Αθήνα (Athína)

... or, "My Little Skinny (too short) Greek Vacation, Turned Slightly Fatter (longer) by Extension due to Strike."

On Saturday, November 3rd, we took a train from Rome to Milan where I made myself an Italian friend, Marco, who taught me how to say a few things in Italian (piacere di conoscerti, Marco!). On Sunday the 4th, we caught a flight from Milan to Athens.

 handy Easyjet magazine Movember guide

Of course, we were a bit nervous because we knew that upon arrival, we wouldn't know how to say any Greek at all - all I had were the directions from the airport to the hostel that I'd copied from the Internet, with bus routes and street names in Greek letters! After some big-eyed sweet-smiled requests for directions from various kind people and some magical map reading, we found our way to the hostel (despite the fact that our directions weren't all that accurate).

Oh! Of course! Easy! (Seriously, the experience of trying to read signs in Greece makes me identify with the saying "It's all Greek to me!" like I never did before.)

Pleasant surprise: our hostel was in the city center on a street that literally dead-ends into the Acropolis, and we had our own room, AND it was the cheapest hostel we had the whole time. Pretty fantastic! We were starved and headed out to find food.

Success! €3 lamb gyro... a-mazing.

down our street in Plaka

the Acropolis from our street

It's time for little Acropolis history before I go on. Acropolis means "the edge of the city" in Greek. It's a hill/plateau where Athenians built sacred temples beginning... well, I'm not sure when. But there was an ancient Acropolis, which was burnt/destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. After the Persians destroyed it, the Athenians took what was remaining (statues, artifacts, etc) and buried it all nearby (coincidentally preserving it really well) in order to rebuild. They rebuilt between 460-430 BC, and what we have today are the ruins of what they built during that time. There are a few temples on the top of the Acropolis and a few theaters and ruins around the base of the hill, all of which is what is now considered the Acropolis area.

Here's a little video of our walk up to the Acropolis, which isn't that great because it's dark, but you can hear a bit of the music and get a little bit of the relaxed atmosphere around the area.

just hanging out outside the Odeon of Herodes Atticus... See me?

one of the many signs we foolishly approached during our stay in Greece thinking "Hmmmm, let's go figure out what's going on here." ...... 

"Yeah this doesn't help."

We found the Acropolis Museum, which happened to still be open (the actual Acropolis wasn't open anymore), and we decide to go in. (This sign says "Museum Acropolis" in Greek, apparently.)

The museum holds all of the artifacts found on the Acropolis hill from any time period, including what they've found buried nearby from the ancient (pre-Persian destruction) Acropolis.

The museum itself is built over some ruins, which they are excavating and preparing to be open to the public soon.

pretty ribbon-clad street

our street, including the little restaurant we chose for the evening (on the right those two tables with the candles) and Mount Lycabettus in the background

tzatziki and Greek salad, the appetizers at our restaurant

moussaka, our main course, which I happened to love... 

a little bit like a Greek Shepherd's Pie

We were really loving Greece so far. There were fewer tourists than in Italy, the weather was warm (no more sweaters, yay!), the people were friendly, our location was great, things were cheaper, everything we'd eaten was fantastic, and we actually had enough energy by the end of the day to have great conversation over dinner.

As if things weren't already great, all of the sudden appears this cinnamon apple dessert on the house!

After the cinnamon apple dessert, a server (not our own) comes and gives us a little tsipouro, a traditional Greek drink, and sat down to talk with us. His name is Thanasis, and he spent over two hours with us teaching us Greek! He would write down words and say them and have us guess what they meant. We learned everything from efharisto (please/you're welcome) and parakalo (thank you) to alati and piperi (salt and pepper). It was great to get to learn some Greek, especially since we felt so bad about not knowing any at all (at least in Italy I had an Italian/French dictionary I picked up in France), and to talk to someone local (well, originally from the Peloponnese, but in Athens for over 20 years). We went home happy and full after our first full day in Greece!

In the morning, we set out for a little walk through Plaka and to the Acropolis.

Byzantine-style church

typical white building

stairs up to the Acropolis

If you want to see the orientation of the different parts of the Acropolis as I name them, look at the Wikipedia article and scroll down to the "site plan" section.

south slope of the Acropolis

Theatre of Dionysus

The first row consists of marble thrones which have the names of the important people which occupied them engraved at the bottom. (What happens when that person died, I wonder? Do they have white-out for marble?)

reliefs at the front of the stage -

Notice the giant hunched over in the middle?

Stoa of Eumenes II

Theatre of Dionysus from above -

They're currently partially restoring it.

Here's a little of our view at about this point.

Acropolis turtle! He's adorable, check him out here.

