One of the most important capitals of Europe that so far I was missing on my checked list. So why not? 

I booked the tickets and landed successfully on 25 degrees in November weather. I was amazed wild the mild climate – as always since the cruel Brussels doesn’t leave much choice in between the 50 shades of grey. 

  • Road to already visited city of Thesalonikki

I didn’t have much time but the prolongation of the weekend of 2 and half days so I decided to start my sightseeing immediately. My hotel was about outside of Athens in the Piraeus where the port is.  

Quick refreshment after hotel check – in

So, let us start! 

I had difficulties in the beginning to navigate through the city as Athens is one of the oldest cities in the world and survived many civilizations hence the architecture and logistics is quite obsolete. Even more, when I realized that everywhere I stepped was an actual archaeological site. 

Athens is one of the cursed cities in the same time. What ever construction works started (to build the new building, the parking place, the new metro line) somehow the diggings always manage to be postponed due to archaeological discoveries. Indeed, classical and modern art are in conflict. 

Last year, Greeks started to dig for the additional metro line. Soon the works stopped as the construction site became the excavation site ending with 20 people dead due to bacterial infection of the ancient dead bodies.

Old Therme – excavation site

Nevertheless, I rushed my day towards the Acropolis. In old greek language it means ‘the highest point’ as it used to be the sacral place for the ancient Greeks. 
This ancient citadel is on a rocky cliff above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. 


A propylaea – monumental gateway in ancient Greek architecture that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis

The Parthenon and the other buildings were damaged seriously during the 1687 siege by the Venetians during the Morean War when gunpowder being stored in the Parthenon was hit by a cannonball and exploded.

Parthenon – a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron
Herodeon theatre – the place where many famous drama tragedies were premiered like Antigona of Sofoklo, Medea or the Birds and Piece

 During the so-called Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BCE) the Acropolis continued to grow. 


The Temple of Athena Nike

Nika means “victory” in Greek, and Athena was worshipped in hopes of a successful outcome in the long Peloponnesian War fought against the Spartans and their allies. The Spartans were the biggest enemies (smart to remember for possible future visits to Greece). 

My visit to Acropolis finished. Some strange 40ish year old man captured me in his talks about the weather. As I didn’t want to be impolite, I continued my small talks but soon I realized the man is lonely as he was inviting me to see the sunset over one of the hills of Athens. Maybe next time! – I said. – And definitely come to visit Croatia!. – He promised to do so. 

Ok, strolling down the hill, I visited Ancient Agora and Roman Forum. Yes, I blame Romans for destroying the Greek civilization as the Romans were everywhere. By following my bloggings through Europe – you can see that everything starts with Romans – almost every single post – east to west, north to south. 

dav

I finished the day visiting the Acropolis Museum just to get the rounded picture. 

Sunset was reserved for the Temple of Olympian Zeus – also one of the favourites – a former colossal temple dating from 6th century BCE. Unfortunately, in the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, it was extensively quarried for building materials to supply building projects elsewhere in the city. 

The Temple of Zeus
dig

The next day was reserved for museuming. 

I started first with Archeological Museum. 

Greece’s largest museum offers panoramic view of ancient Greek civilisation from history to late antiquity. In its galleries you can enjoy the tresures from the royal tombs at Mycenae, masterpieces of jewelry’s art and sculpture and large pottery collection. 

dav
The Birth of Aphrodite –
ancient Greek goddess of sexual love and beauty. Aphrodite was born from the white foam coming to land. 

The next museum of Epigraphical museum with inscriptions, mostly in Greek, but also in Latin and Hebrew. 

Epigraphic museum

To me, the most attaching stone with inscriptions – epigraph – was the one of emperor Diokletian (who comes from my Croatia) containing the dictation of prices and measures of the market products. 

Emperor Diokletian’s edict on prices

Also, the system of voting for government officials. The democracy in ancient Greece! 🙂

Walking around, I noticed the alleys of oranges. Many fruits were on the floor, smashed and not being used at all.

I also noticed this smashed and burned car. When I asked my Greek friend about it – he reminded me on recent timeswhen Athens and entire Greece faced heavy riots due to total economical collapse.

More or less that was it for that day. I got back to my hotel in the Old Port of Piraeus. The port is located 12 km from the city center but brings calm and relaxing spirit and makes you be there in the morning for the breakfast with the view.

Also great area with lods of bars and souvenir shops – typical tourist trap but lovely and vivid, is the neighbourhood called Plaka. Kinda in the shadow of Acropolis and its ancient temples – but beautiful enough to attract you for a good meal in the old greek taverna.

Asit is the oldest part of Athens, it is rich with people coming down to the cafes which are generally a little pricey if they are on the main roads (Kydatheneon, Adrianou) and around the squares, but in a way worth it for the view. If you sit in one of these cafes long enough you will see that everyone who comes to Greece walks down  the streets of Plaka.

