I had quite the odyssey getting from Eleusis into Athens. I don’t know if the traffic is always like that or if it was bad luck because of an accident, but holy crap! There was a lot of sitting still, eventually an illegal U-turn and an epic reroute (thanks to my excellent map skills), driving every crazy residential back alley in the suburbs, until I finally finished my twelve mile drive in just over three hours. Whew, I don’t ever want to do that again! The good news is, I found my hostel, checked in, got dinner, and then enjoyed this amazing view of the Parthenon from the rooftop terrace. What a day!

Get comfortable because this is a looong post. I hit the ground running that first morning checking out some sites close to the hostel. Just down the street are a couple of landmark Athens neoclassical buildings. First is the Academy of Athens. It’s Greece’s primary research center and this is just the main building. It was built between 1859 and 1885.

Even though the buildings are newish, the Academy of Athens has technically been around since the 4th century BC. It was founded by Plato and this is where he primarily taught. Anyway, The outside of the newish building is decorated with lots of statues and sculptures from Greek mythology as well as a couple of very famous Greek Philosophers. This is probably as close as you can get to really visualizing what all those ancient temples may have looked like.

Just on the other side of the square is the other landmark neoclassical building, Vallianeio Megaron, which houses the Greek national library.

Even closer to my hostel is the old Parliament building. Greece apparently outgrew this one and needed a bigger space. Out front is a national hero, Theodoros Kolokotronis. He was a Greek general and the commander of the Greek forces during Greece’s war for independence against the Ottomans in the early 19th century. Basically, he’s Greece’s George Washington, so he’s a pretty big deal.

Inside the Old Parliament is where they keep the Greek Historical Museum, focused primarily on the war for independence. Seeing the old parliament was pretty interesting too. I can see why they needed a bigger space though.

There was a lot of history in here and pretty much all of it was new to me. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about Greece. Lots of paintings of Greek patriots, lots of guns, lots of swords, and Theodoros Kolokotronis’ helmet and armor. Turns out this guy was an honest to goodness legit badass. He was a klepht, which were people who retreated to the mountains in the 15th century to be anti-Ottoman bandits. Awesome! He served in the Russian navy during the Russo-Turkish war in 1805, joined the British army in 1809 to fight in the Napoleonic wars, and then eventually returned to Greece in 1821 just in time to start the Greek revolution and eventually become a national hero. There’s a lot more to his story, but that’s the gist. His helmet is his British army helmet to which he added the cross himself.

I also really liked these paintings by another Greek general whose name I can’t remember. I knew I should’ve taken a picture of the sign. Oh well, he painted these on wooden slats during the war. It was very interesting to see depictions of the war that were painted as it was happening by someone who was actually there.

Back to the ancient stuff and I’m skipping around a little bit here, but my first day in Athens I went to the National Archeological Museum, the big kahuna. It was really cool to see artifacts from all of the other sites I’ve visited around the country and to be able to visualize where they actually came from. Like this golden death mask of Agamemnon. They called it that because they really did believe it was him when they found it, but it turns out the masks were made to cover the face of the deceased, not an actual mold.

Of course there was tons of pottery and some great examples of ancient Mycenean art.

I can’t remember exactly where all of these statues were found, but it was refreshing to see some whole statues with heads. As for the heads without bodies, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe I’ve already seen the bodies in another archeology museum somewhere.

This bronze statue of Zeus was really unusual. He would have originally been holding a lightning bolt in his right hand and had an eagle on his left hand.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a full size intact statue of Poseidon anywhere. This one ended up being one of my favorites.

There were hundreds and hundreds of chunks of temple decorations from all over ancient Greece, like this piece below of a Greek soldier battling Amazons. My question is, if you’re gonna go into battle naked, why bother with the helmet?

My wanderings next took me through the National Garden. It used to be the Royal Garden, but now it’s the National Garden and everyone gets to enjoy it. It’s basically a big city park, but while they were making it people friendly, they discovered the mosaic floor from a Roman villa. You can’t do anything here without bumping into some kind of ancient ruins. Oh, and turtles, I found turtles!

The National Garden is right next to and partially surrounds the Greek Parliament. The flag on top really cooperated for me. Also, the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is right in front. They have a really unusual changing of the guard ceremony every hour. Not to be disrespectful, but I think they could use a choreographer. Seriously, who comes up with those moves?

Also not too far away is the Panathenaic Stadium. I didn’t go inside but I could still see most of it from the square in front. It was originally a racecourse in the 3rd century BC, then it was rebuilt in marble in the 2nd century AD, then it was excavated and refurbished in about 1870 and used to host the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. Today, it’s still the largest marble stadium in the world.

