Athens, Greece (Post #57)
Hi! Yes, it’s been a few days since we blogged. It hasn’t been laziness but rather we have been spending our computer time researching and planning our next countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt).
Anyway…Michele here on October 18, typing from the most beautiful Greek Island ever – Santorini (if you ever see a picture of one of the Greek islands, chances are it’s Santorini) – but I’m getting ahead of myself.
So, when we last blogged (Oct 12) we were catching a train from Marrakesh, Morocco to Valletta, Malta where we would stay one night before taking a plane to Athens the next day. Why are doing all this? Because the flights between Casablanca, Morocco, Valletta, Malta, and Athens, Greece were very cheap if you did it the way I’m about to describe – but I’m not sure I would do it this way again since we got very little sleep and were basically toast for 2 days. We took a 10:50pm flight to Valetta, Malta, arriving at 3:45am. We waited in the airport until 5:30am when the public bus came. It was raining and in the rain we walked to our hotel. Dripping wet, we talked to the night manager who first tried to tell us that check in time was noon. We said we would sit there in the lobby (dripping all over everything) until noon if that was the policy. After chatting a bit more with him and making friends with the man, he informed us that we could in fact check in at that time (about 6:15am) because he felt sorry for us. O.k., fine. So, we hung up our stuff to dry and laid down for a nap. I had made a hair appointment to get my hair highlighted 3 weeks prior to this day and the appointment was at 9:00am. So, as I was saying, we laid down for a nap and set an alarm. Well, neither one of us woke up and all of a sudden I look at the clock and it is 8:55. Oh @#($*&#! I scramble like mad to get out the door and I run to the hair dresser. I am a bit late but no problem. So, for the next 3 hours as I am drifting in and out of sleep I get a hair cut, highlights, and wash and blowdry. Wow! A blowdryer! Something I haven’t used in almost 5 months now. After the hair appointment, I go back and wake up Mike. We have a list of errands to do including shopping for 1st world items (e.g., hand sanitizer), burning a CD off of my camera’s SD card, and sending some stuff back to the U.S. Dragging and dog tired, we go out to run our errands and we get the CD burned but then realize we have to go back to our room to get the stuff to mail to the U.S. Big mistake! We laid down and got up at 6:30pm. Oh well!
We go to sleep in Valletta on Thursday, Oct 13th, setting the alarm for 2:00am. We get up on Oct 14th and catch a 3:00am taxi to the airport. Our flight left at 5:40am and was scheduled to arrive at 8:10am in Athens, Greece. Gawd, we were both so tired when we arrived in Athens. However, the much of the metro system in Athens is brand new and very easy to use (thanks to the 2004 Olympics being there). We found our hotel, checked in, and had grandios plans for not wasting the day this time and getting out to see the ancient sites. Yea, well, about 7 hours later, we wake up from our “little” nap and realize that most things would be closed. So, we simply walk down to the shopping/restaurant district, have dinner, then go back to sleep!
The next day (Sat, Oct 15) we got up early and were determined to see all the sites in one day that we had planned to see in two days. The day started with a trip to the Athens Archeological Museum, one of the most famous museums in the world because it houses many of the statues found at the ancient greek archeological sites.
We went to all the ancient sites including:
– The most famous of all the ancient greek sites – the Acroplis – a huge sacred rock in the middle of the city with several structures build on it including Propylaea, the grand entrance to the Acropolis built in 437 B.C., the Parthenon, an architectural masterpiece (due to its optical illusions) that serves as a large temple on top of the Acropolis (rock), and the Erechtheion – built in 420 B.C. and the holy site of Acropolis.
Picture of the Parthenon:
– Temple of Olympian Zeus – a monsterous temple with pillars as tall as a small highrise building and nearby there is Hadrian’s Arch (built in 131 AD), the gateway to the city of Athens at that time.
– Ancient Theatre of Dionysos, build in 5th century B.C. and the Odeion of Herodes Atticus, another theatre much larger than that of Dionysos, where plays are still held to this day.
– Ancient Agora, which is said to be the commercial, political, and cultural center of the ancient greeks. This area also includes the huge Temple of Hephaistos and the Stoa of Attalos, a commercial center thought to house two floors of shops.
– Roman Agora, another ancient greek meeting place where the Tower of Winds, a gigantic octogon shapped clock is located.
– Athens stadium, which hosted the first Olympic games, and more recently the 2004 summer Olympics.
We also visited the Parliment building and saw the changing of the guards, which I might add was certainly different from most changing of the guard-type ceremonies. The guards did a lot of kicking and pointing their fists to the sky. Here they are:
At night we went to the Psiri district. This is a funky area of Athens where a lot of small shops, restaurants, and bars are located among junk and car mechanic shops (where you can buy used mufflers, etc.)
Finally, on Sunday (Oct 16) we went to an archeological site that we had not gone to the day before (if you can believe we missed one!) Keramikos is an ancient site where it is thought that all the pottery makers lived in the 3rd centery B.C. Strangly enough the site also contains the oldest and largest ancient cemetary in Athens. Next we walked up Lycabettus hill (the highest point in Athens) to see the views and one of the many Byzantine churches that remain in Athens. (Greece is full of 11th and 12th century Byzantine churches that were build as part of a Christian reconstruction movement that occurred during this time.)
On Monday (Oct 17) , we got up at 5:00am to catch a 7:25am ferry from Athens to Santorini, Greece. The ferry ride was 8 hours. There is little argument that this is the most beautiful of all the Greek islands. I will blog more about Santorini in the upcoming days but here is a picture. (And guess what?! I learned I could resize my photos on the camera so I will probably start including smaller pictures, such as the one below of Fira, the capital of Santori, at night.)
We will stay on Santorini for about 5 days and we’ll blog again before we leave. Bye friends!
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Tags: Category #16: Greece
Michele Harmon
Sightseeing Athens in a day! You guys must be feeling better! 🙂
Santorini was our second-runner-up for honeymoon location. Hearing your description of it, I’m kind of wondering what made us choose Hawaii after all! Maybe we need to take a second honeymoon.