Going away on the train to Milan and later taking a flight to Athens.We were ready to bid Italy goodbye and say hello to the Land of the Gods, Greece. I first fell in love with Greece after watching a romantic Taiwanese drama called "Love at the Aegean Sea". The drama captured a lot of beautiful sceneries of the Greek Islands overlooking the dark blue crystal clear of Aegean Sea and got me being ecstatic of travelling there one day. When I were finally there, I almost in disbelief when I first landed in Santorini Island. I love Athens too but being a person whom was raised going to the beach or islands for the past 23 years of my life, seeing Santorini for the first time was so surreal. It was beyond words to describe how beautiful and wonderful God creation is.
The view upon reaching Athens on the plane. We met up with Anna in Milan Airport whom would be joining our tour in Greece onwards! Making us Fantastic Four of girls.
I wish I could lie down on the clouds.They looked like a pile of cushions piling on to each other, didnt they?
Beside our hostel was a pet shop. This little kitty with her sad face was like calling someone to pick her up to a new home. I wish I could.
Coconut water for just 1 euro around Plaka street. Nice to look at with the little fountains coming out between them.
We only proceed with sightseeing on the next morning as most of the archaeological sites closed by 7.30pm. We arrived Athens quite late in the evening so we ended just doing some window shopping and recuperating enough for a long day tomorrow.
Anyways I find that food and drinks were much more affordable compared to what we had in Italy. Pretzels for only 30 cents euro for soft bread type and 50 cents euro for hard crispy. And Greek food I can say simply awesome and deliciously cheap! Just serve me souvlaki, a skewer of grilled small pieces of pork or gyros with french fries wrapped together! Only cost around 3-5 euros which are perfect for backpackers like us.
Ancient Agora of Athens also known as Forum of Athens around Plaka neighbourhood.
Climbing on the rocky hill pathway where the ancient Acropolis is located. You can get a good view of Ancient Agora of Athens here. The building which is supported by tall columns is called Temple of Hephaestus whereas the building with a dome in the middle is called the Church of the Holy Apostle or Holy Apostles of Solaki.
Anna and I at around the North Slope of the Acropolis. Anna, from Seoul was taking an English course in the same university as me at that time.
We were actually not 100% sure of the way up to Acropolis. We met this charming doggie at the base of the hill, somewhere around Ancient Agora of Athens. He looked very friendly and after petting him a bit, he started to follow us and even walked to our front later to lead us up to Parthenon. Wonder if he had been trained to bring tourists up to Acropolis as he stopped and waited for us whenever we stopped awhile to take pictures. And we started walking again, he continued to be at the front to lead us again.
Acropolis hill is surrounded by slopes and caves which are believed to be the settings where gods, heroes and nymphs were worshipped.
At the main entrance of Acropolis you will recognise a large bare rock by the name of Mars Hill.
Be careful with the slippery and narrow steps of rock up the hill
We caught up with a group of people sitting on the rocks listening to some preaching from their leader. Apparently it was said that St. Paul had been up here to preach about Christianity to the Athenians.That's interesting!
On Mars hill.
A sense of spiritual calmness crawled over me by just listening to the leader reading few verses from the Bible and being on the top of a hill glazing the pale greyish-white sky. At my opposite view is the unbelievable creation of human called Parthenon standing on the highest point of Acropolis hill. Just like seeing the ancient Roman, it gave me chills thinking how great people from centuries ago to be able to build such amazing temple for eleven years without the modern technologies we enjoy today. How they could even had such genius minds to think of such architecture on top of a rocky hill. A lot of things going through my mind at that moment thinking even at that century, I would still be the same not-so-smart person not able to contribute to the empire or the society. I truly salute humans who utilised the gift of God to create new innovations to improve the life of all earthlings.
Some of the breathtaking and gorgeous view you could capture from the top of Mars hill.
And of course not forgetting the Fantastic Four with beautiful Athens.
Earlier of this post I was talking about a black doggie that lead us to the main entrance of Acropolis. We saw more doggies lying down nearby at the entrance of Parthenon. And they too, were very tame and looked so friendly, waiting for people to touch and pet them. And actually a lot of people were fascinated by their characters and started to pet and taking pictures of them just like us. The doggie that helped us was around with the other dogs too. At that moment I started to believe maybe they were being taken well up here in Acropolis and in return they lead tourists that look lost to come up here. They looked well-fed,happy and very relaxed.
It wasn't a surprise to see how crowded was the Parthenon. The Parthenon is the symbol of the proud Ancient Greece which has been recognised by the world as the one of the greatest cultural monuments. It is a temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena whom the Athenians believed are their virgin patron. It is an important building as it was the first democratic building and also the Athenians believed that temple helps them to get closer Gods. The Pantheon in Rome is said to be inspired from Parthenon.
A program of restoration and reconstruction to ensure the stability of the partially ruined structure of Parthenon is currently ongoing by the Greek Ministry of Culture. Hence people have to bear with the long queue as there are structures for the restoration everywhere and there are narrow steps ahead. And once in a while there are people at the front stopping to take pictures causing slow traffic in the queue.
Crystal and I, in the queue.
I just noticed those huge columns are made by stack of smaller pieces of discs stacked on each other. Again, this got me thinking about the miracles that humans from long ago already knew how to put with their genius brains and hands together to create such wonderful architecture.
The Parthenon. If I were born as a Greek I would so proud of my ancestors and my roots too!
More wonders to come in the next post.