Walking the streets of cities like Athens, sometimes you see unusual things, but this was really unusual. I can’t even comprehend the physics of this one. No other cars involved, that ridiculously narrow street with all those parked cars, it’s a head scratcher. If one of those parked cars was mine, though, I’d be pretty upset.

After marveling at that guys parking skills I continued on my way up to the top of Lycabettus Hill. I did cheat a little by riding the funicular up just for fun. It’s right there in the name after all. The view was amazing. I could see the Parthenon right in the center, the temple of Olympian Zeus all the way to the left, and the temple of Hephaestus all the way to the right (I’ll get to all of those later). Also, that little peninsula way out there is Piraeus where I caught the ferry and waaay off to the left you can baaarely make out the island of Aegina, where I was a few days ago.

I’m already impressed with the Parthenon and I haven’t even gone up there yet. Here’s a closer close up picture of it just for the heck of it.

I’m staying in the Monastiraki area of Athens, where everything is and where everyone stays. There are a few ancient churches in the neighborhood, but this one wins the prize. The 16th century Holy Church of the Sacred Power, which has been completely swallowed by the Electra Metropolis Hotel. I would love to see the looks on the 16th century parishioners faces if they could see this. I think the nutcracker dude adds to the ambience.

This next day it was supposed to rain, so I had planned a museum day. The morning was beautiful though, so I took advantage of the good weather and went to one of the archeological sites first, the Lyceum of Aristotle. It really doesn’t look like much today, but this place was founded by Aristotle in 335BC and is where he taught and wrote most of his famous works that have been influencing human thought for over 2300 years. There was also a gymnasium and it had one of the most extensive libraries in the ancient world. It’s arguably one of mankinds most important archeological sites.

The skies were still beautiful, but I started my museum hopping anyway since they were all here in the same neighborhood. The Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation is a private art collection that’s now a museum. It was fairly small, but they had some beautiful pieces in there, including a small Jackson Pollock, one of my all time favs.

Right next to Aristotle’s Lyceum was a giant Byzantine Museum. This place was very extensive and detailed. I won’t bore you with millions of pictures of Christian saints, but the best part was this full set of medieval chainmale armor. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a complete set. Awesome! The other painting I think was one of the oldest in the place, 3rd or 4th century AD. It was just labeled as an Archangel.

Athens is not short on museums. In addition to the National Museum, there are also a handful of private collections to check out, like the Museum of Cycladic Art. This collection focuses on the prehistoric bronze age culture (2800-2300BC) from the Cycladic Islands, out in the Aegean Sea just a bit to the south and where I’m going next (hint hint). No reason why I can’t get a head start though.

Not a whole lot is known about these people, but they created a lot of these really interesting marble figures. The guy below left is the only one ever found that’s sitting with one arm raised holding a cup. I think it’s proof these people were coffee drinkers.

They also had a small collection of artifacts from Cyprus. I’m not going there this time, that will have to be another trip. The weather was still nice when I entered this museum right before sunset. When I came out though it was dark and raining like a monsoon. Walls of water and lightning all around. I had an umbrella with me, but it was the kind of rain that was so heavy an umbrella doesn’t do any good. And the streets were all flooded rivers too, so most of the walk back to my hostel was in ankle to shin deep water. I was an absolute mess by the time I got back.

The next morning it was still raining a bit, but not too bad. Still, I decided I needed to do something about my soaked and now smelly clothes. Luckily, there was a great little laundromat just a couple of blocks away, so I spent the morning doing laundry and ignoring the signs on the dryers that said “No Shoes in the Dryers”. Ha!

Feeling great now with clean dry clothes, lunch in my belly, and blue skies coming back, I went to the Benaki Museum. This was a big mix of the ancient stuff, the more recent art, and assorted Greek cultural knick knacks. Above is part of a grave stelae. They often depict one person bidding farewell to the deceased, but this was just the hands. It was a new take on a very common theme. For some reason I liked it a lot. I also really enjoyed the early 19th century paintings of Athens. It was a much different place then. I learned that at the time Greece won their independence from the Ottomans in 1829, there were less than a thousand people living here. Wow!

After several days in Athens I finally hauled my butt up to the Parthenon. The whole hill is known as the Acropolis of Athens. This is also the only place I’ve been in Greece, including in Athens, that was legitimately crowded. I don’t even want to imagine being in this country during the summer months. No thanks! To get in you have to climb up and through the monumental Propylaea the same way the ancient Greeks did.

