Jordan: So we're spending our last full day in Athens mostly relaxing. Here we have kind of found a good plan for each day: sleep in a little, go see some sights and by about 2 p.m., have something to eat back at our hostel's outdoor courtyard and relax in the shade, with or without beer, but mostly with, and just chill until going out for gyros. You can get take away gyros for 1.90 or so and it's a lot like the title to this blog entry.
OK so what did we do in Athens? You probably know. We saw the ancient sites. The Acropolis was pretty cool and the Parthenon was pretty impressive from the south side. From the north side the vast amount of scaffolding covering the Parthenon was also impressive, tres impressive, but ruined the 'illusion.' Athens is smoggy, so even though we were at the top of the city and you could see for a long ways, you still couldn't see the edge of the city through the haze. That rhymes.
Also atop the Acropolis are people blowing whistles around the Temple of Athena Nike, at all those tourists with enough gall to stand still, take a photo or make an attempt to pose in front of any part of the ruined temple. These are all horribly incriminating offences. On the way up we did not see the Theatre of Dionysis, but the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, which has been kept up so performances can continue, there was a production going on last night. Pretty cool place to see a play. The Theatre of Dionysis is much more ruined, and so kinda cooler. We got to sit on the seats, they were not comfortable. I expected better from the Greeks.
What else, well today we saw the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which at one time must have been massive, but all that remains are a couple of the biggest columns we've ever seen. Seriously, Zeus demanded bigger columns than what was asked by Athena for her Parthenon, and the Greeks obliged. We walked past the Roman Agora and into the Ancient Agora, the Greek one, the Roman one is ancient too but not as Greek. Here was the Temple of Hephastaeros or something or other, it was very well preserved even with a complete absence of scaffolding. More than can be said of the Parthenon.
Last night was cool, we found some Canadian friends from Oakville who are on their way to Santorini for a friend's wedding. After grabbing some beers the three of them led us to a place known as the Rock, not Alcatraz. You climb up these rocks in the middle of the night, with a beer, and then on this hill just under the Acropolis and beneath a lit up Temple of Athena Nike. It was nice if you could find a comfortable rock. We've noticed that only North Americans visit Greece, everybody we see is either from America or Canada, but mostly Canadians. Ran into a group of four older folks from Winnipeg. This guy who works at a restaurant, though Greek, spent five years in Canada, in B.C. and Kenora. I wish we could afford the prices at his restaurant.
Off to Paros tomorrow, so up at like 5 am, or just about the time most of you will be thinking of going to bed, or perhaps thinking of getting a snack while you watch the end of the hockey game. When the game ends, we'll be boarding a ferry.
Also if anyone hears of a plane crash near Rome, we totally saw it happening. No joke at the start of our flight from Rome to Athens we looked out the window of the plane, bout half hour into the flight and saw what almost had to be a plane, with thick black smoke trailing behind it for a couple hundred feet. We haven't heard anything about a crash, but it was crazy.
See you on the island.
OK so what did we do in Athens? You probably know. We saw the ancient sites. The Acropolis was pretty cool and the Parthenon was pretty impressive from the south side. From the north side the vast amount of scaffolding covering the Parthenon was also impressive, tres impressive, but ruined the 'illusion.' Athens is smoggy, so even though we were at the top of the city and you could see for a long ways, you still couldn't see the edge of the city through the haze. That rhymes.
Also atop the Acropolis are people blowing whistles around the Temple of Athena Nike, at all those tourists with enough gall to stand still, take a photo or make an attempt to pose in front of any part of the ruined temple. These are all horribly incriminating offences. On the way up we did not see the Theatre of Dionysis, but the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, which has been kept up so performances can continue, there was a production going on last night. Pretty cool place to see a play. The Theatre of Dionysis is much more ruined, and so kinda cooler. We got to sit on the seats, they were not comfortable. I expected better from the Greeks.
What else, well today we saw the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which at one time must have been massive, but all that remains are a couple of the biggest columns we've ever seen. Seriously, Zeus demanded bigger columns than what was asked by Athena for her Parthenon, and the Greeks obliged. We walked past the Roman Agora and into the Ancient Agora, the Greek one, the Roman one is ancient too but not as Greek. Here was the Temple of Hephastaeros or something or other, it was very well preserved even with a complete absence of scaffolding. More than can be said of the Parthenon.
Last night was cool, we found some Canadian friends from Oakville who are on their way to Santorini for a friend's wedding. After grabbing some beers the three of them led us to a place known as the Rock, not Alcatraz. You climb up these rocks in the middle of the night, with a beer, and then on this hill just under the Acropolis and beneath a lit up Temple of Athena Nike. It was nice if you could find a comfortable rock. We've noticed that only North Americans visit Greece, everybody we see is either from America or Canada, but mostly Canadians. Ran into a group of four older folks from Winnipeg. This guy who works at a restaurant, though Greek, spent five years in Canada, in B.C. and Kenora. I wish we could afford the prices at his restaurant.
Off to Paros tomorrow, so up at like 5 am, or just about the time most of you will be thinking of going to bed, or perhaps thinking of getting a snack while you watch the end of the hockey game. When the game ends, we'll be boarding a ferry.
Also if anyone hears of a plane crash near Rome, we totally saw it happening. No joke at the start of our flight from Rome to Athens we looked out the window of the plane, bout half hour into the flight and saw what almost had to be a plane, with thick black smoke trailing behind it for a couple hundred feet. We haven't heard anything about a crash, but it was crazy.
See you on the island.
Hi Kids!! By the time you read this you will be lounging on an exotic beach, you lucky people!!
ReplyDeleteHow was the ferry trip? Any sea sickness?
Glad to know that your plane didn't have thick black smoke trailing out the back! Scary!
Athens sounds interesting. And so cool to be meeting all these people from Canada while you are travelling.....do they feel like long lost neighbours??
It's the beginning of our long weekend here. No big plans, just hopefully some serious house de-cluttering/cleaning/organizing/booorring!!
Wish i was with you two:)
Look forward to hearing from you again soon!
PS..don't forget the sunscreen while lounging on the beach! Always a "mother" i suppose.
HUGS ~mom~