Friday, August 12, 2011

Days 28, 29, 30 & 31

Day 28 - Travel day to Athens

Our first leg started in Naxos where our ferry was to leave at 11:20am. We arrived just on time and boarded. It was a short 40 min trip to Paros and we only had an hour to spend there. We went for coffee and dips at a seaside cafe. Paros looked quiet and peaceful, if we ever decided to come back to Greece, I think Paros would be on the list. We boarded our 2nd leg in Paros bound for Mykonos, where we had 3 hours to take in the town. Mykonos has the stigma of being the party capital of the Greek islands and because of this, we decided that a pass through was all we wanted. I think it was a bad call. It looked like a great little town but you can never tell until it gets late. We ate some Gyros at a small local shop inside the town steps away from the sea. We then boarded a taxi to the airport where we would take the 3rd leg and eventually winding up in Athens. When we arrived in Athens, we quickly snagged a cab and made our way to the Acropol. Oh oh oh, but when we got to our hotel the cabbie told us to be really careful, this was a bad part of town at night, lots of muggings, thefts, violence and robberies. Yes Omonia square at night is supposed to be a bad place. And to top it off, the Classical Acropol Hotel was CLOSED!! There we were, in the middle of the night, bags in hand, tourist clothes on our backs, stranded. We crossed the street, phoned the other Acropol, thinking we might've screwed up but nope..we were at the right place (wrong place). We asked a couple of cabbies to take us to a hotel, once they figured out what we needed, one happily took us to Novotel. We checked in, unpacked our things and headed for the bar, we needed a drink. 

Day 29 - sightseeing in Athens

We woke up, ate our included breakfast (best coffee since Turkey) and headed for the Acropolis. As we twisted ourselves up and around to the top, we passed sights like the theatre of Dionysus (closed for a concert) and  the odeum of Herodes. When getting to the top the first ruin to your right is the temple if Athena Nike, a beautiful building, it once housed a wooden statue of the goddess of victory. Once we passed that we got to the Parthenon! In the middle of being restored, it was the most spectacular building I've seen (except for the AyaSofia) and we spent a hour encircling it. Built as an homage to Athena, the myth goes to empress the people Athena and Poseidon engaged in competition, she grew an olive tree which provided food, oil and shade. Poseidon created a salt water spring that flowed from the earth, the people gave the victory to Athena, named the city after her and built the Parthenon to  honor her.  Another building on Acropolis is Propylaea, adorned with carvings and statues it completed the top of the city. 

Going down from the Parthenon, you walk the Pananthaic way to the Agora passing by the cemetery and stoa of Attalus. Stoas are large roofed buildings with columns that provide shade from the heat, as well as places to do business and house sculptures. Completing our wander of the ancient city of Acropolis, we wound our way to the Temple of Hephaestus. 

We walked away from the site famished and sought out lunch at a cafe below. After lunch we went in search of Hadrians Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, they are located right beside each other. The temple is huge and if you look at it from the right angle you can see the Acropolis and Hadrians arch. You can just imagine what people saw for the first time arriving to Athens thousands of years ago. 

To finish our day, we marched up the hill, past parliament  and found the Pananthanaikan Stadium. The only stadium completely made out of marble, dates back to the original Olympics but only a few original pieces remain. You can hike up to the top of row 21 and see a 360 degree view of Athens including the Acroplis and Lycabetta hill. Krista even ran a lap around the track!!

We returned to Novotel, locked ourselves in our room and had room service. 

Day 30 - Delphi

Reluctantly we joined a tour and went to Delphi. They picked us up at 7:45 and started the journey to Delphi where our tour guide blabbed the entire two hours up to the site.   When we reached the site, we ditched and wandered on our own, we passed a theatre, bath houses an agora and the remains of ancient houses. Built on the side of a hill (like all other fortified ancient cities) you could see for miles. It's said that Apollo swam to the people in the form of a dolphin, hence the name. In the middle of ancient Delphi is the temple of Apollo where the oracle of Delphi lived. The oracle spoke the words of the gods and politicians and priests translated to the seekers of information. At the top of Delphi is a huge theatre which was used as a precursor to the Olympic games. Athletes competed in the nude and it was better if you weren't well endowed, and if you notice, most statues still preserved depict this. At the bottom of Delphi is a circular temple built to Athena and a huge gymnasium. After the site, we visited the museum of Delphi which houses artifacts pulled from it. Highlights include the two brothers and some Mycenaean gold. 

We returned home late after purusing a few villages and decided to dine at the top of our restaurant. The eatery had yet another 360 view of Athens but it also had a fully lit view of the Acropolis. A picture perfect end to a day. 

Day 31 - the national Archeological museum of Athens. 

We made it to the museum at 1pm expecting it to be open for hours but it was only open til 4!! We thought we had to be quick, afterall we spent 5 hours in Istanbul's museum. But it was spectacular. I'm sorry to say that athens' was a complete let down. It did have a lot of significant  items, but after seeing Istanbul's I guess I was a little let down. Highlights included a bronze statue of Poseidon/Zeus and a marble statue of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros.  

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