At last! 2: The Revenge
Jun. 3rd, 2003 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddWe took the 7:35 bus into Athens proper (the airport is a little ways out) and I slept the whole way. When the bus dropped us off at Syntagma, I had to give myself a crash course in navigating the city, which led us to backtrack a few times, but no major trouble. A stray dog adopted us and followed us around for a while, giving up only when we'd checked into a hotel. There are many strays in Athens, dogs and cats alike.
When our rooms were finally free, we took a nap, then headed out, intending to visit the reputedly superb National Archaeological Museum. Well wouldn't you know, it's closed until 2004! Bloh. No matter, we could go see the Ancient Agora, right? "Due to a strike on 01/06/2003, the site will be closed." Silly Greeks, striking on Sunday! So all the historical sites were closed, but we did admire them from afar and wandered the streets of Syntagma/Plaka, the touristy part of the city. It does have interesting shops, however (A-L quickly became obsessed with buying Olympic-themed stuff) and nice restaurants.
Day 2 in Athens was time to visit the Acropolis. We bought ferry tickets on the way, booking a 4-berth cabin on the Knossos Palace, bound for Crete. We didn't really follow the map to get to the Acropolis, just the general direction, and ended up in a maze of steep alleys between white-washed houses. There were flowers everywhere, cats as well, it was beautiful.
We arrived at the entrance to the site and found out that the 12 euro admission gave us entry to 5 other sites, which was a nice bonus. This made M-I wanna see temples!-P very happy, as you can imagine.
The Acropolis itself? Overrun with tourists. You can't actually walk into the temples or touch them; there are legions of guards sitting around with whistles to toot at you if you even try it. I didn't know this, and stroked a column on the way up, somehow managing in my ignorance to escape the notice of the nearest whistle-man.
Really, it was mind-boggling to be standing there. Yes, the temples are half-covered with scaffolding (Olympic-inspired efforts, no doubt), everything is rock and dust and the cloud of pollution hanging over Athens is not too pretty to see, but this is a place, like Paris, like London, that I've read about and seen so many times in pictures that I feel I know. I had fun giving A-L an impromptu history lesson, telling her about the buildings and the things in the museum from what I remembered from my Ancient Greek History class and Bullfinch's Mythology.
We spent over two hours there, taking many, many pictures, trying to avoid including the sun in them (harder than you might think!). After that, we headed down to find lunch. G and I split a litre of retsina because our travelling companions didn't want any, and the meal was good. Mmm, I'm developing a real fondness for Greek salad and bread dipped in olive oil. Our table was right over the metro tracks, on the other side of which was the temple of Haphaestos, wonderfully preserved on the side of a hill. Can you beat that for a table with a view?
Next we visited the Agora, which includes the afore-mentioned temple, lots of broken columns, stoa (stoae?) and the House of Simon. Unfortunately, there was no sign to tell us who Simon was. Along one side, there is a reconstructed stoa and I now understand. A long marble hallway, open on one side, catches the wind and is wonderfully cool in the heat. Pretty smart! I can just imagine what the place must have looked like a bit over two thousand years ago, with stoa along the south and west sides too.
We also visited the Roman Agora, which was smaller but had more columns. We also tried for the temple of Olympian Zeus but by the time we go there it was 5:30 and the site closes at 3. 3?! Since our boat only left at 10, we had a few hours to kill, during which we ate and A-L bought more stuff.
The port of Athens is actually Piraeus, about 1/2 hour away. We took the metro, which took us right to the port. Night was falling, it was a little before 9, and we had no idea at which end of the harbour our boat was waiting. We tried one end, but apparently didn't go far enough, because once we were halfway around the harbour, we saw our boat back where we had come from. Doh!
Our cabin was snug and comfy, but we didn't get that much sleep because we arrived in Iraklion before 6 a.m. We sat around at a harbour-side cafe, eating and goofing around, and finally walked into town and checked into the Youth Hostel. There, we slept. Now it's early afternoon and we plan on seeing the Archaeological Museum, to try and counter the bitterness of not being able to see the big one in Athens. Tomorrow, Knossos!
