Shyam's European Adventure 2009: It's All Greek To Me

The start of my travels was the 1^st time I was really alone. My parents left in the morning and my flight wasn't until 8:25pm. I had to check out of the hotel at 11am and so I had Rome to myself for the day. I started off by doing laundry—I now have clothes to last me till the end of my trip. I got some Frigidarium, bought new shoelaces, and discovered mozzarella and potato pizza. I said a preliminary goodbye to all my favorite sites (Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Trevi) and went back to my hotel to get my bags. Unfortunately because of the G8 conference I couldn’t get to the metro—there was a demonstration that spanned from Piazza d’Spagna to Barberini—so I walked with all my stuff in the hot sun until Republica! Ugh. But I feel bad for the tourists: sites like the Pantheon and Colosseum were closed to the public to allow Obama and other presidents to have private tours. (Fun fact: the taxi that took my parents to the airport was going to pick up the Brazilian president after dropping them off) Anyways, I made my flight, but sadly like most things Italian, it left 30 minutes late. (it did make up some time, landing only 10 minutes late) This was the adventurous part—navigating Athens by myself past midnight. The metros weren’t running so after one bus it was walking. I made it to my hostel around 1:40am and just crashed. Our hostel was run by Australians and I’ve learned some cool travel tips from them. (NewEurope tours and the hop-on-hop-off bus throughout Europe that visits each city every other day, so you can stay in whatever city you get off at for even increments of days.) Anyways Athens was hot! I met a kid from Oregon at my hostel and he was traveling alone too and so we hit up the big sites: The Acropolis, the ancient Agora, the Theatre of Dionysus, and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The Acropolis didn’t have a tremendous effect on me mainly because everything was covered with scaffolding. You couldn’t even go near the Temple of Athena Nike! I was sorely disappointed—especially since it’s the height of tourist season. We grabbed lunch and headed back to the hostel to relax. I was still waiting for Apu and Ishanee to arrive so I went to do the Roman Agora and the Keremikos by myself. Athens reminds me a lot of Rome, except less crowded and more people speak and understand English. I met a random Greek man who spent 23 years working for Exxon in Houston and he was really nice. The food in Athens is good too—stuffed bell peppers for lunch and Vegetarian Mousaka for dinner. My people finally arrived and we went to see the New Acropolis Museum—which is AWESOME and probably my favorite museum I’ve visited thus far—and I’ve visited plenty. However they made me pay the entrance fee (1 Euro) and let Ishanee and Apu get in for free—we all used the ISIC too, ugh whatever. The design is modern but the inside is easy to manage visually, the displays are spaced out, and everything is arranged spatially corresponding to the actual Acropolis. You can look in all directions and see stuff. (You can see the original Greek foundations through the clear glass floors below and see people walking above you through the ceiling above!) Also I really agree that the British Museum should return the Elgin Marbles (statues from the Parthenon’s pediment) to Greece. But wow—this museum was just aesthetically pleasing. I’m really wondering what Stephen thought about it when he visited the week before.

Cool stuff about Greece: everything is in Greek; not as many annoying street vendors as in Italy; I can kind of sound out the Greek in the signs, but I have no idea what they are saying; random ruins everywhere make me Romesick!

THE ACROPOLIS!

Odeon of Herodes

Theater of Dionysus

The Parthenon

Agin, the Parthenon

My Friend, William from Oregon!

The Erectheon, complete with Caryatid Porch!!

A close-up of the Caryatids

The Acropolis is in the background

The Temple of Hephestus

The National Gardens

The Remains of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and yes, that's me pretending to be Zeus

The Roman Agora

Another view of the Acropolis

The New Acropolis Museum

Inside the Acropolis Museum

See, you can see through the floors!

The Acropolis from our Hostel

We caught a very early ferry to Santorini the next day. And we definitely miscalculated: you need more than a day on a Greek island. For one thing we assumed Santorini was the size of Capri and it’s not. It’s huge and it takes a while to get between the 4 main spots: the port, the beaches, Oia, and Fira. I also came in with the notion that Greek islands would be green and lush. That’s also incorrect—they’re pretty much huge barren rocks. Don’t get me wrong, the blue and white themed architecture of the buildings and churches are simply gorgeous. But I thought there would be more to the blue and white pictures that I’ve seen of Santorini, but in reality the pictures hide the grey rocks that they are built upon. But their beaches—WOW! Definitely the best one I’ve swam in. The water temperature was perfect, the black sand (yes, BLACK sand) was cool, and the water was crystal clear. We just lay in the water for quite some time. We tried to make it to the red beach, but their bus systems to put it simply, sucks. We never knew what time the buses would come, the people working the buses and the drivers are unhelpful and rude, and they don’t have the frequency of buses to accommodate the capacity of visitors on the island. We finally caught a bus from the beach to Oia, the place where everyne says to catch the sunset from. It was pleasant, but I enjoyed my Florentine sunset more. Dinner was amazing though: humus and fava dip; mushroom and cherry tomato skewers with aubergine dipping sauce with pita. Yum! We wandered through Fira for a bit then taxied our way back to our hostel.

The next day we went back to Athens with the plan to go see the Temple of Poseidon, overlooking the water on the cliffs. But before we got on our ferry we went to a Greek bakery. And wow! Amazing! I had a chocolate pie, which was really just a really, really moist version of Costco chocolate cake and a spinach pie. Their sesame loaf was soft and tasty. And their baklava was not as crispy as I expected, but the flavor was very good. (It had an emphasis on Cinnamon, but Mom’s is still the best) We got some other Baklava in Athens, which was AWFUL and left an aftertaste of dirt in my mouth. Sorry for the sidetrack, but our plans to go visit Poseidon had to be cancelled because our ferry which left only 15 minutes late, arrived in Athens an hour and twenty minutes late. How does that even happen?! Anyways our plan didn’t materialize because the Temple was in Sounion an hour an a half away. But we got dinner at Zorba’s! (Yes like My Big Fat Greek Wedding!!) [A vegetarian plate: giant fava beans in gravy, fried pumpkin ball, Greek yogurt (which is the best btw, like Indian homemade style!), stuffed pepper, stuffed vine lead (eh…), rice, carrots, and fried potatoes. After this we made our way to Lykavittos Hill, the hill that overlooks the entire city, including the Acropolis. We took a funicular to get up to the top and view was really nice. I could see not only the Acropolis, but also the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Old Olympic Stadium. The food was delicious, but other than that, the country was a bit of a letdown, especially after Italy. Slow buses and trains (metros ran in 10 minute intervals, unheard of in Italy!), the amunt of time we spent on ferries (around 10 hours), etc. But the experience was worth it. I will come back to see the Temple of Poseidon and go island hopping for sure.

Santorini's Black Sand Beach