Ruined On Ruins

  Athens, Greece
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Hiya all

Today we slept in later than expected (yay!) and headed out to the Acropolis a little later than planned.  Arriving around 10am, it was already pretty busy with tour and school groups.  We were still stoked to see the Parthenon so we headed up through the crowds.

Now, please keep this in perspective.  If you've been to Turkey, Syria, and Jordan there are some AMAZING ruins there from the Greek, Roman, and Byzintine periods.  Crowds are minimal, entry prices usually are cheap, and you can climb all over EVERYTHING. 

The Erecthian

As we walked up to the site, we were a bit jarred by the construction work everywhere.  Everything was covered in scafolding and construction cranes rose above the columns on the skyline.  We weren't allowed anywhere near the site, having to keep a solid distance of many many metres, not allowing us to actually have anything but an outside picture of the place dotted with the scafolding.  The museum at the site was also closed, as were several other areas that are normally sites to see.  And the crowds...  it was like swimming against the crowd during salmon spawning season.

We pushed, shoved, and elbowed our way out (politely) pausing to take a few photos of the amazing views over the city from the top of the site.  We stopped off at a few of the 'must sees' around the Acropolis, including the Theatre of Dionysious, an Odion, and the Temple of Olympion Zeus - the former home to the massive statue of Zeus in Ivory and gold which was one of the Ancient Wonders of the World.  We also took a pause at Hadrian's Gate for a photo stop.  All in all though... we were a little dissapointed.

The middle east ruined us forever for sites like this.  The Temple of Olympion Zeus was a couple of big columns in an open field, we've seen some spectacular Odions, much better than the ones around Acropolis, and it probably didn't help that the Parthenon was covered in scafolding. 

Columns of the Temple of Zeus

On the plus side, this afternoon we went to the National Archeological Museum of Athens.  That was fantastic!  Our guide book discribed it as being full of masterpieces.  It was filled with amazing sculptures, pottery, reliefs, and relics from Ancient Greek life.  Among the more stunning peices was a giant bronze statue of Zeus that was recovered from the sea, and an intricatly worked wreath of golden flowers and leaves.  There was also an amazing device that they recovered from the sea that they x-rayed.  They've done an attempt at reconstructing it and figure it was basically some nautical device for navigation at sea - gears, levers and intricate inner workings.  It was astounding.

Handle the Jandle

Today, being a Monday, had all of the shops open.  It was much busier than yesterday with side streets filled with markets of meat and veges, spices, fruits, and clothing vendors.  Our hostel is in an excellent location for hitting all of these sites, being smack dab in the middle. 

Wreaths of Gold

We also spent a bit of today on a wild goose chase.  We've been trying to figure out the best way to get to the island of Crete for a few days relaxing (this travel thing is so hard!) and got stuck with a puzzle.  We ended up visiting about a dozen places, piecing together information as we went.  We found out that there was a public transit strike tomorrow, so there was no train, metro, or bus running.  So we found out ferry prices and when they left, then tried to find other alternatives to get there.  We eventually found out that the metro and bus would run during a certain point in the day... the train still wouldn't.  But the metro couldn't get us there anyway.  Right, next on to buses.  After much searching, we found out the bus route and where to take it from! (Yay!)  With any luck, the next time you hear from us we'll be in Crete.

All our best from Greece

Dan and Gabrielle