My first day in Athens was fantastic. Defenitly a step up from terminal 5, 2 and 4 at Heathrow :p. When I finished my last post, I was still waiting for Jasha and Steph to come meet me and I had about an hour and a half to kill. So I decided to go exploring. I have gone out exploring on my own in a foreign city before in Rome and Cairo, and I find it is certainly the best way to orientate yourself, and make some nice discoveries. Athens did not dissapoint.
After a little difficulty I managed to find myself an ATM machine, and I decided to draw out as much money on my BA Compensation Visa card as possible, as the first transaction on it was free. I can now say that drawing large amounts of money out of an account that isnt yours is a very pleasurable experience. I then decided to go see what I could find in 15 minutes before heading back to the hostel.
I did not expect to stumble on the remains of the biggest temple in Greece. I was walking along a road that was bordered by some parkland area, and it seemed that this parkland area was strewn with some ancient remains dotted all over the place. I didnt think this was that unusual considering where I was. I turned a corner and decided to continue following the parkland border, and in the distance I noticed a large archway, similar to the Arches in Rome. I decided to check it out.
After a little difficulty I managed to find myself an ATM machine, and I decided to draw out as much money on my BA Compensation Visa card as possible, as the first transaction on it was free. I can now say that drawing large amounts of money out of an account that isnt yours is a very pleasurable experience. I then decided to go see what I could find in 15 minutes before heading back to the hostel.
I did not expect to stumble on the remains of the biggest temple in Greece. I was walking along a road that was bordered by some parkland area, and it seemed that this parkland area was strewn with some ancient remains dotted all over the place. I didnt think this was that unusual considering where I was. I turned a corner and decided to continue following the parkland border, and in the distance I noticed a large archway, similar to the Arches in Rome. I decided to check it out.
As I approached the arch, I saw that hidden by a spruce of trees was a MASSIVE column. When I say massive I mean it was.....unbelievable. I now know that these columns are 19 metres tall. As I got closer, I saw another column. and another. and another. This was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was started in the 7th century BC and was only completed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian 700 Years later. 700 YEARS! It used to house the famous Ivory and gold statue of Zeus Olympios, that was the basis of early christian portraits of Jesus and subsequently our modern conception of what Jesus looked like. He had to look like a god of course, and Zeus was the greatest of them all.
As you can tell I was getting extremely distracted. I turned my attention to thearhcway and I noticed a large inscription near the top on either side. I could easily make out the Ancient Greek words for city, Theseus and Hadrian. I assumed the translation was something like 'This arch was built for the city of Theseus by Hadrian' or some such. I later found out that it actually says on one side 'This is the city of Theseus' and on the other, 'this is the city of Hadrian and not Theseus'. Very odd. I was now jolted to reality by the time. I had to meet Jasha in....5 minutes. So I ran back to the hostel.
We all decided to go check out the Acropolis (forgetting that if we waited one more day we would get in for free as it is free on Sundays).Luckily our hostel is VERY close, and it was only about a 2 minute walk away. The Acropolis is a truly AMAZING place. I get Ancient History tingles every time I go there. The Parthenon is obviously not the only thing to see on the Acropolis, and our first stop was the Theatre of Dionysus (Dionysus Eleuthereus to be exact :p). This was part of the sanctuary of Dionysus and it was here that the Great Dionysia (a very major festival) was celebrated. The theatre would have hosted great plays by the dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides (You-Rippa-Dees. teehee).
We next hit the sanctuary of Asklepius, the deity of health and healing and also the Stoa of Eumenes. We pushed onwards and found the Odeion of Herodus Atticus, built in the 2nd Century AD and stiull used today for artistic events. Still further up the hill we travelled and rounded a corner onto the Propylaea (the monumental entrance onto the Akropolis proper, also serving as a temple to Athena Nike or Athena the goddess of Victory). The unfortunate thing about being so majestic and just plane gob smacking, is that the tourist crowds are RIDICULOUS! you can barely move among the throngs of tourist groups. This defiintily detracts from the splendour I suppose but there isnt much you can do about it :p. Moving on through the towering Propylae (which Jasha and steph assumed was the famous Parthenon) We came out onto the top of the Akropolis. As we did, I said to Jasha 'that wasnt the Parthenon buddy. THIS is the Parthenon!' and there it was.
