Athens

August 10th, 2010

Athens is a big crowded noisy city and now is vacation time so it must be worse at other times. We woke up at 8AM and of course it was already hot and getting hotter. After breakfast, we took the subway to Monastiraki stop and walked first to the ruins of the Roman Forum and then to the larger Greek Agora site where you can walk up and down the hill leading to the Acropolis. The sun was beating and the crickets were loud. Kate was being moody about touring in the sun. The site was the former meeting place of Athenians for centuries. [We forget the sweep of time but 200 years was enough for 4-5 generations to pass.] Most impressive was the Stoa or portico which was recreated to two stories height. The building measured 120 metres in length and 20 metres in width. The colums and wooden beams were massive. There were numerous sculptures, including that of Pericles and Hercules. It allows you to imagine better what living in the 4-5th centuries BC was like. In the same area was also the mostly preserved Temple of Hephaistus. Towering over everything was the Acropolis, visible from most of central Athens.
After playing tourists, we stopped at a cafe for a drink, one of many stops daily for fluids and cooler air. Then we trudged onward to the Acropolis Museum, through the Plaka and to the ultramodern museum. The first thing to notice is that under the ground floor, we can see the remains of an Athenian village still being excavated. Inside, the Museum was cool and contemporary, with exhibits of the lintels, stones and parapets of the site, We had a slow light lunch at the museum looking out at, of course, the Parthenon. Then, in the habit of Greeks, we drifted back to the hotel to take a short siesta. Another drink and a snack of grapes.

Around 530PM, we took the surface tram to Syntagma stop. A short inspection of the interior of the Grande Bretagne followed (luxury from a different era). Then we veered somehow haphazardly through the Kolonaki district and its high fashion boutiques. There were numerous cafes with members of the idle rich and others present The stores were often empty or with high end salespeople smiling in an effort to woo customers in multiple languages. At end of our wanderings we ended up in a large department store, Attica, with six floors of  luxury goods. Overwhelming!.

The final part of the day was back to Plaka for a cocktail and a dinner. We lazily sat in a square with competing cafes. We had delicious stuffed tomatoes and a plate full of mixed grill. I finally tasted retsina again and it is definitely an acquired taste. [Guittel hated it.]We sat around the table reminiscing about the last two weeks and the events and moments that make for long term memories. Then a final slow walk below the Acropolis for a fredducinno and ice cream and we were back at the hotel, packing and pondering the day tomorrow. Back to Canada.