athens, greece!

So geez, we’ve been home from Greece for a few weeks now and I’m just now putzing around to blogging Athens. What’s that they always said about your kids being in school, growing older, and life somehow getting busier than when they’re babies underfoot? Well, those sage dooms-dayers were right. But here we are… Athens! As I sat here choosing the pictures and loading them into Lightroom, I’m also realizing that I just didn’t take enough photos. What? Why? You know what though, the very thing bugging me right now was also kind of great while there. Sometimes I like taking some time off from lugging that big camera around and feeling the need to document. It is what it is.
As soon as we got to Athens, we made our way to the Plaka neighborhood where our Airbnb was. If you’re heading to Athens, I would recommend this spot hands down. Super hospitable, responsive hosts, impeccably clean, neatly designed with its built in couches and lofted platform bed?), comfortable, cool, and views such that, even when you’re resting your feet for some downtime, you’re still taking in the spectacular Acropolis in all its glory, perhaps 300 yards away. There, we dropped our bags, I tried to talk Steve into letting me take a shower, but he said, “no! onward!” and marched me to the top of the Acropolis.  In retrospect, he was right. As the sun’s going down, the softer light makes the Parthenon glow. It goes from a bright white to almost golden, and some of the crowds give way. Steve took me on the “Rick Steves” path–would you believe the above picture is an actual footpath to the Acropolis? No more than two feet wide, and passing by these unexpected front doors, you pass a small handmade sign declaring “Acropolis”–your only assurance that you’re heading the right way. Well, that, and Professor Hunt telling you this is what he did. Since Steve had spent a full week in Athens before I arrived, he was the happy tour guide, and I was his happy follower. (Do remember that there was a time when I was his student and he was my favorite teacher, so it’s sometimes fun to fit back into those roles… and man, the guy knows his history!)Just before making the final push to the top of the Acropolis, if you walk off to the right, you’ll come to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (Greeks will roll their eyes if you refer to it as Yanni’s theatre but it is indeed where Yanni played his famous concert… and as a child of the 80’s-90’s with a father who loved music, we listened to our share of Yanni! Maybe I’m listening to Santorini now, MAYBE. Imagine seeing Sinatra here back in 1962! We were there in August and Sting had just been there in June! What I wouldn’t give!) [Steve’s historical aside: the original music hall here was completed in AD 161. Herodes Atticus, a friend of Roman emperors and tutor of a young Marcus Aurelius (remember the old guy in Gladiator?), was a very wealthy Athenian and patron of the city. He’s also responsible for the Olympic stadium in town, as well as various theaters, stadiums, aqueducts around Greece. The Odeon here was destroyed about a hundred years later by the Herulians, along with a good chunk of the rest of Athens; it was only refurbished in the 1950’s.]   Rocky and Chase came too! (Do you know this story already? If not, here it is!) Athens stretches out so many miles in all directions from the Acropolis. Nearly half of the total population of Greece lives in Athens. You can get a feel for that when you’re at the top of the Acropolis! That’s the dazzling blue Aegean Sea in the distance. [Steve’s historical aside: Athens is on the Saronic Gulf; just a few miles beyond the picture frame to the right, the Greeks defeated the Persians at the naval Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that our History of Western Civilization classes would have looked very different if the Greeks had lost that battle. Would Cleisthenes’ democratic project have continued under the Persians? Doubtful. What would have happened to Socrates and the subsequent philosophical tradition? What about classical architecture and art (think Phidias’ Parthenon or his statue of Athena)? What about the theater (consider the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides)? And history writing (think Herodotus and Thucydides)? And rhetoric/oratory (remember Isocrates and Demosthenes?)? Etc., etc., etc. If Athens loses that battle in 480 BC, the western world might be a very different place today.] We’re good at traveling together.
