Greece, Day 7 - Ancient Athens, Finally

Thank goodness the ancient sites aren't closed on Monday like the Acropolis Museum. We leave tomorrow, and I would have been devastated if I didn't get to at least see the Acropolis. But, it worked out fine. We went downstairs for our free breakfast (2 hard boiled eggs, two rolls, and coffee or tea), then we went out to the Acropolis. Along the way, we stopped at our pigeon corner so that Em could feed some pigeons. As soon as she broke out the bread, she was mobbed. I swear, pigeons started flying in from other other parts of the country to get it.

We came into the Acropolis through a side entrance that was closer to our hotel instead of the main entrance. I'm glad, because we got to see the Theater of Dionysus, which we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

 I was also glad when we got up to where the main entrance meets with the path from the side entrance, because the crowds coming in the main entrance were hideous. We had gotten there pretty darn close to when it opened, but so had all of the the cruise ship excursion groups. Since there are only three of us, though, we were able to scootch around them pretty easily. I had an Ancient Athens book that I made Max & Em stop to listen to every once in a while.

The Propylaea, the entrance to the Acropolis

I just thought this column was so perfect looking

My favorite part was not actually the Parthenon, but the Erechtheion. It's a smaller temple that is dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon, which is unusual. It has to do with the story of Athens. Back when Athens was looking for a patron god (before it was Athens), both Athena and Poseidon wanted to be that god. The people of the city gathered on a big rock (what became the Acropolis) and Athena and Poseidon each gave the city a gift. Poseidon struck his trident into the rock and created a spring. But, the spring was salty. Athena gave them an olive tree. The olive tree would give them food, oil, and firewood, so they chose Athena. The Erechtheion has a yard that has both the olive tree from Athena and the spring from Poseidon. Unfortunately, we can't see them. But, we can see the lovely caryatids, the columns shaped like ladies that hold up a porch on the south side. I think they're so beautiful. These are reproductions, the originals are now in the Acropolis Museum, but we couldn't get any pictures of those. I wish there weren't so much construction up there right now, it made my pictures not so great. But, better than no pictures. I can see prettier pictures online.

The caryatids

The Parthenon is under major construction right now. It's had a hard time over the years. In 1687, it was being used as a gunpowder magazine by the Ottomans, and the Venetians attacked and blew up a significant portion of it. That plus almost 2500 years of sitting on an exposed rock in Athens have worn hard on it.

All that's left of one of the pediments

So, it's not currently very pretty. But, it is still magnificent and historical, and I'm so glad I got to see it. I was really, really afraid I wouldn't.

It was really hard to get a picture of it that wasn't filled with scaffolding and cranes. I got one of the corner, though, that isn't too bad.

But again, I'm just glad I got to see it. I can find unspoiled pictures online and in the books I bought. On the way out, a Chinese family moved out of the way so we could get past. I said, "xie xie!" (thank you in Chinese) They were amazed. I love doing that. The exit from the Acropolis is right next to the main entrance. when we came out, the line to buy tickets was horrendous! It must have been hours to get through that line. Stonehenge Effect, baby! (For those of you who didn't read my blog for when we went to England in 2009, our Stonehenge Effect is not when the sunset aligns with the streets of Manhattan. It's when we get in and out of something before the crowds descend. When we went to Stonehenge for the summer solstice, we were in the second row of people to park. By the time we left, at 11-ish pm, there were literally tens of thousands of people there, with more streaming in. It's estimated that there were about 36,500 people there that night)

The Temple of Athena Nike. My car is named Nike, so I thought I'd better get a picture

So, at the Acropolis, you can either buy a ticket just for there for like 4 euro, or you can get a joint ticket for all of the ancient sites for 12 euro. We got the joint ticket. So, next on  the list was the Ancient Agora. We walked down the back street, where it said there was an entrance. We didn't see it. But, by then, we were closer to Kerameikos, the ancient cemetery. It was also the potter's quarter in ancient times, which is where the English word "ceramic" comes from. But, mostly what you see now is ruins. Very little of it looks like cemetery or city, really. There is one path that had elaborate grave monuments, the Sacred Way. Some of them were quite pretty.

The Sacred Way

Emma's favorite part was the tortoises. There were a billion of them. Well, like 3 or 4, really, but it seemed like they were everywhere. She discovered that they will eat a chunk of bread if you feed them.

