Greece: Athens

View of the Acropolis from down in the Temple of Zeus

I'm in Crete at the moment (and I'm not sure how long I'm going to be here, but that's another story), but this particular blog entry is going to be about Athens.

We arrived in Athens May 13 after a long and interesting day of travel. We took a train from Florence to Rome, spent a few hours in Rome, then flew from Rome to Athens. In Rome we met up with Hilary's distant cousin, who is American but married an Italian man (and now works for the Associated Press in Rome!!!). It was nice to have someone show us around a little bit of the city from a (sort of) native's perspective--that type of tour always makes me like the city more. By the time we arrived in Athens that day it was almost 9 p.m., and there were definitely at least three prostitutes outside of our hostel (it was located on a pretty dodgy street), so we stayed in for the night.

May 14 we saw most of the ancient sites--the Roman Agora, Theatre of Dionysos, Temple of Athena, the Parthenon, Hadrian's Arch, the Temple of Zeus and the Erechtheion. Of course every single sight was breathtaking--especially the Parthenon, because you can see it from all over the city. It was also pleasantly un-touristy and not massively expensive--as an American student I paid 6 euro for 6 sites (EU students are free). The city of Athens itself is interesting--it's a strange mixture of an extremely beautiful ancient place with a ton of important sites and a sort of dirty, poor city. This day it was also mind-bogglingly hot compared to previous countries...something like 87 and sunny.

May 15 we saw Keramikos, which is another ancient site that was originally a village full of people who made pots (the Greek word for potters is something that sounds like Keramikos) but then was turned into a burial ground. It might have been one of my favorite sites...maybe because it was quieter, or because there was a nice balance between old architecture and amazing flowers...or maybe because we found a giant turtle here.
We also tried to go see the Panathenaic Stadium (the site of the first modern Olympic games in 1896) but weren't able to at first because the whole area was closed off and crawling with police. One (very nice) officer told us that the prime ministers of Greece and Turkey were meeting that day. We also tried to go to the National Gardens...but they were closed as well. Instead we walked around and saw Parliament, the president's house, etc. We also walked by the bank where three people died not too long ago as a result of a violent protest/clash with the police. There were tons of flowers, candles and signs (all in Greek) outside. It was kind of scary to see so many police everywhere we went when we knew that there had been such large problems recently (we only saw one small, sort of quiet protest during our time in Athens).
We also had lunch at a really great restaurant (called Savas) that day. Greek food is amazing, and SO MUCH MORE vegetarian friendly than Italian food. While eating lunch we watched what almost seemed like a bizarre choreographed dance between the police and the men who were illegally selling knock-off purses, watches, etc. The men would set up, the police would start walking toward them, the men would whistle to each other and hurriedly pack up and walked away (toting hugely obvious sacks of illegal goods...) only to return 10 minutes later and start the cycle again.

May 16 we found the port and took a ferry to Crete, but that is another story for the entry I will devote to Crete. I will say that Crete is absolutely stunning...I hyperventilated a little bit the first few hours because it is literally that beautiful. Unfortunately there are strikes in Greece planned for the day we're meant to leave Crete. Strikes that will ground all flights and ferries. Soooo. We might be here longer than expected.

I'll add photos soon, but the internet connection at this particular hostel is quiiiiiite slow, and adding a picture might push it over the edge.