Acropolis Now

We arrived in Athens at about 10pm and so everything was dark, but as we emerged from the Metro, nothing, not even the night darkness was going to disguise the filth.  I don't know Athens very well so I don't know if we were just in the dodgy part of town or if it all looked like this, but it wasn't a type of place that you felt ok to hang around.

Our hotel was pretty close to the Metro stop, so it only took us about 10 minutes to walk with our suitcases.  Although we probably ran most of it!  We were so hot and bothered when we arrived the man at reception had to get us a big glass of water before we could begin the check in!

(View from our window)

Have you ever wondered what green grocers do with all those plastic crates?

The hotel was average.  There was a big group of 18 year old Australians on a Contiki tour at breakfast, so you can surmise the quality of the hotel by that.  It advertised that it had a roof top bar........

But I guess you have to admit that it had a pretty good view of the Acropolis!

It was going to be bloody hot in Athens on our one day here and after Ephesus and the 45℃ fiasco, we knew we'd have to get up and get going early to see the Acropolis.  

 Athens, like Rome is all about the ruins.  On our way up to the Acropolis, we came across 100's of sites.  This one ⬇ was the library of Hadrian..... I didn't even know Hadrian could read?!  It's amazing to see the size of the buildings and how they would have built them back in the day with no cranes or heavy machinery.  It's crazy to think about.

I mean - archways.... who thought of that?

And mosaics!  Did someone one day smash something and try desperately to put it back together before the wife got home and then mosaics were invented?

This was the floor to a church...... not much of it left now, but you can imagine what a massive job it would have been.

Out of all the major cities I've seen, Athens has the most visibly homeless people sleeping rough.  I know that there are many homeless everywhere, but I've never seen anything quite like this before.  I didn't want to take any photos of the people sleeping, but I did come across a bench already made up for the night.  I love how this person has kept it all nice and neat.  Every bench we walked past had a person sleeping on it or under it or near it or behind it, and sometimes all four!

Athens wasn't all rubbish though, there were some lovely little pockets, as there are with all big cities.  

We finally reached the the bottom of the hill and started our journey up the hill to reach the Acropolis when we came across two gentlemen who were carving and chiseling stone.  We showed a bit interest in what they were doing so we got a full blown lecture and demonstration on how they restore the stones using old fashioned tools and measuring equipment.  It was quite fascinating.

They'd just finished telling us about their work and how long they'd been doing it.  We told them how appreciative we were of their time etc...... as we left an American woman walked up to them and said "Do you speak American?  Where are the bathrooms?"

A man in a wheelchair was taken straight up the side of the wall, but we went the hard way..... all the way around, otherwise known as....... the Medieval Way - we walked around the whole thing before getting to the front gate!

We did get to see some pretty high tech ancient things such as the Mycenean Fountain

Honestly, I crack myself up!

The whole time we were walking around the wall I kept thinking of Game of Thrones and hard it was going to be scale the wall.  Unfortunately Madds had never seen any episodes so my comments and comparisons were completely lost on her.  In fact, every time I'd mention anything her reply was "I can't be a part of that conversation"  and that tends to kill a conversation right there!

Members of the Night's Watchmen.... or is it Knight's Watchmen?  I was never sure.

How well preserved and maintained is this amphitheatre?

This is still used for concerts and theatre and whatnot.

And it's cleaned step by stop by these two gents.....

What a job hey?

Speaking of jobs...... this man's job was to stand on top of the ruins and either blow his whistle or call out to people who were climbing on the ruins to get off the ruins.

And there were literally 1000's of people to yell out to.  Every couple of minutes there would  be a whistle or a shout out as a kiddie tried climbing up a slopey marble bit and slid down.  People filed in like sheep into the narrow entrance which was also the exit - Greeks are clever people, so perhaps someone foreign organised this system?

Once we were in there - it was amazing.  Hot, but amazing.

I'm admiring the architecture here like I know what I'm talking about!

We did it - our last historical site for this journey!

oh yeah!

This lady may have looked completely silly, but I bet she didn't get sunburnt, wasn't hot and didn't breath in any dust.  Who's the bigger lamo now?

So the crazy thing was that when we got there it was busy, but when we tried to leave there were about 50 times more people and they all wanted to exit at the same time.  It took about 30 minutes of standing in the blazing sun to get out a very small two person wide gap that led into a one person at a time down the stairs.  

Crazy!  

But what is even crazier is that we did the whole thing with no water.  Usually we both carry a bottle, but for some reason, we didn't have one on us thinking that surely we'd be able to get water there..... but it was not to be.  So once we got down we were like walkers from the desert dragging themselves towards the mirage..... but the only shop there had run out of water - can you believe that shit?  So we had to settle for frozen lemonade. I know - poor us!