Oh, What a Night

So my plans are super fluid while I am in Athens. By that I mean that I don't really have anything planned out in advance and that my plans usually change. Like today for instance. My original plan was to take a 3 hour bus to Delphi early in the morning and try and be back by evening. I woke this morning and canceled that plan. It was 26 euros round trip and 3 hours both ways... That's too much money and too much time. Instead I took a bus to the Temple of Poseidon at Sounin. For breakfast, I had a creme pastry that was sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar along with a fruit salad thing. SO GOOD. The fruit salad was awesome because I do eat fresh fruit much anymore. The bus ride was only 1.5 hours and only costs 5 euros. The Temple of Poseidon was built at the southern most tip of the part of Greece called Attica. Attica is the region surrounding Athens. The Temple was 6 columns wide by 13 columns long. 15 columns are still standing which are really awesome (picture 1). The whiteness of them against the blue sky and redish brown earth was striking. Sailors, long ago and today, saw the columns and knew that they were close to Athens and home (picture 2). I met a woman from Oregon, she took my picture. She is on sabatical in Florence and came to Greece for a week. She was nice. I also met a couple from the Netherlands. We looked for Lord Byron's name on one of the columns (he carved his name when he visited over 150 years ago). We never did find it. The couple asked where else I was headed and was probably a little offended that I am going to Belgium but not the Netherlands (I ended up changing my mind on that which would probably make them happy).

On the bus ride back, the guy who collects the money talked to me about John Kerry for a while. The guy is Greek but was talking about John Kerry like he was a super hero. Pretty strange but good for him for knowing more about him than I do. I walked around and got a pita for lunch. I decided to climb up Lyccabettus Hill. It's a hill in the northeast of Athens. It was superhot today (over 80) and I was sweating like a pig at the top. The views were super (picture 3 is one of my absolute favorite pictures of the trip). The solar panels on the roofs of the houses where glittering like glass. There was some smog for sure though. On the top of the hill is a church (picture 4). There is a funicular that you can ride down or up but it was 3 euros each way! I'd rather sweat. The top of the hill also has a theater where concerts and performances are held during the Athenian Festival in July or August. After that I walked down from the hill and through the Klamaka neighborhood. It is a posh and trendy place with lots of cafes and shops. Kind of like Kensington in London but not as pretty. I walked past the President's House and alongside the National Gardens again. I finally arrived at my destination, the Panatheniac Stadium (picture 5). It was built for the first Modern Olympic Games in 1896 and can hold 69,000 people. It was completely made out of marble. The Greeks call it "pretty marble". Then I walked back to the hostel and sat around for a little bit (a siesta sort of). I headed out and ate dinner at a place called the Noodle Bar (it was listed in my Let's Go book, thanks Amy!). I had sweet and sour chicken. Incredibly delicious and a huge change from the food I had been eating since I left London. It reminded me of how me, Garrett, Ben, and Ryan went to China Restaurant in St. Cloud every other Sunday. It also reminded me of when Vanessa and I had chinese food in Rome. Anyway, it was delicious and after that I walked and got a little gelato for dessert. Also fantastic. I decided to walk around for a while since that is what everyone else seemed to be doing.

I walked through the Plaka, the neighborhood I am staying in. It is super touristy and has narrow streets so walking is tough. Everyone seemed to be out looking at restaurants and just enjoying the night air. I walked near the Acropolis and there was a HUGE book fair going on (picture 6). No English books though. All Greek. There were soooo many books and a lot of people walking around looking at them. The white tents probably stretched for over a quarter of a mile and were double sided (one publisher on one and side and another on the other side). There were street preformers as well. One street performance was a guy playing violin and a woman manipulating a puppet woman that danced. It was entrancing. Then I walked over to Monstaraki. That's another neighborhood close by. There were three girls playing music in a square near there (picture 7). They were awesome. They played some Beatles, Greek music, Italian music, Elvis, everything. Lots of fun. I think I watched them for over an hour. Then I walked back to the hostel. It was a great night and I had a lot of fun today. Tomorrow: Acropolis.

Toodles!

Introducing Athens (Starring Sore Feet)

I woke up pretty early and checked out of my hostel so I could get an earlier bus. I took the eight am bus back to Athens and then the city bus into town. The city bus ended at Omonia Square which is a ways from where my hostel is. It took about 30 minutes of wandering and walking for me to find the area that my hostel is located in. I was sweating so bad when I arrived. It is hot in Athens. Forecast is around 80 degrees and sunny every day that I will be here. My hostel is called Traveler's and Student's Inn. It has free internet, a garden area, hot showers and breakfast (that you pay for, only 4 euros though). Not bad. My hostel room has three Asians and me. The Inn is located right in the middle of the Plaka. That's the area of Athens with narrow streets and TONS of tourists shops and tavernas. It is kind of overwhelming walking through the streets sometimes. I walked around the Plaka and found a gyros stand that was basically inside a wall (picture 1). I had a gyro and it was fantastic. The meat was a little spicier than normal and I really liked it. I walked by some of the ruins, Ancient Agora, Roman Agora and Kermaikos Cemetery, but did not go into them. I am waiting until another day. I walked all the way back up to Omonia Square and up even more to the National Archaeological Museum.

The National Archaeological Museum is quite large (not as big as the British Museum of course) and houses artifacts from all over Greece (picture 2). I started in the Sculpture Gallery. I saw a bunch of kronoses. These were the popular thing in sculpture for a long time. They are a naked guy standing with his arms at his sides and his left foot slightly more forward of his right. I moved on to newer statues. They have the statue from the inside of the Temple of Poseidon at Sounin. It's a bronze statue of a Poseidon about to throw his trident. I saw some sculptures of Greek Gods. There was a large collection of grave stone sculptures. Both reliefs and stand alone sculptures. They were very interesting. There were Roman sculptures as well. I moved on to the next section in the museum, the Prehistoric Gallery. This gallery houses things from the Cyclades, Mycenae, and Crete. I saw a whooooole bunch of pots and those awesome Cycladic statues. There's one of a guy playing a lute (picture 3). I loved this statue. The Museum has the biggest complete Cycladic statue discovered. It is about 4 ft tall. They have a bunch of stuff from the graves at Mycenae. There is the famous metal mask (called the Mask of Agememnon but it was created at least 200 years before him). There are a bunch of swords which I liked as well. Basically, there was just a large amount of stuff from these graves. They have a lot of the artifacts collected from Akrotiri on Santorini as well. The wall paintings from Akrotiri are in the National Archaeological Museum which were cool to see. I liked the one with two boys boxing. One of the boys had earrings and other jewelry (picture 4). I moved on to the Egyptian Gallery. My favorite thing about the Egyptians is their amulets. I love how they all are said to have different magical powers and designs. There were also some paintings from the Roman era in Egypt that I liked. There was a guy in this gallery who took 4 pictures of every object he liked. While I was trying to look at stuff I kept hearing "click, click, click, click". Very annoying. By this time, the museum was closing (it closes at 3 pm, too weird). I was basically kicked out which sucked because I had to pretty much run through the bronze and pottery galleries without really looking at them. The lights were being shut off as I walked through the galleries.

I left the Museum and bought some crackers from a stand as a snack to keep my energy up. I walked through the Central Market (picture 5). Not for those with queasy stomachs. Holy crap. There were pig's heads and feet and chicken livers and cow tongues and every other kind of meat you could ever think of. It did not smell good inside. There was a fish section as well. Loads of fish. I walked to Monastoraki. This is a square with a bunch of streets lined by shops leading up to it (picture 6). I bought a bracelet here. From there, I zoomed over to the National Gardens (picture 7). Lots of trees and stray dogs. I hate stray dogs. They are all over Athens. The Gardens are not as pretty as I thought they would be. They were nice but not near as good as any park in London. I saw a commercial being filmed (picture 8). That was interesting. I don't know what the product was though. The director was old and kept showing the actor how he wanted it done. That was funny. I walked back to my hostel and then went to eat dinner. I walked around trying to find a place in my Frommer's book but it turns out that place doesn't exist. Instead I had a deli sandwich from Everest, a fast food like place. It was good. I also had milk with the sandwich. It was the first time I had milk in forever. It tasted good. I walked around on the pedestrianized streets while the sunset, like everyone else was doing, and then had a piece of nut cake for dessert. It wasn't very expensive and was freaking delicious. The cake part was marble but the frosting was carmelized and chewy with pieces of pecan in it. I walked by some ruins and a view of the Acropolis (picture 9). I came back to the hostel and went to bed. I was tired from all the walking I did and all the heat. I did all the walking in flip flops... bad decision.

Au Revoir!