Hopping from one ancient culinary influence to another, we took our tastebuds to the sun-blessed terrain of Greece this past summer.
Raw sea urchins. Well-grilled sea breams in sea salt. Crunchy Symi shrimps. Creamy Pastitsio. Strong unfiltered coffee and delectable Galaktoboureko. Even simple peasant fares like Souvlaki and Fakes soup occasionally blew us away with wondrous flavors. A year would be too short to sample all of the delicious pleasures offered by this cultured and yet rustic nation.
After a couple months of planning and ferry booking, we ended up with an itinerary that would take us on an 18 day trip from the plains of Central Greece to the eastern expanse of the Aegean islands. The final plan went like this:
This wasn't my first choice, as the original plan was to fly into Thessaloniki, make our way south towards Meteora and Delphi, then to Athens to start our island hopping. But our connection in London wouldn't work very well for the Thessaloniki flight, and so we started our journey in Athens, just in time to catch the start of the Athens Festival.
This is where we arrived -- the chaotic, rambling, urban sprawl of Athens. Through my travels I've recognized at least two definitions of beauty when it comes to appreciating a city. First there is the FIRENZE definition, where exceptional aesthestic qualities permeate the entire central core of the city as a whole. Then there is the KYOTO definition, where a seemingly characterless modern city on first glance presents endless surprises at every street corner with objects of astounding cultural heritage and elegance. Falling into the latter category would be the maze-like concoction of ancient and modern Athens.
Our self-guided tour of Athens started with a morning visit to the Ancient Agora, the heart of Pericles' Athens crowned by the Temple of Hephaestus. Located just southwest of Monastiraki Station, it's also conveniently located a few minute's walk to the souvlaki heaven of Mitropoleos Street for a gratifying and cholesterol-filled lunch.
One of everyone's highlight in Athens, the National Archeological Museum definitely lives up to its reputation as one of the world's great museums IMHO. The privilege of coming face to face with the death mask of Agamemnon and the Poseidon of Artemision costs a worthwhile 7 Euros, not unreasonable compared to the nationally established museums in, say Rome or Vienna.
But most memorable was the 2100 year old statue of the Jockey of Artemision -- just look at the flesh and veins of the bronze horse in full gallop! This was one of my favorite ancient sculptures during our visit ... next to the Charioteer of Delphi that is.
One of our favorite indulgences wherever we go on vacations is ... the afternoon nap. A waste of valuable time perhaps, but it's so sinfully enjoyable and gives us the recharge of energy to sustain our sightseeing exploration into the late evening. On this particular evening we did need the extra energy, as I had pre-ordered a ticket to a Thanos Mikroutsikos concert at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus may appear to be just another of Athens' many archeological sites in the daytime, but it's about to become jam-packed with a raucous crowd as it transforms one of the venues for the annual Athens Festival.
Frankly I had never heard of Thanos Mikroutsikos prior to shopping for tickets on the Athens Festival website -- I craved only the rare chance to attend a musical performance inside an 1800-year-old amphitheatre. After some quick research I realized that he isn't just a typical musician -- not only is Mikroutsikos a well-regarded composer of popular music in Greece, he was also the former Minister of Culture who initiated bringing the 2004 Olympics to Athens. Unlike the North American concerts I'm used to, this one actually started on time at 21:00 and there was no opening act besides Mikroutsikos!
Despite not understanding any of the lyrics, we quite enjoyed the music and came out with a fond memory of the performance. It was songs after songs of strong, emotional ballads, which our neighbours all knew the lyrics by heart and sang along with. Everyone was having such a good time and the concert lasted well into the late night on this Tuesday ... which made me wonder ... don't Athenians need to work the next morning?
Well we don't, and the next morning we started our day at Syntagma Square, slowly making our way westward towards the Roman Agora and the Tower of the Winds. But the true highlight of the morning was ... the 100-year-old traditional pastry shop of Ariston! I'll write up a proper review latter, I promise.
Our arrival in Athens also coincided with the grand opening of the new Acropolis Museum -- in fact we visited on the 4th day of opening when an online reservation was required to guarantee entry. This is Athens' other world class museum, airy and well-organized and filled with the several floor's worth of priceless artifacts from the Acropolis. The long benches within the museum was also the perfect place to recuperate our tired legs, with a marvelous view of the Parthenon through the glass walls.
The graceful Caryatids is one of the two attractions everyone has come to see. After 2400 years of weathering the elements, the maidens now greet their admirers in their new temperature- and moisture-controlled home. The other main attraction is, of course, the controversial Parthenon Marbles. But I won't start to get into that debate here.
We saved the highlight of climbing the Acropolis until our second last day in Athens. The 30-minute ascend starting from the Acropolis metro station was longer than we expected, or perhaps it was just the afternoon heat. We must have spent close to an hour just sitting in the shadow of the Parthenon, adoring one of the world's sacred monuments while taking shelter from the sun.
Besides the main attractions of the Parthenon and the Erechtheum, an added bonus to visiting the Acropolis is the sweeping panoramic view of central Athens. It was a glorious sunny afternoon when the visibility stretched way past the harbour of Piraeus into the Saronic Gulf. To the northeast, Mount Lycabettus rose like a giant pyramid, imposing and nearly symmetrical, from the heart of urban Athens.
On our last day in Athens I wanted a serene, uncrowded location for a panoramic view of the Acropolis in the sunset, so we started from Thissio Station in an attempt to scale the Philopappos Hill. After thirty minutes of our uphill climb through atmospheric backstreets and small trails, we reached the flat summit of a hilltop when, I then realized, THIS WASN'T THE PHILOPAPPOS HILL AT ALL. We ended up at the Hill of the Pnyx instead! Oh well ... we still got the serene sunset view of the Parthenon that we originally wanted.
But frankly, many of our favorite memories of Athens had to do with the excellent food the city offers. Starting with the next post I'll try to document our favorite eateries from our rummage in Athens.
