Athens 24-27 March 2008

 

            I arrived in Athens around three in the afternoon, but it took me nearly two hours to get to my hotel because I had so much confusion with the transportation system. Not only were most of the signs in a different alphabet (transcribed as well, but still confusing), but the hotel had given me directions to them that you can’t actually take. Needless to say, some improvising was in order. Interesting note: the Athens metro is the only one I have encountered where they do not allow you to take food into the metro station with you. How do the Americans eat breakfast?

            I eventually arrived at the hotel and met my friend outside. I was a little overwhelmed, so we just stayed in the room and napped and talked for a bit. When it was dark out, we struck out for the Acropolis (that big rock in the middle of Athens with the ruins and temples on it—you can’t miss it). The Acropolis itself was closed since it was late, but we wandered in and around the tiny alleys of the houses bordering the Acropolis, and saw the various houses and people and stray cats there were to be seen. I kept wondering whether or not these houses would be considered prime real estate or not, because while they were near the most beautiful sight in Athens, there were almost always tourists, the houses were small, and there were many that were abandoned or in disrepair. That kept us occupied for a good amount of time, and then we managed to climb our way onto the Areopagus, which is a big white slippery rock right next to the Acropolis (and not fenced off at night). You can see most of the city from up there, which is probably one of the reasons that the ancient Athenians gathered there for democratic councils or voting, and why St Paul went there to preach to the Athenians. Of course, it is also the ideal place to see the Acropolis all lit up at night from.

            The next day we woke up not sure of what the day would be like, because while we knew that it was Greek Independence Day, we didn’t know if that meant that all of the monuments would be closed or not. As soon as we stepped out of the hotel, we could huge numbers of military personnel being bussed in from all over Greece, and roads were being blocked off left and right for the parade later. We walked to Kerameikos (where the city walls of classical Athens are, and some other old stuff), and found it closed, so that pretty much sealed the deal for us. We wandered over to the flea market at the foot of the Acropolis, and did some wandering around there. All of the people who had legitimate stores instead of booths or blankets were watching the parade on TV, so we decided to go and see it for ourselves. The Air Force did several fly-bys (I never realized how loud they are!) and we just followed the loud sounds to part of the parade route. In order to see the parade above the people, I had to perch myself on a step somewhere, but I managed to see most of it from there.

            The whole thing was just a huge military parade. In my neighborhood, all of the kids get up early and ride their bikes (which have been decorated with red, white, and blue ribbons) in the streets and the fire truck comes by and then everyone has a barbeque in their backyards. Last, you watch fireworks. To me, the military isn’t much involved in it, but maybe it is in Washington DC, as opposed to the suburbs of Colorado. In any case, I saw every kind of military person—the Navy, the Army, the Air Force, the officers, the brass band, the Ski Patrol (you can ski in Greece?), the scuba divers (walking down the streets outfitted in wet suits and oxygen tanks), the fire fighters, the police, the mountain climbers, and on and on. It was a lot of fun to see all of the people cheering and waving Greek flags.

            After the parade was over we headed back in the direction of the Acropolis, and walked near the Areopagus rock again. We scrambled up one side of the rock and down the other. On the other side, there are beautiful trees and lush grass, which made me wonder—how did the tourists not destroy it all? In any case, we started walking towards Filopappos hill (a hill opposite the Acropolis) only to find a fence between us and the road. We had climbed into forbidden, fenced off space without knowing it. Luckily, we managed to get out without attracting lots of attention (though I did have to scale a chain link fence). I wasn’t terribly worried about getting caught and punished though, since I knew that most of the people with the authority to do that had just finished a parade.

            We went up to the top of Filopappos hill, where the remainder of a monument to the Muses stands. The fun thing about the hill is that there are ruins lying everywhere, like Greece just has too many to think about and they can only be bothered about the really important ones. When we got to the top, we could see all of Athens on one side and on the other Piraeus (Athens’ port town), and across the Aegean Sea the Peloponnese (the southern part of Greece). On the way down the hill, we searched and searched for one ruin in particular: the (supposed) prison of Socrates. Background story: Socrates used to wander around Athens during the democracy (5th century BC) and have philosophical conversations with people. In 399 BC, he was charged with corrupting the Athenian youth and blasphemy again the gods and was thrown in jail. He was put on trail and condemned. According to the dialogue Crito by Plato, Socrates was given the opportunity to escape from jail and refused it. He was executed by drinking hemlock. It took us a very long time to find it, but we finally did. It looks like three cells carved into a gigantic rock (please refer to picture). Being there was really special for both us, as philosophy majors.

