MCreates

It’s my fourth visit to Greece and I have never been to its capital, so when my friend visited me from London, guess the itinerary – a full day in Athens.

I have been staying in Larissa, a small city about 4 hours from Athens for over 2 months already before I made the trip. I love Larissa, but Athens is an experience that I should have to fully experience Greece. My friend is arriving before 1pm from London and will be at the hotel at around 2pm. I was choosing between the 7:30am bus and the 10am bus, just the thought of waking up at 6am to catch the 7:30 bus made me tired so I decided to take the 10am instead. Not booking the ticket in advance was a bad idea. I never expected a lot of Larisians going to Athens at 10am on a Friday and the bus is already fully-booked. The girl on the counter told me to wait a little longer and she will let me know as soon as a seat becomes available. Fortunately, someone cancelled so I was able to get a seat. The next trip is already at 12nn which is rather late.

I arrived in Athens a little after 2pm then took the taxi to the hotel. My friend is already waiting when I arrived. Not to waste any more time, I just dropped my bag in our room and we already headed to the hotel’s roofdeck restaurant for lunch. The restaurant has a good view of the Acropolis so we also spent some time taking pictures then headed for the Monasteraki. 

We then went to the Metro, about 5 minute walk from the hotel. They have ticket options for 24-hour unlimited, 3 days, etc. We chose the 24 hours unlimited to have some flexibility. It was a short trip but we had to transfer from the red line to the blue line at Syntagma. 

We stopped by for some really nice gelato just outside the station before we headed for the shops. I was surprised by how cheap the souvenirs are compared to the other tourist places. A ref magnet in Santorini cost me around EUR2.50 at the minimum but we found some really nice ones for only EUR0.80 in Monastiraki. I bought a Greek headband for about EUR14, if I remember it correctly, in Santorini and bought a similar one for only EUR2.50 in Monastiraki. The place is filled with shops for souvenirs and other items like bags, clothes and household items and it’s really tempting to buy but thanks to the fact that we don’t have much space in our backpacks stopped us from buying more. We just took a walk and a couple of videos and pictures then headed back to the hotel. We got a bit lost but thanks to Google maps, we found our way back soon enough. 

We slept early since we know that we will be walking a lot the next day for our Acropolis tour. I booked an all day tour in advance for an Athens, Acropolis tour but, unfortunately, it got cancelled due to the low number of participants. It’s the lean season for tourism in Greece so maybe that’s why. I was already considering just doing it ourselves but my husband insisted that we hire a tour guide to get the full experience. Fortunately, I was able to book a slot from another tour company for the Acropolis and Acropolis museum tour. The tour started at 11:30am, we all met at a yogurt store near the Acropolis entrance. There were no lines so we were able to enter smoothly. The tour started with the story or Dionysus or also known as Bacchus – the Greek god of fertility. Though Bacchus is also known as the god of wine and pleasure, he is also the god of theater and vegetation.

We continued our climb for the Acropolis, which means the highest point in the city- from Greek words akros which means high and polis which means city, while stopping by some areas of interest like the Temple of Asklepios who is a Greek god of medicine. According to our guide, the Greeks send Asklepios with offerings based on the sick part of the body, that’s why we see some sculptures of ears, legs, eyes and other parts of the body in the Acropolis Museum.

Another interesting area are the ancient theaters that can accommodate thousands of people. The Ancient Theater of Dionysus, for example, can accommodate up to 25,000 people. Without the speakers and microphone during that era, it is amazing how they built the theater with great acoustics so the audience can still hear the actors on stage. 

Finally, we reached the top where we can find a large number of monuments like the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the Propylaia and the temple of Athena Nike. The place is rich in history, following vari ous wars and occupations of the Ottomans and the Romans. The place has been used as a place of worship for the Greek Orthodox, Muslims and Catholics, depending on who is in power during certain periods of its history. Apart from history, the place also place a big part in the Greek mythology. During our tour, we hear of stories about the battle between Athena and Poseidon, the birth of Athena, not to forget the real life story of Elgin Marbles that were taken from the Parthenon to the UK, subject of politics between the two countries. 

After a couple of minutes of free time to take pictures at the top of the Acropolis, we walked towards the Acropolis Museum. Near the entrance, we noticed some diggings which appeared to be some remnants of an old civilization. They said that as they were digging the foundations for the building, they found such treasure and decided to make it part of the building’s structure. Inside the museum, we see some replicas and original versions of the statues and carvings from the Acropolis. We have always thought that the Acropolis carvings are pure white but we found out that they were actually colored. The ancient Greeks used natural materials to put colors into the carvings which makes it even more amazing. They didn’t have the tools that we have now but they were able to make lasting, enduring artworks that in spite of the modern tools that we have, are still hard to replicate. A proof of ingenuity and hard work from our ancestors. 

The Acropolis Museum has plenty of natural light and offers a good view of the Acropolis. They say it is art imitating art. Our guide mentioned that one of the reasons provided by the UK for not returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece is that they do not have a proper place to display them. Now that Greece has this modern structure, I wonder if they will finally return it or still keep, what most people would probably say, treasures that belong to Greece.