For a Classical history fangirl, I've sat on the idea of visiting Greece for decades, and on 2015, it finally became reality. For first time visitors to Greece, Athens is pretty much fixated on the itinerary as the entry/exit point. While I side with the popular opinion of leaving minimal time for this city and more time for the rest of Greece, there were still several cool places I find very worthwhile.
Sights visited: Panathenaic Stadium, New Acropolis Museum, National Archeological Museum, Acropolis, Temple of Olympian Zeus.
For several years I've been going back to Europe and traveling to Mediterranean countries, so much that I started to form a reputation among friends to be ~in love~ with this region. This year, the trend continues with a visit to Greece.
The only direct flight option from Toronto to Athens was the low-budget, charter line of Air Canada called Air Canada rouge. The main difference was the lack of personal entertainment system, and generally less experienced cabin crew.
I was never thrilled to be on Air Canada either way, but I survived. At the very least, blankets and pillows were provided for free. For the 10 hour duration of this flight, I did find the food portions quite small and was hungry most of the time.
Upon arrival, my private driver Fotis was already waiting for me at the gate. He took care of our transportation and lodging on two different segments of this trip, which made planning so much simpler. The cost for my parents and I, surprisingly, was not much more than joining a bus tour, and we had the added benefit of complete freedom with our time. He was very thoughtful (plenty of cold water in the car - super important during what was an unusually hot September of 40 degrees Celsius) and added much Greek hospitality to our otherwise standard tourist experience.
The touring started right away as I landed in Athens airport at 9AM. I was dead tired, but being driven around helped a lot with the jetlag. We first made a short stop at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the first modern Olympic games took place.
Then he dropped me off at the New Acropolis Museum. Fotis is not a guide so he didn't accompany me into the sights (which was also my preference), but all private drivers in Greece can arrange a separate guide if needed.
The New Acropolis Museum was built in 2008 and the architecture certainly reflected that. This museum houses all the original sculptures and reliefs found at Athen's landmark, the Acropolis.
The entrance straddled over an excavation site, and very crowded. Maybe because of the extreme heat, all the tourists in Athens decided to come to museums.
The museum was super chic, super modern with plenty of large glass walls and floors that lets in natural light. Note that it's not a good idea to wear skirts in this museum because of this. I also found the need to check my rather small backpack and the "some areas apply" photography policy annoying, but I was still quite impressed by this museum.
Sculptures were displayed in a contemporary way. In the centre of the photo is Peplos Kore, a textbook example for sculptures of archaic period, and I was pretty sure it was on my CLST204 midterm.
The number one highlight of the museum are the original caryatids of Erechtheion on the Acropolis (the ones on-site were replicas). The empty spot in the front centre was a "lost sister" caryatid removed by a Scottish lord in 1801, and is now displayed at the British Museum.
Even though numerous Ancient Greek artworks are now in other countries, the number of sculptures and friezes present was still overwhelming.
Small scale reconstruction models of the east pediment of the Parthenon.
I spent quite a bit of time in front of this piece, the Mourning Athena.
I read Saint Seiya when I was really young and barely knew about the rest of the world, so it was a surreal moment to finally see the actual frieze a manga was referencing.
For my first meal in Greece, Fotis brought me to a family-run restaurant called Fagopoteion (I still struggle with Greek alphabet and staring at the letters didn't help) in the upscale boutique area of Kolonaki. Fotis brings his clients to hotels and restaurants he has relations with, but every eatery he brought us to were cheap and delicious, so I have no complaints.
My first Greek salad was great! Of course I've had numerous Greek salads in Canada, but the land these vegetables grew on made a huge difference. The olive oil was like a dream come true. Never and still not a fan of feta cheese, so in future meals, we often ask for Greek salad without feta.
Stuffed eggplant with mixed vegetables (mostly zucchini), delicious and reminded me a lot of eggplant dishes I had in Turkey. There were definitely a lot of similarities in the cuisine of the two countries, and for obvious reasons.
Such is the norm in Europe, water and bread were extra, but my entire meal only came up to 10 euros. Isn't Greece is an expensive place to dine? Maybe due to the fact that this restaurant was not in the tourist area, this price was not bad at all.
