Sadly, it was our last day in Greece and I just had to eat my favorite ham & cheese on toast & banana yoghurt at Novotel.
My Last Breakfast in Athens - Can't live without ham & cheese!
Something Sweet!
Our tour guide started an introduction of Athens – apparently there was a myth behind this name as well. Both Athena and Poseidon fought for the honor to give their name for the city, Poseidon offered salt water spring which symbolizing naval power for war whilst Athena created olive tree – symbolizing peace and prosperity. The citizens preferred peace and prosperity thus named the city after Athena. The tale was also sculptured on the Parthenon of Acropolis.
Our bus drove around the city and passed several well known sites such as Hadrian’s Arch, Syntagma Square, Monument of the Unknown Soldier, Zappeion Exhibition Hall and University of Athens. Wow, their university looked awesome! According to our tour guide, Greece offered one of the best education in their university which rivaled the best in Europe but unfortunately their graduates were normally find themselves jobless due to economic situation in Greece.
Syntagma Square
Hadrian's Arch
Zappeion Exhibition Hall
Monument of the Unknown Soldier
They are saluting the monument!
University of Athens! How cool is that!!!
Another Section of it...
Our 1st stop was at the marble Panathenian Stadium - site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. My first impression was: there were so many buses queued up along a busy road for this! Our bus had to stop at the end of the queue so that we could walk to the stadium by foot. We were told that the bus might not be in the same spot when we leave as it would follow the queue to drive forward.
Can you imagine sitting on a marble seat in a full marble stadium in winter with your butt freezing to death? Well, I guess you might want to try this out at Panathenian Stadium since it was made of marble entirely. Our tour guide then found out that the root cause of all the buses and people here was due to cruise ship tourists – and this was so-called low tourist season.
A Monument at the Stadium
The Impressive Stadium made of Marble!
We then headed to the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus – one of the most important and ancient sanctuaries in Athens. The temple had 2 rows of 20 columns on the sides and 3 rows of 8 columns at the ends and fully made of marble. Unfortunately what had been left today was 16 columns with one of them toppled by a terrible storm and had been lying there ever since.
Cute Doggie at the Ticket Booth
Temple of Zeus - or what is left of it...
See the Fallen Column at the Right?
Amazing huh?
We then arrived at Acropolis and it was really crowded there – and this was so-called LOW SEASON!!! I couldn’t imagine what high season like in this place. The place was very slippery and steep at some places so comfortable walking shoes were a must! We walked past the Propylaea to enter into the main area of the city. By the way, Acropolis literally meant city at the top in Greek.
Low Season?!
Once we were inside the main area, we were treated with the gleaming Parthenon - Greece’s largest Doric temple dedicated to the worship of Athena. The Erechtheion temple with six elegant Caryatids (sculpted female figures) was right beside Parthenon. There were lots of restoration done at the place and apparently most of the valuable artifacts or sculptures were brought into Acropolis museum for safekeeping. For example, the Caryatids here were actually replicates. The concept of the restoration was same as Delphi as white color marble was inserted for certain parts which were lost during the year. The yellowish marble was the original.
Reconstruction at Parthenon
Erechthenion Temple from the Back
The Caryatids!
Parthenon & me.. =)
The view from Acropolis was simply mind blowing. We also took some photos of the Erechtheion, Odeon of Herod Atticus - an impressive open-air stone amphitheatre, and the ancient Dionysos Theater. A fun trivia – a lot of Theaters were built by husband in honor of the wives during ancient time but now in modern time, a wife should felt lucky that the husband would even bring her to a Theater! Such Blasphemy!!!!
View of Athens from Acropolis
The Zappeion Exhibition Hall from the Top
Erechtheion from the Front
Dionysos Theater
Outer Columns at Acropolis - What is left of Santuary of Asclepius
Temple of Athena Nike - Nike means Vicotry in Greek literally
Another Cute Dooggie Again!
Odeon of Herod Atticus.. Can i have my own Theater?
