I took the underwhelming 8 euro walking tour to see the refurbished old Olympic stadium, a few statues, an arch, a few columns, a park, and shopping areas. The “tour guide” was a young guy with a nasty hangover and no sleep, and thus had difficulty being an efficient and informative guide. It was supposed to be a tour of all the important archeological sites, and yet, somehow we never even went near any museums, the Agora, the Acropolis, or much else. The best part was when he showed us were to get the best and cheapest gyros around.
I headed up to the Acropolis on my own, paid the 12 euro, and climbed the hill. The Acropolis sits upon a huge rock above Athens, providing an unobstructed view of the overcrowded valley. About forty percent of the country lives in the greater Athens area. The city looks like it goes on forever.
Even though the place was covered with cranes and scaffolding, I was impressed. They are doing a multi-year restoration project that requires the dismantling and reassembly of the buildings; quite a job when you realize the size of the buildings. I can only imagine how much work it was to build the place up on the hill in the first place without the aid of modern equipment. I sat in awe for a while, admiring the Parthenon, caryatids, columns, friezes, and the view. With that done, there is not really that much left to see in the city. There are a few more slightly interesting structures and the archeological museum. I have already seen some phenomenal ruins on my trip and I did not feel like seeing slightly interesting structures. The museum on the other hand is supposed to be good.
There are many kinds of hostels and the Athens Backpackers Hostel falls almost directly into the 20 something party palace. I only say almost because they have a kitchen for people to use. Other than that, the place is geared toward the gratuitous consumption of alcohol and the abuse of aural senses. In the evening I went up to the roof bar, had my free ouzo shot and a cheap beer while sitting crossed legged on a cushion and chatting with people, (the view was good) and then I went back down to sit in the window of the lower bar.
I was enjoying free-range bandwidth, trying to process photos for the galleries I have been neglecting, as an assortment of people stopped by, puzzled that I was working, and kept trying to get me to join in drinking games. They had to yell because the volume of music and other people yelling over the music. It was easily in the hearing damage range. I had to assure them that, yes indeed, I really had to work, and that I would otherwise love to join them. I think I spent as much time convincing people that I wanted to work as I did actually working. I went to bed early (10:00) and then got up at 2:00am to call Patricia; the time zone difference can really be a pain sometimes.
