Corinne CrawfordI met Debbie at the same metro station on her day of arrival at about noon. The bed that was left was the sofa bed and although it was in a private room, it left a lot to be desired for comfort. Poor Debbie would not get a decent night’s sleep until we got to Crete. Jodi and I had gone to the store to pick up some essentials for meals and after wandering around again to give Debbie a feel for the city, I made pasta and chicken for dinner at the apartment and let Debbie get some rest so we could hit the sightseeing hard the next day- the only full day Debbie had in Athens before we flew to Crete. Jodi was not feeling up to the amount of walking and steps we were going to have to do so we left her to work and rest in the apartment and we headed out first to the Acropolis. There was some light rain in the forecast so we had gotten ourselves some cheap umbrellas but we only had to use them for a short time that day. It was a bit cloudy but we managed to avoid any heavy rain. Even with the slightly grey day, the Acropolis was crowded as expected and we made our way up the sloped hill to get our tickets and then up the steps of the Propylina onto the flat top of the Acropolis. Even with all of the people, the place is majestic and it is hard not to be impressed with the Parthenon and other remnants of the temples up there.
It started to sprinkle as we were coming down from the Acropolis and we made our way to the Acropolis Museum that sits at the bottom of the hill atop an archeological site of an ancient residential area. Much of the temples at the Acropolis are reconstructed for preservation and the original pieces of the buildings, statues and other artifacts are housed in the museum. What was really interesting was to see the pieces that still had paint on them. When we see movies or paintings of ancient temples, we often see the gleaming white marble statues and temples but in actuality the statues and friezes on the temples were intricately painted in brilliant blues, reds, yellows and greens. The detail on these artifacts and the artistry were mind blowing. In a time when everything took so much effort because of lack of modern tools and resources- getting food, water, building shelters- to think that they devoted so much time and effort into constructing huge and amazing temples and art demonstrates just how important that part of the culture was.
After the museum, we wandered back towards Monastiraki and ate lunch at one of the cafes close to our next stop, the Agora. The Agora in Athens was the main public area in ancient Athens. It is where government meetings were held, public discourse and philosophical teachings occurred. It is where Socrates spoke and mentored students such as Aristotle and it is where public life in Athens played out. The site is large and contains mostly ruins of walls and roads that you can see. As you stroll along, you can almost picture the people walking about, talking to merchants, discussing the current issues and going about their day. It is really humbling to be walking the same steps.
