Another early morning start .
Before the Acropolis opened we visited the Parliament house, where we saw the change of guard ( 2 guards changing with another 2 with a fifth calling the instructions, looked like school children). Walked through the national garden, serene , somehow shuts the noise of the traffic a few meters away.
Finally the Acropolis, arrived before it opened, you could feel the excitement in the air with the people waiting. First stop theatre of Dionysos, sat on the seats, to think centuries ago people sat here and enjoyed themselves.
Made our way to the Parthenon, awed. There is something magical about the place, it has withstood years of abuse with fire, bombing, vandalism and yet it stands there drawing people to it everyday.
Ancient Agora, Roman Agora and the surrounding sites were ticked off.Then we took the metro to Keramikos, could not find it. We were given so many different directions and seemed to be wandering aimlessly.After we saw a protest group approaching, police lining up with masks and smelling tear gas we decided to give up on it.
National Archaeological museum was the last stop for the afternoon. At the entrance was a notice about certain rooms being shut due to lack of guards so we were uncertain if it would be worth a visit. We were so wrong, it was difficult doing all the rooms that were open. The place is huge with so much to see.
Initially thought we would climb the Lycebattus hill at night but were too tired. Also scrapped Olympia from the itinerary as doing it along with Delphi does not seem feasible in two days.
At the Omonia square saw two drug addicts shooting up, one in the arm and the other his foot ( never seen that before). It was broad daylight , lying in the middle of the square, disheveled and dirty.The not so pretty side to Athens.
Read up about Delphi, off to it tomorrow.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment