We finished our Greek adventure by seeing the ancient city of Athens. My impression of the city was that is was an ancient and giant inferno. Most days it was 40+ C without a breeze and you could feel the sun cooking your skin. It was practically unbearable most of the time. But, is was also awesome (in the true sense of the word) to be able to be amongst 5000 years of history where everything from politics to plumbing was invented.
We stayed in a great hostel (Athens Backpackers/Studios) which was located right in the middle of the city and all the sights. The hostel had a rooftop bar from which you could see the Acropolis (highest point of the city which houses the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, etc.) and enjoy very cheap 'Bonsi Specials' (Bonsi was the bartender from Scotland who claimed the drink was more or less 'sex on the roof'. We agreed.) during the evening, and free breakfast in the morning. Also, the neighborhood had many adorable open-air restaurants along the cobble stone streets for enjoying some Greek cuisine. We only had 2 days to see everything and this set up made it incredibly easy to do so, even allowing for air-conditioning breaks in our room.
The first morning we got up and went to the Acropolis for it's 8am opening hoping to beat the heat (but it was still scorching at 8:30am) to see the Theatre of Dionysus, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Parthenon, and the Erechtheum. In my opinion, the Erechtheum was the most impressive of them all, but it was also pretty neat to stand in front of the Parthenon. After the Acropolis we made our way to the Ancient Agora (old market place) which really just seemed like a bunch of rocks that were supposed to have been a little city (our imaginations weren't good enough to see it) and a really well preserved temple belonging to Hephaistos. We also saw the Roman Agora which was more of the same... but roman... At this point we had both gone through 6 Litres of water and couldn't believe we didn't have to pee. We had literally sweat all of it out. This is when we caved and bought little Japanese parasols like all the other tourists just to help us bear the heat a little bit better. Upside of extremely colorful parasol: keeping the hellish heat off your head. Downside of extremely colorful parasol: having even more creepy Greek guys take notice of your presence. And we thought Spanish boys were direct... pfft... I'm telling you, there's something in that Mediterranean water.
We also managed to squeeze in visits to Hadrian's Arch, The Temple of Zeus (the largest temple ever built in Greece) and the first modern Olympic stadium (1896) which was built completely out of marble but was suprisingly small. The olympics has most definitely come a long way in 113 years. Then we ended our day with a visit to the national gardens and night on the roof/around Athens. It seemed that everyone in the hostel gathered on the roof that night - People from Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Scotland, England, Brazil, USA, Uraguay, and of course Eva from Spain. I was SO excited to meet the two girls from Calgary. I hadn't seen Canadians in such a long time! Also, I was very happy to make a friend from Switzerland who promised to send me chocolate in exchange for any maple product. I'm definitely keeping that arrangement. The best conversation that came out of that night was about Ruffle Chips. Did you know that all countries have 2-3 standard flavours? For example Spain has ham and ham and cheese flavored Ruffles, Greece has oregano and paprika flavors, where Switzerland doesn't have any of these flavors. Strange isn't it? Also, North America may be the only place on the planet where you don't have to pay for water, ketchup or mayonnaise at a restaurant. Apparently we lived a pretty charmed life in Canada. (Maybe saying it was the most interesting conversation is a little sad after you read about the conversation - but it was interesting to learn about the small differences about the countries.)
Athens was a very interesting city. It may be large, heavily polluted, so hot and desert like that it resembles hell at times, but it was truly awesome (the true sense of the world) to see everything we did and be part of such an international ambient for our short stay there.
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene
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