Originally, we were going to stay in South East Asia for four months, however, after about three and a half months, we got burned out. We were suffering from a severe case of temple-itis and we had exhausted all the locations we wanted to visit in Asia.
So we needed a new location. The most logical choice would have been Australia, but we visited New Zealand for two weeks in August and spent so much time with Aussies (see Hong Kong photo below) during our trip, we felt that would be too easy.
We needed a location that met the following criteria: it had to be warm, since we didn't have any cold weather clothes (although, we were sent some warmer clothes from home because Greece still wasn't 90+ degrees in April), it had to be relaxing, clean and beautiful, hard to get to and a country we had never visited. Plus we needed to be able to get a plane home using points.
After copious amounts of research, our new home was clear. We were headed to Greece. Our plan was simple. A few days in Athens taking in the historic sites, a quick flight to Rhodes to explore the ancient walled city and finally, a night ferry to Santorini to experience some of the most majestic scenery in the world.
We booked a cheap flight on Aeroflot, the Russian national airline, and left Hong Kong for Moscow. The reason it ended up being so cheap was the 17 hour layover in Moscow. For those who have never been to Moscow, it is pretty much the crappiest major airport in the world.
However, we arranged for a non-visa transit room in the airport Novotel. Upon our arrival, we were whisked away in a private van with guards, through the snow, across the tarmac and into the Novotel loading dock. After gathering our things, we were taken through the bowels of the hotel to the third floor by service elevator where we were finally locked into our $300/night, bare bones room. The next day we retraced our path all under the watchful eyes of armed guards. Needless to say, it was an experience we will not soon forget.
Once in Athens, we wasted no time and started touring cities ancient and modern sites. The weather was windy, rainy and cold but luckily with our new gear, we were able to brave the elements and visit the sites like the Temple of Apollo (above).
The Acropolis, over 2000 years old, is built upon a rocky citadel in the middle of city and serves a ubiquitous backdrop for everything that happens in Athens. No matter where you are, you can always see the Acropolis rising solemnly in the background. Even though it is seemly always under renovation.
After taking in the Acropolis, we spent our days exploring other ancient city ruins, including the Stoa of Attloas, which was renovated by the American School of Classic studies in Athens and funded by John D. Rockefeller II in the 1950's.
AB's favorite was the 12 metes tall Tower of the Winds that served as a clock tower in the Roman agora. The structure serves as a sundial, weather vane, and on the interior, it contained a water clock driven by water from the Acropolis, which served to keep the time for ancient Greek scientists and philosophers during bad weather.
Beyond the ancient archeological sites, Athens was similar to any other city- crowded, dirty, full of traffic and riddled with crime. It was here where AB had his iPhone stolen. After constant diligence through all of SE, a brief moment of comfort afforded an opportunist criminal to pickpocket the phone. This was AB's first ever experience with petty crime and and it sucked! The phone had a ton of photos that will never see the light of day.
Some of the more notable Athenian sites were the constant stray dog sightings. Apparently, a previous mayor had rounded up all the strays to be sent to kill shelters like most modern cities, but an activist judge ruled the mayors actions as animal cruelty and had him sentenced to jail for a few months. Thus, no government officials will tackle the problem of thousands of huge dogs (we think they ate anything smaller than 50 lbs) running rampant through the streets of Athens. It makes for interesting photos, but becomes a big problem after a while, especially trying to dodge all their poop on the sidewalks.
Most travel sites and blogs you read will constantly talk about a city being a "mix of the old and new". While this overused saying is certainly true here in Athens, it really is amazing to see it so visibly in practice. As you can see from the photo below, there is a church squarely planted in the middle of a main pedestrian thoroughfare. It is sunken a few feet as the street around it had to be built-up to handle the infrastructure of a modern city. From this perspective, Athens provides some really interesting sights.
In addition to all the archeological and historical sites we visited, Athens was a welcome host for the four days we were there (not including the phone theft). The city is very pedestrian friendly, the coffee was "chewy" but good and the Greek food was delicious- grilled octopus & squid, lamb, classic Greek salads, and of course chicken and pork gyros.
Actually, there are a few things we want to point out about the Greek food we enjoyed. First, even though we have tons of Greek restaurants in the states, none compared to the food we sampled. We don't know if it was the fact that we were in Greece, the fresh ingredients they used or fantastic Greek wines that accompanied every meal, but the food was really delicious.
Second, we have eaten our fare share of gyro's in DC, but the mouth watering pita's served by the most humble open-air Souvlaki joints were far and away better than anything we have ever had in the States. It was really good, simple, fresh food - of course a healthy dose of fat and local olive oil never hurts. It is also worth pointing out while in Athens, we had our fare share of pies. No, not the circular pie in your face kind of pies, but Greek flaky, buttery phylo dough encompassed fillings like leeks, spinach, feta, pumpkin and potato with cheese. These cheap, street vendor served pockets of goodness were amazing and probably explains why we gained about three pounds each while visiting.
Interestingly enough, after our time in Athens, we found it very easy to make comparisons between Greece and SE Asia. For instance: Both...
