The trip to Greece was about three and a half hours, and there was a one hour time change, so I decided that I should take a few extra days to see Athens, rather than my normal Friday night to Sunday night routine.
The view out of my plane window - beautiful Mediterranean Water and GREECE!
I got in on Thursday afternoon, and was immediately questioning my decision to go to Athens alone. The hotel where I was staying had received good reviews (unlike some others I had looked at - cockroaches - blech!), however when I got off of the metro to walk to my hotel, I started feeling uneasy very quickly. Now, I was once a naive little girl that did really stupid things when I travelled, but I have developed some good street smarts after travelling so often on my own. These street smarts were saying "get the heck out of here" immediately. I eventually found my hotel, and, despite the bad location, the staff was SO kind to me. It was something I looked forward to coming home to everyday... especially after walking through drug deals and prostitutes to get there - yikes!!!! If anyone is going to Athens, please contact me and I will tell you where you SHOULD stay - there was a much better area, but for some reason I got led astray there. :(
So, I dumped my stuff, grabbed a pita (Greek word for "pie" - basically phyllo dough filled with something yummy - spinach, cheese, meat, etc!) for a cool 1.50 euros (food was SUPER cheap here), and walked my way through the city. It's a pretty small city - I would say you only really need about a day and a half to see everything (unless you are total museum lover... but I, unfortunately, am not!). I wouldn't say it's super nice - the country was kinds of taken over by a lot of different countries, and didn't really get built to the way you see it today until the 1800's, so it feels not as nice as other European cities I've been to. Once I got closer to the "tourist area", the Plaka, I felt much safer. At one point though, I came to the main square, and there was some kind of scary looking protest with people waving Egyptian flags and yelling stuff in Arabic. Turns out it was a protest about some alleged killings of Egyptians by Greeks. Anyways, once again I was feeling like I wasn't safe, and I got the heck out of there. Seriously, I was NOT having a great start to my trip!! :(
Things started to get better after that, and continued to get better and better afterwards. Whew! :) I took one of Rick Steves signature city walks through the whole town - have I mentioned that I love that guy? Seriously - I think I have every guidebook he has ever written, and he very rarely leads me astray! The walk took me by some really cool sights, such as the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Parliament building:
Not sure what the kicking was all about, but it was cool! :)
During the walk, I also got my first taste of Greek and Roman ruins, and saw some really neat Byzantine-era churches. They are so cute and small... pictures to come. There were some really good stores in Athens that they don't have in Amsterdam, so I did a little shopping, and then had my first amazing meal of the trip... So, I travel alone a lot, and I never really get particularly special service. In Greece, however, every waiter I had seemed to have a little crush on me. Now, I don't REALLY think they had a crush on me, but I think it's the culture, kind of how it is in Italy. The men are super aggressive with women... not in a scary way, but just very quick to offer compliments (and free drinks and dessert!). This was kind of nice, but sometimes I wish they wouldn't have been so quick to bring me dessert, because there were certain things I wanted to try but couldn't, because I didn't want to be rude and say, "well, actually, I don't want that, but can you bring xxx?"... Not that I'm complaining, but, one can only eat so much baklava (my friend Kristin would disagree, but that's me!). :)
At dinner the first night, there was native dancing and the playing of Greek music by two guitarists... very cozy! :)
These guys were fun! :)
I had to start turning down the free drinks from my waiter, because I knew I had to walk back to my scary hotel, and I didn't want to be the least bit drunk - I wanted to have all my wits about me just in case I had to think fast. Maybe I'm paranoid, but when you travel as a single woman, I think it's always better to be safe than sorry.
I woke up bright and early to head out to see the sites of ancient Greece - the town of Agorra and the Acropolis. On my way there, I came across the local market, and just had to peek my head in... it was unlike anything I had ever seen before! :)
These are roosters... they guy selling them kept telling me that they are "good for sex"... uh, okay, thanks.
I think I was the only woman there, and certainly the only one with blue eyes, so, let's just say I stuck out a bit. This cute old man wanted his picture taken with me, and with his piggy friend Smokey. ;)
Note the smoking pig in the background... slightly disturbing!
