here. We stopped across the Arch of Hadrian and I got out of the bus to take some pictures of the arch. I remember last December when visiting Amman of visiting another Arch of Hadrian.

I got back with just one hour to spare before Team Trivia at 5:00 PM. Sharon headed for mass, leaving me to join our two team members. We found another couple whose team had deserted them for this round and invited them to join our team. Our new team members knew who the voice behind Darth Vader was, I could visualize him but was having trouble coming up with the name: James Earl Ray. And both of the other men knew who the heavy weight champion was from 1937 until 1949. It was of course Joe Louis. When it came to the only two land-locked countries in South America: we came up with Ecuador and Paraguay. I really should have known this one: Cancel Paraguay and go with Bolivia. The first bonus question was “What is the name given to the three wars that Rome fought with Carthage. Our new team member is a history buff, and after hemming and hawing, the name seemed to be stuck on the tip of his tongue, he managed to come up with “Punic Wars” which of course is right! We aced the next two bonus questions; but, then came the final seven-part, seven-point bonus question. At least we can earn one point for each correct part. I groaned when I heard that it was a religious question and Sharon is off at mass! Per chance, even a Catholic question. “What are the seven deadly sins?” Sharon is off at mass getting absolved of sin, and we’re stuck here trying to figure out what the seven deadly sins are! We immediately came up with “Gluttony and Sloth.” After some thought we came up with “Greed and Envy.” Just three sins to go. Someone suggested “Lust”. We then came up with “Jealousy” and were missing just one. I wrote down “Pride” as the seconds were ticking down, but none of my teammates would agree to that, but could come up with nothing better, although on reflection one might have murmured “Anger”. We got six out of seven and won with 30 out of 33 points. Jealousy of course was wrong and the final sin was indeed “Anger” (Or “Wrath”). The cruise director Dave promised to give us our pins tomorrow, but did hand us the Bottle of Champagne, which he earlier had referred to as Vin du Puque. Nobody wanted it; but, eventually our newest team members accepted the bottle.

I had the crostini with tomato and cold ginger coconut soup. I was supposed to also get the lobster potato soup, but I forgot about it, and I guess because the coconut soup bowl which Sharon had ordered for me wound up in front of me, they must have thought I already had my soup. I had the curry with tofu which was just great. Sharon had the Daily Chicken and ate most of her dish.

The Show was called White Magic and featured a magician (last name “White”) and his fiancée, a contortionist and sometimes helper. He did many impressive illusions with cards and compact discs and even water and sand that all left me scratching my head. His partner was incredibly limber. During one routine while looking forward her body arched behind her with one leg and foot holding a bow, and the other leg and foot pulling back a string, shot an arrow and hit the bull’s eye. In another demonstration she balanced her whole body, back and legs above and behind her held up only by a small plate that she held between her teeth. She used her hands to steady her balance until she lifted both hands show that her whole body was supported only through her mouth and neck.

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