ATHENS!

August 3

After only one day at sea, we arrived in Piraeus, Greece! Piraeus is the port area right next to Athens and is only a short metro ride away. On Sunday morning, we had our usual diplomatic briefing before heading off the ship to where Greece awaited us! When we departed the ship, we wandered the streets to find the train station, and after a 20 minute walk, we found it. It took us about 3 minutes to get a ticket and then we were off to town! Let me just say the metro here is amazing. It’s without a doubt the easiest metro I’ve used in Europe and is even better than the T in Boston and the subway in New York. It was seven stops to Monastiraki station, where we planned to get off and shop in the flea markets. As we walked the streets, we saw tons of things we wanted…bags, jewelry, dresses, you name it! I restrained myself for the time being and the group I was with decided it was time for lunch. We enjoyed our meal at a restaurant called Tabepila, and they even gave us a free desert and 10% discount since we were in a group! The spanakopita was amazing…I was really impressed. Our next stop was the
National Archaeological Museum, or just the National Museum, which we took the metro to get to. This museum, according to the brochure, was actually built in the 19th century to house antiquities and is the largest archaeological museum in Greece. It was, in fact, very large and had Prehistoric, Sculpture, Egyptian, Vases, and Bronze collections which were all captivating. I particularly enjoyed the Sculpture collection…during this trip I’ve gained a newfound appreciation of sculpture in general…I think I’ve seen more of it than anything else. But the vases were beautiful, of course, and also a delight to see. I think if I had not just visited Egypt, the Egyptian collection would have been my favorite part…it really holds a significant amount of artifacts including jewelry, mummies, pottery, and statues, among other things. The museum in general was fantastic. Probably besides the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, it was the best well kept museum I’ve been to. Clean, accommodating, well staffed, air conditioning , (this is huge! The archaeological museum in Egypt did not have air conditioning and we all melted) etc. I suppose being in DC provided me with unrealistic expectations. OH! The best part of the museum was that since I was 19 and younger I got in for FREE!!! That’s right! And I’ll just go along and say that I also got into the Acropolis for free and the Agora! Rock on young age…I swear. My birthday is in three days though…we’ll be at sea sailing to Croatia…I’ll give myself the present of taking lots of naps. Okay, back to the first day. After the museum, we jumped back on the metro and got off at the Acropolis station to see the most well known historical space in Greece. For those who don’t know, the Acropolis is the hill that the Parthenon and the other ruins stands upon. After I happily passed the Beule Gate without paying, we first saw the temple of Athena Nike (Athena of Victory) which was built in 424 BC. Nearby is the Erechtheion, which was built for a king of Athens named Erechtheus and has the very pretty Caryatids, which are the carved figures that hold up the temple. We also saw the Theater of Dionysos and the Sanctuary of Asclepios. And of course there is the Parthenon, which is the highlight. The temple was dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of Athens and apparently was only for priests and some special visitors. Over the past few years and undoubtedly continuing on into the future, there has been restoration projects going on so a lot of what you see is right next to construction. The views from the top of the Acropolis were wonderful! I now LOVE climbing up to higher peaks for a good view. As a visitor, it puts so much into perspective and to see the city as a whole is priceless. The trek up the hill was pretty tiring and it was SO hot. Thank god they had water fountains at the top because I would have become dehydrated otherwise. I haven’t been doing a good job of drinking enough water this trip (ahh mum don’t be mad!). I’m just grateful I didn’t get sick from the food in Egypt…a LOT of SASers including my roommates got sick…poor things. Anyway, after spending about an hour doing the Acropolis, we were all exhausted and very warm. We decided to go back to the metro and head back to Piraeus. The night was quiet (I know, I’m such a dork) but I was happy to relax. This trip has been likened to trying to drink water from a fire hose…I really can’t think of a better way to describe it. Four days ago I was in Egypt. In four days I’ll be in Croatia. It’s insane. So at the end of the day, going out is tempting but difficult for the mind and body (at least mine).