After the market, I walked through the ancient city of Agorra. Now, the weather wasn't great in Athens - it was warmer than Amsterdam, but not balmy by any means. This was bad for my tan, but great to see the sights - at several of the places I visited, I was the ONLY person there. I hate having a million tourists in my pictures, so this was awesome!!! :) This site was kind of the city center of the old Athens... it's ruins are thousands of years old. It was cool to see, and I felt so strangely at ease. I loved it.
The main road, and ruins of the old "mall' on the right
The temple - the sky and the green just make me smile
A Byzantine church on site that was built by a different set of rulers
After spending a few hours in Agorra, I trekked up the hill to see the Acropolis, which is the place the ancient Greeks went to worship their city's namesake goddess, Athena. It's way up on the top of a hill, and can be seen from all over Athens. It was amazing to see something that was SO old.
Me with the Parthenon, probably the most famous of all of the buildings at the Acropolis
Loved this temple - instead of pillars, beautiful women held up the roof. :)
View of downtown Athens from the top of the Acropolis
More Parthenon... kind of hard to picture this in its original state - gleaming white marble, beautiful statues on the exterior, and a 40 foot high statue of Athena inside in gold plating
After visiting the ruins, I went to the newly opened Acropolis Museum. It houses all of the statues that have been saved from the ruins... however, I found it quite sad, as many of the marbles are actually in the British Museum, as they were taken by Lord Elgin in the early 1800's. There are just copies of these originals at the museum in Athens... feel kind of like they should be in their home, but it's a hot topic in Europe. I had another amazing dinner, more free food, and more fun guitar music. :)
I needed to get a good night's rest, because the next morning, I had decided to take the 7:30 am bus to Delphi, which is where the Oracle lived in Ancient times. I had chosen to take a taxi rather than figuring out the public transportation because I didn't want to risk getting lost that early in the morning, and I didn't want to get up much earlier than 6:30. Turns out I might have been better off taking public transportation... the taxi driver got lost, and I ended up making it JUST IN TIME! I had to sprint to the bus to catch it, but I made it! It was a three hour trip to Delphi, and it was nice to drive through a bit of the Greek countryside and mountains.
Delphi - seeing all of these beautiful mountains made me really homesick
The ruins at the Temple of Apollo - I actually couldn't quite get up there because it was closed due to a rock slide. I could see enough though. Being there alone was a magical experience.
The cities of Greece used to build treasuries nearby the temples to offer their riches to the god Apollo - this is the re-built treasury of the city of Athens - cool to see it so re-constructed
I found a really amazing store while I was in Delphi - they had not just the typical cheesy souvenirs that you normally see, but real museum-quality replicas of some of the ancient artifacts. I used to love Greek mythology in school, so this was a rare find. I spent an hour talking with the shop owner, and, before I knew it, it was time to make my way back to Athens. It was a lot of travelling for one day, but well worth it!
Sunday was my last day in Athens, and I took it pretty easy. I took a tour of an ancient Greek cemetery (again, you know I'm kind of weird... I love going to old cemeteries!), and then went to the Greek Archaeological Museum - which houses all kinds of cool artifacts from Ancient Greece.
Greek Archaeological Museum - a nice place to be on a rainy Sunday! :)
Instead of posting individual pictures of food this time, I made a big collage (click to enlarge)... left to right, starting at the top: a cheese "pita", Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts, Greek donuts, fried cheese (local Delphi specialty). Middle row: chicken souvlaki, Tzatziki sauce, chicken meatball soup, chicken souvkaki. Bottom Row: "Drunkard's Snack", appetizer sampler with spanakopita, grape leaves, and zuchinni/eggplant croquettes, mousakka
Instead of posting individual pictures of food this time, I made a big collage (click to enlarge)... left to right, starting at the top: a cheese "pita", Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts, Greek donuts, fried cheese (local Delphi specialty). Middle row: chicken souvlaki, Tzatziki sauce, chicken meatball soup, chicken souvkaki. Bottom Row: "Drunkard's Snack", appetizer sampler with spanakopita, grape leaves, and zuchinni/eggplant croquettes, mousakka
Even though the trip started off a little shaky, it got better and better as it went. The people were so, so kind and helpful, the food was amazing, and the sites were like nothing else I have ever seen. I would love to come back someday and see the Greek islands... but that, for now, will have to go onto my ever-growing "Places I want to visit list". :)
