Today the forecast called for rain. So, we scheduled as many indoor activities as we could.
We started at the Central Market. Hold your nose and suspend your disbelief. There are all manner of full and dismembered animal carcasses on display here. You can also get fresh fish next door plus fruits and veggies across the street.
We started at the Central Market. Hold your nose and suspend your disbelief. There are all manner of full and dismembered animal carcasses on display here. You can also get fresh fish next door plus fruits and veggies across the street.
There's a flower market further up Athinas street. It's strange to see favorites at home halfway across the world. Even the names are the same (like lantana and chrysanthemum), only spelled with Greek letters.
Today they happened to be shooting a movie or commercial or something on Athinas. So, the police shut down the street. Just like that. The bus #200 we had been waiting for never arrived. Instead, we walked to the National Archaeological Museum.
There was so much to see at the museum. It was arranged chronologically. You could see how art and everyday objects progressed over time. Above is a statue of Zeus or Poseidon in the so-called "Severe" style (500-450 B.C.). His pose is natural and balanced. His face is expressionless.
This statue of a youth is in the "Classical" style (340-330 B.C.). His counter-poise stance, a trademark of the Classical era, is very graceful.
This bronze dates several hundred years later. A good example of the "Hellenistic" style, the pose is unbalanced. Both boy and horse show emotion.After the National Archaeological Museum, we tried again to catch bus #200. Again it never came. So, we took tram #5 to Syntagma and got on the blue line to Evangelismos. Our plan was to take the funicular to the top of Lykavitto Hill. Unfortunately a very l-o-o-o-ng lunch at O-Ikieo, coupled with the imposing climb to the funicular, made that impossible. So, we hopped back on the blue line to Syntagma. We transferred to the red line to Akropoli. We then walked a short way to the...
New Acropolis Museum.The much-anticipated museum just opened a couple months ago. It was built specifically to showcase the objects related to, or found on, the Acropolis. The top floor was a dutiful life-size reconstruction of the Parthenon using whatever pieces Greece still had of the original friezes, metopes, and pediments. Greece badly wants the return of the other originals, many of them carried off by Lord Elgin whilst the Ottomans ruled Greece.
If you click on the picture above, you can see an amazing reflection of the Acropolis on the top floor windows.
While building the museum, workers discovered an enormous cache of artifacts. The ramp that serves as the first floor is full of objects they found. And they even decided to make the floors glass so that you could see what they unearthed below.This picture was taken outside looking down into the hole behind the brick building in the picture above. There's another hole between the big pillars that contains similar walls and rooms.
The new Acropolis Museum is no longer on the Acropolis. This makes access easier without sacrificing proximity to the site. If you turn 180 degrees from "reflection" picture above, you'll see the Parthenon.The street you see here is called Dionysiou Areopatigou. It's a pedestrian-only walkway that runs the entire south side of the Acropolis. Very pricey real-estate!
When we were done with the museum, we headed back to Syntagma to catch bus #024 so we could buy bus tickets for tomorrow's trip to Delphi.
TRAVELERS' TIP: Despite what the guidebooks say, I think an easier way to reach Athens' bus terminal B (also known as the Liossion bus terminal) is to take the metro's green line to Kato Patissia and walk. Exit the Kato Patissia station to street-level and look for Ionnias street down a few steps in front of you. Take Ionnias to the left (south, following the metro tracks) for several hundred meters until you reach Kapidaki street. Turn right (the only way you can turn) and walk another few hundred meters until you run into the back of the bus station. It may sound like a long way to walk, but it's a lot easier than trying to predict where to get off bus #024, or even whether bus #024 will even show up!!
ANOTHER TIP FOR TRAVELERS: The bus terminal has disgusting pay toilets (third-world squatting-style). If you can avoid using them, do so.
We had dinner at Goody's at the top of the Omonia Square metro stop. I tried speaking a little Greek. We managed to get our point across.