Athens

24.08.2006 33 °C

I've arrived in Athens!

My arrival wasn't without drama though! I had a 7.30am flight out of Milan yesterday morning. After I had checked in, the flight was delayed to 8.30am because of the late arrival of the incoming airplane. I thought bugger but at least it gave me a chance to have breakfast. Then it was delayed to 9.00am, at 9.30am there was an announcement from easyjet apologising for the 3.5 hour delay to the flight (making expected departure 11am!), but they were giving out vouchers for a free meal at the bistro. A little too late for me as I'd just paid for my breakfast! (I did use it though, figured I can't pass up a free meal as a backpacker!) So, I tried to have a snooze on the lounges (unsucessfully) only to check the monitors and notice that the flight was now delayed to 12.00. At this time I began to wonder where the hell the plane was flying in from as easyjet only flies within Europe! Another voucher was offered though I really couldn't stomach anymore food at this time. At 12.15 they then announced that the plane which was meant to take us (which had been sitting in eyesview for the past hour) had been accidentally overfilled with fuel and couldn't be used so another plane was being flown in!!! At this stage I'm thinking what the hell?? They can get a couple of tonnes of metal into the air but they can't siphon out a few litres of fuel?! So, in the end, my 7.30am flight left the ground at 2pm after a 6.5 hour delay with a plane and crew flown in from London! If that experience wasn't painful enough, it was made all the more so by the fact that I had to get up at 3.30am to get a cab and coach to the airport! It goes without saying that I wasn't a happy traveller but at least I had only lost a day of sightseeing in Athens, others on the plane had missed connecting flights to the islands and were much more stuffed than me as they still had to get accomodation in Athens for the night!

The hostel I'm staying in is quite nice and located in the Plaka district which is right at the foot of the Acropolis. The room has airconditioning which, as you find out quite quickly, is a must because it's extremely hot here!! For someone who doesn't actually like to drink water that much I sure was guzzling a lot of it in yesterdays heat!

I started out my sightseeing yesterday by looking at the Acropolis, the symbol of Greece and probably a good place to start as you wouldn't want to be climbing the hill at the end of the day!

When you do finally make it to the top the views are amazing as you look out over Athens. It stretches out as far as the eye can see in each direction and is surrounded on each side by mountains.

The Parthenon was also amazing to look at although you can't walk around inside anymore due to the restoration work being done at the moment.

Everywhere you walk in Athens you can see the Acropolis and Partheon towering over the city- an absolutely amazing sight no matter which angle you are looking at it from (and I'm sure I took at least 2 or 3 shots from each one of them! But I'll show the rest of when I get back!)

This is part of the Erechtheion, and more precisely the Caryatids which are the six women statutes that you see. It's located right next to the Parthenon. The statutes are actually plastercasts as the originals are in the Museum.

This structure is the Odeum of Herodes Atticus which is an arena that is still being used during the Athens Festival, although it's closed at any other times.

(The photo also shows part of the Parthenon- see, just like I said, you can see it everywhere!)

This view is inside the arena from the Parthenon...

These photos show the Temple of Hephaestus which is situated in the Ancient Agora (which is the area in front of it). The Ancient Agora was the marketplace of Ancient Athens.

It's well known that Ancient Athens was the birthplace of democracy, well they say that Ancient Agora is where it occured!

I also had a look at the Temple of Olympian Zeus (or what's left of it rather!) This photo shows the remaining columns. Also in the photo, to the left of the temple, you see part of the Roman Stadium where the Ancient Olympics were held (and if memory serves me right the Marathon finished for the 2004 Greek Olympics!)