The New Acropolis Museum is the most popular museum in Athens, but I looooved the National Archeology Museum. It held all the most iconic archeological treasures from all over Greece. We later realized that if we visited this museum, there was no need to see any of the small museums at the individual archeological sites.
For example, we visited the Mycenae ruins later in the day, but the most iconic artifact, the Mask of Agamemnon, was here in Athens rather than the museum at Mycenae. I've seen this mask in print so many times, it was emotional to finally see it in person.
The museum was brilliantly organized according to chronology and civilization. For example, all the Mycenaean artifacts were grouped together, like this gold and silver bull-shaped rhyton.
and gold funeral items.
It was fun to think about how these artifacts had preserved from a civilization from 15th century BC, and how they painted really cute octopus.
I forgot what this one was, but too cute...
For the Greek art section, visitors naturally move through the different periods of Greek pottery in the order of Protogeometric - Geometric - Archaic - Black Figure - Red Figure. This Dipylon Amphora was one example of the geometric period (~900BC), characterized by the repeating shape designs and the distinct, triangular human figures.
I was trying to explain to my mom why Red Figure was harder to make than Black Figure, but she didn't seem to get it.
Greek sculptures also transition through a similar trend of Archaic - Classical - Hellenistic styles. The Archaic sculptures are usually stiff and upright, like the Peplos Kore mentioned earlier in this post. This Artemision Bronze is a good example of a Classical sculpture, with more realistic and natural anatomy and poses. This statue is 2 metres tall and either depicts Zeus or Poseidon.
An example of a Hellenistic sculpture would be this Mounted Jockey, also a highlight of the museum. Hellenisitic was the period when Greek art was influenced by other cultures as a result of Alexander the Great's conquests. The jockey is not exactly to scale to the horse, but the sense of motion made this sculpture great.
A sculpture of Aphrodite fending of Pan with a slipper, and an amused Eros. This sculpture is still very relevant in a modern context.
Oh do I ever travel everywhere to collect statues of Augustus. Unlike the idealized Augustus sculptures I've seen over and over again, this one is unexpectedly true to life.
Emperor Hadrian had statues of his young lover, Antinous, mass produced after his death, so every museum within the Roman empire seemed to have one. This bust in Athens was the best one by far.
Since we would be going to the Cyclades Islands for a good chunk of this trip, the Cycladic Art section gave a bit of a preview. On display were frescoes taken from the ruins of Akrotiri, a Minoan Bronze Age establishment on the Island of Santorini. Santorini at the time was a flourishing trading hub, and in direct competition with Crete, so the art style between the two places were very similar.
We didn't go to Akrotiri ruins while we were on Santorini, but at least we got to see the frescoes.
The museums of Athens made me so happy, but I wasn't too thrilled with going to the "must-visit sight of Athens", the Acropolis. Not only was it ridiculously hot, I knew that most of the site had been under maintenance for years. I went just to be able to say that I did.
The propylaea, or gateway, was covered in scaffolding as expected.
I wonder if by the time all four sides are done, it's time to do it all over again? I couldn't recall the last time the Parthenon was not under maintenance. Perhaps after all the destruction it went through in war, this temple is more fragile than I could imagine.
The Erechtheion was dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon.
The whole Acropolis site not only included the temples, but also other structures such as this Odeon of Herodes Atticus. This theatre is still used for concerts events, such as the Athens Festival during the warmer months. A rehearsal was taking place when we were there. The audience stands had been rebuilt for this purpose.
The other theatre, Theatre of Dionysus, was not so much in use. Behind it is the New Acropolis Museum. The Acropolis, while not the highest point of Athens, provided a good view over the city.
Thanks to the hot weather and also the fact that it was 5 PM in the afternoon, the Acropolis was not as crowded as I anticipated. Overall, pretty lukewarm about the experience.
The Acropolis ticket was 12 Euros and include the entrance fee to a couple of other smaller ruins in Athens, and was valid for a week. We opted out most of them, except the Temple of Olympus Zeus. The size of the columns, much larger than the Parthenon's, were quite impressive! It was worth the ten minutes photo stop.
We toured Athens mostly with what leftover time we had from our Argolis tour (next trip report entry), and Fotis brought me to all the Athens sights I wanted to see in the two half-days we got in the city. Athens was far from being the highlight of trip, so I kept the stay short and sweet, and move on to other beauties Greece has to offer.
