Athens

When someone says Greece people always think of Greek myths, the Parthenon, and temples. In my fours days there I found out that there’s a lot more to Greece then that. Although the ruins were my favorite part of the trip. Just seeing the old pillars still standing is an amazing thing.


First stop in my Greek adventure was Athens. We drove 4 hours from Volos Airport to Athens. I was under the impression that Athens was going to be this amazing and gorgeous city. No offence Athens, but you were you a huge let down. As we drove toward our hotel I was sad to see that it was a very dirty city. Yes I know most major cities are dirty but this was a run down, worn out, grungy dirty look. So I was a little sad that my spring break seemed to have started off on the wrong foot entirely. Especially since it was raining.

^My first picture taken in Greece^

But we found our hotel around 8. It was tucked away on a pedestrian street and when I walked over to ask where it was that we could park the guy tells me that we can just pull up front… so we did. And my Czech housemate did a fantastic park job…

I could barely fit my fingers between our car and the pillar. But we were in Athens. When we went to bed we crossed our fingers that the rain would stop and we’d have sun for our visit to the Acropolis.

All our finger Crossing was for not… We woke up to gray skies and wet streets.

I didn’t mind too much since it only appeared to be drizzling. So we headed out to the Acropolis.

We get to the famed Acropolis of Athens, home of the Parthenon. We go to the ticket booth and were very sad to find out that the admission was €12. Lucky for me my housemates had a solution. Out came our Student ID Cards… and our admission price… €0.

That’s right I got into the Acropolis free and it felt awesome. The only damper on the epicness of the Parthenon was the fact that it was being repaired and had scafolding up... it was still cool thought.

Now what is it the makes the Acropolis so cool? The quick answer is the Parthenon. The long answer…

-it’s 150m above sea level
-It was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Cecrops, the first Athenian king
-the Parthenon was built by Pericles in the fifth century BC as a monument to the cultural and political achievements of the inhabitants of Athens
-It took 9 years to build
-It was completed in 438 BC
-Each piece of the Parthenon is unique and fits together perfectly. So even though it looks like things can be interchanged they can’t!

And check this out. Wikipedia says “The Project began in 1975 and is now nearing completion. The aim of the restoration was to reverse the decay of centuries of attrition, pollution, destruction by acts of war, and misguided past restorations. The project included collection and identification of all stone fragments, even small ones, from the Acropolis and its slopes and the attempt was made to restore as much as possible using reassembled original material - with new marble from Mount Penteli used sparingly. All restoration was made using titanium dowels and is designed to be completely reversible, in case future experts decide to change things. A combination of cutting-edge modern technology and extensive research and reinvention of ancient techniques were used.”

Soooo cool right? The fact that they can undo everything they’ve done is really mind boggling.

“And for some more numbers from Wikipedia “A total of 2,675 tons of architectural members were restored, with 686 stones reassembled from fragments of the originals, 905 patched with new marble, and 186 parts made entirely of new marble. A total of 530 cubic meters of new Pentelic marble were used”

The hike to the top was a short and easy one. And the pictures… amazing!! Here are a few of the 62 pictures I took at the Acropolis.
 

 
Cheers,