2/2/09 You're Up: Athens II

I slept really well last night, although the guy that was in the next bed over had horrible breath and snored and was facing me so I had to turn and face the wall. Other than that, no complains. I woke up at 8 and after taking a cold shower, went downstairs and had some tea and toast with butter and Nutella.

I walked up to the Acropolis and sure enough, I didn’t need a ticket to get in. I just had to show my ID and they let me go, saving me 12 Euros. The first think you see in the huge amphitheater build in the 100s by the Romans on the right. They still use it (with new seating).

Next you come to the gates which are mostly covered with scaffolding. This would be a reoccurring theme. To the right of them is the Temple of Athena Nike, which we learned about in Art History. Completely covered in scaffolding and you couldn’t get near it. Huge bummer.

I walked through the gates and on the right was the Parthenon. It’s huge.

I always wanted to someday walk around it and see what it was really like. Unfortunately you couldn’t actually walk through the building, being under construction. I might as well get my rant out of the way now. They are doing a lot of work on the place, and on the Parthenon they are adding new material to weakened places and areas to fill it out. I completely 100% object to this. I feel it cheapens the whole thing. You are looking at a fake (ok so like 10%) but still. You can tell where they fixed it, which I suppose is nice, but it just ruins the whole structure. It’s not authentic anymore. I’m all about preservation, but reconstruction doesn’t work. On the Erechtheum they removed the statues holding it up and replaced them with fakes. They’re doing the same with the Parthenon relief. I’d rather have them crumble than see a fake and have the real ones in a museum. Museum pieces are out of context and lose so much by not actually being in their location. What makes the Acropolis buildings so cool is their age, that they’re over 2,000 years old and amazing, even for now. I’d rather see the weathering of 2,000 years than fakes. I can see fakes anywhere.



Okay, I’m done for now, although I wish I could run for some sort of Preservation Czar role and be in charge of saving all these buildings. But I think I’m probably in the minority on this one.

That said, the Parthenon was incredible. Even though there was scaffolding and cranes and fakeness, it still wow just a ‘wow.’

Unfortunately my rechargeable batteries gave out about then so I walked down the hill to the hostel and back up to get new batteries. I got to spend some quality time up there, a couple hours, looking around at all the buildings. The Erechtheum wasn't being worked on much so you could get much more of a feel for it.



I just sat down on the wall and hung out. The weather was incredible, about 60 (especially for a day with record snowfall in London) so I dropped my coat off when I went to get the batteries and just wore a long sleeved v-neck and a t-shirt.

After spending a lot of time up there I decided with the school groups coming through I’d leave for a while. I wandered slowly down the Acropolis Hill, stopping at historic sites on the way, including ancient caves. The coolest thing was at the bottom, the Theater of Dionysus. It’s relatively well intact and you can go sit down on the ancient (it’s amazing that ancient here isn’t a phrase but a time period) seats. They have big carved marble seats in the front row where the priests sat to watch the performances. Here many of the Greek tragedies were performed for the first time. I was really impressed with it.




Since I was in the area, I went to the New Acropolis Museum, which they’ve been making a big deal about. I was excited to see the rest of the Parthenon statues and relief that the British Museum didn’t have. Unfortunately, they just shut it down again in preparation for its complete opening. I was pretty bummed, I guess it gives me reason to come back.

Then I decided to go to Agora, the old city center and marketplace for Athens. Socrates and Aristotle and Plato used to roam these parts. Now it’s almost all just small ruins and outlines of buildings. The best preserved, and rather impressive Temple of Hephaestus. The frieze is still intact, and the building looks nearly perfect. I don’t know how it managed to stay so nice. It was used as a museum as recently as the 1930s.

I walked though the Agora Museum in the completely reconstructed Stoa of Attalo and looked at some statues and artifacts from the Agora. Not the best, but it was ok.

I walked across the street to the Roman Forum and Temple of the Winds. I was the only person in it other than a worker and a family of dogs. It was really nice to be all alone there, I could really envision the place better. And it was like having history all to myself.



I walked back up to the Acropolis and sat around, mostly to rest after running around all day. It was a lot quieter now than when I was there before, and the sun was at a different angle and made it nice to just sit around and look at the ruins.

They kicked me out around 2:30 so I went to Filopappos Hill and the first site I saw was the Prison of Socrates where he was put to death. Supposedly. There’s apparently some debate over where that was the actual place or not to the point that on the sign it’s named in quotes. But it was still cool.

I walked up to the top of the hill where there was another 2,000 year-old ruin that you can see around the city. This was one of the best views of the Acropolis I saw, so good that this is where a shell was fired from and hit the Parthenon that put it into ruins in the 17th century. The hill went out for a ways toward the water. It was really gorgeous.

On my way down from the hill I stopped of at Pnyx, which is literally the birthplace of democray. The first congress was held here ever. It was another rather ruined area, but somehow this placed clicked with me, maybe because I could see the orators talking to the masses from here somehow.

I walked back through Plaka and stopped at a store and bought a messenger bag. It was listed for 25 Euros but I got it down to 22. I was really happy with myself. I like the bag, it’s not too fancy/pursey and it seems like it’ll last. It made carry things around a lot easier.

