It took us a few minutes to figure out how to get to the Acropolis, well we saw it, but we couldn't figure out how to get up there. I ended up asking a police officer, who gave me directions, and it was really easy. The whole way up it just closer and closer, and my heart just started beating faster, and oxygen was just not getting to my brain. I know we had some conversation, and I believe I added to it, but I cannot remember what it was about, and I'm pretty sure my eyes did not leave that little hill that was to my left. Haha. Of course we were going up hill, not that steep, but steep enough, and at around 9:30am I was dying from heat. I was not use to it yet, I mean I live in England... how can I be use to heat? By the time we got to Rome I was fine with the heat, but at that moment noooo way. Heat bad. I think I skipped spring. Oh well, I was in Athens, with the Acropolis getting closer and closer, how could I be worried about anything?
So we found the steps that led up to the Acropolis, and we went up, and the first ruins I saw was the front I guess of the Theatre. I believe it's the same theatre that still has performances during the summer months. I saw it from above, and it is in really good condition, all the seats are there, and it goes pretty high up. I think it's called the Theatre of Herodes Attikus. On the other side is the Theatre of Dionysos, but that is later that I saw that.
So we continued climbing, and got to the ticket office. Oh this was beautiful. I was first in line, and to go into the Acropolis it costs 12 euros, but the ticket is also good for other ruins in the area for about 4 days. I told the woman behind the counter one student ticket, and presented my International Student Identity Card, and she asked where I was going to school. I told her England, and yes I got in FREE! It was amazing! EU students get in free... and as long as I had my Kingston Uni card on me, which I did, I was good to go. So Monica, Kathleen and I got in free, but not Nguyen or Danielle who did not have their cards on them. We laughed at them for that, until we realized they got a cool ticket, and we didn't. Er. Oh well, I'd rather save the money.
We made our way up the last steps to the Parthenon, and argh the scaffolding. Of course, the buildings are ohhh 3000 years old, so they might need a little support, but I wish I could see them without all the scaffolding. The Temple of Nike is covered in it, and the first temple you go through, the The Propylaia, I believe. That's what I think it is, way too much scaffolding. Anyway, we went through that, and there was the Parthenon. Ahhhhhhhh, beautiful. Thankfully there is only some scaffolding inside, and the outside was nice. I just stared for a few minutes, I mean I was on the Acropolis staring at the Parthenon. I think it was sometime that I was on the Acropolis that I really realised how lucky I have been this year. I've seen all of these places on the Travel Channel, or history books, and now here I was standing on the Acropolis. I never really thought it would happen, that I would get to these places, and yet I have been there. It's really so amazing.
We took our pictures our pictures in front of the Parthenon of course... how could we not? That was great, standing in front of it. Danielle made her first of two stupid comments right before my picture was taken, she said that take a picture quickly, that I usually don't smile. I thought Kathleen was going to die from lack of air. She was laughing inside, but also was really confused. I smile all the time. Monica was really confused at that comment too, hahaha. So amusing. Of course maybe she has never seen me smile soo widely, my mouth hurt after seeing the Acropolis, and then later the Colosseum. Oh well.
We stayed on the Acropolis for awhile, just walking around the Parthenon, and then the Erechtheion. That was nice too, I like the statues of the women on the side. I think copies of them are inside the museum, or other statues resembling the ones on the Erechtheion. We had some really nice views of Athens from the top of the Acropolis, and I think it was up there that we made a decision of where we would be spending our evening. The Acropolis is not a very high hill/mountain... there are a lot of them that look down on the Acropolis. In Monica's guidebook, it talks about one of these mountains where you can watch the sunset, so we made our decision that yes we would be doing that. I was already excited to see Athens from even higher up, there is something about a city from up high that I love.
After walking around, we went into the museum that has artifacts from the Parthenon, and the other temples. That was cool, some of them were cool looking artifacts. I took a few pictures, but it was no masterpieces or anything in my opinion.
We left the Acropolis after looking at the Theatre of Herodes Attikus, and climbing a small hill that gave another view of Athens. That was when we saw the Temple of Zeus from up high, and we weren't sure what it was at that time, but knew we had to find it.
After the Acropolis, we investigated the Agora, and oh wow that was another wonder, and loss of oxygen to brain. I'm surprised I don't have brain damage from all the times no oxygen went above my neck... no comment on that statement. In the Agora, we first went to the left, and checked out a museum. We just looked at the statues on the outside, I think there might have been more inside, but we didn't really concern ourselves with it. The statues outside were cool, one of Hercules, and there was two statues that lost their heads, but the descriptions under it had something to do with the Iliad and Odyssey. I was a little confused, but maybe they were statues based on characters from Homer's works. There was one piece that I really liked, it was a slate that had numbers or letters on it about a Report of State Auctioneers. Um well my first question to that is... How do they know??? I mean it's all Greek to me... Hahaha, yeah that joke was made about a hundred times a day, but always welcomed.
There was also statues of some Roman Emperors, but no Marcus Aurelius... sad. There was the other four Good Emperors... just not the coolest. It was weird because everyone believed that I have the biggest crush on Hadrian, I mean I loved his library, I was excited to see his arch, and the bust of him. I mean Hadrian's cool, he's no Marcus Aurelius, but he is the reason Marcus Aurelius was adopted, so go Hadrian!
