I could hardly sleep this morning once I knew we’d arrived in the port of Athens (Piraeus at 7 am…) because I was so excited to get out and on route to the Acropolis. Besides the anticipation of seeing the oldest intact historical site I’ve ever seen, I was also unsettled because we had to first get through boat drill AND hope for no travel snags. (On the crew channel this week, they’ve been playing the first season of Amazing Race and sometimes in these ports, I feel like I’m on that show when we’re trying to navigate, find the best method of travel, and are racing against the clock to get back to the finish line – the boat. It can be quite maddening!)
Of course it was the longest boat drill to date and we didn’t finish until about 11:15 am. The troops were rounded up – Eric and Pieter – and we were outside the terminal haggling for taxis by noon. It was ridiculous. There were posted fares and the drivers were trying to say anything they could to avoid paying the flat rates – “that’s per person”, “that’s in the afternoon”, etc…. we weren’t budging, but eventually agreed to 20 Euros instead of the posted 12. (We got the driver down from 50 initially, so it was considered an accomplishment… :-/ ) We got on the road and I told the boys what I’d learned about what we were about to see. I relayed the most famous stories of Athena as I remembered them.
We arrived close to the entrance of the area covered by the Acropolis, it’s Slopes and the Ancient Agora. This actually takes up quite a bit of space in the Plaka neighborhood and we definitely wouldn’t be able to see it all. We had approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes to cover the main site, the Theatre of Dionysos (what I was most excited about) and the Acropolis Museum, which just opened last summer and was supposed to be amazing. We headed straight up the hill towards the entrance gates to the Acropolis. As I later learned, the wall built around the “high city” (what the name Acropolis actually means) was done so in the 5th century B.C. when groups of people lived on the hill in small encampments and worshipped the God/desses from a platform-like floor in the center of the plateau.
The first steps you take into the Acropolis as it now stands are through a giant gate called the Beule Gate, after the French archaeologist who discovered it in 1852. It has an inscription above the entrance dated 320 B.C. and was considered the sacred way to enter the complex.
From here, you climb up a set of marble steps, some of which I heard a tour guide say are the original steps. This just about blew my mind and prepared me for the amazement I was about to feel as I went higher.
Sadly, the Temple of Athena Nike is under complete laser restoration due to centuries of soot gathered on the surfaces. I mean, this is GREAT thing, but sadly, it was pretty much encaged inside iron beams while they work on it. The Parthenon is dedicated to Athena as well as this smaller structure.
There is one building that was never finished, called the Propylaea. This was an architectural masterpiece as it combined Doric and Ionic design elements (columns) for the very first time in history. The secular building was designed to prepare people to enter the temples to worship the God/desses. Construction by Pericles was halted due to the Peloponnesian Wars in the 5th century A.D. and was never picked back up. So people can walk through the structure and a partial roof and then the giant Parthenon comes into view through the rear columns.
As it appears, it is stunning to the senses because of its size and also the height of the hill upon which it stands. When it seems like the highest point for many miles, when all you can see when you look up at it is sky, when it’s 90 degrees and your vision is hazy with dust and sweat and humidity, the Parthenon has a seriously moving presence. Of course a portion of it is under construction, as it pretty constantly is. Although it would have been nice of them to remove the giant crane and scaffolding for our picture-taking! We got as close as we could for picture taking and I just tried to imagine people throughout the ages using this structure for the different purposes they did…. First, the modern version was built by Pericles in honor of Athena as THE place of worship for ancient Greek God/desses. Of course in the middle ages, when under Christian rule, it was turned into a Christian Church along with all the surrounding temples, structures, etc. Damn them… Then in the 1600s, it was used as a storage facility for ammunition and of course, blew up in an accident, destroying much of the structure and artifacts within. DUMB!!!! In the 1800s, when the modern science of archeology became popular, it became a protected historical site that was excavated and used for educational purposes. Just last summer, the Acropolis Museum was built and now permanently houses many unearthed artifacts and actual pieces of the structures that need protection and preservation.
To the left of the Acropolis is the final structure on the plateau, the Erechtheon, built in honor of Athena’s sort of adopted son, Erectheus. He was the son of one of the Gods and Earth and Earth gave him to the unmarried, supposed virgin Athena to raise. The Erechtheon is a smaller structure whose most interesting part is a patio that appears guarded by the six famous marble statues of the Caryatids – amazon-like women... During wars with England in the 1800s, British Lord Elgin removed the Caryatids from Athens and brought them to the UK because he said there was no proper place to store such valuable artifacts. Since then, there has been a campaign to get them returned, especially now that there is the official Acropolis Museum. Five have been returned and currently reside in the museum (casts exist on the actual Erectheon). The sixth remains in the UK and there is an open space for her to return to at the exhibit in the Acropolis Museum.
