moe & fred in athens

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		Greece was always one of the Mediteranean countries we were going to get around to visiting. It was a long journey to make, not because of distance, but because of the usual industrial actions so common in Europe. Moe & Fred started there adventure to Greece at roughly 2a.m. to catch the bus to the train station to catch the train to Gatwick Airport. It was all going as planned until they arrived to check-in & found out their flight was delayed for 5 hours. In fact all flights to Greece were delayed, one for 17 hours. Airport ground crew in Greece decided to strike today and no flights were allowed to enter Greek air space until 2pm their local time.
This was the first introduction to greece & we hadn't even seen the place yet. But time does move on & we distracted ourselves enought to make it through and finally landed.	ABOVE: A beautiful sunset as the giant gas ball appears to sink into the Aegean Sea.	Fortunately, the buses were working, & there was one -- the X95 -- that went to the main square (Syntagma) in the city centre. The line for this bus was queue & people were fierce. The team decided to split up because you couldn't buy tickets on the bus.	Fred's mission was to look mean & secure seats on the bus. Moe's mission was to charm her way to getting tickets at the small kiosk so we could legitimately keep those seats. The team's experience pulled through and they were traveling into town in minutes.


		Many churches nested in the city.

		CHURCH OF THEOTOKOS GORGOEPIKOOS & AYIOS ELEYTHERIOS


	Athens, much like Rome, is a modern city with loads of ancient bones sticking out all over the place. Just about anywhere you go, you can find something from the ancient world of Greece.

This is the ROMAN STADIUM originally built in the 4th century & now redone for the modern Olympics in 1896. They were setting up a stage when we got there to prepare for the football Champions league match between Liverpool and AC Milan.		Above is a site from the ROMAN AGORA. It was a market place and meeting point for many in ancient Athens. More or less a hang out spot to meet up with your buddy's and see what pub you were going hit tonight.


		HADRIAN'S GATE. Leading from the city to Zeus.

Archaeological Site of Olympieion, TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS. While there isn't too much left at this site, the gargantuan columns cannot be missed. It was started in the 6th century BCE & took 700 years to build - under Emperor Hadrian in 131 CE. It had 104 columns close to 60 feet high.


TEMPLE OF POSEIDON	A fitting temple to the god of oceans and seas and a great place to watch a romantic sunset with 500 other people.	A typical image to represent the Oracle except this is the wrong ruin. Featured below is Tholos at Athena's Temple down the hill from Apollo's Temple where the oracle is located.	ORACLE AT DELPHI


THE ACROPOLIS: The Acropolis has a fitting name. Acro or Akra means upper while polis means city, so upper-city. It fits because the building sits on a hill 60-70 meters above everything else around it, though the area at the top of the hill is flat. The upper part of the hill is just rock & is very difficult to approach from 3 of the four sides making it an ideal place for fortification. The earliest use of this was in the 13th century BCE by the Mycenaeans. We visited on International Museum Day so admission was free!!!
PARTHENON (III) . There have been three temples devoted to the worship of Athena succeeded each other on exactly the same spot. This is the 3rd in the series, standing since the 5th century BCE.


		Skill & knowledge for historical restoration at this scale has improved significantly. So now, conservators are carefully undoing the poor quality of work from the past to do things more properly now.

	The replacements (above & right) or restorative pieces are deliberately distinct from the original so that viewers are not "tricked" but rather shown where the original pieces exist.



		TEMPLE OF ATHENA NIKE. As the scaffolding suggests, this building is well under reconstruction.
ERECHTHEION and the 6 CARYATIDS (MAIDENS).

		The ACROPOLIS MUSEUM houses the archeological findings from the area. We did a good round inside but didn't linger too long. In many cases, the original pieces were housed in the museum while replicas are made to take their place outside. Four of the original Caryatids are exhibited in the museum, the 5th is being restored, while the 6th was taken by Lord Elgin & is now in the British Museum -- one of many objects of historical significance that the British have taken that the Greeks are trying to recover. The initial building was built in 1874 & has continually expanded to keep up with excavation finds.
LEFT: The left half of a pediment showing Heracles battling the Hydra. The guy in the chariot is Iolaos, he's getting the hell out of there. BELOW: One of two snakes that represent actual snakes that guarded the Erechtheion.
	RIGHT: The Three-Bodied Demon. This is thought to have been apart of the 2nd Parthenon that was built (hard to see the 3rd head from angle).
RIGHT: Statue of Procne, the wife of Tereas, the King of Thrace. In this carving she is about to kill their son for revenge. The statue was a gift from Alkamenes. In 5th century Athens, tragedies were all the rave, so this gift is appropriate somehow. FAR RIGHT: Lioness devouring a calf. It is believed that this was part of the western pediment of the Parthenon.
	When Fred saw this owl, he could only think of one thing, Clash of the Titans. One of those movies that was cool when growing up, but cheesy as hell now. And you would absolutely watch it if it just happens to be on. The owl was a symbol of Athena's wisdom, & if you remember from the movie (like I do all too well) it was guide for Perseus.		The statue is of a Kore. Apparently she was done to be attractive with an angular face & long drawn out features.
BELOW: THEATRE OF DIONYSUS ELEUTHEREUS: Dionysus was worshipped in this area well before the current theatre was built. A wooden idol of him was house in a small temple. A festival was devoted to him that involved a group of men or choros of men dressed as man-goats dancing and singing. It wasn’t until about the 5th century BCE that the current form of the theatre was in place.
			ODEION OF HERODES: Atticus provided a venue for music and dramatic arts. Herodes built it 160-1 BCE in dedication to his wife who died the same year it was being built.


	BEULÉ GATE

			TOURISTS. Ahh yes. The hoardes & hoardes of tourists. Again it pays to show up early. By the time we were leaving around noon, there was not a single spot along the path that was crowded with people.
			VIEWS OF ATHENS. The one thing that stood out from this vantage point was the density of development in this land, & then every few miles, a green hill emerges from the concrete jungle.




MEALS. In usual fashion Moe & Fred were picky about where they ate. Stuffed peppers, tzatziki, stuffed pork rolls, lamb chops, & a Greek salad to clean palette; & of course, sharing a baklava & vanilla ice cream. All our meals in Greece were FANTASTIC - in taste, variety, & well priced. Feeding us heartily each time, our meals were consistently 30€ - 35€. The other bonus was that we didn't have to try very hard to find non-touristy spots.

	RIGHT: Retsina is the wine specialty of the Attica region and has been made for thousands of years. It's unique flavour comes from the pine resin that is included in the wine. It is definitely an aquired taste, took about 4 sips to aquire. There are a lot of pine trees in Greece & somebody thought it was a good idea to put the two together.
		Our scrumptuous last meal - grilled whole bass & mousaka.
MARKET & STREET FOOD
Sweet strawberries @ 2€ per kilo, it's a bargain. Then there's roasted corn, hmmmm.
		But our favourite has to be pork gyros from this stand in between the crowd of touristy shops. Loaded with crispy pork, lettuce, peppers, & yummy garlic yoghurt sauce, this is by far the best. And at 1.5€, this is a steal.
			STREET ART
		Very impressive, but a bit on the dark & paranoid side at times.






	RANDOM SHOTS 1. Greek pharmacy. 2. Chinese restaurant. 3. Irish river dancing. 4. Athenian mama & baby birds.

			As said earlier the UEFA Cup Champions league match was happening in a couple of days in Athens. We found some die-hard Liverpool fans at this place. YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!!!

			The team stayed at the NEOS OLYMPUS HOTEL, a hostel really but they make your bed and change our towels & sheets. Free internet & a view of the city made it a suitable home for a few nights.

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