Melissa finally decided to join us on Saturday, having spent the previous two days working in Switzerland.  Europeans do get a lot of vacation, but not an unlimited amount, so she only took 5 days off for Greece.  In our busy trip itinerary, Saturday was the only day planned for sight seeing in Athens, and we only had until 2:30 p.m. to pack in all the ruins and museums we could, because at that time Melissa would join us, and we had scheduled a walking food tour of Athens.

There was a light drizzle as we set out from our hotel toward our first sight of the day: the Acropolis.  We arrived around 9 a.m., and before buying tickets to enter, we detoured to see a rocky hill called the Areopagus, which is right next to the Acropolis entrance.  The hill has a long history as the site where a kind of Athenian senate met, the site where a court of elders heard criminal trials, the site where altars to different gods were set up, and also the site where St. Paul preached to the Athenians.  There is a nice view of the city from the hill, but not as commanding as from the top of the Acropolis.

Walking through the Acropolis ticket gate, with the information pamphlet in hand, I was struck by there being so much more to see than just the Parthenon.  The Acropolis is the name of the entire high rocky hill, and on the site are the ruins of several ancient buildings.  The first on the path to the top was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an impressive ancient theater situated at the southern base of the hill.  Entrance and exit to the flat top of the Acropolis is done through only one grandiose gateway known as the Propylaea.  Much of it is missing, but enough of the steps, columns, and even parts of the roof remain to imagine the awe one would feel as a pilgrim coming to the most holy site in the glory days of Athens.  Through the gateway, the Parthenon dominated the view.  Some of its mystique was lost by seeing modern cranes and building equipment next to the old ruin, but I’m glad they are doing restorations.  Most of the buildings on the acropolis had a few white, new stones, next to the old stones, and without the restorations it would be harder to imagine the original look.

Looking out over the Acropolis walls was an amazing view of the city, as well as to other ruins that are scattered throughout Athens, like the Temple to Zeus, and the Panathenaic stadium.  We even had sight lines to the sea.  The other highlight from the top was the Erechtheion, a temple dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon, that was mostly intact and had intricate statues of women used for some of it’s columns.

Exiting the Acropolis, we then took a short walk to the Acropolis museum just south of the hill.  The entrance and inside of the museum were cool in that they are built right on top of old ruins. These ruins can be seen through glass floors, and an open pit along the path to the museum entrance.  The first floors of the museum were filled with many ancient statues, and vases taken from the Acropolis, but I don’t have any pictures because they don’t allow photography.

On the top floor of the museum is the main Parthenon exhibit. Climbing the stairs you first come to a room with an informative video that tells the history of how the Parthenon was built and rebuilt.  Revolutionary for it’s time in both engineering and architecture, it’s style is still being copied today.  It was fun to learn that the temple’s walls, and statues used to be painted.  As well as that it was converted into a church, and later a mosque.  During a war in 1687, while the Ottomans were using the Parthenon as an ammunition dump, it sustained major damage in an explosion. Later on, the British removed many of the better preserved statues and pieces and brought them to London.  Interestingly, they designed the top floor to have the same footprint as the Parthenon, and they displayed originals or replicas of the friezes along the sides and inside of the temple, as well as the god statues on both pediments. Alongside most of the replica pieces was a note saying where the original pieces now reside – typically in the British museum of London or in the Louvre of Paris.

From the Acropolis museum we took a subway up to the National Archaeological Museum.  It houses an overwhelming amount of artifacts from all across Greece, including statues, vases, frescoes, and coins.  I tried my best to appreciate them all, but by this point all the artifacts were starting to look the same to me.

After perusing the museum we began walking back to the hotel. Along the way Ann, Dan, and Mike stopped for a snack of souvlaki, (grilled meat on a stick), but my mom and I abstained knowing that the food tour would soon start.  At the hotel we had a little time to kill, so Mike and my mom went souvenir shopping, Dan and Ann went to explore around Monastiraki square, (where our tour was to start), and I waited for Melissa.

Just before 2:30 p.m. Melissa arrived by taxi.  We quickly dropped off her suitcase, then headed to the square where we found our tour guide, Vivian, already talking to the rest of our group.   The tour was just the six of us Olsons, and began as soon as we showed up.  We walked to different restaurants, and markets, all the time learning interesting tidbits on history, culture, and food from Vivian.

Our first stop was a bakery were we sampled two kinds of a traditional pastry called spanakopita.  It consists of a simple flaky crust layered amongst the filling; in our case one had spinach filling and the other feta cheese.  It’s a savory pastry common to be eaten at anytime of the day as the main course, and common to fill with many different fillings.   Just outside the bakery our next stop was a street vendor selling koulourakia, a sweet bread distinguishable by its braided ring shape.

We then headed off to find dessert: loukoumades, a Greek doughnut deep fried then covered in honey.  Vivian said they have much less fat then American doughnuts, but they taste so good I’m sure they’re still not healthy for you.

Far from finished with our tour we walked to a store specializing in Greek made food products.  There we sampled Greek wines, Greek olive oils, and then Greek balsamic vinegar.  We choose our favorite olive oil and vinegar to be included in a Greek salad, which Vivian informed us should never be made with lettuce.  We also had a dessert of Greek yogurt with honey before leaving for the next stop: the meat and fish market.

We only went to the meat and fish market to look, and I’m glad because the sights and smells weren’t always appetizing.  It’s a crowded, noisy, indoor market divided between numerous fish and meat stalls, each with an owner hawking his selection to passersby. The meat section has all the kinds and cuts of meat you could want, even skinned goat heads.  The fish section too has a wide variety, but to me the strong smell was the most memorable part of it.  We learned that the meat market part wasn’t as busy because it was near the beginning of Lent for Eastern Orthodox Christians. During their lent, adherents are required to fast from all meat for the forty days before Easter.

Leaving the market we stepped into a cafe for a Greek coffee, which is brewed by placing water and coffee in a little cup, then placing the cup in heated up sand.  The consistency is thick and muddy, with the last swallow of liquid having too many grounds in it to drink.  This may seem to be the exact same way Turkish coffee is made, but in Greece it’s called Greek coffee.  Vivian told us Greek cuisine is heavily influenced by Turkey due to Greece formerly being in the Ottoman empire, and due to a 1923 population exchange where Greeks were kicked out of Turkey, and Turks kicked out of Greece.

We next walked through a vegetable market, where we sampled three kinds of olives.  Then it was off to our final stop of the tour a deli store.  There we sampled two cheeses, two meats, a stuffed grape leaf roll, and had a shot of ouzo.  After 3 hours of touring we thanked Vivian and wandered back to our hotel, where we relaxed for a bit at the rooftop bar.

We didn’t rest long though, because we still had one more sight to see: the Greek parliament building.  We slowly walked along a busy shopping district street to reach it, and just before we made it, Mike saw a McDonalds.  Somehow he was still hungry.  I went in to check it out with him, and ended up buying a Greek Mac just to see what it was, even though I wasn’t terribly hungry myself.  The Greek Mac is just a big mac with a pita instead of a bun, and Greek yogurt instead of special sauce.

The main thing to see at the parliament building is the soldiers standing guard in their strange uniforms.  They have a hat with a very long tassel, big fluffy balls on the toes of their shoes, and a coat that turns into a skirt below the waist.   After seeing enough, we spent the rest of the evening strolling through the narrow, twisting, streets of central Athens until 9 p.m. when we sat down for a small supper.  Then off to bed to prepare for the next busy day.

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