I decided to walk down to the National Archeological Museum and I stopped and got a cheese spinach pie (sort of a letdown, too cold).

The museum was incredible. They had things from 3,000 years old, including basically half of my art history book. The Kouri were a huge part of my class and they had the exact ones from my book. I was exited. We spent weeks learning about the evolution of Kouri, and they even had the one that bridged the gap to the Classical style.

The displays were set up in chronological order and it was very interesting to see the changes as time went on. It was among the best museums I’ve been to. I got back to the front and tried to go back in the other way and the guy asked for my ticket. I didn’t buy one, so I just left. I basically stole 7 Euros from the museum. Whoops.

It was getting dark and I was beat to so I went back to the hostel and rested for a little. I managed to steal some wifi from my room so I did some research and I think I’m going to take a ferry ride to Aegina tomorrow, I’m excited.

I went out to dinner, I had the place all picked out. I got stuffed tomatoes (one of the best things I’ve ever ate) fried feta, pita (Coney Island’s is better), bread with some sort of butter/oil on it that was great, and a Nescafe, which I read I had to have in Greece, but was just like a chocolate coffee. I’m for chocolate, not so much the coffee. But in all, it was one of the best meals of my life.

I went down the street to a café I’d been eying and ordered baklava with ice cream. Way overpriced and not as good as the night before. But it was probably the greatest view I’ll ever had at a restaurant. I sat outside directly across from the Agora looking up at the Acropolis light up. It was worth the price just for that.

I came back and firmly decided I’m going to Aegina. I’m getting up at 7:30 and going to do some last minute Athens stuff before I get down to the ferry. I figure I’ll spend about two hours down there before coming back for my 10 pm flight.

Don’t know if I’ll get to update until I’m back in London. We’ll see.

Just heard back from Brian at RedEye, said he might publish my column tomorrow. Crazy. That'd be really exciting if he did, but how weird would that be if I it happened while I was in the Mediterranean.

1/2/09 You're Up: Athens

I ended up sleeping for around two hours before getting up to shower, pack and catch the buses down to Victoria. It went so smooth that I had to kill off some time, nearly an hour. The station is huge, and not heated, so it was rather chilly. I bought a hot chocolate and waited around until they announced which train was mine.

The ride down was pretty quick, about 40 minutes, the worst part was battling sleep and worrying about missing my stop. I read through my Athens guide and once I finished it was about time to leave.

The airport is nice, easy to maneuver about, although there were a number of stretches were I was the only person for a while. I think I got here too early. They hadn’t even announced which gate my flight was going to leave from, although I cheated and saw when I was at the train station that it was out of 111. Security here was easy to get through, in fact they were helpful. There were many bags available for liquids and good signs telling people that if they had electronics in their pockets, they should put them in their coat or bag instead of messing around with the bins. Good stuff.

The first time through security I didn’t even have to take my shoes off. I was pretty excited. My laptop set off alarms and they had to swipe it down with what looked like a Swifer duster. I asked the guy if he could clean my screen while he was at it. He even laughed. Turns out there was no bomb in my laptop.

Once I passed through security, I entered another room with another conveyor belt just for shoes. I was disappointed. I thought the Brits were past that. It ran pretty smoothly, so maybe it’s a better way of handling it. I wonder what it takes to be a shoe inspector. I mean seriously, do they ever expect to catch anyone in their career? It would be a huge bust.

I went and sat down by the gate and even found a plug for my laptop. Now if airports would only offer free wi-fi.

I got a window seat and no one sat next to me, so I slept almost the entire flight. Customs was basically, hand us your passport, we’ll stamp it, and go. Painless. I found the way to the subway (all the sings are in English as well) but I just missed it, so I had to wait a half hour. I got to the hostel around 2, was given my room (me and two other guys, we have our own bathroom too, it’s pretty nice) and went out to the Acropolis. It’s literally right behind the building.


The sun was out and it was just gorgeous. The trees and foliage here are very Mediterranean. I climbed up to the entrance and found out they were closing it. They close at 3 everyday. I was bummed. So I went up to the top of the rock next to it and looked down on the city. It was really impressive. St. Paul used to preach from around there.

I went down the other side of the hill and wandered by the Agora, the marketplace where Socrates used to speak. There is a flea market close by, and I think I’m going to get a bag and maybe shoes here. Things are cheap and they have a big selection. In many ways, it was a lot like Venice Beach. There was a surprising amount of graffiti around. There are also a ton of stray dogs and cats. But it gives the city character. It feels like an old European city. I’d rather have some dirt than a gleaming new city. I felt very safe their the entire time however.


I spent most of the time just exploring the area (and trying to get a table to eat, but I think the place was closed because they didn’t seem interested in serving me) before coming back and taking a shower. I walked passed some kids playing soccer in the street. This is sort of what I picture Brooklyn in the 40's like.




I went out in a different direction and saw the gate of Athens put up by Caesars and the Temple of Zeus. You can’t help but run into things thousands of years old. Even just walking down the street they have excavations from centuries BC.

