Despite staying up pretty late getting acquainted with both my new roomates (Heather, from South Africa, and Patrick, from Northern Ireland) and the local brew (Mythos, a lager, and red wine that comes in a 1.5 liter plastic bottle for 3 euro at the corner store), I managed to drag myself out of bed early this morning to take a walking tour of Athens. Our guide, whose name escapes me, was a local Athenian and pretty cool dude. He looked like the Greek Jesus and spoke just as softly, which made for some problems early on in the tour. But once we got going and he adjusted his volume to compete with the traffic, it was a great hike. And I do mean hike - 4 hours of walking up and down the hills of Athens. It was completely worth it though, as he pointed out all of the major sights - from the Acropolis and the ancient Agora, to the Parliment building and the president's mansion.
We started at the temple of Zeus (what's left of it anyways), then proceeded to the stadium where the first modern Olympic games were held in 1896. It also happens to be the spot where the original marathon ended with Pheidippides dying from exhaustion after he told the king of the defeat of the Persian army. Today, it's still used for rock concerts and for the official exchanging of the Olympic flag from one city to another. We went from there to the presidential mansion, the Greek version of the White House (except that the president doesn't live there and he really is a socialist), just as the changing of the guards was taking place. Our guide told us about the whole presidential guard unit, and the Greek army in general. They have mandatory conscription here - 9 months of military service for every Greek man, unpaid. And if you happen to be among the few Greeks that are over 5' 10", you'll probably serve in the presidential guard. Sounds great huh? Except for the fact that while they are very prestigious, they are also the most brutal. They are actually allowed to hit their troops to condition them to stand in place for an hour at a time. So yeah, glad I'm not Greek.
Anywho, we continued on to Syntagma Square (syntagma means constitution), home of the Parliment building and the tomb of the unknown soldier. Again, more presidential guards standing about. We went down into the metro station, which was built for the 2004 Olympic games. The dang station is a museum! Seriously, they found a whole bunch of artifacts from the early Roman era when they were excavating, and they are now on display in the station. It's really neat; they even have a cutaway where you can see the different layers of earth that correspond to different settlements. Someone's grave is right there, in the middle of all of it (body removed of course). It's definitely the weirdest subway station I've ever seen, but one of the most gorgeous, too.
In the square itself, there were protests going on...what's new? Greece is like France in that the people here are really involved in politics. It's the birthplace of democracy, after all. I think the protests are against all of the (necessary) austerity measures the government has just imposed to keep its economy from going under. See what you did, corporate America? Now a bunch of old guys have to take to the streets to defend their pensions.
Making our way past that temporary diversion, we came to a square that is home to two things: A really neat Byzantine church that I don't know the name of, and really cheap gyros. Seriously, 1.80 euro for a chicken gyro with all the fixins! Oh yeah, and a church with some really neat mosaics....
The rest of the tour consisted of the ruins of Athens - Hadrian's library, the ancient Agora, and the Acropolis. We didn't actually go in to any of these sights, so I'll give you a more thorough rundown after I visit them. All very cool though. The view from the Acropolis is ridiculous - you can see all of Athens! By this time, I was getting tired from all of the walking, not to mention that my guide was rather long winded. It's great to have some information, but it was a little too much for me. And, in the spirit of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", he delighted in telling us about how almost every word in the English language came from Greek. Oy.
I returned to my hostel for a much needed nap, and woke up in time to have some dinner (shank of lamb with pasta - it's a traditional meal here and very good), and cap off the night with some wine and conversation with my roomates.
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