When our rooms were finally free, we took a nap, then headed out, intending to visit the reputedly superb National Archaeological Museum. Well wouldn't you know, it's closed until 2004! Bloh. No matter, we could go see the Ancient Agora, right? "Due to a strike on 01/06/2003, the site will be closed." Silly Greeks, striking on Sunday! So all the historical sites were closed, but we did admire them from afar and wandered the streets of Syntagma/Plaka, the touristy part of the city. It does have interesting shops, however (A-L quickly became obsessed with buying Olympic-themed stuff) and nice restaurants.
Day 2 in Athens was time to visit the Acropolis. We bought ferry tickets on the way, booking a 4-berth cabin on the Knossos Palace, bound for Crete. We didn't really follow the map to get to the Acropolis, just the general direction, and ended up in a maze of steep alleys between white-washed houses. There were flowers everywhere, cats as well, it was beautiful.
We arrived at the entrance to the site and found out that the 12 euro admission gave us entry to 5 other sites, which was a nice bonus. This made M-I wanna see temples!-P very happy, as you can imagine.
The Acropolis itself? Overrun with tourists. You can't actually walk into the temples or touch them; there are legions of guards sitting around with whistles to toot at you if you even try it. I didn't know this, and stroked a column on the way up, somehow managing in my ignorance to escape the notice of the nearest whistle-man.
Really, it was mind-boggling to be standing there. Yes, the temples are half-covered with scaffolding (Olympic-inspired efforts, no doubt), everything is rock and dust and the cloud of pollution hanging over Athens is not too pretty to see, but this is a place, like Paris, like London, that I've read about and seen so many times in pictures that I feel I know. I had fun giving A-L an impromptu history lesson, telling her about the buildings and the things in the museum from what I remembered from my Ancient Greek History class and Bullfinch's Mythology.
We spent over two hours there, taking many, many pictures, trying to avoid including the sun in them (harder than you might think!). After that, we headed down to find lunch. G and I split a litre of retsina because our travelling companions didn't want any, and the meal was good. Mmm, I'm developing a real fondness for Greek salad and bread dipped in olive oil. Our table was right over the metro tracks, on the other side of which was the temple of Haphaestos, wonderfully preserved on the side of a hill. Can you beat that for a table with a view?
Next we visited the Agora, which includes the afore-mentioned temple, lots of broken columns, stoa (stoae?) and the House of Simon. Unfortunately, there was no sign to tell us who Simon was. Along one side, there is a reconstructed stoa and I now understand. A long marble hallway, open on one side, catches the wind and is wonderfully cool in the heat. Pretty smart! I can just imagine what the place must have looked like a bit over two thousand years ago, with stoa along the south and west sides too.
We also visited the Roman Agora, which was smaller but had more columns. We also tried for the temple of Olympian Zeus but by the time we go there it was 5:30 and the site closes at 3. 3?! Since our boat only left at 10, we had a few hours to kill, during which we ate and A-L bought more stuff.
The port of Athens is actually Piraeus, about 1/2 hour away. We took the metro, which took us right to the port. Night was falling, it was a little before 9, and we had no idea at which end of the harbour our boat was waiting. We tried one end, but apparently didn't go far enough, because once we were halfway around the harbour, we saw our boat back where we had come from. Doh!
Our cabin was snug and comfy, but we didn't get that much sleep because we arrived in Iraklion before 6 a.m. We sat around at a harbour-side cafe, eating and goofing around, and finally walked into town and checked into the Youth Hostel. There, we slept. Now it's early afternoon and we plan on seeing the Archaeological Museum, to try and counter the bitterness of not being able to see the big one in Athens. Tomorrow, Knossos!
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Date: 2003-06-03 05:26 am (UTC)Enfin, le plaisir de lire une chronique amusante. Pas que nous étions inquiets (vous êtes les 4 mousquetaires après tout) mais nous avions hâte de participer, si loin que nous sommes, au plaisir du dépaysement.
Je peux presque sentir le plaisir de la chaleur au bord d'une belle étendue d'eau qui clapote.
Ici c'est la routine. Mais au moins il fait très beau depuis 2 jours. Soleil lumineux et bonne température (23 hier et aujourd'hui). Rien de spécial ici à Bisson. Nous attendons toujours le résultat de Jennie. Pas d'inquiétude cependant.
Continuez de jouir de votre chance. À la prochaine chronique. Des bonjours à tous.
Becs. Becs.
Ziquezon