Tourist Sites

Temple of Poseidon

I was really wowed today. Wowed like I would have expected to be by the Parthenon. I guess maybe Poseidon is my god? Today we took a trip down to Lavrio to visit the Technology Culture Park, and then on to Sounio to visit the Temple of Poseidon. The Technology Culture Park focused mainly on the mining culture in the area. It was neat to see, but our guide was difficult to hear because we had such a large group. I honestly can’t say I learned much there because of that. So I’ll skip on by and go on to Sounio. Sounio is located at the southern most tip of the mainland. The drive from Lavrio to Sounio gave us some great views of the sea and finally some real green foliage. So far most of the foliage has been a rather drab, dusty, sage green. Not that I don’t like olive trees, but the brighter green was a welcome sight. We arrived at the Temple and thankfully the temperatures were cooler than expected. It was quite breezy as well. The Temple was built in 444 BCE. It sits high on a promontory that juts out into the sea. It is said that the temple was the first thing that mariners would glinting in the sun when sailing toward the land. I do have to say it is quite an amazing site sitting up there above it all.

I think I did go a bit overboard, taking photos at every angle, going for the monumental look (it wasn’t hard), finding the best light. I just love this part of being here though. This is really why I’m here.

It’s dramatic.

The columns of the Temple of Poseidon are of the Doric order. The columns have only 16 flutings instead of the usual 20, which has helped with erosion over the years.

But time, weather, and humans all play a role in the eroding of these great monuments. Most of Greeks monuments are roped off from the public. Sad but necessary. It wasn’t the case in 1810 when Lord Byron visited this temple. He carved his name on one of the ante and it remains there today.
There is Lord Byron’s graffiti. Second block up from the bottom, The lighter area just above the seam.

Ok, here it is a bit closer. You can make out the name Byron if you look closely.

Unfortunately many others followed Byron’s example. I’m sure people would still be doing it if it weren’t roped off from human contact.

The views from up on the hill were quite spectacular. I have heard mention of the “Greek light.” The light is differnet, making things look extraordinary. I think today I understood.

Simply beautiful.

While walking around the temple I kept hearing some sort of bird calling. Then I saw it. In the temple at first and later on the ground around it. I’m not quite sure what kind of bird it is. If anyone has an idea let me know. It looks almost related to the partridge? I’m not sure and I’m too lazy to research it right now. It was a beautiful bird none the less.

We left the Temple of Poseidon and headed down to the beach to find some lunch, swim, walk around, do whatever. I had the fava, along with a Greek salad. The fava is amazing, sort of like lentil soup, even down to putting the lemon on it. I have to learn to make the fava. I could almost eat it daily!

Other than lunch and chatting I didn’t do much on the beach. It was a bit cool for a swim in my opinion. Besides, my second towel was stolen when we were on Kea and I haven’t replaced it. I didn’t bring a change of clothes and did not want to ride back to Athens wet. So I just took a few photos and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

One of the Greek language teachers, Apostolos, brought his niece on the trip today. She was simply adorable. He said she loved to take photos and she was pretty interested in my camera. You can tell she is quite the camera ham here!

No cats today, but I did decide to finally photograph a dog. I prefer cats in my camera lens though. I haven’t seen many cats at the sites though.

Now the sad part is I’m doing laundry on a Friday night. Some others went to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. I opted not to go. I’m kind of glad I didn’t because guess what? It’s raining in Athens again.

It is rather neat to be living in a place and not be a tourist. Like today I completely did the local thing. For the first time I went to the laiki. The laiki is the weekly open-air market.

It’s a bustling busy place were one can buy all manner of produce, paper goods, plants, linens, and clothing. It’s also colorful.

Eggplant of some sort. I'd love to learn more about the Greek foods and produce.

Assorted vegetables

Cheaper and fresher than the supermarket, the produce is wonderfully flavorful. The grapes I bought today were like eating candy they were so sweet. White grapes from a US supermarket will never fill the bill after snacking on these little gems.

I will look forward to the laiki each week now. It is not something the tourists do. In fact you would be hard pressed to find a tourist in Pagrati.

But today several of us decided to do the tourist thing and visit the Acropolis. We started out by boarding the Athens sightseeing bus, which is suppose to take you around to all the rather touristy sites for a mere 5 euros. A ticket is good for 24 hours and can be used on all forms of transit. Seemed like a good bargain at the time. The sightseeing bus is supposed to stop at certain stops every 30 minutes. We boarded at the stadium, almost on time, and got off at the University of Athens.

The statues were most intriguing, especially the “sad man” statue. I’m not sure who he is, but the expression is, well, quite expressive. Not one I've seen on too many statues before.

After a walk around the university we wanted to board the sightseeing bus and make our way around to the Acropolis. We were told earlier that there would not be a stop at the Acropolis due to a protest. I think the protest had made it up to the university though. I’m not sure if the protest had anything to do with the un-timeliness of the bus. In fact, I am not really sure what the protest was about.

It was interesting to watch though. And thankfully was peaceful.

We finally decided taking the metro to Acropoli was going to be our best bet. The metro here is nice. It’s clean. It’s quick. It’s fairly easy to use. It got us to the Acropoli metro station quicker than we could have walked. Saved a few steps of wear and tear on the feet as well.

So there we were at the Acropolis. The one thing most people come to Athens to see.

Yes, I'm really here. And some of my fellow students insisted I have the photos to prove it.

Lucky me, my student ID got me in for free. I can explore the Acropolis over the next three months as much as I want and it won’t cost me a dime. Hopefully. I thought I would be a bit more awestruck that I was once I got to the top and near the Parthenon. I think the mass of people and the huge quantity of scaffolding actually took away some of the awe. I do understand the need for restoration though.

But still. The Acropolis. Wow. To think I’ll be having class here at the Acropolis on several occasions. Up close and personal.

The Acropolis cat was not so willing to be photographed.

I did love the Karyatids on the Erechtheion. The Karyatids, statues of women, were used in place of columns on this porch. These are not the originals. Originals are housed in the Acropolis museum.

The view looking over the ancient agora was stunning. Thankfully it was a rather clear day. You can see one of the most well preserved buildings, the Haphaisteion, in the center of the photo. I can't wait to make it to the ancient agora!

The theatre of Herodes Atticus was quite impressive. They were setting it up for a classical concert. Now that is something I would love to do!

On our way back we walked a bit through Plaka. I of course found cats who were nice enough to oblige me with a pose.

I'll leave you with this. It's me. Wondering what it would be like to spend eternity as a statue.