Athens Day 2 (First Full Day)
Surprisingly, we all got up at a relatively good time to take it to breakfast by 8AM. Ray and I went downstairs to start and we were seated and given a slice of bread with a slice of meat and a slice of cheese. There was also coffee, tea, and orange juice. I saw there were eggs, but the waiter-type-person said that there were no more eggs. I was baffled that only 15 minutes into service they were completely out of eggs. Ray then pointed out that the clock in the lobby says 9:15AM, not 8:15AM. Then it hit me... last night was when the EU changes their clocks! Silly silly me. So now we are totally an hour behind schedule. Shrugging it off, we ate our breakfast and waited for Jim to join us. Then it was off to the metro!
We got on the metro heading to the Acropolis stop, which was much easier and less crowded than the day before. After arriving and figuring out which direction we needed to go, we hiked up to the entrance in front of the Theatre of Dionysus. As I had planned, entrance was free, saving us at least 12 euro each. It wasn't too crowded as we started our assent to the Acropolis. Our first stop was the Theatre of Dionysus, which was quite interesting, even though not as grand as Ray had made it out to believe. I told him the other theatre was the more impressive one, even though he insisted that no one really cared about the other theatre. ha! We made some jokes about reserved seating and the thrones that were still intact and then, once again, started out assent. The next stop was seeing part of the Ancient Peripatos street and the high arches. No one wanted to walk down it to see the Odeion of Herodes Atticus, but they promised to take me back on the way down and so we continued up. Aside from visiting little rubble patches and excavation, out next stop was a glorious overhead view of the Odeion of Herodes Atticus. It was exactly what I wanted to see and I was very excited about it. Ray was much more impressed with this theatre and that made me happy. After making a quick stop for pictures and to purchase a book of postcards from the Acropolis shop, we continued on and all of a sudden we were at the top of the Acropolis with the Temple of Athena and the entrance.
On first impression at the top, everything was kind of disappointing. There was scaffolding everywhere and it didn't even seem like the "restoration" efforts were actually improving the ruins... instead they were dismantling them and all the statues were sold off to museums or private collectors. It made it really difficult to imagine the awesomeness of this place in the ancient times. But we appreciated as much as we could of it. I was more impressed with the sites beyond the Acropolis and the view. We could see the Aegean Sea, a bunch of different other mountains with monuments, Zeus's Temple (or what was left of it) and the Olympic Stadium. Also there were the other bits and pieces of the Acropolis setting lay out at the bottom on the North or West slope... I'm not sure which. What intrigued us was the amount of dogs we were encountering since entering the Acropolis. It was like they slowly walked up from the entrance and stopped every little bit to just lie down under a tree. There were so many of them. Most of them were incredibly friendly and we wondered if they were taken care of by the Acropolis staff or if they were just strays that were let in. Some of them even had collars. Jim commented that it might be a security thing. Good thing they weren't around when I bent down to tie my shoe and then frantically grabbed as much dirt as possible from the top of the Acropolis. Guards were everywhere, so I'm pretty sure I just stole from a national monument or something.
Our decent down was much quicker. We decided to take in some of the other sites and did not venture down the North/West slope where there seemed to be quite a lot of tour groups forming and you couldn't go into anything. So we got our pictures, appreciated what we saw, and headed back down the way we came. I wanted to see the front of the Odeion of Herodes Atticus. So when we arrived at the ancient street we didn't want to walk down before, I said "this way"! After a little debate, I got them to follow me, only to lead to a dead-end. The gate had been locked and we couldn't get through. We would have to leave and go in the other entrance. So I sufficed with what I had and we made out way out the gate and back onto the pedestrian street to get some trinkets and find some lunch before walking to our next set of destinations.
I saw a little shop and stopped to take stock of their pin collection. When I walked in, it was really amazing! The chess sets and statues were really wonderful! So after pulling Ray and Jim away from the naughty postcards, I showed them all the neat stuff! The old man who worked there was very keen to talk to them about the sets and explained that they were supposed to be Athenians and Spartans (there were others, but that was the one that Jim bought). I went towards the other side of the shop looking for pins, spoons, and thimbles. After picking up a unique looking Athens spoon, I stood and went through a basket of pins looking for the best ones. I bought two that looked interesting and memorable. Then I got the two thimbles, which I thought were quite nice. I showed Ray everything and then I saw a tiny bottle of ouzo (the local liquor drink of choice) and I got a small bottle for a friend. As Jim haggled and debated over getting a chess set, Ray and I looked at other items and talked about stuff. Finally, Jim made his purchase and then paid for his postcards and off we went in search of food, as it was late and the hiking had made us a bit peckish.
