The Verbose Traveller

Athens turned on the sunniest day so far, for our last few hours of exploring. Once we were all packed up and ready to go, we headed out into the blue sunshine-y day. First we walked south-west from our apartment, to the Koukaki area, where we hadn’t been before. It’s “Big Friday” here in Greece, so we weren’t sure what would be open, given that 99% of Greeks adhere to the Greek Orthodox faith, but there was plenty open as it turned out. The Greeks do love their tourists! We did hear a few church bells during the morning, and then we came across a mass in one of the churches we passed by, so we popped in out of curiosity. Everyone was standing (no chairs), the priest was intoning and occasionally singing, there were periodic repetitions of three phrases in Greek after which the gathered crossed themselves, and otherwise there was some kissing of the displayed photos of icons in the foyer. We assumed it was some kind of Easter Friday mass. Last night, in fact, as we walked bac...

Reminded me a bit of someone I love (but is most likely Sauromates II, King of the Kimmerian Bosporus from 2 AD) I know, we’re fairly pushing the museums, but it was worth it. This morning we headed just up the street to the Acropolis Museum. We got going relatively early, and were thankful we did, as the crowds were minimal at that time and we were able to enjoy browsing “jostle-free” through this museum (but they were starting to pour in as we left). The museum was founded to exhibit all the significant finds from the “sacred rock” and its foothills, and is new and modern, being only 10 years old. The architectural form of the museum maintains visual contact with the monuments of the Acropolis, and is designed to exhibit the Parthenon sculptures in their entirety and displayed as they would have been originally located on the site. The building is also adapted to accommodate the archeological excavation that extends across its foundations, and that can be seen through glass f...

This morning we walked to the National Archeological Museum of Athens. It wasn’t a short walk, around 40 minutes, but eminently do-able, and the worst of the few hills were right at the start as we ascended to the Acropolis and around. Our walk took us through what seemed to be the business district, which was an interesting change from the more touristy areas of town. We have a new favourite coffee place, which we discovered yesterday morning - called Coffee Island - and their coffee is even better than Gregory’s. So it’s off with the old, on with the new, and we were looking for another Coffee Island this morning, and ignoring all the poor old Gregory’s along the way. Oh well, needs must, as they say. The National Archeological Museum is the largest archeological museum in Greece, and one of the most important museums in the world devoted to Ancient Greek art. It was founded in 1829 to house and protect antiquities from all over Greece, displaying their historical, ...