Athens, Greece

Temple of Zeus

National Archeological Museum
View of the Acropolis from the Agora

Temple to Athena in the Acropolis compound

Dog in National Gardens

We arrived in Athens after a very early flight. Our hostel was not so close to the city center, but it was close to the metro so it was easy for us to hop on and get almost anywhere. On the first day, we went to walk around Plaka, a very charming area that is probably mostly for tourists. The stores there sold souvenirs and other items that Greece is supposedly famous for, like olive oil, natural sea sponges, metal helmets, and tacky looking pottery. Close to Plaka is Syntagma Square, and a nice shopping district. Everything is cheaper in Greece than in Amsterdam, so I ended up buying some dresses and a hat. I would say that the highlight of our trip was the food, which deserves its own blog entry separate from the substantive things that we did in Greece.

On the second day, we tried to go to the National Archealogical Museum, supposedly one of the best museums in the world. Unfortunately, they close at 3, so we ended up doing more shopping. We got to explore the central market, and bought some dried fruit (more info in the food section). Basically, the second day was a bit of a bust, aside from the great food that we ate.

Day three was when we actually went to see monuments. First thing in the morning, we walked through the National Gardens. One thing distinct about Greece is the number of stray dogs. The stray dogs are large, and also appear rather well fed. You see them lying all over the city—in a bed of flowers, in the middle of stairs, sometimes right beside a busy freeway. Perhaps everyone feeds the dogs leftovers. They seem well behaved, except with bikers. Two times we saw dogs barking at bikers, even running after them. Although, the first biker might have thrown a stone at them, so it might have been self defense. According to Ella, who had visited Greece before its huge economic collapse, Athens became more run down. Previously, the government would take stray dogs, spay and neuter them and vaccinate them, and then release them only the streets again with a bright red and blue collar (they did not want to euthanize them). Unfortunately, the poverty is more apparent in Greece than most other nations, except perhaps Italy. There are several homeless people, in particular children who approach people and play instruments (specifically the accordion) for money. Many of these children are under 10 years old, and they walk around begging for money.

After we walked through the park, we stopped by some food display, and then headed towards the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch. The Temple of Zeus was not as impressive as I thought it would be, considering Zeus is the head of Olympus and all the other Gods. It was just a few pillars—perhaps it was much nicer in its heyday, but still nothing compared to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was built for Athena, the namesake of Athens. The story, which I actually read as a child, is that both Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle, and Poseidon, god of the sea, both wanted the city named after them. They took turns demonstrating their powers. While Poseidon struck his triton in the ground and caused a river to flow forth, the water was salty and not very useful. Athena however, created the olive tree, which could be used as food and oil. Therefore, she won the contest J Anyhow, as Ella would say, “Athena is quite a big deal in Athens.” The Pantheon is very cool to see, but must have been even more amazing when it was first completed. According to a movie that we watched in the Acropolis museum, the Pantheon was painted, and covered with carvings and statues which have since fallen off or have been removed for purposes of preservation. We also saw a stadium. After seeing the Acropolis, we returned to our hostel to dress up for dinner. That night, we went to a bar on top of a hotel, from which we had a magnificent view of the Acropolis, lit up.

The next day, we thought about going to an island, so we got up very early to go to Piraeus, the port. Unforutnately, the green line was partially closed, so we ended up having to spend a lot of time going back and forth on the metro to get to where the line was running. Piraeus is quite dirty and shabby, and the ferry tickets to Hydra, the island that we had been thinking of going, was 55 euros. Instead, some of us returned to Athens. Back in the city, we explored Monistiraki, famous for its gyros, and walked through the flea market and a crafts market. I had bought a pair of Greek sandals the first day, but there were many leather goods sellers. The sandal I bought were hand made, and I was able to bargain for them. They are not that comfortable though…anyhow, we discovered that the area close to the Ancient Agora was very lively and filled with restaurants. During our last day in Greece, we returned to that area, and walked into the Agora and up to the Temple of Hephastus, the God of iron working.

Overall, I enjoyed the trip, but Athens is not one of my favorite cities. Indeed, it is full of history, but it is rather dirty and polluted. The people on the other hand, ranged from being extremely friendly, to being very rude. There didn’t seem to be much in between. Since we did not like our hostel, we wanted to switch to a nicer hotel. Upon walking in and asking if there was a room available, the man at the desk said no, and suggested that we try the dirty hostel next door. We looked up the hotel online, and found that it actually had many rooms available. We’re not quite sure why he turned us away. Restaurants can be quite aggressive about getting your business, and men harass women a lot more. I wanted to buy a leather purse, and the guy selling the purses told me how much he loved Asian woman, and unbuttoned his shirt to show me a tattoo that he had gotten over his heart of a Chinese character (he called it a Japanese character actually, but I suppose it was Kanji). That was awkward, and he didn’t really give me a great discount either, so I backed away from the store and scuttled back to my friends. The weather was not very good, except on the first and last day. I had been hoping to lie in the sun with a bathing suit, but it was not warm enough for that. One day, I do hope to return and visit the Greek Islands.