As we walked down the pedestrian street, we came across a restaurant called Abepna Eeiphnes and the smells coming out of it were amazing! So we were seated outside and we took stock of the menu. We ordered some fried zucchini, ouzo, and water (huge 1.5L bottles for only 2euro!!! totally awesome). I ordered the stewed meatballs with rice and the boys ordered swordfish with rice and potatoes. First we toasted to Greece with our ouzo and drank it. It's a licorice taste, like sambuca, but you're supposed to have a glass and sip it along with your meal. I think we each had a little over a shots worth in our glass and we sipped it through the meal, taking the remainder and the bottle with us. My meal came first and was absolutely delicious! The fried zucchini was also quite enjoyable. Ray really enjoyed this cucumber and yogurt bread dip that was brought over. Both Ray and Jim enjoyed their swordfish and the potatoes were excellent. And the meal wasn't too expensive either, which was a plus! We really enjoyed ourselves and even had some funny entertainment. As we sat there, a man was walking up the Dionissiou Areopagitou and would stop and start doing these karate/tai-chi type moves, as if fighting some sort of invisible evil. Then we would move on and thirty seconds later, do it again! It was one of those moments when you wish you had your camera rolling! Really frickin' awesome! We just busted out laughing.
From where we sat, we could see Hadrian's Arch, which was built in dedication to a Roman ruler, if I remember correctly. From there you walked a little ways and entered where the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Another sad site to see such destruction and, of course, there is the missing, gianourmous status of Zeus. If only we could have seen these then and not now in the sad state they are in. Once again we enjoyed the view of the Acropolis from the location and took our pictures, appreciating the sites and moved on. More dogs were at this location and the people who worked there seemed to know them and give them water. One dog even dug a little bed for himself under some trees and he had a ball there and everything. Maybe we'll get to know the history when we get home.
After this little stop, there was on the Olympic Stadium left to visit, so we moved on down the road. Nothing was too far away. In Paris, the maps made everything seem close, but it was really far away, whereas here everything is really close and the map makes everything look far away. But we made it to the Olympic Stadium in a short walk from Zeus' Temple. We couldn't go into the Stadium, but we could look at it. So we did and talked about the Olympics and even quizzed ourselves on Olympic trivia, like what the rings stand for. I was the closest and forgot the rings were global regions and not continents (I couldn't figure out what major continent would have been left out.. not the obvious one). We then took a break to discuss what to do next. It was still pretty early and I mentioned that we should go to Hard Rock tomorrow so I can get my pins. Ray suggested we go now if it's nearby. Sure enough, it was only about a 10 minute walk from where we were (taking into account cross walks which take FOREVER here... Edinburgh has spoiled us).
When we got to the crosswalk where we were supposed to cross, Ray was checking everything and street stuff is really confusing to figure out here because street signs are written weird. But a guy at the cross walk understood we were looking for something and offered to help. Turns out, he lived right behind the Hard Rock and took us the whole way. Jim and Ray wanted to check menu prices (as we were very put-off by the Paris HRC and their outrageous prices for small things like milkshakes). They were pleasantly surprised to see that their assumption about Paris being outrageous was correct. I agreed and thought the Paris HRC was one of the worst, overall, ones I've visited. Here, though, I had to battle my way up to the counter. Apparently a sea of Italian tourists had invaded the HRC and were the most obnoxious people EVER! They were rude to me, they were rude to the service lady and they wouldn't stop running their mouths in their constant Italian chatter! Really makes me not want to go to Rome. Talk about poor representatives for their country. Pushy and quite just... rude! I was on the verge of a panic attack by the mob of young Italian people, when the lady offered to help and she put all my pins in a bag and gave me my shot glass and my 10% discount and I left Jim to get his souvenirs. I stopped by Ray and told him I was going to have a quick peek around. I found some neat stuff, like Stevie Nicks' black lace dress she wore during one of her tours and the Indian dress Cher wore for her Half-Breed video and other uses of the song. A few neat Beatles pieces and whatnot. It was nice. Then it was time to head out. I let Ray look in my bag of pins and he noticed I had two of the same! Oh no! The lady didn't drop the right one in the bag! So I had to wade back into the HRC shop and to the front, being assaulted at the front and back by an Italian mom and her teenage son! AHH!! Anxiety was rising and I think the lady behind the counter could see it and she helped me next. She didn't understand "vase" and so I pointed to the top one and gave her the lute back. It was straightened out and I "skoosied" my way out of the mob of Italians!
