Athens, Day 3: Gritty Neighbourhoods and Hilltop Temples

 Sept 25

Today it was Carol’s turn to sleep in. Our circadian rhythms have not fully re-set yet. We feel okay, however. Sort of.

We took a late morning walk through a neighbourhood called Psirri, adjacent to the Plaka, where tourism hasn’t (yet) hit. It was a graffiti-covered, gritty, work-a-day commercial area, a complete contrast with the sparkly thotchke streets just blocks south. It reminded me of India, a little, or Morocco. It was a reminder that this definitely is not Northern Europe.

Monastiraki Square, the start of our Psirri walk

We passed through spice row and into the public market. I don’t know how it happened, but what ought to have been a produce market turned out to be a meat market, bigger than I’ve ever seen, alley after alley of hanging carcasses. We did not love it, and I did not take photos. The fish market, as usual, made me wonder how on earth there are any fish left in the sea. 

Spices

Sausage

Olives

The vendors who display these fish are artists

For lunch we stopped in “Souvlaki Row,” adjacent to Monastiraki Square, for an obigatory (and cheap) Gyro. It was awful. 

After a rest, it was time for our visit to the Acropolis Museum. This is a gorgeous, modern building with lots of space, in case the British Museum decides to return the so-called “Elgin Marbles” to their place of origin. The excuse in the past has been that Athens had no place to house the reliefs safely. The Acropolis museum has an astounding number of remarkable artifacts, including the original … from the Esch…, a temple on the Acropolis. It also has an astounding number of guards stopping people from photographing or touching the artifacts. I’m not sure what the rationale is for not taking photos of these marble statues, but I hope people understand that everything will be put behind glass if they can’t keep their hands off them. As it is, for now, it’s wonderful to be able to get within centimetres of these ancient sculptures, to almost feel the hand of the sculptor.

 

 

Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt and protector of young women. No one would dare accost a young woman with this one looking on!

The Caryatids of Erechtheion. These ones are the originals, while copies are in place on the Acropolis. These acted as pillars. Note the folds of their gowns representing the fluted surface of traditional pillars, and the thick braids buttressing necks that would be too fine for supporting the weight of a portico.

After the museum, we crossed the road to climb the Acropolis itself. While I expected something strenuous, it was really somewhat less than climbing George Hill on Pender Island, and with much greater reward. 

On the way up the hill: Odeon of Herodes Atticus. They put plays on here in the summer, but we've missed them by a couple of weeks.

After passing through the impressive entranceway, the Parthenon took my breath away. It is huge! Much bigger than I remember — or maybe it’s that I was less easily impressed at 19 years old, I don’t know. But this temple inspires awe by it’s size, to say nothing of it’s classic proportions, the definition of beauty, really. 

If you're lucky, you can sneak a moment where it looks like you're alone in the ruins

This suffering horse is probably a copy of the original horse that is suffering in the British Museum

I was mostly right about not being able to get a shot without people in it nowadays, but near the end of our visit, I was able to get up close and catch a shot. The multitudes are on this hill these days. We arrived around 4:30, and the crowd kept growing as the day cooled and the sun moved towards the horizon. By the time we left, there was hardly room to move. 

Close enough to eliminate people, but the wide angle lens distorts the proportions, which is what the Parthenon is all about, in my opinion

Views from the Acropolis 

We've heard there was an explosion in our neighbourhood this morning. It happened in the short street leading up to Hadrian's Arch. It's in the lower left of this photo, a street in shadows. If you zoom in, you can see the rubble and some machinery. I didn't know about the explosion when I took this photo, and I didn't notice what was going on in the street. This was a terrible tragedy for some tourists just like us.

 The Ancient Agora

 

Our accommodations, A Painter's House in Plaka. I zoomed in to get this shot. Our place is in the right-hand wing of the yellow building, which faces away from this view. The huge trees are in our courtyard. 

 

Carol had made us reservations at a restaurant called Anefani, a couple of blocks from our apartment. We climbed up and up and up to a busy rooftop, and had cocktails and dinner under the full moon, in the light of the Acropolis. Another perfect evening.