Adventures in Ancient Athens

• J.mccrary's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Athens

Trip Start Apr 01, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Oct 05, 2008 Next
Entry

  Athens, Attica, Greece
Thursday, August 28, 2008

The ferry from Ios to Athens took nine hours. Passed the time playing chess, checkers, chatting with my new greek friends and watching the local football(soccer) team play on tv. Pana (the soccer team) won which advanced them to the elite champions league of europe. My friends were very excited because this was obviously a big step for their local team.
The ferry arrived in Pireaus about an hour late so all the trains to Athens (about 15 miles away) had stopped running. Luckily i was with my friends so I had someone to split a cabfare with. We got a ride to one of their houses which was about 20 minutes outside of Athens and we chatted, drank some ouzo and relaxed until pretty late in the morning.
Finally I convinced them to give me a ride to my hostel. On the way, we got extremely lost. Turns out the my local friends had not seen much of Athens. They kept joking, "we are not lost we just want to see the city." They asked about 25 people how to find my hostel, but we still could not find it

horse and jockey

. Eventually, I started asking people myself how to get there. One thing I found interesting: it seemed that the locals were more hospitable, friendly and helpful when I approached them speaking English than when my local friends approached speaking Greek--strange. Finally we found the hostel and said goodbye to my friends.
I did not arrive at the hostel until 4:30am because we had gotten so lost, so I was not keen on spending loads of money on an expensive room. I asked for the cheapest room and was sent deep,down into the windowless, musty basement to a room with 9 other guys snoring. I put in my earplugs, hoped bed bugs would not bite and passed out. The squelching heat woke me up early the next morning and I checked out immediately, determined to find a nicer place to sleep.
I walked for about 15 minutes to another place called Athens backpackers which came highly recommended. It was more expensive, but at least I did not have to worry about bugs. My experience with other guests was also much improved over the last hostel: upon walking in I was wearing my UCLA shirt and a Gianna from Pasadena started chatting with me. We decided to go sightseeing together along with her other friend.
First we went to the Acropolis which is home to the Parthenon, Temple to Nike, several open air theaters, many more temples and so much more

mummies

. Hiked to the top of a small hill where the Apostle Paul used to preach. I suggested to the girls that we get off the beaten path and we took a small dirt trail that led around the backside of the hill where I heard music.
We stumbled upon two Rastas from Africa playing music and relaxing in the shade. Spent the next two hours relaxing, conversing and listening to reggae with views of the Acropolis and the surrounding historical relics. I sat, listening to great, reggae music, surrounded by new friends and the acropolis, imagining all the history that had taken place right where I was! Definitely a highlight of my entire trip so far.
The next day I went on a walking tour of the city with my hostel. We walked around many of the most important monuments and sites of the city including: Zeus' temple, Hadrian's Arch, the Plaka (old town), the flea market, the national garden and past many government buildings. The highlight was seeing the changing of the guard, a ceremony that takes place several times a day when the traditionally dressed guards swap with their replacements. While waiting for their replacements, the guards are required to stand perfectly still, wearing very warm traditional clothes in the sweltering heat. There is another soldier that performs tasks for them, such as wiping sweat off their faces. Because the guards are not allowed to talk, they communicate what they need through a complex system of blinking--kind of like morse code. When the swap happens, there is an elaborate ceremony involving a little dance, some stomping of the feet and very serious looks.
On the walking tour I met a friend named Eric from Canada. We decided to go visit the National Archaeological museum together that afternoon. The museum had some very interesting statues, pottery, gold relics and even an egyptian section. We spent three hours there and saw the entire museum.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

zeus	changing of the guard	changing of the guard2	Hadrians Arch
Agoura Museum	rastas on the side of the acropolis	new friends	pondering the foundation of democracy
Acropolis	entrance to the acropolis	ancient theatre

Slideshow Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry