ATHENS, GREECE

I was expecting Athens to be a cheap hotel city, but I found out while I was asking around when I was there during the week that it isn’t all that cheap. The guy at the STA Travel office where I bought my Egypt ticket told me there are some good deals a couple blocks up a hill from their office, so after I got off metro I headed in that direction. It was Easter Sunday so it was very quiet in town even though Greece celebrates Easter about a month later. I guess Sundays in general are quiet, just like the rest of Europe. The first hotel on the recommended block was called the Acropolis House Hotel and I went in. The guy behind the counter was very friendly and spoke excellent English. I looked at a room and was pleased with it so the €45 per night didn’t seem too bad. I put my stuff in the room and started a self-guided orientation tour.

My plan was to save the Acropolis for the full day I had the next day, but most of the other interesting sights are in that area so that’s where I headed. I walked through this large area that would be considered the “old town” and was very impressed. Athens is very clean and decorated nicely and the car traffic is minimal through the downtown. I was going to do a walking tour that was described in my Let’s Go – Greece guide that started at Agora, which is the archeological sight that used to be the main city below the Acropolis itself. A combined ticket for the two sights was €12 so I figured I would save that for the next day also, but I saw people just streaming in. I found out that the sights are free every Sunday through winter and this was the last one. Needless to say, I decided to go right on in and tour both places right then even though it was already late in the afternoon.

I decided to march straight up to the Acropolis first and then come down to Agora afterward on my way back toward my hotel. I had pulled a muscle on that crummy bike I rented a week before and I had re-aggravated it a few days later so I was worried about the steep climb but it turned out to not be a problem. It’s a long way up to the top, but a gentle enough slope that it’s not too difficult. The Acropolis, by the way, is the name of the ancient city that is on top of a mountain that stands in the center of the modern day Athens. The Parthenon is (the remains of) an ancient temple within the Acropolis, but there are about 6 or 7 other building remains up there. They are impressive, but they look exactly as you would expect they would and very similar to other building remains I had seen before. The amazing thing is the 360-degree view of the entire city from up there.

The crowds were pretty large, but manageable since it’s such a large area. There is also a museum with some remains and artifacts that was interesting, but thankfully isn’t too large. I wondered around up there for a bit and took some photos then headed back down to through Agora and took some photos there. It’s all pretty impressive and well kept, but nothing really shocking. Not only did I save the €12 that I would have had to pay the following day, but I got to see it all as the sun was getting ready to set and that was doubly nice. After that I headed back to my hotel and spent the evening doing some computer work with my deadlines fast approaching.

The next day I found myself once again in the position of having checked off most of the top attractions with lots of time remaining in town. The only other “must see” attraction, according to the books, was the large museum filled with Greek artifacts. It is located on the outskirts of the center of town. I decided to walk, but I stopped first at the government building overlooking the Syndagma Square to see the changing of the guards. At the top of every hour there is a ceremony where two new guards replace the two previous guards with a solemn, but extremely goofy routine. They wear these big, floppy shoes with puffy balls on the toes and do this high stepping routine that the Let’s Go correctly describes as a cross between a Nazi goosestep and a Rocketts dance.

I walked the rest of the way to the museum, but on the way I was slightly limping from the pulled muscle in my left leg. I crossed a street just as the light was turning red and as I hurried to the other curb I landed on an extremely uneven section of pavement and twisted my ankle and fell down completely near the curb just as the cars were headed toward me. I wasn’t close to being hit, but I bet it looked pretty funny to everyone else. I popped back up and started limping my way toward the museum like there was nothing wrong. I now had a slight limp in my left leg and a worse one in my right ankle. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I “walked it off” on my way to the museum and that normally just delays the pain and stiffness. The next morning it felt much worse, but after about another day it was barely noticeable. That really could have ruined a couple days if I was hurt worse, but it didn’t really cause a problem.

The museum was interesting and really put things into perspective. The sculptures that were over 2,000 years old were proportionately perfect and looked just like the famous sculptures from 500 years ago. These are all things we all were taught in school, but seeing it in person really is a very different thing. I still find most museums to be quite boring while I am there, but I think I will remember what I have seen in places like this for a long time. I didn’t spend too long there, but I am very glad I went.

I walked back across town into the old section of the city and was once again very impressed by modern day Athens. You could see from the top of the Acropolis that the city sprawls for miles in every direction and I have no idea what the outer parts of the city are like, but the area surrounding all the tourist attractions and business center is nearly spotless. I went to a supposedly famous souvlaki place and had a delicious sandwich for €1.50. In general Athens is quite a bit cheaper than Italy and I found it easier to deal with as an English speaker. All the signs are in Greek with their own weird alphabet, but anything of any interest to tourists is also in English as well. The city wasn’t too overrun with tourists at this time of the year, but it seemed that most were from English speaking countries and Germany.

After cruising around for a while and taking some more photos I did some more computer work that I had to do and rested up a bit. As sunset approached I headed out again toward the Acropolis. I could see the lights when I was up there that indicated they floodlight the place in the evenings, just like most other monuments in Europe. My camera takes blurry photos when the flash isn’t used in low lighting, but still the scene was remarkable. There is a long strip of restaurants along a road next to Agora that have a wonderful view of all the floodlit monuments at night and the weather was perfect that evening. My ankle was still hurting at that time and I didn’t want to be too far away from my hotel so I chose to have dinner at a very nice sidewalk café closer to my hotel and had a great meal. I turned in after that, thoroughly impressed by Athens.

The next morning I checked out and got the metro train that now connects the city center with the airport in 40 minutes for €6 and was at the airport more than two hours before my flight to Cairo. Goodbye Europe, for now.