            We left our point of pilgrimage and wandered down the hill to the Pynx, which is a broad flat area of land where the Athenian democratic councils met every week. There were also some temple ruins in the area and a platform where the orators would stand to speak. Being tired from being out in the sun (finally—somewhere warm!) we went to get ice cream and then to nap.

            The next day we got up early and caught a bus to Delphi. Background story: Delphi was the center of the ancient Greek world. There was a very important Temple of Apollo there, but more important was the Oracle of Delphi inside it. According to legend, the Sybil sat in a cavern underneath the Temple, chewing poppies and laurel leaves, and inhaling fumes from a chasm below her. The fate of nations hung on the prophecies she would give whenever she went into her trances, though she was only accessible by priests who mediated between the pilgrims and the Sybil. Everyone who was anyone consulted the Oracle on most important decisions, which is very interesting because it took us three hours by bus to get to Delphi from Athens. It must have taken more than a week to reach it by foot. I guess decisions just took longer to make back then.

            The town of Delphi is very small and seated on the side of a mountain, plunging down into a picturesque valley. The scenery is gorgeous, and the town is very quaint. We went to the Archaeological Museum of Delphi first to get some background, and then went to the first set of ruins (there are two sets, about 2 km apart). To get to the Temple of Apollo, you go on the very windy Sacred Way, which passes by a number of houses and treasuries (cities would dedicate treasuries full of treasure to the Oracle) and small temples. There’s not much to the Temple of Apollo anymore, just a few standing columns, the entrance ramp, and the roof, but you can clearly see how huge it was. Up the mountain from the temple is a Roman stadium, built after the Romans conquered Greece and the temple complex ceased to have the same significance.

            About two kilometers away on the hill are a second set of ruins. There is a fountain where pilgrims would cleanse themselves before setting foot on the Sacred Way, a Roman gymnasium, and a pre-temple to Athena. A “pre-temple” (my terminology) is a smaller temple that pilgrims visit before going to see the more important temple.

            The visit to Delphi was probably my favorite part of Greece, because you got to combine scenery with ancient ruins, and there was certainly enough there to keep us occupied for the better part of the day.

            The next day in Athens (Thursday) was our last day for sight-seeing in Athens. Naturally, we climbed up the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon, the Temple to Athenian Nike (Victory), the Theatre of Dionysus, and other less notable ruins. While we were there, it gradually dawned on me how much of the ruins are reconstructed. Even the few columns of the Parthenon that are now standing didn’t used to be standing—people put them back up and replaced stones in their original positions. So few of these ruins actually survive intact that people just have to guess and hope for the best. The theatre of Dionysus didn’t look like that to the ancient Greeks, but only to the Romans who came and altered it later. The pots and statues that you see in museums don’t look anything like that when they come out of the ground—most of the pots are missing pieces and somebody has to reconstruct those missing pieces. Nevertheless, museums showcase them as complete items. It really made me think about how little survives to the present day. When we say that something really lasts, like the Parthenon, how much of it would have lasted it we had left it completely alone, from Socrates to us? Would it be more or less intact? Is the destruction due more to the elements or to people? Just some thoughts.

            From the Acropolis we wandered down into the Agora (the marketplace of democratic Athens), saw the Temple of Hephaestus, and then we went to Hadrian’s Library, the Tower of the Winds, and the Roman Forum. I got to see an ancient stone toilet seat that was about 2000 years old! My neck and my upper back also got hideously sun-burned and it was quite hot, so we tried some tzatziki sauce (yougurt and cucumber) with bread—an excellent dish to cool down with. Then we walked over to the Benaki Museum, which traces Greek history from the Stone Age to the 20th century. That was really cool—I especially liked seeing some of the artifacts from the Byzantine Empire.

            As far as Greek food goes, we had souvlaki, lamb stew, white beans in tomato sauce, baklava, Greek salad, pittes (like cheese pies)…all pretty tasty. We also tried ouzo, which is a liquor distilled from anise. When you get it it’s clear, but after you add some ice and water to it it turns a cloudy white color. I did not enjoy it that much.

            Our flight out of Athens was at 6:10 in the morning, and instead of trying to take a taxi around 3:30, we decided to try to get to the airport late the night before using the metro. My guidebook told me that the trains stopped working at 12:30 am, so we left around 11:30 am. We got about halfway to the airport when we were told to get off the train. It was there we discovered that they sort of stop the trains running when they feel like it (say, 11:45 pm) and that there are different closing times for the trains which go to the airport anyway. We had to take a taxi the rest of the way and spent a few hours trying to sleep on the metal benches with arm rests at the airport. No fun. Needless to say when we got to Cyprus we were not bright eyed and bushy tailed.