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Published: April 28th 2008
Agamemnon
The Death Mask of AgamemnonI also considered "Hey, mac. Wanna buy a sundial?" as a title for this blog. With all the street vendors it would have been appropriate. Both quotes are from the Disney movie Hercules, by the way.
April 6 - 12
Sunday April 6
On our first full day in Athens, we decided just to wander a bit and get a feel for where everything was. Our first stop was the National Archaeological Museum. The highlight is Agamemnon's Death Mask which was, of course, surrounded by a ton of people. We were also plagued by a tour group that was either right in front of us or coming up behind us while we were trying to look at the exhibits. I particularly liked the weapons because many of the blades were decorated. I thought it was amazing that the engravings survived. After the Archaeological Museum we were museumed out and so continued our wandering. We managed stumble upon the Agora, what was once the center of Athenian life. Now the temples and markets are nothing more than ruins with a few statues. Except for the Temple of Hephaestus. The temple is intact but fenced off from visitors. It stands above the Agora
on the right end while the Acropolis looms over everything. The main road runs through the Agora and straight up to the Acropolis, but we were saving the Acropolis for the next day, so we took our time to wander slowly through the Agora and notice all the stray dogs that looked extremely well fed. Very curious.
Monday April 7
Monday we decided to dedicate to exploring the Acropolis. We jumped on the Metro and rode down to the Acropolis stop. Then we made our way up the hill. The first stop was the Theater of Dionysus. This brought back memories of Reading Plays from J-term freshman year. We sat down in the beautiful sunshine almost as if we were going to watch a play. I looked up from my contemplation of the ancient stage and saw a familiar red beard. Alex and Kate! Suddenly there was waving and happiness and hugging - almost like we hadn't seen each other for years instead of three weeks. Just the previous night I had told James that we would be sitting in some ancient place and would run into some of the others. And lo and behold, it happened! Kia, Kate, and
I reminisced about Reading Plays for a bit and we all shared our various travel stories. People kept gathering and it felt as though a play should start any minute. And then we saw him. He looked like he had stepped of the Shakespearean Stage and into the Theater of Dionysus. The man had his hair pulled back and was wearing what looked like blue velvet, and his pants ended just below the knee. It made us all really happy. After sitting for a while longer, we made our way further up to the Odeon and then to the Acropolis itself. It was so amazing. Granted all of the marbles are in the British, or other, Museum, as are the statues, but it was still so great. From up there we could see the Agora and Temple of Zeus as well as the sprawling city. It was hard to believe we were actually standing on the Acropolis. It was one of those times when it is hard to believe that your life is real and that "this" is really happening to you. After taking as many photos as we could and probably more than any one person could ever need
in a life time, we began to make our way down the opposite side, towards the Agora. On the way we climbed up what we found out later was the Areopagus, where St. Paul gave a sermon to the Athinians. It was there that Kia, James and I left Kate and Alex and we headed over to the Hill of the Nymphs and Muses and maybe Sayters, perhaps Pan. But we didn't stay very long as we were hungry and tired. We soon made our way out to Olympic Stadium, and I hoped to see the track, but I could not get in. That made me quite sad. The stadium area was like a ghost town which was kind of sad. That evening we went to a real restaurant and I had some Moussaka which reminded me of Hercules. I should mention that the Hercules quotes were flying back and forth between us - sometimes it is very good to be seeing an ancient city with two archeology/Classics majors 😊 Anyway, the moussaka was really good; it has noodles, meat, and some kind of vegetable in it. A good end to a great day.
Tuesday April 8
When in Greece,
you learn quickly to be very careful when crossing the streets. Crosswalks seem to mean nothing and you can probably get run over as easily as draw breath. By our third full day in Athens we had learned to be cautious and follow the natives. However, we still felt the need to once again quote Hercules as seen in my title. So, Tuesday. We had started to realize that perhaps we had planned too many days in Athens. So we took a leisurely walk to the National Gardens and spent some time seeing th animals in the little zoo and taking senior pictures. We had to explain these to James since they do not have them in England. We also walked pass Parliament and I discovered that this was where my bus had dropped me off in my marathon trip - haha!- to Thessaloníki. After this, we made our way down to the Temple of Zeus. Situated below the Acropolis, the temple of Zeus has only the pillars remaining and even some of them have collapsed. Right by the Temple of Zeus is Hadrian's Arch, which claims that Athens is no longer the city of Theseus but of Hadrian. The
First view
My first glimpse of the Acopolis emperor has things everywhere! From Scotland to Greece one can find links to the Emperor Hadrian. Our last stop of the afternoon was the track from the first Modern Olympic Games held in 1896. We couldn't go on the track, but it was pretty cool just to be able to look at it and soak in the vibes.
