Walking tour in Athens

Back in Athens. More walking!! More steps!! But not as many, and not as steep as some of our walks on the islands. Still, Athens is quite the hilly city.

We arrived last night, after an enjoyable and smooth three and a half hour ferry trip and an uneventful taxi ride to our Airbnb apartment, where we were met by our host Helen, who was lovely and helpful, full of great suggestions, gave us a great map and marked some of the sights on it for us, and then left us alone to get settled. Our apartment is in the Makrigianni area, a hop, step and jump from the Acropolis Museum, and just a short hike up a sloping street to Dionysius Areopagitou, the pedestrianised street that runs along the southern border of the Acropolis site, so it’s a very convenient location for us.

This morning we joined a walking tour of Athens, which was a great way to get our bearings. The pre-arranged meet-up was at 9.45am at the Ekklisia Agii Asomati ke Agios Georgios, a teeny weeny Greek Orthodox church in the Monastiraki area. We walked there because it was a lovely morning, and why not! On the way we stopped for breakfast at a little cafe called Diavlos (in English). We asked the waiter how to pronounce the name, and either he was exaggerating the sounds so we would understand it, or he had some kind of speech impairment, because his tongue was well and truly between his teeth when he pronounced the “D” sound. As a speechie, I found this fascinating, and began to wonder if all along we’d been pronouncing the “D” (the Greek “delta”) incorrectly. We may never know!

The tiny church of our meeting spot was Byzantine, and only big enough for a handful of people at a time. We popped inside for a look while we waited for the walk to start, and took a couple of photos, before being sternly reprimanded by a man who was obviously a caretaker or something, but had been busy getting his coffee and didn’t see us go in. He rattled something off in Greek, sounding quite cross, and mentioned the word “photos” a couple of times. I said “English?” He said, very grumpily, “No English. Greece”. Hrrmmpphhhh, we get the picture. Or not the picture. Not picture. No pictures. Okay.

Already snapped before grumpy man came by!

I have to say, though, this “rule” seems to be very, very random. We have been into numerous Greek Orthodox churches during this holiday - big and small - and most of them are more than happy for photos to be taken. When we visited the Church of the Dormition in Hermoupolis, the priest took great pains to ensure that we saw the painting by El Greco, and there was no problem at all with taking photos of the painting as well as the inside of the church. This has been the case in most of the churches we’ve visited. We did have one other incident where hubby was growled at by an officious lady in one of the churches on Naxos, but mostly there has been no problem. It does make me wonder what the specific issue is when this happens, especially as the churches are already full of icons and other representations.

Our little walking group was small, around 15 people, plus our guide, Michael, who is an American-Greek (or Greek-American, depending on how you look at it). He was born on the island of Lesvos, but moved with his family to Colorado when he was a child. He studied classical antiquity, and has been back in Greece now for about 15 years.

He was a fabulous and knowledgeable guide, taking us firstly through the Athens Flea Market to Monastiraki Square - giving us all the tips for where to eat - past the front edifice of Hadrian’s Library, then around to the remains at the back, which are scant, and along to the Tower of the Winds.

The interesting story here is that the American Archeological Society, wanting to muscle in on the glory from all the discoveries being made by the Germans, the British and the French, made a mistake in labelling this tower a “tomb”, when in reality it was more of an ancient information centre, with a complex weather vane on the top and markings on the outside that acted as a sundial to tell the time. It was also the original location for an ancient engineering marvel called (now) the Antikythera mechanism, which was used to predict astronomical positions and the timing of solar eclipses. You can read more about it here, but essentially it’s an amazing Ancient Greek analogue computer, dating to 100 BC. It was retrieved from the sea off the island of Antikythera in 1901. There are several theories about how it got there, but the one Michael prefers is that it was stolen by pirates, who were then shipwrecked off the island. All known fragments of this mechanism are now kept at the National Archeological Museum in Athens.

In 2001, some geeks made a LEGO version. We know someone who would be very interested in this (he probably already knows about it actually).

From the Tower of the Winds we moved on to the smaller Roman Agora, the much larger Ancient Agora, and up to the Pnyx (pronounced “pe-neek-us”), the official meeting place of the ancient Athenian democratic assembly, and finally down to the main entrance of the Acropolis, for those who wanted to go on into this site at the end of the tour.

Along the way Michael explained a lot about the history of the area, as well as some of the things you won’t hear or read about through the usual tourist channels. For example, it’s rare for Greeks to admit that slaves were used in the building of the Parthenon and other ancient sites. He also told us that although we may be told that Syntagma Square is the centre of the city, this is NOT the case as far as Greeks are concerned; that honour goes to Monastiraki Square, where the locals go to dine and shop. And lastly, he advised us that the best views of the Acropolis, indeed the ones you see on most postcards, are from the top of Filopappou Hill.

A little note about this walking tour. The company is called “Athens Free Walking Tours” and they operate on tips alone. So the tour may not be completely free (if you choose to tip the guide), but it is a wonderful way to get your bearings in Athens, and to learn some of the ancient history. The guides are all locals who love their city and want to share what they know. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour, learned lots, and would highly recommend them to anyone coming to Athens for the first time.

At the end of our tour, we followed Michael’s recommendation and climbed Filopappou Hill for those amazing views, not only of the Acropolis (which didn’t disappoint) but also over most of Athens. The day was a little hazy but we could still see clear to the port and beyond.

We retraced our steps and took another of Michael’s recommendations, stopping for lunch back near Monastiraki Square, at a restaurant called O Thanasis, for a more authentic Greek experience. The food was delicious and plentiful (as we’ve come to expect). This one is called “Yogurt kebab”.

We headed back into Monastiraki Square to buy some strawberries from one of the vendors who display them so beautifully.

From there we made our way back, browsing for a little while through the Athens Flea Market, and stopping to enjoy some really talented buskers along the way.

We then wound our way around the base of the Acropolis site to our apartment mid-afternoon to get some mundane things done - washing, shopping, cup of tea, feet up, relax a bit.

We had dinner “in”, which was such a nice change from restaurant food, as good as that is. But sometimes the need for vegetables just starts to scream the loudest, and having a fully equipped kitchen is so nice after 2 weeks with limited facilities. A supermarket just 5 minutes’ walk down the street was yet another blessing. We bought “lamb”, which turned out to be “pork chops” when we sat down to eat it. It didn’t taste like lamb, so we typed the words on the label into Google Translate, and lo and behold, turns out it actually said “fresh pork on the bone”. Good for a laugh anyway, and nice to have a home-cooked meal.