After a quick break in Turkey, we were back to Athens for one last stop in Greece. This was Friday, April 3rd. We got off the boat right around 9 am after we docked at 7 am. This is how Pireus, Athen's port, greeted us.
This was our third shore excursion on the cruise. We debated for a bit whether or not we should hire a tour bus for this one, but because some friends told us that Athens city was a bit far away from the port and I read about how difficult it was sometimes to get onto the hop-on-hop-off buses at port, we decided to make life easier and higher a tour guide. In fact, Niki, who did our tour in Olympia, said she'd give us a great deal on another tour in Greece, and so we took her up on her offer. Indeed, it was so nice to just walk out of the port building and find our guide with the bus, ready just for us.
Again, we had a great tour guide, although I can't remember her name. She had an abundance of information about Greece and Athens to share with us on our almost hour bus ride into Athens. Traffic was a bit tricky, especially with all the tour buses around. Our bus drove us around the city to view some sights, and we stopped for a picture at the first modern day Olympics stadium.
Still friends. Still together.
In general, the central part of Athens was nothing really special. It was like--modern buildings, older buildings, BAM-cool ancient columns!
Then again--modern buildings, not so pretty buildings--BAM--beautiful something. Yeah...I am useless at remembering what this was...I think it was a university.
After we were finished with our city bus tour, the bus took us to the bottom of the Acropolis hill. This was not where we got dropped of, this is just a picture of what the hill looks like from the city.
The "hike" up the hill was not very difficult, although the path was uneven and rocky. I would imagine this place is incredibly difficult to explore in the summertime though. For us, the weather was just perfect. We could walk, talk and take beautiful stops to take quick pictures with the city in the background.
One of the disadvantages of exploring cities as part of the cruise is knowing that hundreds of people from your ship would also be joining you in your adventures. This places was PACKED. And this is apparently nothing as we were traveling off-peak.
The first sight we saw was the Erechtheum, temple dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon.
This is it from the other side.
And Mark who did such a great hiking up to these "really old columns".
Finally-a truly magnificent sight. The Parthenon!
Yes...it's being reconstructed and most of it has been destroyed, but nevertheless it remains a symbol of power and flourish of the Greek Empire. I don't think I expected much from this sight, so I was just happy to see that it was still at least partially there.
In the distance you can see the hill from where marble used in Parthenon's construction was excavated.
Did you know that all temples in Greece were designed to be seen only from the outside? Parthenon was built to shelter a gigantic statue of Athena, but viewers could only glimpse at it through the open doors.
My favorite caption of the day: "Greece rocks!".
Kids had a chance to run around for a few minutes among the crowds.
And then we started making our way down to the bottom of the hill.
This is where it was incredibly crowded as people created two lines of going up and down to the Parthenon.
After our tour of the Acropolis hill, our guide gave us two options--go to the Acropolis Musem or go have free time at Plaka, the old town.
I am just impressed that this is a genuine picture below, not photo shopped. It proves that Katya does give me hugs sometimes! hahaha
Katya, Mark and I decided to just go shop for some souvenirs and snacks, while Robert took Alex to the museum. They had a very informative tour with our guide. This is the statues that were supposed to be part of the temple of Athena, but they are being protected from the elements of weather at the museum. But you see, where Alex is standing, there is one statue missing. That is because our British friends "legally" took it to London a while ago and are displaying it at the British Museum.
In fact, there are many statues that are replicas at this museum because the real collection is in Britain. Apparently, the Greeks were told that once they build a museum that would be able to accommodate their precious ancient treasures, the British said they would return the stuff that belongs to Greece. Well, the Greeks did build a museum and made space for all the missing exhibits, but the Brits haven't yet fulfilled their promises.
Alex and Mark both collect replicas of famous buildings and countrysides. Of course we had to buy a miniature Parthenon (this is not it, by the way).
And that was it for Athens. Was it cool? Yes! Was there enough to do for more than a couple of days? Probably not. Many areas of Athens looked quite untaken care of (more than in Turkey). I am sure they are very proud of their ancient heritage that draws so many visitors each year, but its struggling economy is still trying to find a way to recovery. It's sad.
Back at port, most of us headed to the boat, while one of our friends and I went into the port town Pireus to find some Wi-Fi (internet is incredibly expensive on board). We managed to find internet but it came with a price of 6 euros as that is how much my friend was charged for her milk shake! We walked around some more, bought a few sweet Greek snacks and were back on a boat by dinner time.
Good bye Greece!
Lyana.
No comments:
Post a Comment