As we stood outside, Ray consulted his book for the nearest metro and we headed towards Syntagma Square. We couldn't find the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier", so decided to just enter the metro and head home. (In hindsight, we were just not seeing the forest for the trees. If we had an arial map, we might have seen it. Silly us.) Inside the metro was a flee market of sorts, but we think it was for prizes, as the tables all had numbers. It was interesting. I also noticed that Syntagma was where the interesting cut of the layers of Athens streets is located and made a note to remind Jim and Ray on the way back. We jumped on the metro and got off at Omonia (at Omonia Square, 3 minutes from where we stayed). We wanted to visit the grocery store to get some dinner, but it was closed! That was weird... it was before 5PM on a Sunday and they weren't open! So instead we stopped and got a sweet from the street vendor and made our way back to the hotel. On the way, a man tried to pick Ray's pocket. He saw a bulge in Ray's front pocket and stock his hand in to pull out whatever it was and Ray caught his wrist. It was just Ray's tobacco, but the guy dropped and it walked on like "oh, I don't know what that was doing there." How crazy is that!!! Which reminds me of something that happened earlier in the day. I was looking out the window across the street and I saw six guys sitting in a cafe. Three with their backs against the wall and three in the front. There was a guy, who I don't think was with the group, standing next to a support beam. I joked that they looked like a gang and the bigger guys were sitting at the back, with security up front and the scout to the side. It was just a funny observation and I went back into the room. I went to the window again and lo-and-behold, cops had stopped and rounded up the group, asking for ID and frisking them! While funny, it also reminded me that we're not in Kansas anymore.
Back up in the hotel room, we learned that we had maid service and that we weren't actually staying in a hostel, but a 2-star hotel. Go figure! Really cheap, too. Cheapest place we're staying at and while the neighborhood is questionable, the room is quite comfortable and spacious! Ray napped, Jim interneted, and I worked on postcards. The sweets we bought from the vendor were good. Mine was a large sugar-donut type thing that I shared with Ray. Ray and Jim got these heart-shaped donut pastry things with nutella in the middle and chocolate frosting on top. They were okay. As night approached, I wanted to make dinner arrangements and said we should probably order something. Sadly, all the menus were in Greek and there was no way we could translate such a large menu. That was hour number one. Then we learned we couldn't dial out and we would have to use a phone card at a pay phone. Ha! Not going back out there at night. Then we spent the next hour trying to order online from Pizza Hut. They had to call you back to confirm. So Ray and Jim ran down to the front desk to tell them about the phone call and they routed the call up to us when it came through. We didn't get out pizza until 10:45PM. The whole process of dinner discussion started at 8:14PM. What a crazy night! After that it was bed and leaving the men up to finishing their junk and planning for the beach tomorrow.
We got on the metro heading to the Acropolis stop, which was much easier and less crowded than the day before. After arriving and figuring out which direction we needed to go, we hiked up to the entrance in front of the Theatre of Dionysus. As I had planned, entrance was free, saving us at least 12 euro each. It wasn't too crowded as we started our assent to the Acropolis. Our first stop was the Theatre of Dionysus, which was quite interesting, even though not as grand as Ray had made it out to believe. I told him the other theatre was the more impressive one, even though he insisted that no one really cared about the other theatre. ha! We made some jokes about reserved seating and the thrones that were still intact and then, once again, started out assent. The next stop was seeing part of the Ancient Peripatos street and the high arches. No one wanted to walk down it to see the Odeion of Herodes Atticus, but they promised to take me back on the way down and so we continued up. Aside from visiting little rubble patches and excavation, out next stop was a glorious overhead view of the Odeion of Herodes Atticus. It was exactly what I wanted to see and I was very excited about it. Ray was much more impressed with this theatre and that made me happy. After making a quick stop for pictures and to purchase a book of postcards from the Acropolis shop, we continued on and all of a sudden we were at the top of the Acropolis with the Temple of Athena and the entrance.
On first impression at the top, everything was kind of disappointing. There was scaffolding everywhere and it didn't even seem like the "restoration" efforts were actually improving the ruins... instead they were dismantling them and all the statues were sold off to museums or private collectors. It made it really difficult to imagine the awesomeness of this place in the ancient times. But we appreciated as much as we could of it. I was more impressed with the sites beyond the Acropolis and the view. We could see the Aegean Sea, a bunch of different other mountains with monuments, Zeus's Temple (or what was left of it) and the Olympic Stadium. Also there were the other bits and pieces of the Acropolis setting lay out at the bottom on the North or West slope... I'm not sure which. What intrigued us was the amount of dogs we were encountering since entering the Acropolis. It was like they slowly walked up from the entrance and stopped every little bit to just lie down under a tree. There were so many of them. Most of them were incredibly friendly and we wondered if they were taken care of by the Acropolis staff or if they were just strays that were let in. Some of them even had collars. Jim commented that it might be a security thing. Good thing they weren't around when I bent down to tie my shoe and then frantically grabbed as much dirt as possible from the top of the Acropolis. Guards were everywhere, so I'm pretty sure I just stole from a national monument or something.