BEAUTIFUL day in Athens!

the interior of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (of which we saw the exterior the first night) - It's built into the hill

the side of the Acropolis hill

interior of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus with the Filopappou Hill 

in the background

Athens from the top of the Acropolis

columns of the Propylaea (which is the entrance to the actual Acropolis)

gateway of the Propylaea

backside of Propylaea (seen from inside the Acropolis)

the famous Parthenon, the temple dedicated to the virgin goddess Athena, patron goddess of Athens

length of the Parthenon

Here's the view from the top!

In the middle, you can see the damage from where the Venetians attacked the Parthenon (during their siege on Athens) in 1687. 

In the top left you can see part of the east pediment that still remains, which is one of the horses who pulls Apollo's chariot.

columns and stones and ruins, everywhere

Mount Lycabettus from the Acropolis

les deux américaines with the Parthenon

view down the side

It's time for another little Acropolis history break before I go on with the next pictures! According to mythology, the Acropolis plateau is the place where, at the founding of Athens, Poseidon (god of the sea) and Athena (goddess of wisdom and a whole mess of other stuff) were competing for the city. Both gods were allowed to give a gift to the people. Posiedon used his trident to strike the land and created a spring. Athena created an olive tree (the first olive tree) in the same spot. The people preferred the olive tree, so Athena became the patron goddess of Athens (which is, of course, named after her). 

the Erechtheion, a temple which housed the spring of Poseidon and the olive tree from the story

the Porch of the Caryatids on the side of the Erechtheion -

The statues of the women are replicas, but we saw the originals in the Acropolis Museum.

the original olive tree, the gift from Athena

leaving the Acropolis through the Propylaea

Athens from the Propylaea

Athens from the top (Also, you can see the Agora/Temple of Hephaestus in the green space on the right.)

sleepy Acropolis puppy.... There are dogs and cats everywhere in Greece! I'm thinking not too many people spay/neuter, which results in lots of homeless dogs and cats, which results in a sad Katy.

Temple of Athena Nike

view up into the Propylaea

On our afternoon walk, we passed the Hellenic Parliament building.

Greek design along the top and ship motif at the bottom on a light post near the Parliament building

the National Garden

the Zappeion

"Quick, Katy, smile!" .... Kimberly spotted a pretty flower pic.

Temple of Zeus by sunset

Hadrian's Arch with the Acropolis in the background

frozen Greek yogurt with fruit - a-mazing!

Mythos, a Greek beer that has a unicorn on the label - love that!

fried zucchini something... Hey, if it's fried, I'm in. I may be far from home, but I am still from Texas, after all.

chicken souvlaki (It should be mentioned that this was the only night of our four Athenian nights that we didn't go visit our friend Thanasis at our favorite restaurant under the Acropolis.)

Our third Greek day was spent sailing the Aegean sea to nearby islands, which was incredible and merits its own post. Day four there was a national general strike, which included all modes of public transportation and all archaeological sites. We were actually supposed to leave that morning, but oops, we had to stay another day/night in Athens! I got a day of rest, which was great because I wasn't feeling well,* and in the late afternoon we set out for a little trek around the other side of the Acropolis hill.

ruins of... something

We hiked up a hill behind the Acropolis and got this view of Athens; there was cloud cover all over except for one little strip where they sun could shine through, which caused the strip of sunlight you can see in the middle of the photo.

the Agora and the Agora Museum (which we didn't get to go inside due to the whole strike/demonstration situation)

the Acropolis in pretty sunset light

At the top, we stopped to sit down and look over Athens (and, coincidentally, listen to the sounds of the demonstration in downtown Athens). There were lots of couples sitting around watching the sunset, how romantic. I had a romantic time too, as we were eating these Greek chocolate cookies, and, well, I love chocolate. :)

just in case you hadn't seen enough of the Acropolis

pretty yellow flowers + pretty sky

The second and third nights we went to our restaurant, we were regaled with gifts of food, such as calamari and baklava, pictured above. We also got some ouzo, the national aperitif, which was not my favorite (tasted like licorice and I'm not a fan of licorice) and water bottles to go (hey, it's expensive to go around buying water bottles). We loved our restaurant, the food was amazing (especially the tons of free stuff we got!), and getting to learn about Greece from Thanasis was great. The last night, he told me all about his feelings about the crisis, possible solutions, and his plan to go back to his land in the Peloponnese to harvest his olive trees at the end of November. He showed me Greek dances on YouTube and taught me about his culture and his history, which he loves. Meeting people who want to share their culture is one of the best parts of traveling for me.

Basically, I love Greece. In my remaining Greece post, you'll see more of why I seriously fell in love with this country more than I've ever immediately fallen in love with any other place. It's just lovely. And warm. And the food is amazing. Athens was great, despite the strike that extended our stay by an extra night. I would LOVE to come back to Greece to explore more (Corinth, Crete, Thessaloniki, Olympia, Santorini...) or to just, you know, live. (Teaching Assistant Program in... Greece?) 

Efharisto, Athens, for a wonderful stay. Until next time. :)

*Hey, if Greece strikes, I strike. Apparently.