First up was a walking tour with Athens Free Tours. These are tours they give for free and then accept tips at the end, so it’s up to the guide to earn it. Our guide, Jonathan, was awesome. He spent 3 hours walking around telling us about history and the sites. One of our favorite sites was the Panathenaic Stadium. We got some photos outside but know we have to return to see more.
Later we visited Academia. This gorgeous building has the statues of Athena and Apollo on pillars outside. It's absolutely beautiful!
Then our tour guide walked us through the traditional markets - that was quite an experience. We walked through this huge street of stalls selling tons of lamb and other "interesting" pieces of animal. I eat meat and I know where it comes from, but this was a totally different view. The smell was horrendous. I was actually a relief to get to the seafood section and see all the squids and other creatures for sale there. These markets are the way local folks shop and it was an interesting site to see.
Next up was a trip to Antiofika. This part of the city sits up the hill on the side of the Acropolis and is filled with small 180 year old one-room houses that are still inhabited. There are no streets amongst the houses, just these paths. Sometimes the paths were so narrow you had to turn sideways to get through. All are this white color and they have painted the edges of the path to be white too. It was a pretty cool area. There was a gorgeous view from amongst the houses too. In the background you can see Mount Lycabettus and a little of the city. Antiofika is near the middle of the city so what you're seeing is only a tiny bit of the huge city of Athens. It is this populated as far as the eye can see in every direction.
After nearly 6 miles in 3 hours, we were starting to feel tired. The tour wound down and the guide left with his pockets significantly fuller.
Next up was lunch. You may or may not know that Brian and I are not adventurous eaters, but I told myself I would try something new in each country. For Greece it was a gyro. I have never had a gyro before but it was really delicious. I even ate the sauce and the onions, which are both things that I typically would remove. It was piled so full you can barely see the pita that it's on top of. Brian tried souvlaki which was really delicious as well. Score on the food!
After a little food and water we were ready for our next adventure - the Acropolis. There just aren’t words to say how amazing this is. So much ancient history happened here. The sad part is that there are bits and pieces strewn about. Things were dismantled in order to be preserved or had fallen off of buildings but no one had captured good records of where they all belonged, so it's a bit of a crap shoot to figure it all out.
We made our way up the hill to the The Theater of Dionysus. It's hard to understand the scale here. It is so deep. Much of the backdrop is ruins, but it's still such a gorgeous site. I hear it's still used at times, which is pretty amazing.
We continued up the hill to the monumental entrance called the Propylaia. It was our first chance to see pillars up close and to really see how they are made from giant pieces stacked so carefully on top of one another. The white spots are areas they have recreated or had to repair, but the darker stone is original.
Nearby is the Erechtheion with the gorgeous Caryatids statues. This was one of the most beautiful buildings at the Acropolis, but we were saddened to recall that the original statues actually sit in the British Museum. The ones here in Athens are simply casts of those original statues.
The Parthenon is giant. Absolutely huge and the pinnacle of the Acropolis. It's under construction, as I'm sure it will be for generations to come, but there are enough bones of the building to see how massive and amazing it must have been in it's heyday.
That last picture is probably our favorite picture of the entire trip. It was such a gorgeous sunny day and we were in this amazing place. We are so blessed.
The Acroplis left us in awe, but the day was starting to wind down. After coming down the hill Brian and I scurried down for a look at the Acropolis Museum. It was ok, but it made me really sad that nearly all the original pieces of the Parthenon (and plenty of other pieces of Greek history) are in the British Museum instead of here.
We got just an hour and a half at the museum, but by then it was 5pm and we were wiped out. However we had just enough energy to walk to the Plaka for a bit and grab ice cream at a place we had eyed earlier today. It was so good! We then grabbed some savory pastries to munch on later and made the trek back (uphill) to our AirBNB.
Now we are just putting up our feet and relaxing. Today we learned Greeks say good morning until 3pm, because it’s common to stay up very late and sleep until lunchtime. Unfortunately, we aren’t going to make it that late tonight as we are tuckered out!
11.5 miles and 32 flights of stairs (so much uphill walking today!). But we are so happy to share this experience with one another and can’t wait to experience more tomorrow.
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