This hill has been inhabited since around 4000BC, but the buildings you can see today were built by Pericles in the 5th century BC. The Propylaea was one of the last buildings added. Apparently due to wars and architectural changes of plan during the construction, it was never officially finished. In addition to its function as the entrance to the Acropolis, it also houses the little Temple of Athena Nike (Victorious Athena).

As soon as you’re through the Propylaea the massive Parthenon comes into view, one of the most iconic places in the world. The Parthenon was originally a Temple for Athena and was kind of a thank you to the goddess for her help in defeating the Persians. Much later, it also became a Christian church in the 6th century AD and a mosque in the 15th century AD. It’s quite something to see it in person.

In the 17th century it was largely destroyed because the Ottomans were using it as a munitions warehouse when the Venetians bombed it. And in the very early 19th century most of the remaining sculptures were pilfered by a British Earl and sent to England, where they still reside to this day. There’s not much left of it here in Greece, unfortunately. I think it’s time for some repatriation.

The view from here of Monastiraki was just amazing. My hostel is down in the middle of that somewhere and that pyramid shaped hill right of center is Lycabettus Hill from earlier.

A little off to the side is the Erechtheion. There’s much debate as to what it was actually used for, but it’s believed to have been dedicated to Athena and Poseidon. This is supposedly where they had their epic competition for the patronage of the city which Athena won. It also has a very unique porch featuring six Caryatids.

Heading down the southern slope of the Acropolis is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It was built in 161 AD by the Athenian and Roman senator Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife. How sweet!

Further down is the much older 6th century BC Theatre of Dionysus Eleutherius. In its prime it could accommodate 25000 people, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at it now.

Finally, I made it back down to civilization where I could see some of the fortification walls. If this was all you ever saw of it, you would have no idea what awesomeness was up there. This was a pretty big day, time for some food.

Despite most of the cool sculptures being STOLEN by the British, the Acropolis had its own museum. They have plaster casts of some of the sculptures in there along with a fair amount of the real stuff.

With three temples dedicated to Athena on that one hill, you can imagine that the museum was mostly Athena artifacts. I think every shard of pottery in the country with any trace of Athena on it was in this place.

I was a tiny bit let down to learn that the Caryatids on the Erechtheion are replicas. The real ones are here in the museum. The one on the far right was destroyed by an Ottoman cannon and the one missing toward the left is in England… STOLEN. Definitely time for some repatriation!

In the 6th century BC Greeks were introduced to the Phrygian mother goddess, Cybele. The Greeks apparently had mixed feelings about her, but she gained a following and small statues of her are found here and there.

I finally found out about the competition between Athena and Poseidon. Poseidon struck a rock with his trident and created a salt water spring. Athena struck a rock with her spear and an olive tree grew out of it. And that’s how Athena won and why the city is called Athens. Legend has it that the Erechtheion was built around the olive tree, though it was destroyed centuries ago by Ottomans or Venetians or Romans or somedamnbody. Anyway, I kind of agree with this one. What are the city dwellers of Athens supposed to do with a salt water spring? What was Poseidon thinking?!

The sculptures that survived the Parthenon’s destruction in 1687 were scattered all over and like a big puzzle. Even though the British STOLE most of it, the only source for how it all fit together were the detailed drawings of Jacques Carrey who visited the site just thirteen years before it was blown up in 1674. What timing! Amidst all the plaster copies of STOLEN sculptures, I was surprised to see this one really cool original piece. Left to right, that’s Poseidon and Apollo having a chat, and Aphrodite with what used to be Eros on her lap.

There are seven official archeological sites around Athens. The Acropolis is just one of those. Time to explore the others. First this is the Madrasa Gate. It was the entrance to an Islamic school in the Ottoman years, but now it’s the only evidence left in Athens that those years even happened.

Just at the bottom of the Acropolis is the Roman Forum, built at the end of the 1st century BC. It’s a very small site and I got here after it closed. Luckily I could see everything from the street. I walked around the whole thing, took pictures through the fence and called it good. This place had a really unique building too, at least for ancient Greece, the Horologion of Andronikos Cyrrhestes, a 1st century BC Greek astronomer. Also called the Tower of the Winds, it was used as a meteorological station and a clock. It had a sundial, and when it was cloudy the hydraulic clock took over.

Next to that was Hadrian’s Library, but first another view of the Temple of Hephaestus. I’m getting closer and closer to it. The closer I get the more impressive it is.

Ok, focus, Hadrian’s Library. It was built by… yes, emperor Hadrian in 132AD. It was… yes, a library and cultural complex. There’s not much left except this really impressive wall and a few columns.

