Mar 03 2009
My long weekend in Athens
Well it has been a long time coming but I finally made it to Greece. Somewhere I had wanted to visit for a while but had let my head be filled of stories about Athens dirty streets littered with prostitutes and wild animals so I was very pleasantly surprised when my Easy Jet flight landed and Upon I easily hopped onto the metro and made my way to my hotel located in downtown Athens. My first impressions of Athens were pretty good and I did not see these images that I had previously been told about.
The metro in Athens was finished for the Olympics which were held in the city in 2004 so much of the metro is relatively new. I have to comment on the fact that this is one of the cleanest subways and subway stations that I have ever been in. After reaching my stop I made my way to the street and luckily the hotel was about 5 minutes from the stop. So I checked in and was taken aback by the most amazing views of the Acropolis from my balcony.
Once I was all settled I decided to head out for some dinner the Athenians eat dinner much later than us but it was near midnight and I was pretty hungry so I made my way down the street to a restaurant that had been recommended by the hotel staff as the restaurant was closed at the hotel . I had a feast of a dinner and felt extremely full but couldn’t resist the kebabs which are nothing like they are in the UK and was extremely tasty. Probably not the best thing to eat so late at night but by the time I got home I was knackered and just passed out.
The next morning I headed to the Acropolis for a close up view. The metro takes you close to the site and then its just a short walk up the Acropolis where you walk past ruins along the way up to the main site. The Acropolis sits high above the city and is an intimidating place to visit and it is no wonder that people fought over it for more than 5000 years. It is also the place where the Greeks first practiced their new form governance form of democracy. For the political junkie this place is like Mecca. Most of the building and what was in it was destroyed in 1687 when a Venetian shell hit a supply of Turkish gun powder being stored there. Much of what wasn’t destroyed was taken to London by Lord Elgin in the early 18th century. It was a massive thrill to see the Parthenon close up however they no longer let people walk inside so my admiration had to be done from several feet away but it was still amazing to be that close to the iconic structure.
After touring the site of Acropolis I headed back down into the Plaka area to check out the Ancient Agora. The Plaka is the oldest section of Athens and most of the streets here have been closed to cars etc. This was the central marketplace of ancient Greece and home to their civil and social structures. There were Churches, temples, courts, and markets which bought everyone there. The main market building has been transformed into a museum which is home to much of the 5000 years of history of the Agora. They even had the old “voting ballots” which are shards of broken pottery that the Athenians would carve peoples names into and they would vote for the person that they liked the least and if your name had the most votes craved into it you had to leave Athens for 10 years.
The Plaka area is well known for its dinning and shopping. I wandered around until I found a great restaurant were I stopped to have some lunch. The food in Greece is pretty amazing. The produce is so ripe and full of lots of different flavours the fruit and vegetables are much cheaper than in the UK so nothing comes from a jar or tin so its all cooked fresh. After lunch I had a walk through the gardens and then back to the hotel for a rest.
Tonight’s dinner was an item I was dying to try. Its called Souvlaki and I had been recommended a souvlaki stand down the street. So off I went with my mouth was watering more and more the closer I got. Souvlaki is meat of some sort, beef, lamb or pork that is placed on a giant vertical rotisserie. The souvlaki man slices off the meat as it becomes cooked and puts it on a round pita bread with lettuce, tomato and sadziki, a cucumber and yogurt sauce. I had lamb souvlaki and it was very good, so good infact that I went back for seconds.
The next morning I headed to the National Archaeological Museum. The museum was spectacular. I have seen plenty of museum collections but this one has to be one of the greatest. Here I saw Frescoes, bronze statues, and enough marble sculptures to fill numerous museums around the world !! it was amazing. I though the most impressive artefacts were probably the gold pieces which were found in various graves in Mycenae. They are golden masks, jewellery, breastplates and they even have full golden body covers for children that had died, the children were covered head to toe in gold.
After wandering the museum for some time my legs started to ache so I set out to explore more of the streets in the Plaka district. You could shop here for days and find just about everything you need. I found myself lost in the meat and fish markets which were both massive but luckily I managed to find my way out and made it back to the hotel.
My long weekend in Athens was a most pleasurable experience and I have decided to go back for my two week holiday so that I can discover more of this wonderful country and visit the beautiful islands as well.
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