Our decent down was much quicker. We decided to take in some of the other sites and did not venture down the North/West slope where there seemed to be quite a lot of tour groups forming and you couldn't go into anything. So we got our pictures, appreciated what we saw, and headed back down the way we came. I wanted to see the front of the Odeion of Herodes Atticus. So when we arrived at the ancient street we didn't want to walk down before, I said "this way"! After a little debate, I got them to follow me, only to lead to a dead-end. The gate had been locked and we couldn't get through. We would have to leave and go in the other entrance. So I sufficed with what I had and we made out way out the gate and back onto the pedestrian street to get some trinkets and find some lunch before walking to our next set of destinations.
I saw a little shop and stopped to take stock of their pin collection. When I walked in, it was really amazing! The chess sets and statues were really wonderful! So after pulling Ray and Jim away from the naughty postcards, I showed them all the neat stuff! The old man who worked there was very keen to talk to them about the sets and explained that they were supposed to be Athenians and Spartans (there were others, but that was the one that Jim bought). I went towards the other side of the shop looking for pins, spoons, and thimbles. After picking up a unique looking Athens spoon, I stood and went through a basket of pins looking for the best ones. I bought two that looked interesting and memorable. Then I got the two thimbles, which I thought were quite nice. I showed Ray everything and then I saw a tiny bottle of ouzo (the local liquor drink of choice) and I got a small bottle for a friend. As Jim haggled and debated over getting a chess set, Ray and I looked at other items and talked about stuff. Finally, Jim made his purchase and then paid for his postcards and off we went in search of food, as it was late and the hiking had made us a bit peckish.
As we walked down the pedestrian street, we came across a restaurant called Abepna Eeiphnes and the smells coming out of it were amazing! So we were seated outside and we took stock of the menu. We ordered some fried zucchini, ouzo, and water (huge 1.5L bottles for only 2euro!!! totally awesome). I ordered the stewed meatballs with rice and the boys ordered swordfish with rice and potatoes. First we toasted to Greece with our ouzo and drank it. It's a licorice taste, like sambuca, but you're supposed to have a glass and sip it along with your meal. I think we each had a little over a shots worth in our glass and we sipped it through the meal, taking the remainder and the bottle with us. My meal came first and was absolutely delicious! The fried zucchini was also quite enjoyable. Ray really enjoyed this cucumber and yogurt bread dip that was brought over. Both Ray and Jim enjoyed their swordfish and the potatoes were excellent. And the meal wasn't too expensive either, which was a plus! We really enjoyed ourselves and even had some funny entertainment. As we sat there, a man was walking up the Dionissiou Areopagitou and would stop and start doing these karate/tai-chi type moves, as if fighting some sort of invisible evil. Then we would move on and thirty seconds later, do it again! It was one of those moments when you wish you had your camera rolling! Really frickin' awesome! We just busted out laughing.
From where we sat, we could see Hadrian's Arch, which was built in dedication to a Roman ruler, if I remember correctly. From there you walked a little ways and entered where the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Another sad site to see such destruction and, of course, there is the missing, gianourmous status of Zeus. If only we could have seen these then and not now in the sad state they are in. Once again we enjoyed the view of the Acropolis from the location and took our pictures, appreciating the sites and moved on. More dogs were at this location and the people who worked there seemed to know them and give them water. One dog even dug a little bed for himself under some trees and he had a ball there and everything. Maybe we'll get to know the history when we get home.
After this little stop, there was on the Olympic Stadium left to visit, so we moved on down the road. Nothing was too far away. In Paris, the maps made everything seem close, but it was really far away, whereas here everything is really close and the map makes everything look far away. But we made it to the Olympic Stadium in a short walk from Zeus' Temple. We couldn't go into the Stadium, but we could look at it. So we did and talked about the Olympics and even quizzed ourselves on Olympic trivia, like what the rings stand for. I was the closest and forgot the rings were global regions and not continents (I couldn't figure out what major continent would have been left out.. not the obvious one). We then took a break to discuss what to do next. It was still pretty early and I mentioned that we should go to Hard Rock tomorrow so I can get my pins. Ray suggested we go now if it's nearby. Sure enough, it was only about a 10 minute walk from where we were (taking into account cross walks which take FOREVER here... Edinburgh has spoiled us).
