Last Day in Athens

For the last full day in Athens, Janice, Peter and I got up a bit earlier and strolled over to the Acropolis museum. This museum was not completed the last time I visited Athens. The museum, a striking building just south of the Acropolis, houses historical information about the history of the city as well as many of the sculptures and friezes from the monuments on the acropolis. One floor is completely committed to the Parthenon and you can walk around a structure and see what was originally a part of the monument. Parts of this display are unfortunately reproductions or casts of the original work. Between the passage of time, quarrying for materials, a canon blast, and the British, a lot of the original Parthenon is no longer on site.

The museum also hosts the restored caryatids. These statue columns were originally a part of the Erechteion, but were removed to restore and preserve them. These are one of my favorite components of the Acropolis. Overall, the museum is very impressive and offers stunning views up towards the Acropolis and the Parthenon.

Fun final fact; the Parthenon was converted into a church and then a mosque before being destroyed by a cannon blast in the middle 17th century. It's a pity it didn't limp over the finish line to the modern era when people would have preserved it in its original(ish) splendor.

Atrium of the Acropolis Museum.

View out of the museum towards the Acropolis

The museum itself is over ruins. They're working to creating an exhibit below as well.

After visiting the museum, we strolled around Plaka a bit more on our way to the Roman and Greek Agoras to visit the Temple of Hephaestus and the small museum in the Stoa of Attalos. This temple is one of the better preserved ancient monuments in Athens. The site is pretty cheap to visit, and there are some random ruins with good signage explaining what used to be here, both before and after the Roman conquest of Greece. The stoa was restored in the early 20th century by American business tycoon Rockefeller. A small museum is attached with artifacts from the site.

Temple of Hephaestus.

Looking back to the Acropolis from the Agora.

Peeking inside the Temple of Hephaestus.

Temple of Hephaestus money shot.

Panoramic view from the Temple of Hephaestus.

Stoa of Attolos.

Peek a Boo!

After visiting the Stoa museum, we decided it was time for a goodbye lunch, since Janice and Peter needed to return to the airport in the early afternoon. We found a nice row of restaurants across from the Agora and settled on a place called Antica. Fearing a situation like the dinner before, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food along with the nice ambiance on the busy pedestrian alley. After lunch, we returned to the AirBnB, chilled for a few minutes and I bid Janice and Peter adio!

Throwback Tuesday to me in 2009 in Greece...

...and the recreation in 2019. I'm aging...ok.

Mmm...pastitio!

After a brief siesta, I decided to recreate one more memory from my 2009 trip. I waited until near sunset and climbed up the Lycabettus Hill. This hill, higher than the Acropolis, affords great views over the entire city, from the mountain to the sea. The sunset was really spectacular! Afterwards, I climbed back down the hill and strolled through the city a while before heading back to the AirBnB for some relaxation. 

Overall, a great return trip to Greece! I got to try some new things, like visiting Delphi and the Acropolis Museum along with some classic favorites like the Acropolis and the Lycabettus Hill. Having a smartphone and google really improved my ability to wonder around and see more of the city. It also helped to find better food and more interesting bars. It's really hard to imagine what life was like before smartphones! I really do like Greece and it will always have a special place in my heart...but now it's on to Cairo to meet up with Paul and do something totally different!

Kalispera Athens!

The path up the Lycabettus Hill is really cute.

City as far as the eye can see.

Sunset explosion of color.

Adio Athens! Until we meet again. 2029?

Acropolis & Ancient Antiquities

After a night out on the town we were slow to rise the next morning. Eventually, we got up and decided today was the day to visit the Acropolis. Usually, a ticket to the site costs around 20€, but since it was the first Sunday of the month in off-season all sites were free. Unsure if this was a good or bad thing, we still ultimately decided to stroll up to the Acropolis. While it was pretty busy, it actually didn't seem much different from when I went before in May 2009. Afterwards, we headed down to the Temple of Olympian Zeus before walking along the pedestrian Dionysiou Aeropagitou to our reservation for lunch at 2pm at Restaurant Athiri.

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Performances still occur here.

Proplaea - western primary entrance into the Acropolis.

Janice and Peter taking it all in.

Me chilling in front of the Parthenon.

So. Many. People.

Panoramic shot looking north from the Acropolis.

Parthenon's east face.

Caryatids on the Erechtheio. We later learned these were reproductions.

Southern slope of the Acropolis. There were some temples and other buildings here in the past.

Sitting in the Theater of Dionysus.

Olympian Temple of Zeus obligatory jumping photo in GIF form this time! 

Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the background.

It was a really large temple that took 500 years to build...unfortunately it was destroyed within 100 years of completion.

Temple of Zeus.

Lunch was at an almost completely deserted restaurant Athiri. When we walked in I told the waitress we had a reservation and we had a brief laugh about how it probably wasn't necessary. There was one other person there the entire time we dined. The food was actually very good and we have no idea why the place was deserted!

Broccoli and potato salad and some shrimp and cheese skewers.

Mushroom orzo pasta. This was absolutely delicious, earthy and cheesy.

