Fall Break in Greece! Part 1: Athens

     

     I just got back from the craziest week ever in Greece! I went along with my friend Gretchen who is another ACM student. Our adventure began last Thursday night when we took a train to Milan. We found some extremely cheap flights coming out of Milan and, even with the train tickets, it was still cheaper than flying out of Florence or Pisa. We left Florence around 9pm and arrived late in Milan at 11:30pm. Luckily for us, our hostel was near the station, so it didn’t take us long to find it. When we checked into our hostel we were led to the 6 bed dormitory that we had booked. There were three other people in there, all fast asleep. One of them was this guy who was snoring very loudly. It was completely dark, and I dug out my miniature flashlight so Gretchen and I could gather our stuff out of the suitcase and get ready for bed. We quickly got ready for bed in the tiny bathroom outside the room and went to sleep for a total of five hours. We left before any of those people got up at 6 am. It was a rather awkward experience at the time, but we both find it hilarious now. 

    

     We took a bus to the airport and got there in plenty of time. Everything went smoothly; the checked luggage, security, finding our gate, etc. Everything was fine up until we were waiting in line to board our plane. We waited and waited and waited. People began to complain and get irritated. We were irritated too, but didn't say anything since we can't speak Italian very well. Finally, thirty minutes after the plane was supposed to depart, we were able to board and then depart what seemed like an hour late. 

    

     When we landed in Athens around 3:30, we ran into another problem: how were we supposed to get from the airport to our hostel? We didn’t know which bus to take since we couldn’t read any of the Greek letters on the signs. We showed the guy at the ticket booth the address we needed to go to, but he didn’t recognize the address and said that we needed to know which stop we were supposed to go to. Desperate, I ended up buying this huge map that was literally as long as our bodies. I didn’t realize that it was so big when I bought it, but when I unfolded it, it just kept unfolding and unfolding and unfolding. That map turned out to be useless since everything was in Greek letters and it was so stinking huge. Then Gretchen discovered that the directions and the bus number to get to the hostel had been on our reservation the whole time. Well, it was a relief, but we felt kinda stupid after all that.

     

     We finally arrived at our hostel an hour later, completely exhausted. The hostel was in a lovely location known as the Plaka, which is surrounded by quaint little shops and restaurants. Plus, we had a room all to ourselves, so we didn't have to worry about any random, snoring strangers. We got to our room and rested a bit before going out to explore. We hardly got a few feet outside the hostle when we were “attacked” by a restaurant guy trying to get us to eat at his restaurant. We politely declined and moved on only to get attacked by the next restaurant and the next. We finally escaped the restaurants and explored the various Greek shops until we decided that we were hungry. Wanting something cheap, we endued up at this crappy “restaurant” where we had these weird cheese pie things that didn’t really taste like anything. We decided that it might be worth to spend a little more money for better food. Thankfully, afterwards we found a Greek yogurt place where we had delicious fruit and yogurt mixed together. That tasted so much better, and was a lot more satisfying. 

The Plaka. 

Me eating at the Greek yogurt place we found. 

     The next day, we slept in till 9 and had a wonderful breakfast at the hostel. Afterwards, we explored the city. We wandered through the Onal Garden in the morning, saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, ate these delicious giros for lunch, and headed up to the Acropolis in the afternoon. At the ticket office, we showed them our student IDs to see if we could get a discount and we ended up getting in for free!

The Onal Garden

Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

     The Acropolis was fascinating: it is an ancient city on a high rocky outcrop above the city of Athens. There are many pieces of architecture located on the Acropolis, including an amphitheater which is shown below: 

This is just me doing a "philosophical" pose in honor of the ancient Greeks, haha.

This is the Erechtheion which was built between 421 and 406 B.C. It is most famous for its Caryatids, which are the maiden columns in the front. 

These are not the real Caryatids, but copies. The real ones are currently in the Acroplois Museum which we got to see the next day. They are currently being restored, one at a time, by a laser technique. We got to watch the process, on video while we were there. 