From there, we descended to the South Slope of the Acropolis, where the two theatres and a few other various structures exist. First, we saw the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which is a beautiful amphitheater that is still in use today for many concerts and performances. I was totally amazed by this place, which was being set up by a technical crew for some sort of show tonight… Currently, it is Athens Fest and I’m sure the show is part of that celebration of Athenian arts and culture. Could you imagine playing at the Parthenon?!? Wow… I overheard someone say she’d see Elton John and Ballets there… OMG.
Next was the big thing that I was most looking forward to seeing out of everything today….The Theatre of Dionysus. Ever since I learned the history of this place in Theatre Studies 101, I was totally fascinated with it. Little did I think I would ever have the opportunity to actually stand inside this historic place, but here I was… In a nutshell --- Dionysus was the Greek God of wine,general hedonism and wild dancing. A festival was started in his honor in ancient Greece called the City of Dionysus, a weeklong celebration of theatre, hedonism and just altogether wild times. This was said to be the birthplace of theatre, of comedy and tragedy, and the debut of the works of Sophecles etc.... This became THE stage for all Greek dramas and sat about 10,000 people on the hill leading up to the wall surrounding the Acropolis. We actually got to walk up into the amphitheater, sit in the seats (there are about 1,000 seats remaining) and look down at the 2,500 year old stage. This is the site where theatre as we know it was founded and it was so overwhelming to be there. I saw they actually do reenactments occasionally there and I can’t even imagine the intensity of watching something like that.
From the Theatre, we headed towards the (air-conditioned) Museum for some information and food. We had about 45 minutes to go through the actual exhibits, 45 minutes to eat on the second level restaurant patio overlooking (or underlooking because the restaurant is actually below….) the Parthenon and 5 to get back to the taxi stand, haggle with a new driver and get back to the port. We moved swiftly through the ancient sculptures, ceramics and an incredible recreation of the frieze that lined the top of the Parthenon. This recreation took up the fourth floor of the museum, which was built to the exact scale of the Parthenon, so the frieze lined the perimeter of the rectangular museum as well. Hard to explain, but try to follow me… The frieze depicted people on horses travelling... Then on the front and rear of the Parthenon and museum, above the horse frieze were two different friezes – one depicting the competition between Athena and Poseidon over ruling and naming the city-state of Athens and one depicting Zeus and Athena talking and all of the main God/desses on either side. There are actual remains from the 5th century construction of these marble pieces of art that were on display. This was definitely the highlight of the museum for me!
We had a lovely lunch, complete with Ouzo, a Greek licorice flavored clear liquer that I had yet to try. It was said to be similar to Sambuca and is often drank straight over ice. It was entirely too strong for me to sip on, in 90 degree weather no less, so I stuck to the water, although I imagined it might be nice mixed with soda and lime? Haha! Aside from the beverage fail, I had an excellent spanikopita, Greek salad and assortment of Greek cheeses…MMM! We snapped some quick pics of the view, which was just ridiculous. I mean, how often can you have lunch on a patio underlooking the Parthenon? Just unbelievable…
We hustled back to the taxi stand, where Eric haggled over a taxi which Pieter and I checked out the last souvenir shop. I totally wanted this marble bust of Dionysus, but yeah… that wasn’t going in my suitcase home for SURE! I’ll have to look for one on Amazon, lol…
We made it back to the terminal with about 30 minutes to spare, thank goodness! It was a wonderful, overwhelming day once again, that I’ll process in the future sometime…
Once back on the boat, I realized it was Tequila (the tex-mex restaurant on board) night with Heather, Gina and Natalie. We’d made plans the other night to go out and try to enjoy the best attempt at Mexican food that we’ve been able to find on the ship. Pieter rounded out the group and we sat down to a very longggg meal. When the crew goes out to the restaurants, we’re usually the last ones the servers think about waiting on, understandably, so you’ve got to be patient and have a good bit of time to spend there. Mid-way through our meal in the restaurant that overlooks the Atrium (where the big screen TV, piano bar, internet café, coffee shop, reception, and gift shops are), we were disturbed by two guys in Brazil football jerseys screaming (drunk) and running around with the flag on their backs like capes. Of course this signified to us that Brazil was in the World Cup game tonight and they were going to play it on the giant screen. Joy. The party was just beginning for them and lots of others joined them in watching the game that just started when we were getting ready to leave, thankfully!
Gina had obtained a copy of Sex in the City 2 from the streets of Piraeus today and Pieter and I swiped it for an immediate viewing. I can call off the hunt for a screener by my friends back home (at ease, kiddos). While the movie left much to be desired story-wise (definitely paled in comparison to the first one, in my opinion), the only part I really was craving to see (duh, Liza) was everything I’d hoped for and MUCH more. That’s all I’ll say about that…
Another amazingly fabulous and packed day… I’m definitely gonna miss this place. :(
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