In the heart of this historic Greek town of Athens and its winding streets lie numerous churches of impressive architecture, dating back to 5th century. Most of the churches in Athens are well-preserved, decorated with rare frescoes and icons. A stroll around the center reveals the jewels of religious art and tradition.

A little bit more of wandering around with my Greek friend through Anafiotika: a scenic tiny neighborhood.

The first houses were built in the era of King Otto of Greece, 19th century, when workers from the island of Anafi came to Athens in order to work as construction workers in the refurbishment of the city.

As we are moving towards a bit modern times, let me show you the main shopping street called Ermou.

And the Syntagma square – main square of the city. The square is named after the Constitution that Otto, the first King of Greece, was obliged to grant after a popular and military uprising on 3 September 1843.

It is located in front of the 19th century Old Royal Palace, housing the Greek Parliament since 1934.

Behinf the palace is the beautiful garden that makes the city scape completely different. When I entered this garden – I lost every single feeling that I am in chaotic and mediterranean Athens.

Not far away is the University of Athens and Library of Athens – the two beautiful buildings in neoclassical style.

There is a Monastiraki neighbourhood famous for grafittis. My local friend Antonis brought me there as well where we tasted sweet greek red wine.

Finishing with the great greek food and some souvenirs:)

Posted on 96 By RED RIDING HOOD Castle Posted in Castle, food and drink, fortress, History, kings and queens, Travel

RED RIDING HOOD

96 Comments »

  3. you are in reality a just right webmaster. The web site loading pace is amazing.
    It sort of feels that you’re doing any unique trick. In addition, The contents are
    masterwork. you’ve performed a excellent activity on this subject!

    Like

  7. When I initially left a comment I seem to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on whenever a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment.

    There has to be a way you are able to remove me from
    that service? Thanks!

    Check out my blog post … 918kaya download (Maybelle)

    Like

  18. Hello, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and
    i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments? If
    so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can recommend?
    I get so much lately it’s driving me mad
    so any assistance is very much appreciated.

    Like

  23. I want to express my appreciation to this writer for bailing me out of this particular challenge.
    Right after surfing through the world wide web and getting basics that were not productive, I assumed
    my life was over. Being alive minus the approaches to the difficulties you
    have fixed by way of your review is a serious case, and the ones which could have in a negative way
    affected my career if I had not noticed your blog post.
    Your primary mastery and kindness in handling a lot of things was
    useful. I am not sure what I would have done if I had not come across such a
    thing like this. I can at this time look ahead to my future.

    Thanks for your time very much for this impressive and amazing guide.
    I won’t think twice to recommend the sites to anyone who needs and wants care about this
    subject.

    Feel free to surf to my web-site; fuel saver company

    Like

  27. obviously like your web site but you need to check the spelling on several of your posts.
    A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it
    very bothersome to tell the truth then again I’ll certainly come back again.

    Like

  28. I’m not sure exactly why but this blog is loading very slow for me.
    Is anyone else having this problem or is it a problem on my end?

    I’ll check back later and see if the problem still exists.

    Like

  32. I must thank you for the efforts you’ve put in penning
    this site. I am hoping to view the same high-grade blog posts by you later on as well.
    In fact, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my own blog now 😉

    Look at my page; 918kaya slot

    Like

  33. You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this
    matter to be really something that I think I would never understand.
    It seems too complex and extremely broad for me.
    I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!

    Also visit my web site; 918kaya ewallet

    Like

  35. Greetings I am so happy I found your blog page, I really found you
    by error, while I was browsing on Aol for something else,
    Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say many
    thanks for a remarkable post and a all round thrilling blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it
    all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I
    have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up
    the great work.

    Also visit my web site :: mega888 malaysia (freeholmes.com)

    Like

  36. I like the valuable information you supply for your articles.
    I will bookmark your weblog and take a look at again right here regularly.
    I’m fairly certain I’ll be informed lots of new stuff proper here!
    Best of luck for the following!

    Look into my web site – gamexe88

    Like

  39. I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good.
    I do not know who you are but definitely you’re going to a famous blogger if you are
    not already 😉 Cheers!

    Also visit my webpage; xe88 game (Eusebia)

    Like

  45. Thanks for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it.

    Look complicated to more delivered agreeable from you!
    By the way, how can we keep up a correspondence?

    Like

  46. In any case, the standards of propitious news-casting haven’t been minded of sooner than this weighty network index. Google indeed thinks instances about the look and resources of articles, peculiarly as a component of its XML. Gargantuan news-casting is tied in with being straightforward and as destroy headed as could be expected.

    In search what reason do you think the Google XML sitemap creeps, lists, and distributes general area site content from CNN, BBC, Techcrunch, The Divider In someone’s bailiwick Magazine and others in its incline items?

    my blog

    $e33987j

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.