Chapter X
'ποικιλόθρον αθάνατ'
January 2024,
Happy bloody birthday to myself! I told you that you would start to notice more and more birthday trips and to me this was one of the most important. But it didn’t exactly get off to the best of starts, weekend of my birthday celebrations and flight booked for 11am Saturday morning, what could go wrong, it seems a lot actually. My bright idea of having a few quiet ones on the Friday night evidentially turned into an absolute session, but nothing I haven’t done before, along as my alarm clock goes, no problem, I can make this 3 half hour bus journey at 7am no problem. Can see where this is going, cant you.. woke up the next morning to sunlight, sunlight where I live does not exist before the hours of 8am… in blind panic, kicking, screaming and f bombing everywhere I looked for my phone to find it bottom of the bed off charge…. Yep, unless I can teleport I have 1 hour to get to Heathrow, this is not good. Now the flights originally weren’t expensive as such so I was determined to not let this put me down, I jumped on skyscanner to find the next available flight, which just so happened to be 8pm, I agree still not ideal, but there was no way I’m missing my chance to go to the country of the gods. Ultimately I am now 80 pound down and a day lost but hey ho. I jumped on the next available bus which are very cheap and made my way to Heathrow, I flew with BA who as far as most common airlines go are the best by far. But there we have it there was my big mistake made and hopefully was the last for the trip ahead. I arrived in Athens International in the evening and took a taxi to my hotel which was an awkward conversation to explain why I was 24hrs late, the hotel ‘Hotel Byron‘ was located perfectly from walking distance to the south east entrance of the acropolis hill and close enough to the old town where there is an abundance of restaurants, markets and bars. I used the first day to just scout the area, grab some food and sit in a watch tower like building overlooking the city, which I have to say at night especially is incredible when everything is lit up, obviously the acropolis standing at the top of the mountain being the stand out feature.
I used the next day to explore what Athens had to offer in full, starting with acropolis hill! I grabbed some breakfast which looked up at the acropolis and then purchased a ticket, its a kind of all day ticket which gets you into the museum, the acropolis grounds and entry to the hill, and yes all 3 are worth it, I started the climb up the hill passing some amazing features, where I would usually book some sort of tour which I would recommend, this time the ticket I purchased included an optional audio service tour guide which I found to be very knowledgable and could just enjoy walking the grounds at my own pace. I passed the amphitheatre the burial grounds, the Temple of Athena, theatre of Dionysus, the
odeon of Herodes and many more, it really does tell an incredible story! on reaching the top it channels you through some pillars and then opens up to see the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena which shock horror… where Athens gets its name from. Although its pretty incomplete its still incredible to see, I wont lie seeing a giant crane positioned in the middle of it with scaffolding around it isn’t ideal.. but its all part of the restoration and il likely be thanking myself in years to come when I return and see it in all its glory. The weather was a bit muggy when I started but after a few hours cleared up and gave an amazing view of Athens. I loved it! I then made the walk down towards the west of the hill which opens up into the acropolis grounds which once again has a story in itself, theres some amazing statues plastered around the grounds, our man Hadrian ‘Again’ popping up all over the place now isn’t he, Socrates, everyone really, any ancient infamous character from the greek empire is worshipped here in some sort of way. The ancient Agora of Athens, Hadrians Library and the Temple of Hephaestus, which if you know your mythology will understand why its at the bottom of the hill ….. il leave it there. I then stopped off for a much needed beer, a Mythos to be exact which I think we can all agree is a fantastic little tipple, had a gyro as-well and just watched the world go by for a few hours.
After walking around the grounds of the acropolis, passing such sites as the prison of Socrates and Nymphs Hill, I caught a lovely little shot of the Parthenon in the distance being lit up by the falling sunshine over Athens, the money shot as they say, it was a very nice way to top off a very un-rushed fulfilling day of touring one of the playgrounds of the great greek gods. It was then a lengthy walk back across the grounds and past the museum which I of course pocked my head in to finish my history lesson, even though the museum in London has stole most of it, its still very exciting and interesting.
The next morning I took to explore what Athens had to offer on the ground instead of ‘Olympus’ in the clouds as they would say. My first stop was The Temple of Zeus and of course to enter this archaeological site, through Hadrians Gate we go, its a park like site overlooked from the Parthenon, the pillars, well whats left of them are huge, maybe twice the size of the ones onto of the hill but there isn’t much left at all, and what is, is in ruins on the floor but you at least get a feel for how massive this temple was, I then took a good 20 minute walk east towards another monumental site, the Panatheniac Stadium where the first ever olympic games was hosted. It was very cool I thought I would take part in my own 400m dash around the stadium, climb to the top of the stands and even go inside to see the olympic torch.
After spending some time here I then proceeded to jump on a train and make my way to the coastline, it was more of an inter city tram but nonetheless it was quick, clean and direct, it took about 15 mins and I jumped out near the harbour, I would say the coast is a busier area than the city centre itself, probably the posher area also, lots of high rise buildings, shops and restaurants. I took a brisk walk along the harbour viewing the boats which are very impressive and then began to walk to what was an off the beaten track restaurant overlooking the sea.
As you can see it was pretty awesome! I took along as my mind could possibly let me just soaking in sunshine and mazing views, I then thought it would be a pretty cool idea to try and walk back towards the city centre, I stopped at places such as the basketball stadium (which is huge in Greece), Olympiacos Stadium and AEK Athens, theres plenty of sporting teams happening in Athens, its safe to say although I missed a day due to my flight (sleeping) dilemma, I very very much enjoyed my short time in Athens, learning more and fulfilling my love for greek mythology. Until next time, which there 100 percent will be. It’s goodbye from me on this adventure.
