I woke up and wrote my blog about Sunday. By the time I posted it, everyone was awake. We had a hot chocolate/ coffee and finished off the biscuit goodies that they gave us. Afterwards mom and dad went for a 10 minute stroll around and also met one of the owners of the apartment (they live upstairs with their 3 children) His name is Babis and his wife is Xenia.
After their walk we all went to the supermarket (a spar!) and bought some groceries. We were there quite a long time because all the food labels were in Greek and we had to figure out what we were buying! We got back and put everything away. Then mom, dad and me went to the bakery around the corner. Wow! They have amazing things there: fresh bread, pastries, cake etc. We bought 2 ham and cheese pastries to share, a loaf of bread for lunch and 4 little cream puff things. when we got home we realized that they had also, by accident, given us 2 chocolate and 2 custard pastries, but we worked out that we did pay for them and decided to keep them. We ate everything except the chocolate/ custard pastries (saving for later!)
At 12:30 our walking tour guide (Popi) arrived. She is very nice. We first walked to the Agora area. We saw the Temple of Hephaestus, which is the best preserved classical temple in Greece. It was extremely interesting having a guide along to tell you all the history. She was very good- we learnt a lot of stuff and it wouldn't have been half as interesting without her!
We then went down to the Agora, which was Athens' ancient marketplace and the centre of all civic activities. There were so many ruins here, foundations of parliament buildings, theatres, drains, altars and stoas (the 'shopping centre') There were also amazing statues (mostly headless!) After walking through there we went to the Agora Museum. This small museum displays valuable artifacts found in the Agora. It gave you a real feel of the ancient Greek culture.
After the Agora we walked up to the Acropolis Hill. Most of the buildings are actually temples. They are made of marble and were built during the late 5th-century BC (!!!!) When we got there we bought some (very expensive) glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice to revive us. We had some amazing views from up on the hill and also saw the Herodes Atticus theatre. We walked through the Propylaia (grand entrance) which led us to the Parthenon (temple to Athena- Athens' namesake) and the Erechtheion (the pillars of the balcony are in the shape of women) They are busy doing restoration on a lot of the ancient buildings and the scaffolding around the Parthenon sort of ruined the atmosphere of it, but it was still incredible.
We were very tired by then and I was quite grateful that the tour had come to an end. We said goodbye to Popi and then went and sat at a corner cafe and had some coke. They brought us a little basket of chips 'on the house' Then we came back home and I read some of my book (Ranger's Aprentice 3) We had dinner at home: pasta with a tomato sauce and a salad. We ate the other pastries for dessert. Me and Ash went to bed at about 9:45.
Opa and I were VERY impressed that you know all those difficult names of the ruins and temples. The statues are not only headless, but seem to be arm-less and leg-less as well!! But very typical of the picture you always get about Greek statues (in books etc). It looks like you are having a wonderful time and doing a lot of different things. There is a Greek restaurant in Cresta I think, so if you have withdrawal symptoms when you come back, you can always go there!
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Goodness but it seems like you are using up every spare moment! Looks lovely and the news is so interesting! Well done. Love your blog.
ReplyDeleteAre those oranges in the photo with Ashlyn????If so, take them with you the next time, then the freshly squeezed orange juice might be half price???
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