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Out and about in Athens
Entry 89 of 93 | show all | print this entry |
IYH, Athens
Ricki:
Raining today, and cold. Doesn't do much for Athens, the rain, except make it wet and grotty, instead of just grotty. As I said to Alex, you'd expect such gutter-filth in a third world country, but for an ancient city like Athens, in supposedly one of the foremost first-world countries, it reflects the Greeks' laziness and total disrespect for their environment. I watched a lady screw up a tissue and drop it at her feet on the road, right before dodging around a rubbish bin as she stepped up onto the footpath. Why? It's not even as though she had subconsciously thought a street-sweeper would clean it up - we've seen no evidence of those in Athens. Pure laziness. Very sad.
We breakfasted in the café-restaurant across the road (which is owned by the hostel and apparently appeared, quite fortuitously, if you think about it, right about the time that the hostel's Members Kitchen closed for renovation - three months ago) and set out for our day's sightseeing. The museum was our destination.
Elevenses were had at an outdoor café in front of the museum (I told Alex that I wouldn't write in here that two cups of tea and two pieces of cake came to about $20 but... whoops, our foolishness at not checking the prices before ordering is now recorded for embarrassing posterity). The museum was somewhat of a disappointment - full of marble statues - but then, what can you expect in an Athenian museum? We took a few photos. I can't really remember of what. (I'm listening at the moment to a bloke sitting next to me, telling someone else that the museum was "good... very very good." Ha.)
From there we came back to the hostel, for some reason, and rang Pat to let him know that we were arriving 8pm Tuesday, not Wednesday. I hope he checks his answering machine.
One of our roomies is an American woman "from California... Northern California" (why does she feel the need to make the distinction?) called Winifred. She's probably in her fifties, quite large, grey curly hair, glasses, and very talkative. She and I had an interesting discussion about authors and books and stuff, and I have given her my email address, on request. She didn't offer hers. I'll be surprised if I get more than one politely inquiring message from her.
Shortly after that we embarked on a Shopping Spree. I can call it by no other name. All the times we've seen things we wanted (presents, stuff for ourselves, things that would have made good presents but which we would probably have kept) and passed it by with the thought that we'd have to lug it around for the next couple of months, all seemed like a distant memory, as we bought statues, paintings, jewellery and ceramic art. We will have to buy another bag to get it all home in, but I don't think anyone was forgotten, and we have a few gifts "in reserve" in case we have.
We were going to go up to the Acropolis afterwards, but it was too cold (absolutely freezing, truth be told) and we decided to leave it till tomorrow, praying that the weather would improve.
We had dinner in the café across the road again, and retired to our room to read the books we had bought today - a couple of our purchases not classed as presents.
A day well spent (literally!) - looking forward to sunshine tomorrow. Please!
Alex's note:
Poor Ricki. She goes all quiet every time I "correct" her on something she's written. I suspect we probably should have kept separate journals during this holiday, but never mind. I would like to insert a mention of my own perspective on the Archaeological Museum, and say that the disappointment for me, at least, was by no means the fact that it was full of marble statues, but that the statues were generally headless or armless or featureless; in fact many of them were not much more than crumbling blocks of stone with a hint of some sort of shape left in them. But there were a few interesting pieces. We took one photo only - of a giant statue of Poseidon, missing only his trident. Very impressive. (That seemed also to be the opinion of the guided tour group which gathered round it just as I was lining up the shot.)
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