Greetings from the capital! That’s right, I’ve arrived in Athens; my time in Rhodes is done.
Friday we had our final presentation in my Mythology class. We had already turned in the paper but we had to do a group project as well on Jason and the Argonauts. One girl has been staying in Rhodes Town and it was obvious from her section that she hadn’t even spent five minutes on it—not only did she have no idea what she was talking about, she struggled to read her own slides and one story she told was blatantly false. Besides that, it went well and the rest of us did a decent job. It was so sad to say good-bye to Spiros!
We went down to the seaside to a fish taverna for lunch, but they didn’t actually have that much fish. Afterwards, everyone but Nick and I went into Rhodes for the day to shop, walk around, and have dinner. They only had two weeks in Rhodes before the week in Soroni, but having been there for 5 weeks we were pretty much done; there was nothing else I could really get out of going back into the town. We washed laundry in the sink instead and just hung out, had dinner ourselves.
Once they got back around 10, Maria’s son Kostas took us to some kind of first annual festival that was going on right outside Soroni. Both Maria and Ilias met us there; Maria will be staying in Rhodes and Ilias, her husband, just arrived and will be leading the study tour. The first place we went was a stage set up in the woods that had various bands playing rock, Greece music, etc. We stayed there for a little bit and then drove out to the power plant, where traditional Greek dancing was happening. It was actually so amazing, I really loved it. It was the most authentic Greek dancing I’ve ever seen because these were just people from Soroni gathering. They had souvlaki and drinks, a stage with musicians playing traditional music on traditional instruments, and a large dance floor surrounded by fold-up tables, all outside. I danced several of the dances, the circle dances with the complicated foot patterns. I don’t know how they know which song signifies which dance, or how they all know the steps. Kostas was saying that Greeks learn the dances in schools but only really do them at weddings or festivals like the one we saw. One that I did was really complicated, with 12 steps, and I never fully got the hang of it, though I was close by the end. The other was 3 steps, which I mastered instantly and then had a lot of fun with. It was really fun and just different from what we usually do so I loved it; I liked it much better than Bar Street on Rhodes!
Saturday was a slow, internet-binge day before our flight to Athens. I packed carefully in the morning; I tried to put everything I would need into my backpack and everything else in the suitcase so that on the study tour, I hopefully don’t have to lug the suitcase everywhere and can just live easily out of the backpack. We made a breakfast of poached eggs and fried feta on bread, then we literally spent six hours wasting time on the internet. I feel really bad because I meant to walk around taking pictures of Soroni before I left but it totally slipped my mind, and now I have none. It was so beautiful, too; I went for a run one day in the early evening and it was absolutely gorgeous, there was so much vegetation, cultivated but with an element of wildness to it. After our internet marathon, the place we went for dinner was closed and we had to scramble for food and then suddenly we were our of time; we were rushing to grab our bags, get everything in order, run out to the car. Even though we had all the time in the world all day, we left in such a hurry I didn’t really get to say goodbye to anything concretely; I just ran out. And, because Kostas drove us to the airport, I never got to say a real goodbye to Maria. I didn’t realize when we left the Greek dancing that would be the last time I saw her, since I’m not coming back to Rhodes after the study tour. That was a little saddening for me; she is such a sweet woman and was so good to us I feel bad I didn’t give her a proper goodbye. The group got her a gift, though, and icon of Archangel Michael (of the church she took us to), and I think she really appreciated it.
So, even though we were kind of late getting in the car, the time it took from the moment we got in the car to the moment we sat down at our gate was probably 20 minutes, and we still had to wait 20 minutes until we could board the plane. Security was a joke; Nick somehow made it through with a lighter, but they confiscated our jar of Nutella—not a liquid! Then, less than an hour later, Athens!
We landed around 9 and hopped on the subway to Monastiraki. For a while there was a group of old men who worked at the airport next to us and I tried to listen and understand as much of their conversation as possible. For the first time ever, I saw the ‘Na’ used in real life, it was so great, and also surprising, I almost burst out laughing.
When we got out at Monastiraki station, our hostel was right down the street. You can see the Acropolis from our window—it’s amazing, you can literally see it from all over this area. As we’re walking around, we use it as a beacon to make sure we’re heading in the right direction, or to see where we are in relation to the hotel, etc. There are so many times, as we walk around, I’m just amazed at the juxtaposition between crappy, dirty, modern city and the Acropolis rising in the background. It’s surreal.
