The City on the Hill
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2008
1
29
31
Trip End
May 31, 2008
Athens,
Greece
Friday, May 30, 2008
In a few minutes, I'm approaching the Theater of Dionysus and am looking forward to seeing some hot, all-Greek action. But, the place is disappointingly empty and it looks like it's been closed for sometime. Further along, we pass the Roman theater, which has a modern stage and orchestra pit beneath the brick arches. "That's exactly where Yanni did his concert," Helen tells Troy, who obligingly snaps a commemorative photo. Indeed, in the still morning air and glare of the sun, the great man's presence is palpable.
At last, I'm standing at the great gates, towering marble columns which, like the Parthenon above, are cob-webbed with scaffolding. An enormous crane tilts it's long arm skyward. So much for all that hype about Greek architecture. 3000 years and they haven't even finished it yet. Why, we could throw up something like this in a year and have 70% of the retail space leased.
I picked a good time to visit, just ahead of the crowds which steadily increase over the 90 minutes or so I wander around the site. The construction has been going on for 15 years now and really a matter of trying to undo the damage caused by the reconstruction done in the 19th century. Nothing compared to the trouble they went to to drag all this marble to the top thousands of years ago.
From the walls, Athens spreads out like a milky, white blanket below and you can see the distant harbor at Piraeus from here and ferries skimming off toward the islands like water striders. I pick up a marble pebble and drop it into my pack, realizing full well that if everyone did this the Acropolis would be back down to sea level in a jiffy. Hopefully, the government scatters fresh marble pebbles here daily to keep the efforts of people like me in check.
When I've had as much antiquity as I can bear, I return through the now dense crowds and tour groups in matching shirts and hats and walk back a kilometer or so to Syntegma Square in the already punishing heat, where I drink my weight in ice water and iced coffee in the shade of the cafe where I spent part of my first afternoon on May 2.
