Touring Athens
Oh Americans. I wonder about them sometimes. The big question with fellow tourists is usually where are you from. Simple question. My favourite is when I tell them Canada, which confuses them. I had one guy tell me he was from Texas, in America. Really? I guess some can be really unknowledgable of everything Canadian. I feel like I should tell them I'm from Alberta and we are going to build a pipeline through their country. Maybe then they'll know where I'm from! Most of the tour group is pretty good and keep to themselves, and I'm fine with that. We do have one a younger guy who has his phd in Latin. So he knows all things roman/ Italian but nothing Greek. So he asks questions to clarify the differences all the time. Some of the other people were commenting on that today so it's not just me.
My feet hurt so much right now, so much. I did so much walking. I think I saw an impressive amount of central Athens. We started the day off with a city tour where we got the highlights and a quick tour. We ended the tour with the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Which was an amazing experience. It was incredible to see all these ancient buildings in person. And it isn't really that busy here with the whole slowly off season and repercussions from the austerity measures. Good for me. Softer the acropolis we were off on our own. So I was an adventure girl. I think the grandma and granddaughter I've been having breakfast with figured I might go with them. I felt a little bad not saying anything but I'm travelling on my own so I go at my own pace.
I also had my travel essentials down. The best advice I have gotten from the guidebooks is always use the bathroom when you can. Even if you don't need it. Especially in Europe with their pay toilets (although, haven't seen it in Greece yet). And my personal thought, bring a water bottle and keep it full whenever you can. It might be heavy but when you spend hours walking the streets of Athens you're okay with the weight. And it had to have been 25+ today. Didn't see any signs with an official number. But it was warm.
After the acropolis I wandered down to the other areas that were included in the cost of admission. I walked to the agora (more free bathrooms!) and the temple of h someone. Can't remember right now. But it was interesting. And a lot of walking. Then I headed to the theatre of Dionysus, which was okay, tomorrow I will be seeing Epidaurus, a fully functioning theatre in far better condition. But it is built right into the hill that the acropolis is on which was impressive.
Then I wandered down farther and found the temple of Zeus, it doesn't have a lot left but one of the columns has fallen so I found it interesting that they left it so that you can see how they were built. The anthropology nerd inside enjoyed that.
I also passed hadrian's arch, which I have learned about before but can't remember much right now. But I was excited to see it. Then I continued down to Syntagma square. It is the big central square. It reminded me of Churchill square in edmonton, only boring Greek instead of boring edmonton. It was okay but I really just walked through to get to the parliament buildings and McDonald's. iits okay, you can judge me.
I did watch the changing of the guards just like in London. Only they do a bit more of a show. They do all this stomping and marching and high leg throwing, thankfully they have man tights they wear or you would see everything when they fly their legs up in the air. Seriously. And then they have to stand still for the next hour. Very British. They also have Pom poms on their shoes. I was amused.
Then I conquered my first taxi. Now they are notorious for ripping of tourists, our tour guide gave us a warning. So I followed her advice and recommendation on how much it should cost and when he quoted me three times the price I walked away. And then he shouted the right price so I got a quick ride to the national archaeology museum for less than 5€. Impressed with myself for being strong. Usually I would have just walked the whole way to avoid the issue.
Finally made it to the museum. Once again it was a little underwhelming. I know that I have an anthropology degree which involves archaeology but I like the people side of archaeology and not the pottery shards
My feet hurt so much right now, so much. I did so much walking. I think I saw an impressive amount of central Athens. We started the day off with a city tour where we got the highlights and a quick tour. We ended the tour with the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Which was an amazing experience. It was incredible to see all these ancient buildings in person. And it isn't really that busy here with the whole slowly off season and repercussions from the austerity measures. Good for me. Softer the acropolis we were off on our own. So I was an adventure girl. I think the grandma and granddaughter I've been having breakfast with figured I might go with them. I felt a little bad not saying anything but I'm travelling on my own so I go at my own pace.
I also had my travel essentials down. The best advice I have gotten from the guidebooks is always use the bathroom when you can. Even if you don't need it. Especially in Europe with their pay toilets (although, haven't seen it in Greece yet). And my personal thought, bring a water bottle and keep it full whenever you can. It might be heavy but when you spend hours walking the streets of Athens you're okay with the weight. And it had to have been 25+ today. Didn't see any signs with an official number. But it was warm.
After the acropolis I wandered down to the other areas that were included in the cost of admission. I walked to the agora (more free bathrooms!) and the temple of h someone. Can't remember right now. But it was interesting. And a lot of walking. Then I headed to the theatre of Dionysus, which was okay, tomorrow I will be seeing Epidaurus, a fully functioning theatre in far better condition. But it is built right into the hill that the acropolis is on which was impressive.
Then I wandered down farther and found the temple of Zeus, it doesn't have a lot left but one of the columns has fallen so I found it interesting that they left it so that you can see how they were built. The anthropology nerd inside enjoyed that.
I also passed hadrian's arch, which I have learned about before but can't remember much right now. But I was excited to see it. Then I continued down to Syntagma square. It is the big central square. It reminded me of Churchill square in edmonton, only boring Greek instead of boring edmonton. It was okay but I really just walked through to get to the parliament buildings and McDonald's. iits okay, you can judge me.
I did watch the changing of the guards just like in London. Only they do a bit more of a show. They do all this stomping and marching and high leg throwing, thankfully they have man tights they wear or you would see everything when they fly their legs up in the air. Seriously. And then they have to stand still for the next hour. Very British. They also have Pom poms on their shoes. I was amused.
Then I conquered my first taxi. Now they are notorious for ripping of tourists, our tour guide gave us a warning. So I followed her advice and recommendation on how much it should cost and when he quoted me three times the price I walked away. And then he shouted the right price so I got a quick ride to the national archaeology museum for less than 5€. Impressed with myself for being strong. Usually I would have just walked the whole way to avoid the issue.
Finally made it to the museum. Once again it was a little underwhelming. I know that I have an anthropology degree which involves archaeology but I like the people side of archaeology and not the pottery shards
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