Oh, hey again Rocky and Chase.  More of sprawling Athens. I was just in awe of the olive trees everywhere in Greece. As someone who wishes I could have one thriving in my home (not even going to try), to see them showing off all over Greece was something else. Steve atop the Areopagus/ “Mars’ Hill” (Steve’s historical aside: read about St. Paul’s time in Athens and his sermon to the Athenians on the Areopagus in Acts 17); Acropolis in the background. After our Acropolis tour we headed straight for Thanasis. Steve had eaten here, oh, maybe four times already such that the waiters greeted him with big smiles when he arrived. We each ordered a gyros plate (pork and chicken), and it was seriously delicious. What is the yellowish sauce?! Not the tzatziki. The one that’s almost a garlicky-mustard-mayo kind of thing? Well, that with the shaved meat, and the red onions, tomatoes, and fresh pita… man. The fresh pita…so good! It all comes out about 2 minutes after you order and good luck trying to finish it all. The cafes lining this road are plentiful (Rick Steves’ calls it “Souvlaki Row” and if you visit you’ll see why) but I suspect Thanasis is one of the best!
The views from the Airbnb at night! You see what I mean?!  (Steve’s historical aside: The Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138) loved the city of Athens and pretty much all things Greek. This is a portion of the major library complex he built for the city. Imagine the scrolls that were housed here! The same group that destroyed the Odeon above destroyed this library. What a loss!!)
(Steve’s historical aside: this is the Panathenaic Way, one of the most famous roads of Antiquity, and the main drag through the market-place of ancient Athens. From here, Athenians would march in procession up to the Acropolis (in the distance) to celebrate the goddess Athena. Name an important Greek from the Classical world…they no doubt walked on this road.)  (Steve’s historical aside: Ostraca in the Museum of the Ancient Agora. These broken pieces of pottery with names on them were used to “ostracize” Athenians who posed (or were thought to pose) a threat to the Athenian state or to democracy. Once ostracized, the man had to leave Athens for 10 years. #36-39 are all votes in favor of ostracizing Themistocles. Given that he was the hero at the battle of Salamis mentioned above, the fact that he was later banished from Athens seems rather odd!)   (Steve’s historical aside: Bridget is here in front of the Panathenaic Stadium. The Olympic Games began in Greece at Olympia in 776 BC. But the Greeks loved their games and had other “olympics” at Isthmia, Delphi, and Nemea. Athens got in on the fun sometime in the 4th cent. BC. This stadium was built by Herodes Atticus out of marble in AD 144. Eventually the site fell into disuse and was subsequently buried. In the 1800’s the Zappas brothers excavated and refurbished the stadium. The first modern Olympics were held here in 1896 and then again in 2004, when the opening and closing ceremonies were held here. To this day, the Olympic torch passes through this stadium before being handed off to representatives of the host nation.]     (Steve’s historical aside: The remains of the temple of Olympian Zeus. Begun in 515 BC, it remained unfinished for centuries. It was finally completed under the Emperor Hadrian in 131 AD, over 600 years later! One of the largest temples of the ancient world it originally had 104 of these massive supporting columns, each over 55 feet tall and nearly 6 feet wide. The temple was 110 meters long and nearly 45 meters wide. It’s pretty mind-blowing!) And that concludes our whirlwind tour of Athens. Hope you enjoyed the commentary, both historical and well, not so historical ending with a hipster Instagram opportunity that I, of course, could not let pass me by. We love you, Athens!

Other things to note: we really enjoyed Couleur Locale, very close to Monastiraki Square. Very cool, hip drink scene, and good food too. Fabulous views of Acropolis as well. Off the beaten path enough, that looking around, it seemed like mostly locals. Steve also enjoyed several of those coffee frappe things that we saw everywhere. Sort of a cold coffee drink, but with a large froth on top. We heard it’s made with a higher quality instant coffee. In any case, they were all over! We also tried lukumades at Lukumade. A sort of traditional Greek dessert, much like a fried donut hole, with different toppings on it. The original is honey, and cinnamon, but you can do anything from chocolate sauce to various flavors of ice cream to crushed nuts, and so forth! They weren’t totally for me, but Steve, ever the sweet tooth, loved them.