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!
It was our last few hours in Santorini before leaving the hotel at 10.30am to catch our Aegean Air flight to Athens. We took the opportunity to walk to Fira for the last time for some last minute photo shooting and souvenir hunting. It was truly a surreal experience to be able to experience this beautiful and exotic island. Let’s hope this was just one of the many times to come. =)
Last Breakfast at Santorini - my beloved cheese, ham topped with egg white
Morning in Fira
More Cats
Another Church before Departing
One embarrassing thing happened when I was in Santorini Airport – their bathroom basin water was to be switched on by a pad by your feet! You basically had to step on the pad to ‘activate’ the water. I just couldn’t find it until a kind hearted lady told me about it. *blush*
Santorini Airport
Our Ride to Athens
When we reached Athens, we were warmly welcomed by our ground tour manager. He offered us 2 choices for our afternoon activity:-
-A shopping spree at Plaka
-A stroll in the National Archeological museum
We were to check in Novotel and the bus would stop at the museum then followed by Plaka. However, those going to the museum would have to find their own way (by bus or taxi) to Plaka at around 6.30pm for dinner.
Random Photos from the Bus: Marathon icon made with glasses
Random Photos from Bus: 1st Olympic Stadium
Random Photos from Bus: Tombs of the Unknown Soldier & the Parliment Building
Random Photos from Bus: Library
We ended up going to the museum as we were not too keen to spend our time in a city so rich of culture and history with shopping. If I wanted shopping, I would’ve go to Paris or Milan instead. We arrived at the museum at around 3pm and got ourselves the entrance tickets (EUR7/pax).
In front of the Museum
The museum was extraordinarily huge and it was rightfully dubbed as the largest archaeological museum in Greece. There were various sections in the museum which consisted of Prehistoric collection, Sculpture collection, Bronze collection, Vases & Minor Art collection, Stathatos Collection, Egyptian collection & Cypriote collection.
We walked into the Prehistoric section and were blown away by all the artifacts in various sizes. We saw one of the first depictions of human form followed by bowls, pots, jewelleries, wall paintings and such. These artifacts represented the major civilizations that flourished in the Aegean from the 7th millennium to about 1050 BC. We also looked at the famous “Mask of Agamemnon”. This section alone cost us more than an hour before we realized that we were out of time for other sections.
Female Figure from Amorgos, Early Cycladic II - made from marble
Pans, Bowls etc..
Cute!
Carving on the wall
More Artifacts
Mask of Agamemnon
Grave of a Woman
Cuties!
OMG! I want this!
All the golds!
Amazing mini-size statue!
The Sculpture section was even larger with tons of astounding statues! There was simply no time to look at every piece of the masterpieces in detail. These sculptures came from Athens, Thessaly, Central Greece, Peloponnese & Crete from 8th century BC to the end of the 4th century BC. I was literally hyperventilating halfway strolling at this section due to amazement and wariness! Wait? Wariness? Strange feeling huh? Well, the place was simply so big that we would have to basically walk around nonstop to take a look at all the sculptures until we were out of breath literally. I actually had to sit down in the middle of it to compose myself due to breathing difficulty. Hmm.. guess my lack of exercise finally caught up with me in the most inconvenient timing. *facepalm*
Statue of a Young Woman - Marble
Attic Sarcophagus - Marble!
Emperor Claudius
Children with Doggie!!
Naked Man!!! Bronze Statue of a young athlete
Young Boy on horse.. looks like Alexander on Bucepalus.. not it's not
By the time we finished the sculptures section, there were not much time (& breath!) left. So we had to rush to go through the remaining sections. The Egyptian section was awesome with sarcophagi, mummies and statues. Would you think less of me if I told you this remind me of the Stargate franchises? *smirk* Hey, there was a beautiful gold wreath there too! Anyway, Egypt is definitely in my high list of place to visit. Guess the artifacts here were a teaser then? =)
Sanctuary of Olympia
Wreath.. i want!
Mummies!!!
Wall Painting
We also rushed into another section which had all the mythical Gods & Goddesses such as Aphrodite, Zeus & Apollo. It was really fun to look at these statues as we always read them in books or watched them in movie. The last photo we took in the Archeological museum was of Homer which was kind of fitting because without him I wouldn’t have the chance to learn of Iliad & Odyssey which fueled my interest in Greece in general.
Zeus!
Athena!
Medusa!
Heracles-Alexander
Homer!
All in all, it was a great museum that one might lose itself there in a full day. I did hope that it had a better direction pointer in the building as many times we found ourselves lost or missed out certain places since it was such a maze in so many exhibition rooms. I did see some people hiring a guide there to bring them along the museum and explained some of the more important artifacts to them.
As time was drawing near, we walked over to the opposite site of the museum to grab some late late lunch (hmm.. dinner maybe?) of cheese & spinach pies before getting on a taxi to Plaka. Plaka basically was the tourist shopping center in Athens incorporating labyrinthine streets and neoclassical architecture. Other than souvenir shops, they also had lots of brands there such as Mango, Zara, Timberland and such. We met up with the group and had our dinner at a taverna there.
Food!!!
More Foods!!!
Totally Foods!!!
I wanna eat!
Cheese Pie & Spinach Pie
We were served with the Mediterranean soup and Greek Salad again. I was pleasantly surprised when they served us with fried calamari rings! Greek calamari rings were awesome! The main course was not to my taste and it was some sort of braised pork. I did love the ice cream especially the one with milk flavor. Normally if we look at a white color ice cream, we would automatically thought that it would taste vanilla – but not for this one! It tasted so milky and I loved it even more so than the chocolate.
Plaka
The Restaurant
Soup
Bread
Greek Salads
Fried Calamari
Braised Pork
Ice Creams!
We went back to the hotel after dinner and went up to the rooftop to have a night view of the Acropolis. We saw a notice in the lift informing hotel guest of a general strike happening tomorrow. Hmm.. seriously?
