Kitty City - Day Α

OMG OMG OMG I'm finally here!

Welcome to Athens, Greece. The country has been my #1 desired destination since, I dunno, the middle of high school. And now I'm here after an early flight from Warsaw with a layover in Kiev. I don't know the last time I was so excited, and I can tell you with certainty this was my favorite overall destination of my whole trip (Japan is all that remains to be seen). We spent six days in the country, and Phil knows how I complained the rest of the trip about not allotting enough time to this country, especially the island hopping post-Athens. The mix of millenia-old ruins amidst modern Greek Orthodox and Muslim slums create a unique beauteous landscape; it's truly a fresh experience.

A view of the Olympian from the outside the gates (see tomorrow's post for up-close-and-personal views)

The Arch of Hadrian, outside of the Olympian

There's so much to appreciate here that I want to split my posts into three (one per day) for Athens, which I have affectionately named after the abundance of stray cats. There are seven main features for tourists which are conveniently accessed using a single combo ticket for 30€. I did feel a little like selling access to these ancient wonderful attractions cheapened their value, but how could I really expect anything else? The seven attractions are, in order of our attendance:

1. The Acropolis
2. The Temple of Olympian Zeus
3. The Athenian Agora
4. The Roman Agora
5. Kerameikos Cemetery
6. Hadrian's Library
7. Aristotle's Lyceum

The first day we only had time for the Acropolis due to being tired from the early morning flight and losing an hour changing time zones: Greece was our only European stop outside of UTC+1. The following day, we hit the next four and then finished up the last two on the third day.

This mini-mountain in Likavitou Park will be scaled in two days.

After stuffing our faces on kebab, our first goal was to get to the top of a hill for a view of the city. Completely unplanned and in fact I didn't even realize until writing this post, we scaled progressively taller hills each day, one per day. And for those of you not up on your Grecian geography, no, none of these are Mount Olympus, which is in northern Greece. If I ever get back to Greece, I have three things I still need to do there: climb Olympus, visit Sparta, and spend more time on various islands, like Mykonos.

Scouting out Athens from atop Areopagus Hill

After taking in the sprawling Athenian urbanism, it was time for perhaps the most iconic feature of all of Greece: the Acropolis. The Acropolis was once the site of several important ancient Greek buildings, including the Parthenon and temple to Athena Nike. I still find it amazing that buildings like these could be constructed 2500 years ago.

Y'all ready for Greece?

The southern wall of the Acropolis

Odeon of Herodes Atticus, on the south side of the Acropolis

The path up the Acropolis by way of public tourist entrance

Not enough people come to appreciate this

The Erechtheion at the Acropolis, honoring Athena and Poseidon

So. Many. Columns. Learn your Doric/Ionis/Corinthian orders for a better appreciate of the history.

The eastern flat of the Acropolis

Looking out over Athens from the Acropolis

Phil walking out of the Acropolis, head hung, sad that we need to go.

There's much more to see in Athens, let alone the rest of Greece. Hold tight, I've got time to pump out posts. But right now I'm going grocery shopping with Chris and Chandni, crossing into Germany to do so because Switzerland is so expensive.

Oh and the other music album release I was looking forward to this summer came out last week. Check out HAIM's second album, Something to Tell You. It's a great piece if you liked their first work, but probably not adventurous enough. My favorite songs on there are Right Now and Nothing's Wrong. Have a good listen to this LA sister trio!

Have you ever seen such longing?