Athens - 12-13 September

After booking my flight from Rome to Athens late the night before, I was up early on Saturday to head to the airport. I was off to Greece!

I landed in Athens on Saturday afternoon and after checking into the hostel immediately set off to explore the city. I first headed to the Acropolis museum which housed all the artefacts found on the Acropolis (well at least those that weren't stolen by the English). This museum was very well done and had some amazing pieces. It was also really cool seeing all the things that I had studied in the flesh, especially the Parthenon friezes and the Karyatids. The top floor also gave a stunning view over the Acropolis which really does tower over the city. After leaving the museum I then wandered around the Acropolis and eventually ended up on Areopagus hill where Paul the apostle had once preached Christianity and from where you have a great view of the Acropolis. I then walked through the main part of town and past parliament (where I watched the weird changing of the guard routine) before finishing my first night in Greece with the first of many gyros (kebab like thing in pita with meat, salad, chips and tzatziki.

My second day in Athens was the one that I had been waiting for. I was up early to beat the lines and headed up the Acropolis. Here I wandered among the Ancient ruins that I had studied, listening to more of Rick Steves walkthroughs. Not only were the buildings even more incredible in person but the Acropolis also have a stunning view over the city and even as far as the harbour. The Acropolis ticket also surprisingly gets you into 6 other ancient sites around the city including the Ancient Agora (marketplace and centre of Ancient Athenian city, also where democracy was founded), Kerameikos (the main entrance to Ancient Athens, one of the major cemeteries and the location of the ceramics industry), the Roman Agora (centre of commerce from Roman times), Hadrian's library (a large Roman ruin built by Emperor Hadrian), the temple of Zeus (the largest temple in Athens) and the theatre of Dionysus (a huge theatre built into the side of the Acropolis where the likes of Aristophanes and Menander who are two poets that I studied would have had their plays performed). I spent the next few hours wandering the city and exploring all of these sites which were all incredible. Unlike in Rome most of the Greek ruins still have all their marble and they tower above you. I loved the opportunity to just explore the city and get an idea of how they actually lived.

For my last afternoon in Athens I headed to the National Archaeological Museum. This was a highlight of my trip so far as it stepped you through all of Greek history, displaying the most important pieces from each period. It also displayed pretty much all of the pieces that I have studied from the Early Cycladic period, through the Mycenaean era and up to Classical Greece and Rome.

With that my time in Athens came to an end but I had managed to fit in everything that I had wanted to do. While I could have spent days exploring all the books and crannies of the city and its museums I was ready to move on again, happy to have fulfilled a long held dream of mine to see the Acropolis and Ancient Athens. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far.