I went through the National Gardens and passed Parliament into a newer, hipper part of town. It felt like London, so I went back toward the older part of the city, although a Greek lady came up to me, said something in Greek, and handed me a Lipton Lemon Green Tea. I took it, it looked like she was giving them away. Or maybe I just stole it from her. It wasn't very good, but I was so thirsty that I downed it quick.

On the way, I saw them doing a changing of the guards in front of Parliament. It was the most ridiculous thing I saw. They wore huge shoes with a ball on them and would kick their legs up, taking funny steps and scraping their feet on the ground. It looked like Goofy was doing the changing of the guard.

I went back into Agora and hung out at the top of the Acropolis overlooking the city again. It was dark now and gave a different view. The Acropolis is all light up and rather impressive. You can see it from almost everywhere here.

I ate at a café overlooking the ruins of the Agora and sat outside. The temperature was really pleasant, although I was happy to have my coat. I ordered a Greek Salad, which was pretty good. The oil and feta cheese they put on it was awesome. I nearly at the whole thing, an accomplishment since cucumbers play a large role in it.

I also got Eggplant with feta cheese, tomato and onion in it. It was terrific.

I sat around waiting for them to bring me the check but apparently they brought it with the food and I had to go inside to pay. Weird. It started to rain but I wanted to get a dessert so I went to a little place around the corner and got some baklava. I don’t really remember getting baklava before, but I loved it. I took it up to the Acropolis and ate while looking at the city. It was a nice day.

I came back to the hostel around 10 and one of my roommates was already sleeping, which is good. I went to the 5th floor balcony and wrote a column about the Super Bowl and sent it to RedEye (I’d say there’s about a 1 in 500 chance it gets published, but I can rework it for The DePaulia at worst). I went wandering around the streets and found some WiFi and sent it in before coming back and typing this up on the couches in the lounge area. This is a much nicer hostel than the last one I was at.

I’m going to get up around 8, get free breakfast here, and make my way over to the Acropolis for when it opens around 8:30. I plan on spending from 8:30-3 looking at archeological sites (the Acropolis ticket gets you into a bunch of different sites, and I think as an EU student, I get it for free). It should be a pretty eventful day.

I don’t think I’ll get pictures up until I get back (since I’d have to stand around on the street and load them), but I should be able to get the text up.

My column was about missing the Super Bowl. It’s a weird feeling. I always loved being at home and watching the game, I wish I could be there but being in Athens isn’t so bad either. I asked the Brits if they ever watched the game and they asked what sport it was. I haven’t seen anything about it over here. Kind of interesting.

I’m rooting for the Cardinals while I sleep.

31/1/09

Today was probably my least exciting day here so far. Making this probably the most boring blog post so far.

I went to the library, which is just outside by building, to print off my boarding passes and bus pass. I couldn't log in, so I had to go get a new password. Then I went back up and tried to print, but the paper for the printer wasn't the right size, so it would jam up every time I tried. I'd have to open up the printer and yank the paper out, usually ripping it. I did this for about 15 minutes. Then I came back to my room and realized I didn't print out the return flight, so I went back and did that.

I booked my train ticket to the airport (leaving at 4 am) which means I'm going to leave around 3 to take the night bus to get down there. I don't know how sleep is going to work tonight. My flight is about 3.5 hours (and going ahead two hours with the time zone) so hopefully I can sleep some then.

The weather is looking a lot better, during most of the time I'll be there it's only going to rain in the morning. When I get there tomorrow I should miss all the rain. I'm planning on going to the Acropolis right after I drop off my bag at the hostel.

I went down to Primark to buy the trench coat, but the lines were going to take about a half hour so I decided I'd just come back later. With my foot completely better (although I took a beating wandering around Edinburgh for two days, I decided to buy some insoles for my shoes. One of the best purchases I've made here.

I made another pizza for dinner and then researched how to get to my hostel on wikitravel (one of my favorite website) and read about Athens some more. It sounds like there's going to be a lot more to do there than I thought. I took a little break and cut pictures out of the papers I have lying around and put them on my bathroom door in another effort to de-submarine the place. It's sort of my version of Sgt. Pepper. Dylan, Obama, Mr. Bean, Stevie Wonder, Bruno, just to name a few. I hope by the time I leave I'll have the door covered. I feel like this also makes me slightly closer to becoming a serial killer.

Around 7:45 I left to go get my trench coat and when I got down to Primark, it was closed. I was pretty upset. I guess I'm going to take my peacoat and a hoodie and the combo of the two should be alright there. But it definitely messed up my plans.

I decided to stop and get some Ben and Jerry's out of a vending machine. It was pretty cool, it vacuumed the ice cream out. Pretty crazy stuff. I feel like we have this technology in the States, but I was still pretty excited.

I think I might try to sleep a little before I go and it sounds like wifi is pay over there. If it's cheap I'll update over the next couple days. If not, I'll have another mega posting day on Wednesday. I imagine I'll take more picture than I did in Edinburgh, which is pretty terrible.