Europe Trip: Day 42, July 1st

A guy from Aphrodite Hostel met us at the bus, since they are affiliated with the Pink Palace. He led us back to the hostel and said that we could use free internet, could leave our luggage there for the day, and some other good stuff. The first thing I did was called George to tell him I didn't need to meet up with him until he finished with work. We agreed to meet at a main Square around 7pm. I said I would call again at 6:30pm to double check on the plan. I went and bought breakfast and got on the internet, replying to emails from the Fam.

I put my contacts on and brushed my teeth, put some stuff in my daypack, and headed out into Athens. For me I was actually quite prepared this time. I had a small map of the city with some of the main streets and attractions and the day before I had looked up the things I wanted to see in the city. Most of the other places I had gone to I came completely unprepared and figured it out later.

The metro wasn't too hard to find and I took that straigh to the bottom of the Acropolis. Lucky enough the ticket to all the sites including the Acropolis was only 6 euros for me due to the student discount, for everyone else it was 12 euros.

As you walk up the hill you see different archeaological projects from temples to theaters, and the whole time the main Acropolis looms up above you. It is easy to see why the Ancient Greeks used it as a place of refuge in times of war. No army was going to scale that cliff, and the route up seemed quite easily defensible.

Even though it was only 10-11am it was already hot on the Acropolis. With no shade the sun just beats down on you, and you sweat. And it is crowded with the mass of tourists. And it is easy to see why so many make the trek up to the top of the Acropolis. The sheer magnitude of creating the Parthenon and many of the other buildings up there is unbelievable. I read that the Parthenon is like the biggest jugsaw puzzle in the world. At first it looks like it wouldn't be so hard to put back together, just put the columns back up like any other temple. But each piece of the Parthenon is unique and fits together in a unique way. So a column in the front vs a column in the middle vs a column in the back are all different, and none of their parts are interchangeable. I don't envy the jobs of the archeaologists doing that...okay maybe a little.

I worked my way around the Acropolis and exited towards the other side, and as you walk down you run into the Ancient Agora, the marketplace of Ancient Greece. Most of it is just rubble, but some of it you can picture. An 11th century Byzantine church is also in there, and a nicely preserved Greek temple.

When I finished with that area, I found the exit and headed to the left. After about half a kilometer you reach Kerameikos, the old cemetery of Athens. They have found remains and artifacts dating back to Pre-historic times, as well as from every period of Athens through Roman times. Even though it was a different site, it was covered under my Acropolis ticket, so I didn't even have to pay.

I saw a big church from there, so I tried to reach it, but it ended up being closed. So I walked down a main street and when I cut over I ended up in what I believe is Athen's version of China town. Since I was looking for Greek food to eat, I cut back over to the main street and after a while ran into a place selling pita gyros and other Greek food. So I ate there, it was pretty good, but nothing special.

When I walked outside I realized I had reached Omnia Square, which was the end of the street. I went into the metro and headed over to Syntagma Square, and went inside the National Gardens. After wandering around for a bit I found a place where some people were laying down in the grass, and decided to do likewise. I napped for 2-3 hours to kill some time. Then I headed back and after about half an hour of searching managed to find a pay phone to call George.

George told me that he could meet me at certain metro station which was about 10 minutes from his house, so I headed over there. After waiting for 15 minutes I decided to call him, and he said he hadn't left yet but would be there in 10 minutes. So I waited some more and after 20-30 minutes he drove up -- I guess the Greeks have a similar sense of timeliness as the Italians.

Despite that he was very nice and we drove back to his place, where he let me use his laptop to check my email while he took a shower, and then we headed out to pick up my backpack from the hostel and to have a coffee or drink at the cafe he works at. I had a frappe with ice cream, which was very good. We talked about various things, mostly about sports.

At 10-10:30pm we decided to head back since he was very tired from work, and I was tired from the bad sleep the night before and the long day of walking around Athens. I took a shower when we got back and got ready for bed. I tried to see if I could leech some wireless internet off of a neighbor, but all of them had WEP or WPA keys. So I headed to bed at around 11pm.