3,611 miles Across the Pond: Life at the Acropolis

This morning was an early start as we had a lot to accomplish! The day started with breakfast at the hostel. Not a traditional Greek breakfast but still really good!

Then it was off to our first stop: The Acropolis. We started on the South side and walked through the ruins of the smaller temples and the theater before making it up to the Parthenon area. It is a bit surreal to be walking around the ruins and thinking about how it might have looked thousands of years ago and all that has happened there. Not to mention that the work that went into building the temples and buildings. Even in ruins you can see the detail in each stone. Once we reached the Theater of Dionysis we were able to walk inside and sit in the seats that the ancient Greeks sat in!!

When we made it to the top of the Acropolis I was so excited!! It was like a dream come true to see the architecture I have learned about over the years. Ancient Greek art is my favorite time period/ era of art and it was a dream come true to see it in person finally!!! It definitely did not look quite like photos I have seen, mainly because it was the tourist off season so there were construction materials and scaffolding around the ruins. But still as beautiful as ever!

Lots of cats wandering about the ruins!

Rep-ing the Greek life in Greece!

After visiting the Parthenon we walked down the North side of the Acropolis and saw another Theater.

After the Acropolis we headed down to the Acropolis museum which is home to the sculptures and statues found on and around the acropolis. Unfortunately they do not allow pictures but I recognized pretty much every statue from Art History! While in the museum we also got a second breakfast, Greek donuts!! They were a mix between a funnel cake and a dunkin munchkin. The museum is built on top of ruins, though there were no signs, we believe that it was a village from the looks of the ruins which can be seen from the floor of the museum and outside.

Next it was back over to the North side of the Acropolis and down to the kerameikos where we saw another museum with pottery from various ages of Greece from the paleolithic era to Roman takeover. In the upstairs were Roman copies of famous Greek sculptures, along with sculptures of famous Romans.

We then ventured up to the Library of Hadrian which was the wall and columns we saw yesterday! The outer walls of the library and structure are still pretty well intact. Inside there were ruins of a church and auditorium.

Afterwards we began walking towards the outer part of Athens to the National Archaeological Museum. On our way there we ended up passing even more ruins! It seems as though no matter where you go random ruins are around you somewhere. These were in the middle of the sidewalk. There was not a sign, though I assume it was more remnants of a village.

The Archaeological Museum is home to some of the more famous Greek Sculptures/ statues such as the bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon and marble statuette of Athena.

Bronze Statue of Zeus or Poseidon

Marble Statuette of Athena

It was then off to the original Olympic stadium or the Panathenaic Stadium. On our way there we walked through the street where many of the embassies are located(along with many police and military grade officers stand). We even got to see some traditional Greek Guards(the Greek version of the English guards in the red suits with big fluffy black hats).

After a bit of a walk and conquering our fear of men carrying very large guns, we made it to the Olympic Stadium! As students, this was the first historical thing we had to pay for! But the 1 euro was so worth it!! The Panathenaic stadium was originally known as the Kallimarmaro and was the host of the first modern olympic games in 1896. It was built in Ancient times and renovated in 140 AD. Despite its age, the stadium looks almost new. It was kept in such good shape and you can still climb the incredibly steep steps up to the top of the stands, and go on the track! The Panathenaic stadium is also where every single olympic torch starts and a torch from all of the more recent games are displayed there. The track is no longer used today(the proportions are off, the straight is 185 meters instead of 100 meters) but the stadium is still used for celebratory events and even concerts.

Podium where torches are lit

Our last stop before dinner was to the Zappion (ZAΓΓION) which is the congress building and event hall. The middle of the building hold and open courtyard which is a beautiful modern version of Ancient Greek Architecture. Around the front part inside the building was a market type event which had different companies offering free samples and selling different products.

For dinner we ate we had more traditional Greek food. I got a vegetarian Moussaka which was a layered dish with eggplant, zucchini, and potatoes. We also got some yummy hummus and pita bread of course!