So we needed a new location. The most logical choice would have been Australia, but we visited New Zealand for two weeks in August and spent so much time with Aussies (see Hong Kong photo below) during our trip, we felt that would be too easy.
We needed a location that met the following criteria: it had to be warm, since we didn't have any cold weather clothes (although, we were sent some warmer clothes from home because Greece still wasn't 90+ degrees in April), it had to be relaxing, clean and beautiful, hard to get to and a country we had never visited. Plus we needed to be able to get a plane home using points.
After copious amounts of research, our new home was clear. We were headed to Greece. Our plan was simple. A few days in Athens taking in the historic sites, a quick flight to Rhodes to explore the ancient walled city and finally, a night ferry to Santorini to experience some of the most majestic scenery in the world.
We booked a cheap flight on Aeroflot, the Russian national airline, and left Hong Kong for Moscow. The reason it ended up being so cheap was the 17 hour layover in Moscow. For those who have never been to Moscow, it is pretty much the crappiest major airport in the world.
However, we arranged for a non-visa transit room in the airport Novotel. Upon our arrival, we were whisked away in a private van with guards, through the snow, across the tarmac and into the Novotel loading dock. After gathering our things, we were taken through the bowels of the hotel to the third floor by service elevator where we were finally locked into our $300/night, bare bones room. The next day we retraced our path all under the watchful eyes of armed guards. Needless to say, it was an experience we will not soon forget.
The Acropolis, over 2000 years old, is built upon a rocky citadel in the middle of city and serves a ubiquitous backdrop for everything that happens in Athens. No matter where you are, you can always see the Acropolis rising solemnly in the background. Even though it is seemly always under renovation.
After taking in the Acropolis, we spent our days exploring other ancient city ruins, including the Stoa of Attloas, which was renovated by the American School of Classic studies in Athens and funded by John D. Rockefeller II in the 1950's.
One of our favorite sites was the Temple of Hephaestus. It is is the best-preserved ancient Greek temple and remains almost entirely intact.
AB's favorite was the 12 metes tall Tower of the Winds that served as a clock tower in the Roman agora. The structure serves as a sundial, weather vane, and on the interior, it contained a water clock driven by water from the Acropolis, which served to keep the time for ancient Greek scientists and philosophers during bad weather.
Beyond the ancient archeological sites, Athens was similar to any other city- crowded, dirty, full of traffic and riddled with crime. It was here where AB had his iPhone stolen. After constant diligence through all of SE, a brief moment of comfort afforded an opportunist criminal to pickpocket the phone. This was AB's first ever experience with petty crime and and it sucked! The phone had a ton of photos that will never see the light of day.
Some of the more notable Athenian sites were the constant stray dog sightings. Apparently, a previous mayor had rounded up all the strays to be sent to kill shelters like most modern cities, but an activist judge ruled the mayors actions as animal cruelty and had him sentenced to jail for a few months. Thus, no government officials will tackle the problem of thousands of huge dogs (we think they ate anything smaller than 50 lbs) running rampant through the streets of Athens. It makes for interesting photos, but becomes a big problem after a while, especially trying to dodge all their poop on the sidewalks.
Most travel sites and blogs you read will constantly talk about a city being a "mix of the old and new". While this overused saying is certainly true here in Athens, it really is amazing to see it so visibly in practice. As you can see from the photo below, there is a church squarely planted in the middle of a main pedestrian thoroughfare. It is sunken a few feet as the street around it had to be built-up to handle the infrastructure of a modern city. From this perspective, Athens provides some really interesting sights.
In addition to all the archeological and historical sites we visited, Athens was a welcome host for the four days we were there (not including the phone theft). The city is very pedestrian friendly, the coffee was "chewy" but good and the Greek food was delicious- grilled octopus & squid, lamb, classic Greek salads, and of course chicken and pork gyros.
Actually, there are a few things we want to point out about the Greek food we enjoyed. First, even though we have tons of Greek restaurants in the states, none compared to the food we sampled. We don't know if it was the fact that we were in Greece, the fresh ingredients they used or fantastic Greek wines that accompanied every meal, but the food was really delicious.
Second, we have eaten our fare share of gyro's in DC, but the mouth watering pita's served by the most humble open-air Souvlaki joints were far and away better than anything we have ever had in the States. It was really good, simple, fresh food - of course a healthy dose of fat and local olive oil never hurts. It is also worth pointing out while in Athens, we had our fare share of pies. No, not the circular pie in your face kind of pies, but Greek flaky, buttery phylo dough encompassed fillings like leeks, spinach, feta, pumpkin and potato with cheese. These cheap, street vendor served pockets of goodness were amazing and probably explains why we gained about three pounds each while visiting.
Interestingly enough, after our time in Athens, we found it very easy to make comparisons between Greece and SE Asia. For instance: Both...
- have stray dogs everywhere
- had squat style public toilets with no toilet paper or soap
- are dirty and in need of a good spring cleaning and weekly Earth Day's
- had a lot of unfriendly people
- ran at their own speed and nothing was on time
- had local prices and tourist prices
- suffer from severe corruption
No comments:
Post a Comment