Words like 'WOW' jsut dont work here. The Parthenon was built at the urgings of Perikles in the 5th Century BC. The Acropolis had been completely destroyed by the recent invasion of the Persians and after they had been pushed out of Greece and the Athenians were able to return to the city. Work was begun on upgrading the temples and sanctuaries. Athens was in control of a large alliance in the Aegean Sea and tribute from various city states was used to fund this project. The Parthenon itself took 10 years to build at MASSIVE expense. The result of this is a religious complex that forms the greatest architectual and artistic buildings bequeathed by Greek Antiquity to the world.
After exploring all around the top, including the Erektheion and the amazing views over the city, we started on down. I made sure we climbed up the Areopagus Hill, one of the most sacred places in Athens. This was a cliff from where priestesses breaking their vow of chastity were thrown off. Paul also made his sermon from here when he was in Athens. We visited the ancient Agora and surprises were all around me. We found remains of the ancient Panathenaic Processional way which was the route taken during the major religious festival of the year in Ancient Athens. *insert ancient history tingles here*. We also visited the Stoa of Attalus, a restored replica of the ancient one. It has been turned into a little museum. In ancient times, the stoas dotted around the city were used as meeitng places and social areas. Works of art were displayed for criticism and entertainment. So I suppose turning one into a museum is rather appropriate.
The rest of the Agora was incredibly awesome. Although Im sure by this time Jasha and Steph werent quite so enthusiastic. I was still running around like a kid in a candy store. We made our way out making some small stops along the way, including lunch. We decided to head back to the hostel becasue by this time we were very sunburnty and quite tired from all the walking. The route we decided to take home was through the Plaka (markets). The whole place just REEKS of tourist traps, but luckily we were qwuickly out of there. We made our way through some charming backstreets that gave us a completely different view of what its like to live in Athens.
BAck at the hostel it was really good to freshen up. We made our way up to a relly good rooftop bar at the top of our hostel where it was happy hour. A few beers later and a couple of ouzo shots and the night wasl ooking preeeeeeeeeeeeetty good. The night gets hazy from then on, and I woke up the next morning in my hostel bed still dressed :p
Thats all for now. I had another big day today so a new post will be up about that later.
Adiossas!
Chris
After exploring all around the top, including the Erektheion and the amazing views over the city, we started on down. I made sure we climbed up the Areopagus Hill, one of the most sacred places in Athens. This was a cliff from where priestesses breaking their vow of chastity were thrown off. Paul also made his sermon from here when he was in Athens. We visited the ancient Agora and surprises were all around me. We found remains of the ancient Panathenaic Processional way which was the route taken during the major religious festival of the year in Ancient Athens. *insert ancient history tingles here*. We also visited the Stoa of Attalus, a restored replica of the ancient one. It has been turned into a little museum. In ancient times, the stoas dotted around the city were used as meeitng places and social areas. Works of art were displayed for criticism and entertainment. So I suppose turning one into a museum is rather appropriate.
The rest of the Agora was incredibly awesome. Although Im sure by this time Jasha and Steph werent quite so enthusiastic. I was still running around like a kid in a candy store. We made our way out making some small stops along the way, including lunch. We decided to head back to the hostel becasue by this time we were very sunburnty and quite tired from all the walking. The route we decided to take home was through the Plaka (markets). The whole place just REEKS of tourist traps, but luckily we were qwuickly out of there. We made our way through some charming backstreets that gave us a completely different view of what its like to live in Athens.
BAck at the hostel it was really good to freshen up. We made our way up to a relly good rooftop bar at the top of our hostel where it was happy hour. A few beers later and a couple of ouzo shots and the night wasl ooking preeeeeeeeeeeeetty good. The night gets hazy from then on, and I woke up the next morning in my hostel bed still dressed :p
Thats all for now. I had another big day today so a new post will be up about that later.
Adiossas!
Chris
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