It was also pretty cool, because there was a dig team there right then.

I just thought this was so pretty with the poppy there

After Kerameikos, we found the entrance to the Ancient Agora. The Agora museum has the nicest collection of pottery that we saw anywhere in Greece. It has some really beautiful examples of pottery that we hadn't seen elsewhere.

a potty/high chair

I think it looks like the woman is bitching, and the guy is fed up with her

Mythology says that Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan, and Helen of Troy was born from that union.

The Agora also has the Temple of Hephaestus, which looks like a small version of the Parthenon. It was actually part of the same building project started by Pericles. It was started a bit before the Parthenon, then there was a break to build the Parthenon, then the temple here was finished. It was never used to store munitions, and it's in a more protected area, so history has been kinder. It was cool to see what the Parthenon once was.

The frieze is still intact here

Looking in

At that point, we weren't far from Syntagma Square, the home of the World's Friendliest Pigeons. We had bread with us this time, so we went to feed them. Along the way, we found this tiny little church with a shopping center built around and above it.

When we got to Syntagma, Max stopped to take a picture near the edge of the square, and Em & I walked on. A guy with a bag of bird feed came over and started sprinkling bird feed on us. He had a camera around his neck, and I kept saying, "No money, no money." But, he kept sprinkling. I continued to say no. He said, "Picture. 3 euro." I said no. He kept sprinkling. "2 euro" No. Sprinkle "1 euro" No. "No money, no money" I wasn't about to pay this guy when we already had our own bread and our own camera. I understand that he needs the 3 euro more than I do, but I have also learned in other countries that once you give him the 3 euro, he won't leave you alone, nor will anybody who just saw you give that guy money. It was funny, though, the guy kept badgering me, but as soon as Max came over and said no, he was gone.

By now, Em & I were covered in pigeons. They were on our arms, shoulders, heads, everywhere. It was a miracle neither of us got pooped on.

Max didn't want them anywhere near him, but he was a good sport and took a piece of bread. One pigeon flew up to stand on it (it was a big, thick piece from dinner in Monemvasia, so it was both thick-cut and very stale, and could support a pigeon easily). He kept telling the pigeon that if it touched him, he was going to kill it. It survived, and we eventually ran out of bread, so we headed back to the hotel.

They changed into their summer uniforms

We thought about taking the metro, since there's a station at Syntagma and one right by our hotel. I wanted to go in the Syntagma station, anyway, because there is archeological stuff in there. When they were building the station for the 2004 summer Olympics, they discovered a bunch of ancient stuff, and they have a lot of it displayed in the station itself. One whole wall is glass, and you can see the  earth as it was uncovered. There's half a grave in there. It's pretty cool.

The grave, complete with skeleton

Along the way, we walked past the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

That was part of our tickets, so we stopped in to see it. It was not all that impressive after some of the stuff we've seen this trip, but it was still neat. We had bought a sesame pretzel thing, and so we had a bit of a snack. But, neither Emma nor I could touch it, since we had pigeon hands (I usually have hand sanitizer with me, but it wasn't in my bag, for some reason). But, Max gave Em a piece without thinking, and so she then got to feed that piece to the pigeons at this temple.

Then, it really was on to the hotel.  We went back and washed up, then had lunch. We had walked on the same road every time we left or came back to the hotel, and one of the guys that worked at Gods Restaurant recognized us every time. He had given Max a business card the first time we walked past, but we hadn't been to the restaurant yet. So, we went this time. My souvlaki was pretty good, and Max was very happy with his stuffed grape leaves. We had another resting afternoon.

For those keeping track, we did not find a single cache of the 10 I printed out. Some were because I forgot to look, some were because we didn't have the Jeeps, and some we just couldn't find. Only one was because we didn't go to that part of town.


Emma says - The Acropolis wasn't all that exciting for me, because we've seen lots of ancient ruins. But I know that, once I'm older, I'm going to be glad we went. There were so many tortoises at Kerameikos, and I got to feed one! If you ever go to Syntagma, bring your own bread, because you'll get 50 pigeons in a minute. You can get them to sit on your head, or your shoulder, or anything. I felt like a Pigeon God. We had a really awesome sesame pretzel thing, and it was sweet and sooo good. I want to go back to Greece so I can find that guy and give him a giant hug.