The most significant ruin here was actually the 5th century AD Byzantine Tetraconch Basilica, which they built right in the middle of Hadrian’s, by then ruined, Library. It’s believed to have been Athens first cathedral.

The Roman Forum was sort of the downtown of the Roman times, but much earlier, the downtown of the ancient Greek times was the Agora of Athens. The first thing you see when you enter this site is… the Temple of Hephaestus, and it is awesome! According to the signage and what I read online, this is officially the most intact and complete ancient Greek temple in the world. Even the inner sanctuary is still standing! It was built in the 5th century BC and Hephaestus is the god of fire, metalworking, and craftsmanship.

Now it’s time to explore the rest of the site. There honestly wasn’t much left of the rest of the Agora. All that was left of the Odeon was the entrance with its Triton statues.

Only one of the statues had a head. I found one of the other heads in the museum though.

The Stoa of Attalos has been completely restored and is where the museum is. It’s interesting to see how these places may have looked in their prime.

There were a few other foundations of temples and some houses there. The Middle Stoa was the easiest part to make out though. And the view of the Acropolis was really pretty from here.

Just down the street from the Agora of Athens was Kerameikos. I don’t know anything about it because it was closed for “maintenance”, but I got a token pic of it through the fence.

On the other side of the Acropolis is Nymph’s Hill. There were a lot of ruins in this area, or rather, the ruins of ruins. There was very little to gawk at. The Philopappos Monument at the highest peak was the exception.

Philopappos was a Syrian born man who became a very prominent Athens citizen and benefactor, a friend of emperors and philosophers. This monument was built by his sister and the people of Athens in 116AD when he died. It’s interesting how some things survive the ages while others just vanish.

The best part of this high hill was the view. At the bottom of the Acropolis to the left is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Then from left to right, the Propylaean, Erechtheion, Parthenon, and Lycebettus Hill in the background. What a sight!

I know this post is ultra long, but we’re almost done, I promise. The last official archeological site in Athens is the Temple of Olympian Zeus. There’s only a few columns left, but this was once the largest temple in ancient Greece. Ironically, it was never even finished. They started building in the 5th century BC, got delayed several times by wars and such, the project was eventually taken up by at least three different Roman emperors up to and including Hadrian in the 2nd century AD, but they just couldn’t get the job done.

The temple is obviously getting a lot of help these days. I would’ve loved to have seen this without all of the scaffolding, but what can you do? This thing was once twenty columns long and eight columns wide. Wow! At the other end there are only three lonely columns left. The middle one was blown down during a bad storm in 1852, however, where it has remained ever since.

Finally, I had read about the Athens First Cemetery and decided to take a look since it was right near the Temple of Olympian Zeus. I didn’t spend a ton of time in there, but I was glad I did because there are some amazing sculptures in there and a couple of graves worth mentioning. Probably the most famous sculpture in the cemetery is the sleeping girl. It was for a girl who died in 1878 of tuberculosis. The sculptor is also buried in here too somewhere.

I’ve talked about Theodoros Kolokotronis quite a bit, but here is his grave. At least it was originally. His remains were moved to Tripoli in the 1930’s, though I’m not sure why.

If Theodoros Kolokotronis is Greece’s George Washington, then Adamantios Korais is their Thomas Jefferson. In fact, he and Jefferson corresponded quite a lot before Jefferson died. He lived in Paris for many years studying literature, medicine, several languages, and he refined the Greek language into the form they use today. His political and philosophical ideas are what helped start and finish the war for independence, and helped shape Greece into a modern nation. He’s kind of a big deal here also.

Even though I visited all of the official archeology sites in Athens, there were many other random sites around town. Some ancient walls in front of a bank, ancient foundations in the middle of a city block, etc. I can’t post all of them here, but there were a lot. I will post this one unusual find however. When they began digging to build a parking garage, they found this really well preserved 5th century BC road with a cemetery on either side. It’s now in the corner of Kotzia Square.

I’ll end this post with Pericles, who I mentioned before at the Parthenon. I found his statue across the street from Kotzia Square as I was ending my last day in Athens. Pericles is the guy that consolidated a couple hundred independent states into one Athenian state back in the 5th century BC and is historically known as Athens first citizen. And he has a pigeon on his head.

Wow, this was a long post! Thanks for hanging in there. Athens is just dense with history though. I also enjoyed my break from Greek food. It’s delicious, but souvlaki and gyros, usually the only thing available in the smaller towns, does get old after a while. Athens, on the other hand, has a ton of great sandwich shops, I had Chinese food a few nights, I even found two good Mexican restaurants for a taste of home. Tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane for a very short flight to my next stop. The Greek adventure isn’t quite over yet, so stay tuned…