Back into Athens Looking for Sights....

SETTING back out into Athens about an hour after returning home with a drained camera battery, the weather seemed to be taking a bit of a turn for the worse as most of the Greeks walking through the streets had donned their coats.

It was definitely time for me to put at least a jumper on as I walked back to the Agora area.

With the ticket I had brought this morning I was all prepared to enter the Ancient area which comprises of several things I had hoped to see and also a couple of other different areas that I was interested in taking a look at.

At the best of times, my geography isn't brilliant. And when it comes to map reading, my skills are definitely not up to scratch with the greatest navigators of all time. Whilst I was walking through the graveyard earlier on, I did notice a tall monument on a hill which my eyes kept being drawn to. I thought nothing more of it, until on closer inspection of a map, I actually realised what I was staring at all this time was the Acropolis.

As the most famous monument in Greece, and one of he most famous in Europe, it isn't difficult to spot, but from the view I had you couldn't actually see the monument itself, and seeing ladders and scaffolding hanging off it was slightly deceiving. Walking back to the area I had been in earlier on near, Thessis metro station I decided to start walking up a hill which I presumed would take me to the Agora area.

The path wound round and round and I started to climb up more and more, not really heading towards anything, or so it seemed. Pulling out the guidebook I appeared to be heading towards the Acropolis (which was now closed) and I decided to take a detour through a park that I thought would take me towards the area I was looking for.

At first glance, this just seemed like any normal park with a hill in the middle. The rocks which surrounded it, formed into a very rough looking path, and being the intrigued tourist I am, I decided to climb up to see that this led to.

As I climbed higher and higher, my view of the city became greater and towards the top I found more and more people who appeared to be enjoying the view. Turns out where I was is actually called Akropolis Hill (I discovered this from a sign at the top) and it actually gives you an excellent view of the Acropolis itself from the peak.

Right at the top I was treated to some of the most fantastic views I have ever witnessed in my life, and not only was the Acropolis right in front of me, but I could also see pretty much the whole of the city, including another couple of monuments which were named in my guidebook. I spent some time just sitting up there looking out onto the city, and I really feel like if I lived in Athens then this would be one of the places I would come to often. The hill is around 100m high, not the tallest of all the peaks in the city, but one with an absolutely spectacular view for miles around.

Climbing down the other side I realised there was a bit of a path (presumably I'd come up it using the 'local' route where there was a legitimate path on the other side) and I soon started to walk down this following signs to the Agora. Passing people heading the opposite way, and with gates locked to several museums as I walked along, I got the vibe that something was not quite right, and stopping along the way to ask some touristy looking people they informed me that the Agora and it's ground (which were actually directly in front of me when I was up the hill) were closed at 3pm. Best try again tomorrow then.

It's at this point that I could have just turned round and gone back to my hotel. It was getting pretty late, I had been walking for quite a long time and there were spots of rain in the air. I pressed on determined to find more to do however, and climbing back down Akropolis Hill, I continued walking up the road which had led me to it to see if there was anything else up there.

As it turned out, this was a rather wise decision as I soon came across the entrance to the Acropolis and also that of the Parathaenon which is located in the same area. To the right I saw signs to 'Phyx Hill' which, with a quite glance at my book, I saw was the location of the Momument of Phillipou and also the Theatre of Phillipou. Rain had started pouring by this point, but hey, I was already wet, time to start climbing.

At this juncture I have to say that if there's one thing Athens isn't good at, it's signposts. Unlike Barcelona where the Metro was clearly indicated, there isn't much of a hint as to where things are in this city. Apart from the Acropolis it seems like the Greeks just want you to work everything else out for yourself, and perhaps that is the beauty of the next discovery I made.

Walking along I soon found my way winding up another hill. Through the trees and bushes there were the occasional stone monuments, but nothing which was indicated to be of importance, just concrete blocks as far as I could tell. Nobody else seemed to be walking up this path so I was slightly disturbed as all I had seen at the bottom were stray dogs (something which there are far too many of here.) I persisted and eventually found my way up to the top of the Phyx Hill, discovering that there was, after all, a monument at the top. What was even better was another panoramic view of the city. Once again I wish I had a better camera to illustrate exactly how good this view was as literally 360 degrees round as far as you can see, there was a good view of Athens.

Still outstanding beyond anything else was the Acropolis which was now almost level with me, and even closer than it had been before. Even though it is however many years old, the monument seemed to gleam and despite the dreary conditions whilst I was high up, I decided to stay for a while and take a few pictures of yet another terrific view.

I went searching for the Theatre of Philippou but the gates to enter seemed to be shut so I figured it was time to plod home in the drizzle after what I would consider to be a successful day.

This evening I grabbed myself a bite to eat and spent the rest of the evening updating my blog and also adding pictures to my previous entries. Tomorrow I am planning to head back to the Agora area and then hopefully later on in the afternoon I can go to the Acropolis before it closes on me again.