Hello! My parents and brother have now come and gone (they’re actually in the air on the way to Philly as I type). We all had a good time, but I think we’re all pretty tired by now, as we saw pretty much everything humanly possible in Athens in a few days. Today I’m taking the day off and catching up on a few chores (like laundry – boo), so I thought I’d write a little blog post and tell you about what all we did.
They arrived in Athens on Thursday around 1:00, and I met them at their airport; from there we went to Loring Hall, since Rob was staying with me. We then decided to walk to my parent’s hotel in Syntagma with all their luggage – that was a mistake. I mean, I wasn’t carrying any luggage, but it looked unpleasant. After that they were hungry, having only eaten airport food for the past day, so we went down to Ithaka and everyone got some souvlaki. They managed to stay awake long enough to see the Little Metropolitan (a 12th c. Byzantine church), Plaka, and get their first far-off glimpse of the Acropolis, but then we decided to call it a night.
By Friday morning everyone was rested, so we headed off to the Acropolis. We went up the south slope so they could see the Theater of Dionysos (and the few remaining blocks of the Asklepeion and Stoa of Eumenes!), then headed up to the top where they got to see the Propylaion, Parthenon, and Erechtheion. After that we headed back down and went to the Acropolis Museum, where they got to see the Parthenon marbles (among many other cool things). We also ate lunch at the Museum (it’s been recommended to me), and it was delicious. After that we headed over to the Agora, and got a chance to see the Stoa of Attalos and the museum inside it, and then the Hephaisteion, before the guards chased us out because it, like almost all archaeological sites, closes at 3:00 in the afternoon (this makes scheduling fairly tricky). We took a break and got some drinks, and then headed over to the National Gardens where we got to see not just some lovely spring flora, but also the menagerie which I love so dearly. The baby goat was out walking around for the first time, which was exciting (for me). On our way to dinner we passed the Parliament building and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; they weren’t changing the guards right then, but the ceremonial guards did perform a little marching routine around the tomb. Dinner was at TGIFriday’s – you may only make fun of me after you have eaten Greek food every day for seven and a half straight months. I had a cheeseburger, and no regrets. I’m also totally making Andy go there with me when he gets here.
On Saturday we started with a trip to the National Archaeological Museum, where we got to see a lot of awesome Greek art. We headed back to Syntagma after that and grabbed some lunch, and then we investigated SE Athens. We started with the Temple of Olympeion Zeus, then saw Hadrian’s Arch and the Lysikrates Monument. Not having walked nearly enough that day I suggested we go to Kolonaki and head up Lykavittos. We learned that, from the intersection of Ploutarchou and Souidias streets, there are about 192 stairs just to get to the funicular station. We then took the funicular to the top of Lykavittos; it was a little strange, as the ride is entirely inside and yet the car has big windows on the sides and ceiling, and as the station is covered with Metaxa advertising. Anyway, we made it up there and got some great views of the city. After that we headed to Phagopoteion for dinner.
Sunday was a day of adventure. We started at 7:30 with a taxi ride to the Piraeus (the metro to the Piraeus is under construction right now, so at one point you have to get off and take a bus to the next working stop). Once there I had to find a Hellenic Seaways kiosk to pick up our tickets, and was helped out by a random old man who then demanded money from us for his assistance. Anyway, I got the tickets, and we took the 8:00 boat over to the island. Once there we started by going to Kolonna, which is just next to the town of Aegina; there we visited the museum and the archaeological site, which has phases stretching back to 2500BC and forward to the Byzantine period. We then walked around the town a bit, and then decided to catch a bus over to Aphaia on the other side of the island. I got to the ticket counter and asked if the man there knew English; he did not. I then used my terrible Greek to ask him how to get to Aphaia and purchase tickets, as well as which of the several buses hanging around was ours. Ours was the ble (that’s Greek for blue – really!) one, which was just a tour bus that the town apparently bought and made a public bus. We drove across the island and got to see some of the countryside, which was nice, and got dropped off right at Aphaia. There we got to see the Temple of Aphaia, which is a really nice temple as far as temples go (plus everyone was fascinated to learn about U-shaped lifting bosses), and the little two-room museum that’s there. We went back to the bus stop and waited there about an hour (there’s no schedules – actually, there’s one in the little shop across the street, but I don’t think the bus drivers are aware of it) for the bus. This one was a public bus, and was pretty old and dirty, had some disturbing chunks missing from the wall, and stalled out after going about five feet. Adventure! We made it back to Aegina town, got some lunch, and then caught the next ferry back to Athens. From there we decided to take the metro back to Syntagma, so we got to experience that too (The metro to Piraeus is under construction now, so after finding the Piraeus station we got on the metro for one stop, left the station, got on a bus, took that for a while, got dropped off at another station, got back on the metro, took it until Omonia, switched lines, and went one stop to Syntagma. Simple!) After that we had just enough energy for dinner.
Monday we were ready to strike out again; it’s a tough day, though, since everything is pretty well closed on a Monday. We began by walking up the Mouseion Hill to see the Philopappos monument. After that we checked out the Benaki Museum, which I had not visited before but which proved to be really cool. It has an ancient collection, but there’s also Byzantine artifacts and artifacts from the period of Turkish occupation, so you get a nice sense of Greek culture over a long period. We headed to Phagopoteion for lunch and got some gyros (yay!), then walked down to the Panathenaic Stadium. After a little rest in Loring we headed down to the National Gardens for a nice early evening stroll. The menagerie was crazy that day – we saw a goose attack another goose and rip feathers from its back, two male goats butting horns, and chickens fighting. Crazy.
Tuesday we had to finish up the archaeological ticket (you literally purchase a ticket that has a number of smaller tickets that let you into all the archaeological sites in Athens), so we walked down to the Kerameikos. It’s not as impressive a site by itself, as there’s no monumental architecture, but there’s things like graves and roads and walls and gates you don’t see elsewhere. That day I challenged my family to find three turtles to earn their junior archaeologist badges; I think they found six altogether, so they made a fool out of me there. We checked out the Oberlander Museum, which is in the Kerameikos and has lots of neat finds from the graves, including a monumental marble bull used as a grave marker. After that we checked out the Roman Agora and then Hadrian’s Library, at which point my family had used all their tickets and seen every archaeological site in Athens. Success! But we were hardly done. After a little shopping in Plaka we got a quick lunch and then headed over to the Byzantine Museum. I had never been there before either, but it proved very nice; it’s a good collection, and it’s inside a villa once owned by the Duchess de Plaisance. And that was the end of our sight-seeing, alas. From there we got my family ready for the trip home (this included buying tickets for the bus to the airport; they were going to use it anyway, but it became very necessary when we learned that day that there would be a taxi strike over the next two days). We got dinner at Ithaka, where we dined the first night, and I got pastitsio that was cooked into a crock and delicious, but also hot, so I burned my tongue and can still feel it today. We also managed to fit a little gelato in there before it was time to say good-bye, and I headed back to Loring.
So now they are off, back to America. I only have 48 days until I go back too, which is exciting, especially since I have two more sets of visitors coming, and will hopefully be doing lots of work in between. I didn’t take any pictures, I’m afraid, but Rob took quite a few, and since he knows how to use a camera they’re of a higher quality than my usual fare. You can check them out here.