After Acropolis, we were given some free time and our choice was either shopping in Plaka or visit the newly built Acropolis museum. Well, I guess this was an easy choice to make and off we went to the museum immediately.
Entrance of Acropolis Museum
I must say the Acropolis Museum was the BEST museum I’d ever been to in my entire life! The museum was built right on top of the archaeological site of Makrygianni and we were literally walking on transparent glasses right on top of it. It was such a thrilling experience!
Stepping right on top of Excavation Site
The Sites at the Bottom
It is so cool!
The collections of the museum are exhibited on three levels. On the first level of the museum there were the findings of the slopes of the Acropolis. There were also the artifacts and sculptures from the other Acropolis buildings such as the Erechtheum, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaea and findings from Roman and early Christian Athens. The original Caryatids were at this level as well. The museum also had very clear direction instruction so that the visitor could view it in chronological order.
The History of Acropolis - 1200BC
The History of Acropolis - 480BC on the eve of Persian Invasion
The History of Acropolis - 2nd-3rd c. AD
The History of Acropolis - 1500AD
Athens in 2nd c. AD
The last level of the museum had an introductory film on the Parthenon. There was also a Parthenon hall which had the same orientation with the temple on the Acropolis and the use of glass allows the natural light to enter. It was simply amazing! You would just imagine the metal columns there were the same orientation of the old marble columns at Acropolis site but the sculptures there were the original from Parthenon. There was also a miniature of the pediments of Parthenon which was really stunning. One of the cons was that no photos were allowed inside the museum – such a pity!!! I managed to find one photo in Wikipedia of the Parthenon hall as below.
It looks even more amazing on site!
The introductory film was astounding – it was about the construction and destruction of the Parthenon during the centuries – from Temple for Athena to Church and partially destroyed during the Turkish/Venetian War. I found a similar clip on youtube regarding its history but I must say the clip in the museum was much more informative and amazing.
I noticed that our tour guide and the film in the museum both stressed on an issue with sculptures in Acropolis where the British took advantage of the chaotic situation during war and took a lot of sculptures back to the British Museum without the consent of the Greek. The worst thing was they actually further destroyed the Parthenon during their little ‘excavation’. It was such a shame that British always prided themselves as gentlemen but ended up doing shady thing like that. The Greek had been campaigning for the British to return the stolen sculptures but they actually had the audacity to refuse. Anyway, the museum also offered a wonderful view of Acropolis at the balcony of the café which photography was finally allowed.
Acropolis View from the Museum
We had to meet with the tour at 3.30pm for a transfer to factory outlet before going to the airport for our return journey. Frankly speaking, the factory outlet was a waste of time and it just looked and felt bazaar-like to me. All the brands were combined into a medium size building and it was kind of messy and less alluring for shopper. I still preferred Gold Coast Harbor Town Factory Outlet in Australia where the brands were separated individually (link). We had a late lunch there feasting on cheese pie again. *facepalm*
Random Church on the way to Factory Outlet
Factory Outlet
Cheese Pie Again!
See the Cheese inside?
It was really sad that our journey had come to an end when we finally checked in to our flight. The last few days had been surreal and amazing and definitely unforgettable. I would miss this place very much.
Checking in for our Flight...
Bye Bye Athens - Hope to see you in Future!
Our flight was a 7.25pm flight from Athens to Doha for transit. We were served dinner on the plane with:-
Appetizer: Mediterranean salad rocket and yoghurt dip
Entrees:
Traditional curry chicken served with steamed rice & stir fried vegetables
Or
Mild spetsiota sauce with grilled zucchini and oven roasted potatoes
Dessert: Ravani, bread roll, butter and chocolate, tea & coffee
I didn’t like the salad but the entrees of curry chicken and spetsiota were flavorful and nice. Of course we ordered the white and red wine again to go with our dinner. Yum yum!!! We were to reach Doha past midnight for a transit of Doha to Kuala Lumpur. *sigh* Time does flies when you are enjoying life!
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