We have been staying in a lovely little area about 1 hour east of Athens, but have been so close to the birth place of modern philosophy, democracy, and early Christianity (plus lots of other very cool things, but those three come to mind immediately). We decided we must go and see some of Athens proper. We watched some YouTubes the night before to get some history and some tips and planned our trip. But first we had to do battle with the Athens public transport system. I say battle because we have battle strikes on London public transport, losing a child on the Paris Metro, heat and overcrowding on Rome's trams, and extremely meticulous (and scary) inspectors on Jerusalem's trams. Really, don't mess with Jerusalem transport inspectors!! So what would Athens bring us?? With hardy spirits and naive optimism we set off at sunrise (picture from the beach in front of our unit.
We caught the bus from 100m up the road, and it was on time! It got us to our train platform on time, for an on time train. The picture below was our first encounter with Athens trains and metro! It all worked beautifully! 10/10 Athens! Possiblty the easiest Major city transport experience we have had.
As soon as you get out of the Metro station, the history hits you in the face. Sally had already been to Hadrian's Wall in the UK, and one of the first piles of rubble, sorry, ancient historical sites, was Hadrian's library. Not too many books these days, but still worth the visit.
Our final monument for the day would be Hadrian's Arch. Hadrian certainly was a busy little emperor all the way from Scotland to Athens!
In between checking out Hadrian's handyman projects, we visited the unmissable Parthenon. It is visible from so many parts of the city, and really is quite incredible. Around 3,000 years of history on that hill.
Another highlight was visiting Aeropagus (Mars) Hill, where Paul gave his speech that is recorded in Acts 17. Paul spoke in the synagogues, in the marketplace, and finally, here at the place they loved to chat about all things new and interesting, in the shadow of the Parthenon. They listened to him, with some scepticism, until he spoke of the resurrection; then many mocked, and only a few believed. It sould be another 300 years or so until that story of Christ's resurrection would upend the ancient world. History works in centuries, not in election cycles. We could learn something from that!
Our other classic site was the Panatheniac Stadium, the birthplace of the modern Olympics.
From here, it was onto the serious business: checking out the local food. We needed Freddo Cappuccinos, and we needed NOW!! It is hot and hungry work walking the streets of Athens.
After some shopping (well, looking at things that were drastically overpriced), we sought out some 'pies'. We had heard on one of those YouTube videos about Harry's Kitchen, and we were not disappointed. The shopfront is only as wide as a door, and for 9 euros we stuffed ourselves with cheese, chicken and sausage delights. Soooo good.
It was now the heat of the day, and we figured we had crushed it for the day, so we headed home on the Athenian public transport system. It did not let us down again. We decided to hop off the bus about 1.5km early to check out some shops and then walk home. As we walked home, the owner of our rental unit saw us, turned around, and offered to take us back home. We have found the Greek people so friendly and helpful in every store and on every site. Just don't mess with them for seats on public transport; then it is every person for themselves. Other than that, everyone is super friendly. WE then dropped into the local mini supermarket to get some supplies for dinner. The guy behind the meat counter hopped out from behind the counter, helped us find something he said was super delicious (he would be found to be true about that), then offered a suggestion of how to cook it and what to cook it with, found us the ingredients and helped us on our way. Super friendly again. A quick swim and a quiet dinner. We have had a great day!
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