So my spring break in Athens Greece is coming to an end and it’s time to start winding down a little bit. In no time I’ll be heading to the airport for the trip back to Dubai and I think I’m ready. Although I pretty much have summed up my view of Athens in my head, I want some time to look back a little before I write about it.

Today I headed to the Mediterranean to possibly go for a swim. I took off right after breakfast and made it to the sea in about an hour. I was actually surprised how easily I found it and how quickly I got to it. It’s not like there is a beach in sight or for that matter  you can’t even see the water, you just know the direction and navigate the roads to find it. Where I went was the location of some of the events for the Olympics, at least that’s what it looks like. It’s really quite sad too, there are these huge expanses of spaces or walk ways that one can imagine that when crowded with people would have been incredible to see, but now are pretty much being left to slowly decay. I just checked on google maps and the area I was at appears to be where the gymnastics was held.

Here’s an image from google maps of the area. Notice the warships in the lower left corner and the stadium in the upper right

The first thing I did was to go to the maritime museum to check out some old war ships. One was an old battleship and the others were a destroyer and a replica of the ships of the “Homer” era. After that I wandered towards a marina where some activity was going on. It turns out that I think there was some kind of race scheduled, because there were a lot of sailboats and windsurfers getting into the water and heading in the same directions. I was so envious. I really need to find some hobby that I can spend my time in, or around, the water. Anyway, I got some good videos of a couple of the people heading out.

After that I spent the rest of the day kind of just killing time. I walked around the marina for a little bit, then headed towards the hostel stopping for lunch. After getting back I decided to take a break before heading out again.

So I went down to the lobby of the hostel to sign up for a trip to a nearby city. Supposedly this place is very picturesque and worthy of a two-hour journey out of the city, so I had planned for today to be a day outside of Athens. The only problem is that when I went down to the lobby, it turns out that it was canceled due to lack of interest. I asked the guy if he thought that I’d be able to find the tour someplace else and he said that he doubted it because of the general strike that was going on now. Hmmm… a general strike? Apparently so because all the buses and metro weren’t running, the airport was closed and a host of other services were suspended for the day. That being said, I had to find something else to occupy my time. So I headed towards the Acropolis and instead of turning left up the hill, I went straight, straight towards Constitution Square. This is one of those centers that many European cities have, they all usually have historical significance to the city and Constitution Square is no different, it was the place for many of the big political events in Greece’s recent history. When I got there, there were police everywhere, and not just normal police, but police dressed in riot gear. So cool.

I waited there for the riot to start, but after about three minutes of waiting and with no rioters showing up I decided that I’d watch it on tv… if it was going to be televised.  For about an hour I just walked around going to different places that I wanted to see. There were so many places that I went, I don’t think that I’ll write about them, but I’ll show you the pics of the day, or a good chunk of it at least. There was one thing that I saw that for some reason really struck me as being cool, it was a street lined with orange trees all full with oranges.

About noon the sun came out and showed Athens, and more importantly, the Acropolis in a completely different way. Where it was just okay before now it was stunning to look at, if you’ve ever seen the movie Taps, there’s a part where Tom Cruise in a “psychotic fit” is firing a machine gun out of a window and he looks towards the camera and screams, “It’s beautiful man!” Well, that’s the way I felt with my camera taking photos of the Acropolis; it was absolutely beautiful sitting on the top of the hill being lit up by the sunlight.

After taking close to a ga-jillian photos I decided to walk to the sea. I had a map and knew which direction to go, but I didn’t know what street I was on. The map said one thing, and the street signs said something else, and since I couldn’t seem to match the names I eventually gave up and decided that I’d do it tomorrow.

I got back to the hotel at around 1:00 and rested a bit before going out again.

At this point I spent the rest of the day just wandering the souvenir shops and walking around the Acropolis. Not very many photos the second part of the day, but all told I walked about 15 miles today (according to my gps), and took about 143 photos…

Day two started out on the same vein as the trip here, everything just seems to be going smoothly. The apartment/room in the hostel is great and although I requested a dorm room to save money I have been the only person here. So basically I’ve got a furnished one-bedroom apartment in Athens, Greece for about $20 a night. Not bad, I get free breakfast in the morning and as much coffee as I can drink all day long. About the only thing that makes it difficult is that there isn’t anyone else staying in the room. I know, that last statement conflicts with the one above, but the benefit of not sharing the apartment also means that there’s no one to talk to.

The first thing on my agenda this morning was to see the Acropolis, it is after all, the reason that I considered Athens a “must see” location. So right after breakfast I headed up the mountain to get a look at the “must see” item on my list. Because of the time difference between Greece and Dubai I’m getting up about 2 hours earlier here, about 5am. This is kind of nice in that it gives me a lot of time in the morning to get prepared for the days events, such as going to the Acropolis. I was probably the tenth person to go through the gates this morning, and although it was quite chilly on the top of the mountain, it was very nice to not fight with the crowds that would eventually arrive.

