Hey everyone. I guess I said I wanted an adventure, so here I am in Athens!
Athens: a vast sea of white punctuated by a couple tall hills, one of them the famous
Acropolis, standing guard over the buildings and markets below.
By 10:00 a.m. the main square and surrounding streets are busy and full, but when we arrived just
two hours earlier at 8:00, the place was peacefully still and quiet. We wandered the deserted
streets as the shopkeepers just began to arrive and watched as the fruit and veggie stands
were stocked and arranged for the day.
Athens is one of the world’s oldest cities and reminders of this are located all throughout
the city in the form of ruins and ancient Greek sites. Woven into the contemporary framework
of the city, the ruins and ancient sites stand out against and yet at the same time somehow
blend in with their modern surroundings.
From ancient stone houses to churches; unmarked columns just hanging out along the side of
the road; theaters still used today, and of course the Parthenon upon the great Acropolis,
the past and the present mingled together around every corner.
The underground stations are no exception, either. When digging and installing the Metro,
several layers of ancient sites and ruins were discovered and parts of them ended up
getting incorporated into the underground station itself, so that even they boast impressive
archaeological sites and information.
And then of course Athens is also home to some more recent additions, namely that of
graffiti and street art, which really seemed to be everywhere around the downtown area,
and made me question at what point graffiti and street art diverge from one another.
All that exploring made us quite hungry, but we were in luck because it just so happened
that Athens has no shortage of food options. From Greek yogurt with fresh and canned fruits
to breads and, of course, gyros and souvlaki, which is what we went for. It was tasty and
I especially liked how they put the fries right into the wrap for easy eating on the go.
Just off the main square we also stumbled across an amazingly tempting ice cream place,
and I just couldn’t resist. In fact, when I saw those ice cream sandwiches, I didn’t even try.
With graham cracker cookie pieces, chocolate ice cream, and vanilla ice cream sandwiched
between two brownie-like cookies...uhm, it was so good, so good that we came back for
another one the next day too!
But even more than the ice cream, one of my favorite things in Athens, apart from the
historical sites, was exploring and meandering around and getting lost in the narrow streets
between the white washed houses just below the Acropolis. This area was first inhabited
by people from the island of Anafi, and they basically recreated the houses of their home
here in Athens, so this area really had that Greek islands feel to it.
And while we did see some dogs hanging out in the city, it was clearly, clearly the cats
that ran the show in Athens.
The cats, and the kittens.
Another place that fascinated me in Athens was the Ancient Agora. "Agora" means gathering
place or assembly, and was a central place in Ancient Greek cities. At first the agora
was a place for political discussions and city-related announcements, but it later became
a marketplace area for buying and trading goods. In its heyday, the Ancient Agora here
in Athens was a busy, bustling place full of covered shops, and frequented by many of
the great minds such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Today it’s full of ruins. Impressive ruins, but ruins nonetheless.
Athens is also home to not one, but two Olympic stadiums, one from the first modern Olympic
Games in 1896, which is the only stadium in the world constructed entirely out of marble,
and the newer stadium used in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Just in front of the Parliament Building in Syntagma Square are the Presidential Guards,
guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. While they do do a small post change every
single hour, which is what we saw, the main changing of the guards event takes place on
Sunday at 11:00 a.m. But even the smaller hourly events were pretty impressive and drew
a pretty large crowd.
With so many diverse areas and something either historical or cultural or just plain beautiful
seemingly around every corner, Athens really impressed and amazed me.
I will put links down below to everything I can, from the AthenStyle Hostel, which has
a great rooftop bar you just saw and offers information and tours and activities in Athens;
as well as a link to Hotel Nafsika a lovely hotel outside the city center. And I’ll
also link in there restaurants we ate at, that ice cream place, and other information
on the city.
Thanks so much for watching and traveling with me. Please don't forget to subscribe
and hit that like button, and also you can check me out over here on my Twitter and my
Facebook page for more updates and photos from the trip. Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
Oh, I just also wanted to say that there were lots of public restrooms in Athens. So no
worrying about finding a toilet; lots of toilet options.