Not the one in Ohio - I probably would've thought the same thing. No, I'm talking about the one in Greece. However, upon exiting the plane in Greece I happened to notice a man wearing an Ohio State shirt who informed me that his daughter was currently in Athens, Ohio, as a student. On Dads weekend. What a guy, huh?
Anyway, he also informed me that he was in town for the marathon, so we accidentally went to Athens on the weekend of the Athens Marathon. Oops.
I won't waste much time talking about what the city of Athens represents, because a bajillion websites can do that better than I can, I'll just say that it was the starting point of basically everything that we still use today. They started things, then the Romans tweaked them to become slightly better, and then they pretty much haven't changed in thousands of years, except now the internet tells me that everything in the world is getting worse.
So let's talk about 40 hours in Athens instead.
First, what a cool place to fly into. There are hills/mini-mountains all around and in the city, so you get a cool landscape. Second, the city is probably 15 miles from the sea, so you have water for added effect.
We hopped off the plane and waited for a train into the city, then had a tough time finding our hotel in a seemingly sketchy neighborhood. But we did find it, and it was crazy-cheap considering it was a big room with a balcony over the street.
The first evening was rainy. We had the best gyro we've ever had, with a side of fries and a drink, for about €3,50, so Athens was off to a really good start. We caught a glimpse of the Acropolis down the length of a main street and decided, why not trek up in the rain? What's the worst that could happen?
It was fantastic. We strolled up the long path between old ruin-sites and were almost entirely alone. Up near the gates that you enter the tourist-part is a huge rock formation that looks out over the city and there were exactly 0 other people around. We had a full 10-15 minutes of standing atop this rock - where people have stood for thousands of years, no doubt - and watching the storm off in the distance, with the majesty of the Acropolis all dolled up at night to our side. Of course, the rain meant I couldn't take any real photos, so you'll have to trust me on how great it was.
Next morning though, it was go time.
We were the 3rd and 4th people to pass through the gates and into the Acropolis. On the way up we walked past various sites like Hadrian's Library, the ancient agora, and the Roman Forum, but we were on a mission. We stopped only briefly to take quick photos of these things and what turned out to be my favorite thing in the city - the Temple of Hephaestus.
Upon going into the Acropolis (almost all of the outdoor ruins are available to enter on the same ticket, which is a paltry €12 or so, which i think is a great price), it was nearly empty, which was terrific. Although I have to admit that, for my taste, there's just too much reconstruction going on. The views from the top are terrific, and it's a mind-bender to realize people have been walking up and standing where you're standing for at least 2500 years, but the heavy machinery and clearly reconstructed everything takes a little bit away from it for me. To their credit, they're good about admitting and being up-front with what's redone and what's original.
After stomping around for a bit and seeing the finish line of the marathon at the Olympic Stadium, we headed down to avoid the growing crowd. We popped into the Agora of Athens, which is mostly ruins and layouts on the ground, with some statuary and a brilliantly reconstructed building to show what the 2500 year old original would've felt and looked like. And from the second floor of this reconstruction is my fave: the Temple of Hephaestus. According to wikipedia, this temple was started in 449 BC and finished in 415 BC, and it's still standing in near-perfect condition, and looks like this.
Incredibly, the majority of the roof is still intact - basically unheard of for these ancient Greek temples. I couldn't get enough of this building and the Agora as a whole.
But we pressed on, visiting the Acropolis Museum (between gyros) for a mere 5 euros - gotta love the economic crisis in Greece! The museum basically took all of the fragile thigns from the Acropolis and put them inside somewhere safe. The good news is that you get to see all the originals, the bad news is that they're not where they used to be. You win some, you lose some.
Next stop, the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This one is really something. Most of it is gone, but the parts that remain are impressive as you can only imagine what things looked like originally.
The real Temple was much bigger than what's still standing, of course, but time wounds all things. Since we really only had one full day in Athens, we kept moving at a brisk pace. We watched the marathoners run past - which inspired us to talk about running a marathon until I got tired talking about it and needed an energy chew.
We also stopped at the aforementioned Hadrian's Library (they love Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, in Athens) and were surprised to see a few "wild" turtles roaming the area. We'd heard about the stray dogs in Athens, and there were a few, but the stray turtles were unexpected.
With daylight fading, we trekked up a big hill the name of which I can no longer remember, in hopes of seeing a majestic sunset above the Acropolis. To our dismay, it was a bit hazy (which was and is a theme of our entire stay in Europe), but we stuck it out for a bit anyway. See, Athens is sprawling in a way that few cities I've ever seen are sprawling. There wasn't a big sky-scraper downtown district, but there were miles upon miles of 5 to 8 story buildings of, I guess, apartments. It seemed to go on for days out there and was surely a nightmare to ever drive in.
While the sunset wasn't perfect, it wasn't bad either. To the left of center (stage right, that is), you can still make out the buildings of the Acropolis.
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And so we retired for the evening, probably with another gyro or two - final tally was 5 over the 40 hours in Greece - and had a laugh at our hotel-room shower which drained into the middle of the bathroom floor.