We dropped our bags and walked around Monastiraki and Plaka a little, and walked by the entrance to the Acropolis. It’s really beautiful at night because it’s lit up and even more of a beacon than during the day. We grabbed some souvlaki, of course, and just explored a little of the main stuff.
We went back to our room, got changed, and went to the Gazi area the receptionist recommended around 1230 where most of the popular clubs and bars are. I actually recognized it from when we were in Athens last April. It was very crowded and we just picked ones that looked fun. The first was very Greek in that you bought a drink and then didn’t dance but stood around a table. The second place was similar but had a dance floor as well, and we stalked/made friends with a group of five Brits from London with the thickest accents I’ve ever heard.
This morning we got up and went exploring again. We meet up with the study tour on Monday and we’ll go to the Acropolis, Temple of Zeus, New Acropolis Museum, etc, so today we went to some of the other places we won’t see with the group. We went to the Keramikos Museum first, which we thought meant Ceramics but actually referred to a massive burial site they uncovered, and so they had a few relief sculptures, some grave markers, and a lot of burial pottery, etc. It was really interesting because it moved throughout the ages chronologically so you could see the progression of the works. One panel was about a mass grave that was found—the disregard for the normally important burial rituals supports ancient writings about a terrible plague that struck the city. It was interesting to see how archaeology correlated exactly with ancient sources.
Next we walked around the far side of the Acropolis, getting a new view, passing Hadrian’s Gate and the Temple of Olympian Zeus on the way to the National Gardens. Which were not that impressive. It was pretty small and wasn’t really overflowing with a bunch of different varieties and colors of plant life. The zoo inside consisted of two goats, a bunch of peacocks (one dead), ducks, and pigeons, and some kind of weird mountain rabbit thing. We left by a different exit, and almost ran into the traditionally dressed guards on the way to the Parliament building to relieve the previous guard. We then grabbed a pita and headed back to take a quick nap during the heat of the day. We woke up and walked around a little more in the touristy section. Because it’s Sunday, most things were closed, and the things that were open were the touristy places selling the olive oil soaps, shoes, sunglasses, and kitschy stuff you find everywhere in Greece, but it was nice to look at. Very hot, though, all day. We got froyo to combat the heat…
I forgot about all the graffiti in Athens; there is a lot in Thessaloniki, but there is a lot in Athens. It’s everywhere. Some are cool but most are just dirty and defacing buildings. The climate in Athens is different than it was even a year ago. The graffiti is much more political, and the city feels dirtier and grimier (though this may be partly because it’s July and much more hot and sticky). There are a lot more homeless people even in the touristy areas, and a lot more permanently closed stores and restaurants. Everything has a political tint to it; we saw signs for some kind of cultural festival that’s going on around the city this month, and I went to the website to see if there was anything interesting for today or tomorrow. There are a lot of art exhibitions, all of which carry some kind of political message about their dissatisfaction with Greek politicians, the economic situation, the broken promises of the European Union, etc. There was a showing of a film about the situation, and a play of a similar nature. Athens is definitely suffering, and you can see the wear and tiredness on the city.
So that’s Athens so far. Nick and I are probably going to go shopping tomorrow, visit another site we won’t see with the group, and then meet up with the study tour around 5PM. It looks like we’ll be in Athens for a couple days as a jumping of point to visit Nemea, Mycenae, and maybe even Delphi. It’s going to be a busy whirlwind of a week and a half, so we may just stay in tonight, or find something chill to do and come back early. I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on here!
Here are some pictures I hope you’ll enjoy:
The view from our window—oh hey Acropolis, whatcha doing outside my window, just hanging out?
A picture of me outside the Keramikos Museum. A picture of one of the cooler pieces of graffiti that was not just scribbles and trash but…BATMAN!!!
Hadrian’s Gate.
Me and Nick being fruitcakes in the National Gardens. I was twirling like an idiot and he was climbing trees.
And then there was this weird thing in the zoo, it’s some kind of rabbit but he looks like a grizzly old mountain man
Some of the political graffiti we saw that was written in English. People in Greece are not happy with the current situation.
Finally, I just think the various places you see the Acropolis are so beautiful and interesting. Like, walking down a kind of gross-looking street with graffiti and trash and then oh, what’s that in the background? Only the Acropolis, no big deal…
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