We continued on our way, our destination was the Temple of Hephaestus, which is on a hill, and like the Parthenon can be seen from a far. On the way, we saw different ruins, not really sure what most of them were. There was some artifacts like a big bowl on the ground, and a sign said that it was from the Odeion of Agrippa. Yeah, I nearly had a heart attack at that. I love Agrippa. He's the military power behind Augustus. He was the one who beat Mark Antony, and without Agrippa, Augustus would have remained Octavian. He's also wonderful in HBO Rome by the way. Which I pointed out to Monica, who shook her head, and probably was thinking what a freak. Hahah, I love HBO Rome way too much.
But the Temple of Hephaestus was really nice. We walked around it, and admired it. It is mostly in good condition. I had a good few minutes staring at the columns, they do interest me. They put so much detail into a column, a piece of stone that holds up more stone. It's just really interesting to me, which explains all the pictures of columns, the tops of them, and the bottoms. Sorry if no one else is interested.
After the Temple, we decided it was lunch time. We headed back down, and on the way I saw something amazing. The remains of the Odeion of Agrippa. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. First of all I hadn't realized that he was in Athens long enough to build a Odeion, but hey it's okay. I took a few pictures of those ruins, I was so excited. The question was already being raised about how I was going to deal in Rome. Agrippa wasn't even an Emperor, and I was having a mini heart attack about over his name, and an Odeion he built. I seriously doubted that I would live past Rome, lol. Hey I did!!!
We got lunch in our square, at this place from Monica's guidebook. Take away pita bread sandwiches for 1,60 euro... what could be better? It had a thing of beef in it, tomatoes and onions. I got mine without onions since I cannot stand them, but Oh wow was it good. My mouth right now is dying for one, and it's only in Athens!!!!!! HOW SAD!
After eating, we explored the market, it's a lot like Camden Town. Storekeepers stand at the entrance to their shops, and talk to you trying to get you to look at their merchandise. I could own a shop in there... people watch all day. How great is that? Going to different cities has given me a greater appreciation for people watching... it's so much fun. Also may be a bit creepy... it all depends on how you want to look at it. Anyway, we started to make our way to the mountain in the middle of the afternoon. There was no rush, so we walked slowly and stopped at anything we wanted to see. We stopped at a post office and mailed our post cards that we had written after eating. We also stopped at a church, that I could not go into because I had shorts on. Oh well, the girls said it was nothing special, and had a lot of scaffolding on it.
We found our way to the Old Royal Palace... and this place was great. We sat in the square, and rested after walking so much, and since it was a few minutes before the hour I suggested we se the changing of the guard. We walked across the street, just as it was starting. The guard uniforms are AMAZING! Skirts, funny shoes... it's just unbelievable. We walked in amazement as they did a walk that belongs in Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks. I can see John Cleese loving this dance, and even adding to it. I could not take these guards seriously... they had puffs on their shoes! They were in skirts and tights! Below is are pics.
We continued up to the mountain, we stopped at a grocery store first. We asked some woman where the nearest one was, and she pointed to her right and said that way. Um, of course we didn't ask how far that way, but it ended up not being that long of a walk. At the grocery store, I picked up bread, and I had still had my apples from the market in our favorite square, so I was all set. We headed up to the mountain after that, and walked up 213 steps to get to the cable car to take us to the mountain. Er. No one said anything about 213 steps. We counted on the way down though.
When we stopped to rest, Kathleen took out an orange she had picked from one of the trees. We had been wondering if it was okay to eat them, so Kathleen took one, and tried it... oh wow, the look on her face was priceless. It was really sour, she said, and ended up throwing it away. We almost died from laughing, it was just priceless.
Our time on the mountain was nice, we sat and ate, and looked down at the city of Athens. It was a little cold, and I was in shorts and a tee shirt. Fun. I had dressed for the hot day of Athens, just not for being on a mountain when the sun was setting, when it decided it should rain and be windy. Imagine that. It was great though. We did get yelled at by a woman from the States. She said that we should remember what country we represent. We weren't doing anything, maybe talking about what people do in Montana to pass time... haha, but nothing bad. Hahha, actually I didn't get yelled at, Kathleen and Danielle did. They were sitting across from Nguyen, Monica and myself, and the woman yelled at them. I would have a few things to say to her. I thought we were representing the US well, I mean we are young, having a good time, learning about Greek culture, maybe not at that second but our trip was very educational. Boo to her. Of course that was the second time, our conversation had been messed with, or not all of it understood, earlier we were talking about HBO Rome, and how everyone had to tone down the British accents so the Americans could understand them, and the woman in front of us said, "Do you speak American? I don't, they are too loud." Stupid British woman, not sure what part of the conversation she heard, but it was the wrong part. I was talking about how the accents, and how sometimes you can hear Agrippa's Irish accent... Oh well.
Our day ended on the mountain. Well somewhat, we went back to the hostel, when the sun set around 8ish, and hit up an internet cafe. We ended up at another cafe around 10ish, and we shared a table with a girl from Wales, and the other from Northern England. It's funny, a year ago, I might have said two girls from England, but I could hear the Welsh accent, and the northern accent in the other girl. We had a good time, and I got some good tea. It was great, and a perfect way to end the day.
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