Athens

The walk from the underground station at Syntagma Square to the Acropolis Hotel in the Plaka was not far, but was made doubly difficult because of aforementioned malaka bus driver. I had to carefully pull Del’s bag by one handle shaft over cobblestone roads and uneven footpaths for about four blocks. Our room had an ex-suite - our own bathroom but across the hallway - if you stood on your toes in the shower you could see the Acropolis through the steps of the fire escape.

We’ve both been to Athens before but we just wanted to see the Acropolis again, visit the new Acropolis Museum and eat some delicious Greek food in the Plaka.

The Greeks don’t have public toilets. Our evening walk around the Acropolis and Monastaraki Square was turned into an urgent search for a toilet. Too tight to stop at any of the expensive restaurants for a beer or coffee, we ended walking back to the hotel.

Set off early in the morning to beat the crowds to the Acropolis. It was Sunday, a popular day for Athenians to visit ruins and museums. Passing a Greek Orthodox Church near our hotel, we were lured in by the most beautiful singing. In one alcove of the nearly full church, there was a male choir singing in polyphonic harmony.

Queues weren’t too long to enter the Acropolis, although it was quite a different story when we needed to exit. Many tour groups following guides holding up unopened umbrellas or national flags. I led my own tour group of one (including guide.) Eating, drinking, smoking and standing in the wrong place is not allowed on the Acropolis, and occasionally whistles are blown as minders warn tourists. Which was rather contradictory when you noticed several stray dogs lying around……(dog crap?)

The Acropolis Museum, just to the south of the Acropolis, was opened in June this year. Twenty nine years ago the Greeks started talking about building an international quality museum to display the relics from the Parthenon and the Erechtheum. Their ulterior motive was to foil any criticisms pertaining to a lack of suitable display venue, when they would request (and perhaps yet to demand) the return of the ‘Elgin Marbles.’ Many Greeks complain that it is an unsuitable modern building, but I don’t believe it is possible to build a new building which looks authentically old. It is a striking modern concrete and glass building which has an internal rising display gallery, something like the New York Guggenheim. One of the reasons construction took 29 years, apart from the Greek temperament and corruption (remember the Athens Olympics), was the ruins discovered on the building site. The very effective solution was to build on columns over the top of the ruins, and leave large glass covered viewing windows in the floor. One disturbing feature of the museum is a glass top-floor. Whilst those on the ground floor look down to see the remains of an ancient civilisation, those on the top floor look down to see a modern civilisation. Rather a windfall for the look-up-skirt fetishists.

This is where the Athenians go on a Sunday afternoon, we queued for thirty minutes, only to pay 1Euro entrance fee. A great encouragement for locals to visit, but I would have been happier paying more and not queuing. The restaurant is also very cheap and of a high quality. Some young guys had queued at entry and then at the restaurant just for a cup of coffee.

Had some Absinthe later, which is sold everywhere. Tasted like schnapps with hints of ouzo and traces of petrol in the after taste. No madness surfaced, any more than usual.