Wednesday April 9
About midmorning Wednesday, we headed to the Kerameikos Cemetery, which is an ancient cemetery and was also a busy part of town at one point. In the small museum they had statues that had been taken from their former positions as grave markers and used to reinforce the road when it was rebuilt some thousand odd years ago or so. I could still see the pressure marks from the wheels running over them for years. It was pretty cool. In the same area as the Cemetery was the location of Plato's Academy. Of course there was nothing left of it now. Kia was feeling kind of ill, so she and James headed back to the hostel while I went on a search for cheap postcards. Once I had succeeded in my mission, I too returned to the hostel for
The Agora
A statue in the Agora an afternoon siesta. For dinner that evening, we went across the street to a restaurant that had gyros for a good price. It wasn't until we went in and found an English menu that we realized the name of the restaurant was Pita Pan! How great is that! I have now eaten at restaurants called Thai Tanic and Pita Pan. Amazing.
Thursday April 10
On Thursday, we decided it was time to head out of Athens and to Sunio and the Temple of Poseidon. Little did we know that it was a two hour bus ride. But it was worth it. We had lunch on the cliffs overlooking the sea. And what better lunch can you ask for than nutella, pretzels, and peanuts? After our picnic, we went up to the temple which is on this headland and has a great view. Definitely where Poseidon would have hung out. We then went venturing on the headland and found a great place to climb down to the water. 15 minutes later we were dipping our toes in the sea. It was so nice. Of course we couldn't just sit and enjoy the view and the water on our toes, so we
went climbing. Some parts of the temple had fallen down to where we were so we actually got to touch, and stand on, parts of Poseidon's Temple. He must not have minded too much because we didn't get drowned or anything. However, a few minutes late we were standing on the rocks enjoying the waves when suddenly we were soaking wet. Especially Kia, her skirt and back were drenched! I like to think that this was Poseidon's wrath, but the more likely explanation is the cruise ship that sped by not too far from shore created the monster waves. So after our enjoyable and wet afternoon, we got back on the bus and headed back to Athens. After drying off, we went to the Neon, a place we had been to before, for dinner. Just after we ordered, I thought I saw someone familiar walking towards us, so I cautiously waved. Suddenly, Siri was running towards me and Carrie and Joy weren't far behind. We then spent the next fifteen minutes or so reliving the past few weeks. It was so great.
Friday April 11
After the beach the day before, we were anxious to find more, so we tried
to find the beach in Athens. We tried and failed. After failing, we went back to the hostel and abandoned our beach attire and then went to read, relax, and, for some, do homework in the parks/gardens that we had been to previously. On the way, we stopped at Parliament to watch the changing of the guard. It was not as elaborate a process as the Italian one that I had seen but was still pretty complicated. They had to be all in step and do these crazy foot movements at the same time. It was pretty interesting. The rest of the day, like our whole time in Athens, was nice and relaxed. That evening, we met the rest of the crew that was in Athens for a group dinner, and then we went for gelato! We took our gelato on a walk to see the Acropolis at night and then made plans to meet the next day to head out to the airport.
Saturday April 12
Since our flight didn't leave until 9 pm, we had another whole day to kill in Athens. We spent it down in the market going from shop to shop and not buying much
of anything. Finally at 5, we met with the others and started our journey back home. When we got to the airport, we discovered that our flight had already been delayed which meant a lot of quality time in the airport. By the time we got on the plane we were super tired and very bored. My plans to sleep on the flight were foiled by the fact that it was absolutely freezing! Well, maybe not freezing, but pretty cold. Too cold to sleep comfortably. Four hours later, we had landed and made it, once again, through British customs. We then had another hour wait until our bus back to Nottingham. Once on the bus, I was out, and didn't wake up until Carrie told me we were in Nottingham. Then it was only a short cab ride back to the flat and into bed!
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Giovanni Ruiz
Giovanni Ruiz
Great Job
Awesome blog and great pics! I'm going to be there in July! SOOOOOO excited to go. Keep the great blogs coming :)