From the Acropolis you can see most of Athens, the blurred building lapping against the sides of the distant hills. If you squint the city looks very much like Amman, Jordan. Most of the buildings on the Acropolis are in pretty bad shape and those areas that seem to be in fair to okay shape are being restored, so although it was great seeing for myself what most people only see in textbooks, it lacked the grandeur that I expected. Not that it wasn’t great to see the Parthenon, it just wasn’t quite as awesome as I thought it would be.

After thoroughly exploring the acropolis, a job that took about 2 hours, I headed for what I think was the old part of Athens know as the Ancient Agora. I spent probably two hours just wandering around, sometimes retracing the same route that I took earlier. All in all, it was nice to see what remained of the old city. There were plaques set up to give you some detail as to what was there originally, for example knowing what a building was used for or what lined a street. I even was occasionally yelled at by some of the guards for being in places that I wasn’t supposed to be in. The Greeks really take the security thing seriously. There must have been as many guards as tourists at this place. Now when I say guards, they’re not armed or even uniformed guards, they’re just people that have a lawn chair strategically staked out within the walls of this ruined city.

After my trek through the Ancient Agora, I headed in the direction of my hostel, wandering the narrow streets that are lined with souvenir shops. My objective was to get something to eat, take a break and then head out later for a trip to the Acropolis Museum.

The Acropolis Museum was created just for the Acropolis, which pretty much makes sense, but if you consider all the other historical sights in Athens and you realize how specialized this museum actually is. It’s a new building and you really get a good sense of what the acropolis must have been like “back in the day.”  Unfortunately though they don’t allow photos to be taken so no photos here. It was very informative and I thoroughly enjoyed learning more. I can’t help think about Galina Mcguire, my art history professor from undergrad, when I think about the Acropolis.

I ended the day back in the apartment with a bag of chips, two beers, and the computer, in preparation for telling you what I did today.

Hmmm… Athens? You know I heard a lot about Athens from quite a few people, and most told me that I wasn’t going to like it there. I’ve been here now for just a little while and I think I’ve seen a little bit of what those people were referring to, but I don’t know, I still kind of like it.

The plane ride was okay, the flight from Dubai to Bahrain was a little bit annoying, but it was only an hour, well within my tolerance. On the other hand, the flight from Bahrain to Athens was great. I somehow lucked out enough to get an empty seat between me and the other guy in my row. It makes all the difference in the world whether you enjoy a flight or not when you can stretch out a little bit. There is nothing worse than being packed into a seat and then fighting with some guy for a fair share of the armrest.

I arrived in Athens at about 1pm and made my way through passport control within ten minutes… another thing that seemed to be going my direction. I went to pick up my checked bag, and guess what, it was about the fourth bag to appear. I literally waited about 2 minutes. I can honestly say that that has never happened to me before. I usually wait for about 20 minutes and when I’m looking for someone to tell that my bag didn’t come through it finally shows up. Found the metro line and got directions to what stop I needed and I was on my way. I did have a little bit of a problem with finding the hostel, but everyone I asked for help really was nice to me. Some times too nice.

I’m staying in a nice studio apartment in the heart of the old part of town. The hostel is actually an old apartment building that has been converted to a hostel. It’s very nice if a little bit small. The location couldn’t be better though, I’m almost under the Acropolis and very close to Hadrian’s Gate. Unfortunately I can’t see either from my room because of the buildings surrounding me, but it’s clearly visible from the corner. Tomorrow I’ll be making my way up the hill to get a better look. Please, please, please, be cool. :)

As I walked around I started to notice that I was being approached quite a bit—not that that is such a bad thing– but what struck me was the way I was being approached. First it was from older men, then they basically said the same thing, “I thought that you were Greek” after that they wanted to talk about life in general. You know, where am I from, and they have a relative in Texas, and all the things trying to make me lower my guard. If it weren’t for my trip to Istanbul last year I think it would work. If you get a chance look over my Istanbul blog and you read the part about how I was falling for these scams to get me into a rug showroom. Thanks to the Turks I’m ready for the Greeks. Each time I walked away from one of these gentlemen I felt that I was being unfair to judge them like I did, but on the other side I kept thinking that if they were young pretty women it probably would have worked.

Better late then never I always say. I’m leaving for Greece in a couple of days and I am now just getting the blog set up. Part of the problem is that I wasn’t sure where I was going for at first. I was thinking Nepal, then India, and I finally settled on Greece. I chose Greece for a couple of reasons, the first being it’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to see… in other words “it’s a must see” destination. Another reason is that I’ve wanted to spend a lot of time in Greece because of my feelings about it. It would seem so wrong to just spend a day or two and not see what Greece has to offer, so I need to dedicate a trip to it. I would prefer that I had at least a week, but four days will be okay. According to some of the weather sites, it’s expected to be cold and rainy while I’m there. :)