These are some shots of the famous Parthenon, which was originally built to honor the goddess Athena in 438 BC. At the Acropolis Museum, I learned that the decoration of the Parthenon continued for several years after the construction was complete. It was once covered in vibrant colors, sculptural panels, and statues to honor the goddess. Only broken pieces of these statues and decorations remain today. In the 3rd century AD, a major fire destroyed much of the roof. Repairs were made and the temple was safe until about 435 AD, when the Greeks were commanded to close all the pagan temples. So most of the art of the Parthenon was destroyed and it was used as a Christian church for several hundred years. Then, in 1456, the Turks invaded Athens and the Parthenon was converted into an Islamic mosque. For the next several years, it endured much destruction including a bomb and looters. Eventually, it received protection from the Greek government and it now attracts thousands of tourists. It was fascinating to see such a piece of architecture. I can only imagine what it must've looked like in its original splendor. 

This is the Temple of Athena Nike, where people would worship in hopes of victory in war. 

I was blown away by how huge Athens is. It makes Florence look so tiny! Here is a view of Athens on the East side...

...and Athens on the west side.

     That night, we ate at an authentic Greek restaurant. The food was very good and they even gave us free wine and ice cream. However, when we asked for the bill, they brought out more wine which we really didn’t want. We drank a little and asked for our bill again but the only reply we got was, “Finish your wine first, you’re on vacation.” They probably thought it was courtesy, but we were a bit annoyed because we had wanted to go out to a bar that night. Nevertheless, we finished our wine and we were able to get our bill. As nice as it was to get free wine, we were frustrated because we had wanted to get some drinks later that night, but we decided not to because we had already had over three glasses of wine for dinner. So instead of going to the bar, we just walked around the Plaka and did some shopping. 

     

     We had some interesting experiences with the restaurants in Greece. Everyday, we had to walk past this one restaurant in order to get to our hostel. The guy working there was bound determined to get us to eat at his restaurant. Every time we walked by, he would say something like, "Hello ladies, I remember you from last night! Come eat at my restaurant, I really need you to come eat with me." It got to the point where we would take the long way just to avoid the restaurant or we would hide behind a group of people when we walked by. Once, we even hid behind a person carrying dozens of balloons. It was kind of ridiculous, yet funny at the same time. I could never keep a straight face whenever we walked by that restaurant.

     On Sunday we went to the Acropolis Museum and the National Archeologica Museum. We went to the Acropolis Museum in the morning and the National Archeological Museum after lunch. It was a bit farther, about a 30 minute walk. Even though we had a map, we still managed to get lost and we wandered into the more sketchy part of Athens which looked a lot more Middle Eastern than the center of Athens. We saw people dressed like Muslims, witnessed an arrest, and saw policemen everywhere. It was rather exciting.
 
     Eventually we found the museum and, like every other place in Athens, we were able to get in for free. The Museum was huge; it had Greek statues, ancient Egyptian artifacts, a shipwreck exhibit, and a gold room.

Statue that was found in a shipwreck. 

This statue is apparently really famous. It was made around 2000 BC. I really don't remember much else about it. 

     On Monday, we visited the ancient Agora which includes the beautiful temple of Hephaestus. The temple's still in pretty good shape considering the fact that it was built thousands of years ago.

Hephaestus! 

     The Agora also has many ruins of alters, stoas, private homes, and irrigation systems. All of this stuff has been pretty much destroyed, only the foundations remain. There is also a pretty sweet museum located nearby which holds many of the ancient statues found in the Agora.

     After the Agora, we visited the ruins of the Library of Hadrian which was built in 132 AD. We could see the remains of lecture halls and the library.

Here is an adorable stray dog sleeping by the library.

Some pictures of what is left of the library.

The next day we left for Santorini on a ferry. That story will be continued in the next post!