Tears in our eyes and blisters on our feet, we slept and departed early back to Milan.
Next up, Verona, Italy. This post might cover a few of our experiences there, as I think we've actually gone three times now.
Anyway, he also informed me that he was in town for the marathon, so we accidentally went to Athens on the weekend of the Athens Marathon. Oops.
I won't waste much time talking about what the city of Athens represents, because a bajillion websites can do that better than I can, I'll just say that it was the starting point of basically everything that we still use today. They started things, then the Romans tweaked them to become slightly better, and then they pretty much haven't changed in thousands of years, except now the internet tells me that everything in the world is getting worse.
So let's talk about 40 hours in Athens instead.
First, what a cool place to fly into. There are hills/mini-mountains all around and in the city, so you get a cool landscape. Second, the city is probably 15 miles from the sea, so you have water for added effect.
We hopped off the plane and waited for a train into the city, then had a tough time finding our hotel in a seemingly sketchy neighborhood. But we did find it, and it was crazy-cheap considering it was a big room with a balcony over the street.
The first evening was rainy. We had the best gyro we've ever had, with a side of fries and a drink, for about €3,50, so Athens was off to a really good start. We caught a glimpse of the Acropolis down the length of a main street and decided, why not trek up in the rain? What's the worst that could happen?
It was fantastic. We strolled up the long path between old ruin-sites and were almost entirely alone. Up near the gates that you enter the tourist-part is a huge rock formation that looks out over the city and there were exactly 0 other people around. We had a full 10-15 minutes of standing atop this rock - where people have stood for thousands of years, no doubt - and watching the storm off in the distance, with the majesty of the Acropolis all dolled up at night to our side. Of course, the rain meant I couldn't take any real photos, so you'll have to trust me on how great it was.
Next morning though, it was go time.
We were the 3rd and 4th people to pass through the gates and into the Acropolis. On the way up we walked past various sites like Hadrian's Library, the ancient agora, and the Roman Forum, but we were on a mission. We stopped only briefly to take quick photos of these things and what turned out to be my favorite thing in the city - the Temple of Hephaestus.
Upon going into the Acropolis (almost all of the outdoor ruins are available to enter on the same ticket, which is a paltry €12 or so, which i think is a great price), it was nearly empty, which was terrific. Although I have to admit that, for my taste, there's just too much reconstruction going on. The views from the top are terrific, and it's a mind-bender to realize people have been walking up and standing where you're standing for at least 2500 years, but the heavy machinery and clearly reconstructed everything takes a little bit away from it for me. To their credit, they're good about admitting and being up-front with what's redone and what's original.
After stomping around for a bit and seeing the finish line of the marathon at the Olympic Stadium, we headed down to avoid the growing crowd. We popped into the Agora of Athens, which is mostly ruins and layouts on the ground, with some statuary and a brilliantly reconstructed building to show what the 2500 year old original would've felt and looked like. And from the second floor of this reconstruction is my fave: the Temple of Hephaestus. According to wikipedia, this temple was started in 449 BC and finished in 415 BC, and it's still standing in near-perfect condition, and looks like this.
Incredibly, the majority of the roof is still intact - basically unheard of for these ancient Greek temples. I couldn't get enough of this building and the Agora as a whole.
But we pressed on, visiting the Acropolis Museum (between gyros) for a mere 5 euros - gotta love the economic crisis in Greece! The museum basically took all of the fragile thigns from the Acropolis and put them inside somewhere safe. The good news is that you get to see all the originals, the bad news is that they're not where they used to be. You win some, you lose some.
Next stop, the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This one is really something. Most of it is gone, but the parts that remain are impressive as you can only imagine what things looked like originally.
The real Temple was much bigger than what's still standing, of course, but time wounds all things. Since we really only had one full day in Athens, we kept moving at a brisk pace. We watched the marathoners run past - which inspired us to talk about running a marathon until I got tired talking about it and needed an energy chew.
We also stopped at the aforementioned Hadrian's Library (they love Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, in Athens) and were surprised to see a few "wild" turtles roaming the area. We'd heard about the stray dogs in Athens, and there were a few, but the stray turtles were unexpected.
With daylight fading, we trekked up a big hill the name of which I can no longer remember, in hopes of seeing a majestic sunset above the Acropolis. To our dismay, it was a bit hazy (which was and is a theme of our entire stay in Europe), but we stuck it out for a bit anyway. See, Athens is sprawling in a way that few cities I've ever seen are sprawling. There wasn't a big sky-scraper downtown district, but there were miles upon miles of 5 to 8 story buildings of, I guess, apartments. It seemed to go on for days out there and was surely a nightmare to ever drive in.
While the sunset wasn't perfect, it wasn't bad either. To the left of center (stage right, that is), you can still make out the buildings of the Acropolis.
And so we retired for the evening, probably with another gyro or two - final tally was 5 over the 40 hours in Greece - and had a laugh at our hotel-room shower which drained into the middle of the bathroom floor.
Tears in our eyes and blisters on our feet, we slept and departed early back to Milan.
Next up, Verona, Italy. This post might cover a few of our experiences there, as I think we've actually gone three times now.
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