Athens

As you could probably imagine from the pictures in the last lot of posts, we were both quite upset to have to leave Kefalonia. But as they say "all good things must come to an end" and so it was time for us to leave Europe via Athens.

The trip to Athens (which involved 2 bus rides and a reasonably short ferry ride) was pretty uneventful. All up it took about 8 hours to get there with the bus getting into Athens at 9pm. From the bus station we jumped straight into a taxi and headed for the hotel near Syntagma Square in central Athens.

After unloading our suitcases we decided to go for a walk around the neighbourhood and grab some dinner. After a little while we started walking up a little hill which opened up to an amazing view of the Acropolis.

After that we walked around the shops taking in a few more historically significant buildings along the way.

The new Acropolis Museum at night

The following day we toured the famous Acropolis. Although it was stinking hot, we had a great time seeing these amazing buildings that up until now we'd only seen in books. The queue to get into the main part of the Acropolis (where the Parthenon is) was ridiculous. It was long, people were pushing in, it was boiling hot and no one really knew what was going on. But still, it was worth it.

After spending the first half of the day up at the Acropolis, we went down to the new Acropolis Museum. That is also another must see. It's a brand new, world class museum that has been built at the foot of the Acropolis. Not only that, it's actually been built on top of an archeological site with glass see-through floors so that you can actually see the ruins underneath the building, and the archeologists working on them.

The way everything was presented was amazing with a reproduction (to scale) of the Parthenon on the top floor. It's great because you can actually look up from the windows of the museum and see exactly where these large pieces of stone actually came from which helps visualise them better than any other museum display we'd seen.

However, there are quite a few gaps in the collection with either plaster casts to fill in the blanks, or nothing at all. Below each piece that's missing is text indicating which museum in which country is holding that particular artifact. Of course, the majority of pieces are currently in the British Museum. I mentioned in an earlier post that the Brits say Lord Elgin "rescued" theses pieces. Not surprisingly, the Greeks claim that Lord Elgin "stole the pieces... taking advantage of the times [when Greece was under Turkish rule]". Maybe it's my heritage, but I'd tend to agree with the latter.

Parliament Building

Me doing metal hands to my adoring fans that would have been there thousands of years ago ;)

I think YANNI did a concert here years ago that was broadcast on TV.

The line to get up to the Parthenon

Is it just me, or do some of these pieces look like giant LEGO blocks?

The concrete jungle that is Athens.

This plaque commemorates two national heroes who, during the Nazi occupation of Greece, tore down the Nazi flag from the Acropolis.

New Acropolis Museum

After the museum, we walked down through the National Gardens towards the Presidential Mansion (or Palace) so we could see the famous 'Changing of the Guards'. We got to one of the gates at about half past, knowing the change happens every hour, on the hour. Although there were a few people there taking photos, there was an even bigger crowd up the street. Thinking we might have the wrong gate, I told Alice I'd run up to see if it was worth moving (remember it was frikkin' hot and at that moment, we were in a nice shady spot that we weren't too keen on moving from if it could be avoided).

As I approached the crowd, I noticed heaps of people taking photos and even more people with note pads. After seeing the microphones I instantly knew the person being interviewed must be of some importance. Then I heard the word "πρωθυπουργός" which means Prime Minister. Unsure whether they were asking a question about the Prime Minister OR whether they were asking him a question AS Prime Minister, I decided to just stick my arm up in the air, take the photo and google him later. Turns out he is actually the Prime Minister hehe.

He's the guy with glasses in the middle of the photo.

After that I went back to Alice and waited for the guards to change. It was interesting.

And that's it folks. Our one day whirlwind tour of the great city of Athens. Hopefully next time we get a bit longer to see more because I get the feeling we didn't even scratch the surface this time around.