Maybe not quite that old, but a few thousand years feels ancient enough to me.
Athens, Greece. I heard from everyone that has ever been to
Greece that it is an incredibly dirty city – well, none of them were wrong.
It’s so disappointing to think about how this ancient place has suffered
through so much economic turmoil in recent history, but it is still such a
fascinating place!
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| An actual pile of trash right by our hostel |
Once we had landed, we took the metro about 45 minutes into
Athens, but on the fault of my own, we got off one stop too early. With the aid
of a McDonald’s wifi, we found our way to our hostel by foot, and were able to
check in around 10 AM.
We got gyros for lunch, which are a famous meal in Greece
that consists of pita bread, shaved pork or chicken, and other toppings kind of
like an Americanized Mexican taco. It cost one euro and 50 cents at a place
called Joy’s.
Following some relatively inaccurate directions given to us by the receptionist at our hostel, we asked around and were able to find the inter-city bus we were looking for to go to Sounion and see the Temple of Poseidon. We had a whole hour to kill before the bus departed, so we decided to drag our tired selves through a park nearby that turned out to be full of really shady looking people and possibly a dead dog. So obviously we left and just waited at the bus stop.
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| The incredibly creepy park |
After a nap and nearly a two hour bus ride, we made it to the incredible Temple of Poseidon. Otherwise known as the Sanctuary of Poseidon, the temple rests on the southern most point of Attica and was built in 444 BC. It was first referenced to in the Odyssey, and it lies about 500 meters away from the Sanctuary of Athena.
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| View from the Temple of Poseidon |
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| The Temple of Poseidon |
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| There were so many beautiful flowers there! Which also mean a lot of bees.. |
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| Sounion apparently has one of the top 10 best sunsets in the world, but unfortunately it was cloudy and we could only watch it from the bus. |
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| It was still incredible and way better than these pictures can depict. |
We devoted our second and last day in Athens to the
Acropolis, which was a lot bigger than we expected. It was absolutely jaw
dropping to be surrounded by such immensely ancient structures. We spent our
entire morning exploring the ruins,
including the infamous Parthenon, until I ripped my leggings and had to go find
some replacement pants. Luckily, there were a lot of shops nearby and I found
some loose black cotton pants at this store that I can only describe as
“hipster”.
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| The teatro still had seats in it! |
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| A renovated teatro that still hosts events |
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| The Parthenon |
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| The Parthenon again |
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| And again. |
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| Amazing view of Athens |
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| The Temple of Erechthieon |
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| The museum where I ripped my leggings... |
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| The Temple of Hephaestos |
We all had soulvaki for lunch and then proceeded with our
exploration, ending in the massive Acropolis Museum. We were all completely
exhausted from very little sleep and various sicknesses, so the rest of our late
afternoon and evening was spent sitting in a café, the National Park, walking
around the Acropolis, and eating a meat platter for dinner at a restaurant with
a phenomenal view of the top of the Acropolis lit up for the night.
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| The Temple of Zeus (I think) |
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| The Temple of Olympian Zeus |
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| The National Park Entrance |
The Athens security at the Airport was very interesting, and
although it seemed inefficient at times, we got through it really quickly and
had a smooth flight home.
Observation of the
Day: It sucks to be sick anywhere, it just sucks a little less in Greece. I
had a pretty bad cold the week before, and it only got worse over the weekend
in Athens, but I still had a great time. My ears are already sensitive, but
when I’m sick and a plane is descending, the last twenty minutes of the flight
feels like sharp knives in my ears. To add to my struggles, they got plugged up
and took the rest of the day to clear up, while my eyes were leaking some goopy
junk and making my contacts so blurry I could see worse with them than without
them. I’m sure you’re thanking me for this image right now, so you’re welcome.
But the real reason I’m describing this is to say that there are times in your
life when you can’t slow down for anything because you might miss out on a once
in a life time experience. The next time I get sick though, let me tell you, I
will be lying in bed watching Netflix all day. All day. (For those of you who watch New Girl, just
picture Schmidt saying that last line).
