Good Afternoon from a cloudy and dreary Athens boys and girls. The weather that I had predicted for the duration of my stay finally arrived this afternoon as for the first time since being here I got to see how Athenians cope with the rain.As this is usually the first thing that I type up after I return from my day's experiences, I never get the opportunity to add many things that happen after about 6pm, not that much does, but I did have a rather strange case of Greek food last night which I thought you would appreciate.
On my first night here I did comment how someone who came into the restaurant I was eating at had a chicken and french fries sandwich, and since I have been here I have managed to avoid 'lowering' myself to such a standard. Last night however, I did unintentionally eat something which was just as creative as a university students menu might have to be with the new tuition fees come into operation!
Gyros are a well known Greek tradition and it basically involves bread being wrapped up like a tortilla and being filled with meat and salad. I have eaten them before whilst in Mallorca and also strangely in Korea, so of course it would be kind of normal to eat one whilst I am here. As I searched the block I am staying on for something to eat last night (apparently there aren't too many restaurants nearby) I came across something which resembled a restaurant serving Greek food and I stepped inside to see if I could get myself a gyros.
Managing to communicate in broken English exactly what I was after, the guy behind the counter wrapped up two delicious looking gyros for me before handing them over. I returned back to my hotel, buying a drink on the way to wash down what I thought would, for me, be a relatively healthy meal (anything containing salad should be considered so.)
Much to my surprise unwrapping the gyros back in my room did I discover that what usually consists of chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and onions, actually contained chicken, french fries, tomatoes and mayonnaise!
Not that it lasted long having starved myself since lunch time, but I found it quite funny that after eating a few things, I discovered that what I thought were potatoes actually were, but in a totally different form.
Back to this morning, and with the riots of yesterday seemingly over, I planned to head towards the Syntagma area of Athens which is closer into the 'city centre' and another location where there are plenty of things to look at, and obviously for me, take pictures of.
I wasn't too sure of the route, and with the impossibility there usually is over trying to navigate using road signs in Athens, I followed the route I had used over the last couple of days walking past the sight of the Acropolis and Phyx Hill that I had visited on my first few days.
The first landmark I was looking for was the Temple of Zeus, luckily the guide book I have of Athens is pretty detailed when it comes to describing how to get to each destination it features, and with a good map in hand I managed to make it past the Acropolis and in the vague direction I was heading. During my 30 minute walk to the temple, it had been raining on and off, and luckily I had worn my coat so I didn't get dripped on too much.
As if by magic when it starts raining in Athens, men trying to sell you umbrellas for a couple of Euros come out of the woodwork, and literally as soon as the bad weather goes away they disappear, or at least blend back in with the rest of the population. With the weather like it was today the men selling brollies must have been in and out like cuckoos as the climate didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be wet or dry pretty much all day.
With the use of one of the remaining strips on the ticket I had brought on my first full day in Greece, I was granted entry to the Temple of Zeus which was actually just by the side of the road that I was walking down. Most of the area is pretty wastelandish, but I imagine this is to represent what actually used to be there before time took it's toll. Amazingly standing almost perfectly in the middle is Zeus' temple which pretty much towers above anything else in the area. Walking around I took a few photographs, unperturbed by the weather, and the piece I was most interested in was a section of the tower that had most likely crumbled and fallen to the ground, but was still in pillar form.
By this point the weather was getting quite ridiculous, and most of the tourists who were in the area had scampered towards cover. Determined though I pressed on with the next destination I headed towards being the Panathenaic Stadium, which was the stadium used in the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens. Once again using the map as means of navigation I followed the road around until I came to a huge opening where the stadium sat between about eight lanes of traffic.
Carefully navigating my way across (and sort of running) I paid the entry fee, picked up an audio guide and followed the instructions dished out by the English voice on the device. Usually you have to pay for such things as an audio guide, and I kind enjoy looking around things by myself without being 'historied' to death. In a part of the world like Athens though, there is so much history that I feel like it's quite necessary to learn about the things of structures and buildings that you are looking at.
Following the audio guide, I was taken on a tour up and down the isles of the stadium to the very back of the marble seats and then onto the track in the middle. The stadium was destroyed in the 1930's when Olympic Events were banned from the city but it was re-built in the 1950's and has since hosted the largest crowd for a basketball event during the 1960's and has been a place of Greek celebrations in the last few years. When Greece won Euro 2004 the players paraded the trophy around the unique stadium, and also in the same year when the country held the Olympics for the first time since 1896 the marathon finished in the middle of the stadium and the archery event also took place here.
Walking around (remember my interest in stadiums) I got a sense that the site was a pretty special place. It is the only marble constructed stadium in the world, and naturally that makes it look a little different to any which might have been seen before. Climbing to the back of the rows and rows of seats was quite an effort as the steps were pretty high for my short legs to climb up, and also with it pouring with rain, I was very wary of all the water that seemed to be heading back towards my feet.
It was worth the climb though as from the top, you got an absolutely amazing view of Athens, and once again your eyes are drawn to the Parthenon and the rest of the Acropolis which stands so amazingly on top of it's hill.
After finishing up at the stadium I decided to head towards the National Gardens, a place I had planned to spend the rest of the afternoon, but the weather wasn't exactly suitable for that. Walking along the road I walked past the presidential palace and the parliament building, both of which are on the outskirts of the gardens. Eventually I came to the Syntagma area which seemed to be a hive of traffic an activity at the time I turned up there. The gardens themselves were very well decorated, even in the poor weather. Orange trees, palms and different varieties of flowers seemed to be growing from all different places, I can just imagine what a nice place it would be were it not absolutely tipping down with rain.
Finishing up for the day I decided to head back in the direction of my hotel and try the National Museum of Archeology to see if it was open today. Turning up there it once again seemed very closed so I walked up to what looked like an employee of the museum and was informed that on Monday's its open until 8pm but every other day it closes at 3pm... What is it with Athens and things closing early.
Returning back to my hotel I was about ready for a shower after being truly soaking wet and in need of some warmth! My plans for tomorrow are to head to the museum early before heading out to the new olympic stadium complex and then finishing off the day with a trip up Lykavittos Hill which is where the best views of Athens appear to await me.
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