Hello, again, Blogonauts!

Athens is awash with travelers, and we vagabonds find ourselves variously joining with or swimming against the tide.

As you can see from the pictures posted earlier, on Friday we plunged right in. We wandered through the National Archaeological Museum, ambled among the fresh meat, fish, and veggies in the robust central market, and then escaped the crowds to drop by the Panathenaic Stadium. It was reconstructed in the 19th century, but matches the stadium from the days of the first Olympics. Great photo spot, by the way!

On Saturday (a day named for a deity that, among others, was originally worshiped hereabouts), we climbed the Acropolis. Humbly we strode in the footsteps of Pythagoras... Socrates... Plato... Aristotle... St. Paul... and Yanni. (Don't you remember his concert from the Acropolis?)

Actually we were striding in the more immediate footsteps of the colossal crowds that joined us to pay homage to history. But homage was all we had to pay. By happenstance, we chose to arrive on a day when access to the Acropolis, normally 12 euros per person, was free.

At those prices, who could resist? Judging from the numbers surrounding us, apparently no one.

But in spite of our sharing the experience with cheapskates (just kidding), the Acropolis does not disappoint.

The Parthenon, its centerpiece, is/was an enormous Bronze Age engineering marvel. It was built to honor the warrior version of the goddess Athena by the city that bears her name. Then, after Christians banned the worship of Greek gods, the Parthenon became a Christian church. When the Turks later conquered the city, they constructed a nearby minaret and converted the building into a mosque. In its present ramshackle status, it could be said to represent an ironic monument to the folly of war.

Turkish control of Athens was not popular elsewhere in Europe, and in an attempt to "liberate" the Acropolis, the Venetians attacked in 1687. The Turks used the copious space within the even-then-2000-year-old Parthenon to store their guns and ammunition. As the Venetians fired mortars at the Turkish garrison atop the Acropolis, one shell scored a direct hit on the Parthenon. The gunpowder stored within exploded and left the Temple-cum-Church-cum-Mosque and many of the surrounding buildings in ruins.

The Greek and EU governments are funding efforts to partially restore the Parthenon, but nothing close to its pre-mortar-fied splendor. Instead, they are patching the columns with fresh-hewn marble and shoring up the remaining structure so as to discourage further damages.

The smaller temple to Nike, near the Acropolis' main gate, has been granted a more complete restoration. And the Caryatids, the famous six columns carved in the shape of women that adorn one side of the smaller Erechtheion temple, have been removed to the Acropolis Museum. Acid rain was creating so much havoc on their surfaces that their survival at all was in doubt. Replicas now stand in their historic place.

We saw the originals in the Acropolis museum, along with several other remnants of the ancient Athens' glory days. Then after a leisurely lunch (while we waited out a brief rain shower), we headed across town where we ascended Mount Lycabettus for a further high-altitude view of the city.

So we have been genuinely busy. Some bits of Athens could use a fresh coat of paint, but in general, the city is clean and charming. The areas around the Acropolis have a 19th century feel to them, which is not surprising, because there was a building boom in the latter half of the 1800s.

Our meals have been superb, ranging from collections of small appetizers such as taramasalata (fish egg dip) to larger entrees, such as souvlaki (chicken on a skewer). Last night's dinner was topped off with kataifi, described accurately as a hairy bakalava.

We are off to go island hopping for several days, but we will be back in a week to wrap up our Athens experience.

Tomorrow we abandon urban life to explore the quiet of the Greek Islands. (And no, I'm not talking about Mykonos.)

Blog to you later!