When we got to the crosswalk where we were supposed to cross, Ray was checking everything and street stuff is really confusing to figure out here because street signs are written weird. But a guy at the cross walk understood we were looking for something and offered to help. Turns out, he lived right behind the Hard Rock and took us the whole way. Jim and Ray wanted to check menu prices (as we were very put-off by the Paris HRC and their outrageous prices for small things like milkshakes). They were pleasantly surprised to see that their assumption about Paris being outrageous was correct. I agreed and thought the Paris HRC was one of the worst, overall, ones I've visited. Here, though, I had to battle my way up to the counter. Apparently a sea of Italian tourists had invaded the HRC and were the most obnoxious people EVER! They were rude to me, they were rude to the service lady and they wouldn't stop running their mouths in their constant Italian chatter! Really makes me not want to go to Rome. Talk about poor representatives for their country. Pushy and quite just... rude! I was on the verge of a panic attack by the mob of young Italian people, when the lady offered to help and she put all my pins in a bag and gave me my shot glass and my 10% discount and I left Jim to get his souvenirs. I stopped by Ray and told him I was going to have a quick peek around. I found some neat stuff, like Stevie Nicks' black lace dress she wore during one of her tours and the Indian dress Cher wore for her Half-Breed video and other uses of the song. A few neat Beatles pieces and whatnot. It was nice. Then it was time to head out. I let Ray look in my bag of pins and he noticed I had two of the same! Oh no! The lady didn't drop the right one in the bag! So I had to wade back into the HRC shop and to the front, being assaulted at the front and back by an Italian mom and her teenage son! AHH!! Anxiety was rising and I think the lady behind the counter could see it and she helped me next. She didn't understand "vase" and so I pointed to the top one and gave her the lute back. It was straightened out and I "skoosied" my way out of the mob of Italians!
As we stood outside, Ray consulted his book for the nearest metro and we headed towards Syntagma Square. We couldn't find the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier", so decided to just enter the metro and head home. (In hindsight, we were just not seeing the forest for the trees. If we had an arial map, we might have seen it. Silly us.) Inside the metro was a flee market of sorts, but we think it was for prizes, as the tables all had numbers. It was interesting. I also noticed that Syntagma was where the interesting cut of the layers of Athens streets is located and made a note to remind Jim and Ray on the way back. We jumped on the metro and got off at Omonia (at Omonia Square, 3 minutes from where we stayed). We wanted to visit the grocery store to get some dinner, but it was closed! That was weird... it was before 5PM on a Sunday and they weren't open! So instead we stopped and got a sweet from the street vendor and made our way back to the hotel. On the way, a man tried to pick Ray's pocket. He saw a bulge in Ray's front pocket and stock his hand in to pull out whatever it was and Ray caught his wrist. It was just Ray's tobacco, but the guy dropped and it walked on like "oh, I don't know what that was doing there." How crazy is that!!! Which reminds me of something that happened earlier in the day. I was looking out the window across the street and I saw six guys sitting in a cafe. Three with their backs against the wall and three in the front. There was a guy, who I don't think was with the group, standing next to a support beam. I joked that they looked like a gang and the bigger guys were sitting at the back, with security up front and the scout to the side. It was just a funny observation and I went back into the room. I went to the window again and lo-and-behold, cops had stopped and rounded up the group, asking for ID and frisking them! While funny, it also reminded me that we're not in Kansas anymore.
Back up in the hotel room, we learned that we had maid service and that we weren't actually staying in a hostel, but a 2-star hotel. Go figure! Really cheap, too. Cheapest place we're staying at and while the neighborhood is questionable, the room is quite comfortable and spacious! Ray napped, Jim interneted, and I worked on postcards. The sweets we bought from the vendor were good. Mine was a large sugar-donut type thing that I shared with Ray. Ray and Jim got these heart-shaped donut pastry things with nutella in the middle and chocolate frosting on top. They were okay. As night approached, I wanted to make dinner arrangements and said we should probably order something. Sadly, all the menus were in Greek and there was no way we could translate such a large menu. That was hour number one. Then we learned we couldn't dial out and we would have to use a phone card at a pay phone. Ha! Not going back out there at night. Then we spent the next hour trying to order online from Pizza Hut. They had to call you back to confirm. So Ray and Jim ran down to the front desk to tell them about the phone call and they routed the call up to us when it came through. We didn't get out pizza until 10:45PM. The whole process of dinner discussion started at 8:14PM. What a crazy night! After that it was bed and leaving the men up to finishing their junk and planning for the beach tomorrow.
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