06/25/2012
I don't know if I would need to spend a whole week in Athens to really feel like I've experienced it, but one day was simply not enough time. This was our first stop in Greece and we were all very excited seeing as dad is the only one of us who has ever been to Greece. Athens is kind of amazing. The city is a mix of old and new architecture, and there seems to be an endless amount of things to do and see. Apparently the political and economic climates are unstable, but it wasn't too noticeable on our end. We met our lovely guide Mariza first thing in the morning and the first thing I noticed about her was her awesome shoes. I'd never seen anything like them before and I just felt like I had to have them as well. I rarely experience this feeling when looking at someone else's clothing items, but I knew we were only going to be in Athens for a day, and I assumed (correctly) that they were from Athens so I asked her where I could get them, and she showed me later.
Our first stop was the Acropolis. You know it. It wasn't terribly crowded, but it was early on in the day. I have to admit that I wasn't really swept off my feet by the Parthenon. Maybe if I'd never studied it in college or had never seen a picture of it before I would have felt differently. I guess the amazing thing to me is that even though it has been struck with bombs and gone through fires it's still mostly standing and together. It was beautiful, to be up there and to be next to something so terribly old and grand. It's interesting that they don't have any "plans" for how the Parthenon was constructed, so even though they are trying to reconstruct it to the best of their abilities, they don't know where to begin. It may be the world's most complicated jigsaw puzzle (if not the Jackson Pollock jigsaw puzzle we have at home). It's at least the largest.
 |
| Parthenon in Progress |
 |
| Temple of Athena Nike |
It was pretty hot, as it was everywhere, but that made things slightly more uncomfortable as it always does. We walked down from the Acropolis to the Ancient Agora and wandered through the "marketplace." Mariza knew a ton of information and so it was really cool to walk through with her and be told where the philosophers spoke and where the wheat was sold or what have you.
After walking through the ancient marketplace, we went to the modern one. The shopping neighborhood (for tourists) is the Plaka, and it's right next to the Agora. The most beautiful shop we went into had everything made out of olive wood, which is one of my favorite types of wood. We bought a salt spoon and I think Mike and Kit bought some things there too. They had whole chess sets made out of olive wood, but it was mostly kitchen wares.
For lunch we were hosted at the Hotel Great Bretagne. Some work associates of my father's work there and we were also joined by the tour company that arranged our tour. The restaurant had the perfect view of the Parthenon and so that was a lovely backdrop to our exquisite luncheon. We had a beautiful white wine from Santorini (I wrote exceptional in my notes) and most people ordered the fish special so that was a nice pairing.
After lunch, Mariza and I ran over to the shoe store so I could buy the shoes. I think they're really cool, but not everyone seems to agree. What do you think?
We then went to the National Archaeological Museum which had thousands of artifacts, sculptures and other tidbits here and there. It was pretty cool to see everything that they have found and preserved from the ancient sites.
It was a relatively exhausting day, so I had room service for dinner and turned in early!
