Adventure #11: Causing Trouble In Athens
We woke up early and headed up to the roof for breakfast. The elements were the same as a tasty Dias breakfast, but with a special “cheap city hotel” twist. Sliced white bread instead of bread baked locally that morning. “Happy Cow” cheese instead of Laughing Cow. The Metropolous does get points for the view though. Dias' is lovely. You can see the rock streets of the village, some of the gorge, and the mountains in the background. At The Metropolous, you can see the frickin' Acropolis. This is Pen Pen in front of the frickin' Acropolis.
After breakfast we packed up our things and headed to the frickin' Acropolis. We got a little lost on the way, but made it just as the crowds were beginning to get heavy. Once you realize that the congestion isn't because of the crowds, but is in fact because of the tours, it's easy to push on through. All the buildings were roped off since the whole complex is being restored. But still it was pretty awesome, in both the “dude, how cool?” and the biblical sense. This is Pen Pen in front of the seat of western democracy.
Having successfully taken part in the Parthenon, we decided to find the Theatre of Dionysus. We could see it from the mount, but there weren't a lot of people there, and no obvious path. We walked down the mountain, and saw a little road on the right. We walked through and headed around the mountain. The road was nearly empty, but the few people wandering made us think it was probably allowed. We saw a series of caves, which according to the sign, had been the original temple of Zeus 3000 years ago. There were no statues, no monuments, and no ropes. This is Pen Pen surveying the local wildlife.
As we continued along the road, we passed by several other sacred caves that were again not roped off. It wasn't until the 3rd or 4th off-road adventure that someone finally told us we weren't allowed to stray from the road. Oops. There were also various doors in the wall that had been sealed or blocked. All the cool doors are always locked. We finally found the theatre, which was in ruins. In school, when they show you pictures of The Greek Theatre it's always of some of the few surviving theatres, or reconstructions. The Original Greek Theatre itself, The OG we'll call it, was only found about 100 years ago. This is Pen Pen watching Sophoclese's classic tragedy of teenage love and loss, Grease.
We walked up again to the exit, and passed by some more locked doors and roped off areas. All of which looked really cool. We tried to get a picture on a column. But got yelled at. In the docent's defense, there was a scorpion on the column, so maybe that's what she was objecting to. But she did yell at other people who were doing the same on other columns. Perhaps there are scorpions on all of them. This is Pen Pen on an ancient (not roped off) column anyway.
The docents in Athens come in two shapes and sizes:
Bored attractive blond girls texting under umbrellas, who only look up every once in a while to tell you you shouldn't be there, but generally are content to leave you alone
Grumpy old men who take their jobs way too seriously, and watch like a hawk.
We got yelled by both types. I'm thinking perhaps they should post some rules somewhere. This is Pen Pen in the Ancient Agora probably breaking some rules.
Once we'd acropolized the Acropolis, we headed up to the Archaeological museum. Our goal was to get all the touristy Athens stuff out of the way on the first day. We got a little turned around on the subway because one of the lines wasn't running, but made it there in about as much time as it would have taken to walk. The walls of the buildings were covered in graffiti, both ancient and modern. This is Pen Pen in front of the writings of the ancient punk rocker Ioanni Rottenous.
The Archaeological Museum is pretty amazing. Basically everything you've ever seen in a text book about ancient Greece is right there in front of you. We found the Antikethera Device and tried to get a picture. Oldest computer in the world, Penguins are the symbol of Linux. The joke writes itself. This is where the Grumpy Old Man Docent came in. We tried to take a photo of the device. He came over and told us no photos were allowed. I couldn't figure out what he meant. Other people were photographing the device. His accent was thick and his English was poor. He spent the rest of the time we were in the room following us. Let me clear something up. I have a deep respect for Greek history. And ancient history in general. This is how I show my appreciation. We're not hooligans. Well maybe we are hooligans, but this is all in good fun. Dejected, we left the room. We came back later after finishing the rest of the Museum. He followed us again. We got yelled at. With arm waiving. The picture came out terrible, but in defiance of Grumpy Old Man Docent, I'm posting it anyway. This is Pen Pen compiling a Linux kernel on the Device.
Partially victorious, we headed off to lunch. We found a vegetarian restaurant nearby, and had tasty tofu kebabs. We stopped back at the hotel, picked up our stuff, and headed to the ferries. The ferry to Aegina was short, cheap, and comfortable. This is Pen Pen, king of the world.
We were supposed to stay in the Hotel Elektra, but when we got there, no-one was at the desk. We waited for 20 minutes then decided to try another hotel. We ended up at the Marmarinos down the street. It was cheaper anyway, and they were very friendly. We checked in, and then headed off to dinner on the beach. When I say “on the beach” I mean literally on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The water washed against the legs of the table. I can't tell if the food was any good, because holy crap we were ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. Day 1 of Vacation: total win. This is Pen Pen having the best vacation ever.
This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.