Galaktoboureko. Basically it's filo with layers of vanilla creme and an orange sauce.

After stuffing ourselves, we decided it was time for a nap before going out for the evening on another bar hopping adventure. Midday naps have become a thing this trip and I'm really enjoying them. It might be hard to go back to work in America!

That evening we made the rounds to about four different places, including a stop for midnight dinner in Plaka. The first place we visited was called Barley Cargo and they had a very large collection of Greek beer. Janice and Peter are beer people and they said they were pleasantly pleased with beer in Greece, overall. Next we went to a bar called Clumsies, which was a trendy looking cocktail bar a few blocks away. Third on the tour was a Greek wine place with an...unfortunate....name for English speakers. The place was called heteroclito. The service and wine here was really good, and our waiter was eager to help us find a bottle we'd like. 

Finally, after a failed mission to find a music venue I had marked on my google map, we settled for some wine and food at a random restaurant perched on an alley of stairs in the Plaka. There were tons of restaurants here, so it's hard to pick one that's good...but we sat outside with the acropolis behind us and the city spread out below, so who cares if the food was a C-? At this spot we got a Greek appetizer plate with dolmas and a variety of fried cheese (I think my blood is like 20% fried cheese at this point). We also shared some moussaka, which is something that's kinda hard to find in America. We also made a few cat friends in the alley. One in particular was very friendly and sat on Janice's lap. We named him Yamas (Greek for cheers).

Peter's flight of Greek beers from Barley Cargo.

My cocktail from Clumsies.

Couple of clumsies!

Janice enjoying some of heteroclito's finest wine.

Greek sampler platter. 90% fried cheese...

...but that view though.

Janice made a lifelong friend in Yamas, the alley cat.

Athens Stroll and Bar Crawl

After a great day-trip to Delphi, it was time to explore Athens. The city hasn't changed much since my last visit 10 years ago. It's hard to tell if that's a result of the Greek Financial Crisis or if it's just the type of place that time forgets. Athens is sorta grimy, with graffiti scattered around most buildings, dogs and cats wandering about, and infrastructure generally not in the best condition. Look past this, though, and you'll see a city with a lot of character. Little restaurants cling to the stairways in the Plaka, vendors hawk their wares in Monastiraki, and ruins from the city's grand past are scattered about the center of town. Unlike Rome, which was always a somewhat important city even after the fall of the Empire, Athens didn't really take off until the modern era. The city offers interesting ruins from the ancient past and some modern amenity but much of the middle of its history is harder to find.

To start off my half day before Janice and Peter arrive, I decided to take a stroll, visit the Benaki Museum and the National Gardens. One of my favorite things about Athens is that nothing is more than a 20 minute walk away from the city center. Staying right in the middle gives you easy access to most everything of interest to a tourist. The Benaki museum is a small museum of artifacts from Greece's past up through it's independence in the 1800s. One floor is committed to antiquities, one to Byzantine and middle ages, and finally a small third floor is dedicated to the period in the 1800s. The museum hosts lots of examples of clothes as well, which is interesting to see change over the centuries.

Benaki Museum

Surprised looking owl pots.

Dear tiny baby Jesus, why do you look 35?

Me when my camera opens facing inside instead of outward...

After visiting the museum, I took a stroll through the National Gardens near the Parliament building at Syntagma Square. People were walking dogs and children, others were out for a jog. The garden is a nice retreat from the loud polluted city all around you. Afterwards, I went shopping in the Plaka for random Greek things. Here I got into a bit of an argument with a shop owner about how good/bad America is. I mostly do what I always do when this topic is breached; I apologize and say that the American people mean well. By the way, he also told me I have a "Greek face."

National Gardens pond.

Lots of paths with nice plants.

A few nice buildings are scattered about and lots of citrus trees.

After shopping, I headed back to the AirBnB to chill a bit before Janice and Peter arrived. I went down to Monastiraki to bring them back to the AirBnB and then we all went out to get some food at a place called Tzizikas kai Mermigas. This place had a large menu of Greek classics. We opted to share a few small plates and got some drinks. Souvlaki, hand pies, fried cheese and pork on a pita were the highlights here.

Hi Janice & Peter! First of many "pleasantly surprising" Greek beers.

Yummy food!

After a late lunch, we decided to go for a stroll and walk around the Plaka and along the Anafiotika foot path in front of the Acropolis to the Areopagus Hill to take in the vistas. From here we climbed down and started a bar crawl that lasted until about midnight. In total I think we visited four spots from the Couleur Locale rooftop bar to Beertime in Psyri followed by a Christmas bar across from our AirBnB called Noel and finally a place for snacks and drinks. Overall a fun night barhopping!

For every cat you see, there's 20 you don't.

Oh hi there Acropolis!

Surveying the city.

Beer time at Beer Time.

This place is across the street from the AirBnB and is over the top Christmas themed year-round.

Sprinkles! Why don't all of my cocktails have sprinkles?!

Deconstructed Greek food. On the left is pastitio and on the right is dolmas. Not what we were expecting, but still good!