On Friday night I arrived in Athens. The drive from Anavyssos is a beautiful one that takes you along a winding coastline with beautiful views of the Aegean Sea. It reminded me a bit of driving along PCH, albeit with a Mediterranean feel.
I arrived at the hotel at the exact same time as two bus loads of Greek middle schoolers who were apparently on a weekend field trip to see Athen’s historical sights. It took me a good five minutes to carve my way through the sea of kids, and when I finally got to the front desk I politely requested that my room be as far as possible from the prepubescent masses. No disrespect intended, but I was their age once and I knew how the next couple of days of parental freedom would evolve. Needless to say, I did not envy the chaperones one bit.
To beat the masses, I was out of the hotel by 8:30am on Saturday morning to see as many of Athen’s ancient sites as possible. The first stop was the Acropolis and after hiking to the top I was a bit surprised by how barren it was. Don’t get me wrong -- I was thoroughly impressed by the Parthenon and other temples (most notably the Erechtheum and its Porch of the Caryatids). It was just much more barren than I expected.
The views from the Acropolis were pretty impressive as well.
After touring the top of the Acropolis for a bit, I made my way back down and walked around the perimeter. It was particularly interesting to see the caves where ancient Greeks prayed to the various Gods such as Zeus and Apollo, as well as the Theatre of Dionysus, which dates back to 300 BC and was the site of plays by Sophocles and Euripides.
By the time I finished with my visit to the Acropolis it was around noon, so I stopped for some lunch at a small restaurant that I saw while walking. As everyone there was speaking Greek, I figured that it must not be very touristy – unless everyone there was a Greek tourist, of course. I don’t remember the name of what I had, but I’m pretty sure that it was made of lamb. And was quite good.
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