Here is the first view I had of the Acropolis from the 6th-floor bar at the Safestay Hostel.
My Iberia flight went without any problems and was about half full. I found out at the Angelina hostel in Dubrovnik that I needed to file a COVID document with Greece—something that Kiwi or airline did not tell me about when I booked. I had tried about 20 times without success and started making screen prints of my attempts.
Finally while waiting for the transfer to Terminal 1 in Madrid, I finally got to apply but it did not let me do the 21st, so I just entered the 22nd. After some discussion at the Terminal 1 Ryanair ticket counter and later when I was in Greece, I was able to proceed to Athens on the Metro after a bit of discussion with the officials.
Like Seattle, Athens has an efficient metro line that takes you from the airport to downtown Athens. My hostel was just two blocks from the Monastiraki Square metro stop—about a 40-minute ride for about 6 Euros.
The Safestay Hostel was clean and pleasant and I booked an 8 bed—4 bunks—mixed-gender room for under $10 per night. Each room had a private bathroom that was clean and modern with hot showers. Unlike Croatia, in Athens they want you to put your used toilet paper in the bathroom bins to lessen the burden on their wastewater system. There was a large reception area, a kitchen, laundry, and breakfast for 5 Euros. The best part was the rooftop bar with a fabulous view of the Acropolis complex. Happy Hour was from 4-7pm with half-price drinks—4 Euros for two beers for me.
Since I hadn’t slept much on my two-day journey from Croatia>Spain>UK>Greece, after dinner, I crashed for about 9 hours of sleep and ended up having lunch and then proceeded to do the Lonely Planet walking tour that took me by lots of old ruins and notable places. I planned to get the 5-day Acropolis ticket the following day which included entrance to some of these ruins. You really did not need to enter these ruins to see them.
Early the following morning I began my Acropolis trek up to view the Theater of Dionysus, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, through the Propylaia, the Temple of Athena Nike, Parthenon which is under renovation, Erechtheion, with the Porch of the Caryatids, along with others. When you arrive at the Propylaia you begin to follow a one-way route through the Acropolis which wasn’t really needed because the crowds were fairly thin, but rules are rules. It is hard to believe that these structures and communities were here back as far as 524 BC.
Theater of Dionysus
The Theater of Dionysus had over 17,000 spectators for productions of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes between 342 and 326 BC.
Over the centuries they were wars were from Persians, Romans, Ottomans, Sicily, Syria, Byzantine, Crusaders, Macedonia, Turkey, World War I, and World War II ending with the Greek Civil War from 1946 to 1949.,
When you consider all of the advances in arts and letters, engineering and science, democracy and politics, and its decline, I begin to wonder with all of the current divisive issues in the US, that we may too decline as the Greeks have done in centuries past, after all, we are just 245 years old.
The Acropolis Museum was another amazing place to visit where they had built the museum on piers over the uncovered village ruins. They had a video that showed the excavation of the ruins along with how they constructed the museum over the ruins. During construction, they put sand and gravel over the ruins to protect it while under construction.
The museum featured several eras of sculptures, and wall reliefs along with videos packed full of information. They featured the actual five Caryatids from the Acropolis. The ones on the Acropolis are copies, One actual one is currently in the British Museum. I wonder how long it will take for Britain to return it. I had lunch at the restaurant which was tasty and also had a great view of the Acropolis from its deck.
Here are the ruins under the museum with the support piers.
There were several other ruins I visited and enjoyed seeing the Ancient Angora site with its Stoa of Attalos and the Agora Museum. It contained the Winged Victory along with the head of the founder of History. My brother would like this since he is the retired Chair of the History Department at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA.
On my last day in Athens, I enjoyed a hammam—spa treatment—which was an hour and a half treatment beginning with a wash, sauna followed by a soapy bath. The masseur used a rough glove to defoliate me followed by a half-hour massage. I then cooled off with another cool water shower using bowls dipped into one of the many marble sinks. Afterward, I cooled off in a big room before getting dressed. After that, I went outside to rest and was given some green tea, water, and some Turkish delights. It was a most enjoyable experience for 45 Euro plus a 10 Euro tip.
I finished off my tour of Athens by taking the metro to the Piraeus piers where I bought a ticket on the Blue Star Ferry top Syros, my first Greek island experience. It leaves at 7:30 am and the metro from my hostel takes just 1/2 hour.
Of course while in Athens, I enjoyed many different Greek foods.
