Neither of us had heard anything good about Athens.
"See the Acropolis and get the heck out!" we had both been told. So you
can imagine our surprise to find that we actually enjoyed our time in this ruin-infested
metropolis.
Our second big surprise was that nearly everyone spoke
English. Who would've thought? And luckily we remembered enough from US University Greek
systems that we could decipher parts of the few signs that weren't.
We stayed in a hostel in the Plaka district of Athens which
is made up of winding streets, cafes, and lots of outside restaurants. It was an easy walk
to most of the attractions, and we saw the Acropolis and the Parthenon on our first full
day there. Aside from all the scaffolding, the ruins were all they were cracked up to be
and more. It was simply amazing how much of it was still intact after so long; it was
constructed between 447-432 B.C.
We also visited the Archaeology Museum which housed many
treasures, some dating back all the way to 1000 B.C. There were many that would have been
the focal point of a museum in the States but got lost amongst the others here. The
highlights were five of the original Erechtheion caryatids (columns sculpted in the shape
of women), lots of statues of the gods, relief sculpture on tombs, and portions of vases
and urns.
The best part about Athens was you never knew where or when
you were going to stumble upon a ruin. They were everywhere. Many weren't even featured on
our map. They were just part of the city, woven into the plan of a thoroughly modern
infrastructure.
We knew we weren't going to be in a big city for while, so
we spent some of our time stocking up on some items we thought it might be difficult to
find on the islands or in Turkey. We also made another semi-futile attempt to get our
website updated on good old AOL.
Many people wondered whether or not the Greeks were friendly
to us Americans, since we were there in the midst of the "little skirmish" with
Yugoslavia. The people we met were very friendly, but of course the majority of them were
in the tourist business or held service positions. We did see several posters of a map of
Europe with American flags covering all the countries (signifying a U.S. takeover),
graffiti of the letters USA--with the "S" being drawn as a swastika, and we also
ran into an anti-NATO rally.
But that was it. And then we headed on down to another bit
of heaven on Earth, the island of Santorini.
