Athens, Greece

From Istanbul I flew directly to Athens, Greece, the birthplace of democracy. I was really excited to get to Athens, possibly more so than any other destination I've ever been to. The sight of the Acropolis is recognizable to the majority of people on earth, and is an amazingly well preserved relic of ancient history. I arrived in Athens a few hours before my friend Dan, who was meeting up with me here for a week of travel together. I took Athens sparkling new metro from the airport to my hotel. When I exited the metro, there it was, looming above just a few blocks away, the Acropolis! It was all I could do to restrain myself from running up to it and exploring every inch immediately, I knew Dan would want to do the same in a few hours.
Athens is a huge city of 3.8 million, and much of the city is just packed apartments, honking car horns, the mosquito buzz of mopeds, and grey-brown smog. Yet rising above all that, 512 feet above sea level, is the shining whiteness of 2500 years of history, visible from anywhere in the city.

The Parthenon was completed in 431 BC, making it 2437 years old at the time of my visit. It has had an interesting history over the years; the Parthenon replaced an older temple of Athena, called the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BC. Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon was used as a treasury. In the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin. After the Ottoman conquest, it was converted into a mosque in the early 1460s. On September 28, 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures.

The ladies pictured above are descendants of that Ottoman Empire. They were here on a tour from Istanbul. I was wearing my newly purchased "Turkey" shirt, which was a foolish gaffe on my part. Turkey and Greece have chilly relations. They currently have divided the island of Cyprus between them, and a wall and soldiers separate the two cultures. Wearing a "Turkey" shirt to the Acropolis is the equivalent of wearing a Red Sox jersey in Yankee stadium, or perhaps a "Viva Fidel!" shirt at the Republican National Convention. I should have known better. In this case it turned out OK. I was besieged by a group of middle-aged Turkish ladies who were thrilled to see a strange American wearing their country's colors. They wanted pictures with me, and they tried to convince me to get on their tour bus with them, the lady with the big white hat even promising me that I would like her daughter back in Istanbul.

Above is the "Porch of Maidens" on the Erechtheum, built in 407BC. The statues on this temple are the best preserved on the Acropolis.

The Temple of Hephaestus, in central ancient Athens, Greece, is the best-preserved ancient Greek temple in the world, but is far less well-known than its illustrious neighbour, the Parthenon. It was built in 449 BC on a site with a commanding view of the Athenian Agora.
We found a tortoise basking in the sun between 2400 year old marble columns. Athens has small pockets of ruins all over the city. One can walk around, turn a corner, and bump into huge arches and columns at any moment.

When we tired from looking at marble, we headed to the Plaka for dinner. The Plaka has hundreds of restaurants with outdoor seating, great for people watching, listening to the street performers, and for being hassled every 6 minutes by some child selling some worthless object in mass quantities. When we were there the item of choice was a set of magnetic balls that make an annoying clicking sound when clasped together. There were literally a hundred street urchins hawking these things that any parent would take away from their child within the first hour. Still, we enjoyed Athens; very walkable, safe and clean. The sight of the Parthenon lit by floodlights at night was just amazing.