Acropolis Special

The Acropolis and the Parthenon is one of those iconic places that has seeped into the popular consciousness of most of the human population. In this way it is reached the situation that other heritage sites have reached such as Stonehenge in that perhaps to fully have the monument fulfill the expectations we have of it, it is best perhaps never to visit. The number of times I've heard 'It was way smaller than I imagined' about various places.
Real life simply cannot compete with glossy, artsy photography shot with exactly the right light in exactly the right conditions with no tourists in sight, or sitting back watching the same scenes in HD with stirring orchestral music and an Charlton Heston telling the colourful story of the monument as you sit in your darkened living room, fully hydrated.

The great staircase

Restoration work

People say they are trying to rebuild it, or at least put the roof back on

From the amount of new stone this is clearly not a conservation job...

The modern counterpart of the holy olive tree

A warden bunker, every now and again an angry man or woman emerges from one of these and blows a whistle at the naughty tourists before telling them to behave and going back inside.

My host's apartment was half way up this hill.

wow

hehehe, iz at yr parthanon, steelin' yr marbles

Dionysian Theatre

My trip to the acropolis in Athens was more of a pilgrimage to a site that I had revered for a long time. It symbolises a lot to the Greeks, but also to everyone else. The decision to restore much of the 5th century structure at the detriment (as in complete obliteration) of subsequent wall, buildings and defenses leaves me a little speechless. I came to see the Parthenon as a ruin. It had been ruined by the deliberate and accidental acts of people over history, but that, in my opinion is history, things happen, empires rise and fall. the story continues to be written if we ignore it or not, there was no golden age of civilisation here, instead for 2,600 years of civilisation has ebbed and flowed around the monuments here leaving it's mark as the sea does to the cliffs. 
It makes me sad to think the current custodians of the acropolis think they should and can turn time back, in effect re-writing history.

Mykines to Thessaloniki

Orcharcd along the road from Mykines

I've decided, I'm not going to tell you everything I do any more.

The last post took three days to produce, it ate up valuable time that I could have spent planning my trip, or exploring the quaysides, alleys and other beauty-bereft places.

Instead It's just going to be some highlights, impressions and lots of pictures...


So here goes:
I was quite glad to get back to couch surfing after my two days in Mykines, although the place was empty and the owner's son was happy to hang out and chat it just didn't feel quite right, also at 35 euro a night I couldn't make a habit out of it. 
Actually I'm a little worried I'm a stress junkie, the feeling of elation when everything goes wrong and then somehow you figure it out could be slightly addictive. Is this why I was unhappy in Austria? There wasn't enough challenge? Am I happiest during and after a crisis? Do I need to be completely lost in a country that doesn't even use the latin alphabet to find contentment?

My host in Patra was lovely, the town was also quite entertaining for a day or two and there were some impressive views of the mountains across the gulf of Corinth.

The Corinth canal was within a few minutes walking distance of the bus station..

Bow!

View across Patra towards the sea, scary steps omitted.

The view from the castle

Inside the Ottoman fortifications

No photos exist of the most memorable night where Georgia took me to a Rebetiko night in a local bar, I had been listening to the stuff non-stop for two days and it was beginning to grow on me, it helps too if you have a Greek speaker to translate for you!
Basically Rebetiko is a fusion of urban musical traditions from the early 20th century that reflected the lives of the marginalised people that created and consumed it. I've heard it called the blues of Greece, but this paragraph from wikipedia sums it up well:

Like several other urban subcultural musical forms such as the blues, flamenco, fado, bal-musette and tango, rebetiko grew out of particular urban circumstances. Often its lyrics reflect the harsher realities of a marginalized subculture's lifestyle. Thus one finds themes such as crime, drink, drugs, poverty, prostitution and violence, but also a multitude of themes of relevance to Greek people of any social stratum: death, eroticism, exile, exoticism, disease, love, marriage, matchmaking, the mother figure, war, work, and diverse other everyday matters, both happy and sad.

After another Odyssey of Greek bus stations I arrived in Athens. I had been looking forward to this since I had the idea to start my travels in Greece. It didn't disappoint!

So many of the places I have stayed have been enriched by the people and places I come across by couchsurfing. Athens was one of these places, my host, and after two days his other two surfers created a happy atmosphere unmatched by housemate and hostel alike. 
The stay also enlightened me to the expat life in Athens, mainly because 'Canadian' Mike was in contact with a network of foreigners in Athens and these by virtue of their foreign upbringing were considerably more reliable when organising a night out and suchlike.

1st walk around the city, and there was a protest going on...

Up to 10% by number of all protests are photographers, greater if by mass/volume

Someone tell him the sun isn't out

Mike and I took a walk around the city, and after getting bored watching the riot police and dodging showers he took me to an excellent vantage point to the south of the acropolis

Arch of the roman agora

These are my favourite photographs taken during that day.

The Archaeological museum was another highlight, Here are some of my favourite exhibits:

Female figures

A selection of golden death masks from grave circle A at Mycenae

The famous 'mask of Agamemnon' is the most artistically refined golden death mask, and the only one with a beard.

Gold coverings for the two infant burials

The doorway from one of the subterranean tholos tombs at Mycenae

Boars tusk helmets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

The stadium of the 1st modern Olympic games

A lovely and very interesting walk around the Athens Necropolis, we went grave-spotting. This one is Heinrich Schliemann. 

Grave of Ioannis Metaxas, political strongman/dictator of Greece. Now remembered fondly in spite of repressive policies for saying Ochi! to the belligerent Italians 

Arch of Hadrian

Statue in honour of Lord Byron

 In my walks around the city alone and with my couch hosts I noticed the presence of a listless energy (yes I know that's an oxymoron, but I couldn't think of a better description), from the kids sitting around smoking dope in the 'police no-go anarchist neighbourhood' of Exarchion to the protest marches where almost more people are taking photographs, juggling, selling snacks, being dogs and just stopping to look than the demonstrators themselves. It seemed very difficult to believe that these demonstrations could turn ugly, though the police stationed all around the likely march routes think differently and would probably show up for the children's entertainers against rainy Saturday afternoons march. Especially if those anti-fascists tagged along...

Something's up, the barriers are up at the tomb of the unknown soldier..

The demonstration arrives....

...as do the nutters, leaflet wavers, peanut sellers, acrobats, breakdancers, buskers and a couple of stray dogs.

Riot police deploy

They don't seem very excited

I have no idea what this says

SUDDENLY, SPONTANEOUS CIRCLE DANCING!!!

Thanks to a bit of pleasant weather I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Athens, at first many things about the city infuriated me, but as the week went on I came to develop a liking for these infuriated feelings, those ridiculous pavements, the joy when I could get just one Greek person to smile back at me, the feeling of triumph after crossing a road alive and that feeling when you realize that the bus or metro you are on is going to the place you want to go to...

So basically I had to leave before I couldn't. I had to go before I felt the need to stay. 

Goodbye Athens, you dirty old bastard.

Thessaloniki is a very interesting city, the first thing i noticed is that the port area is most definitely still a port area with all these seedy bars and menacing shadowy corners.

The White Tower, African tat sellers/tourist harassers cut out of shot 

Look! They made an Alexander statue

One very interesting thing about the city is there are archaeological remains everywhere you look and several roman buildings stand intact or a reasonable proportion of their original height.

The palace of Galerius

It's a bath tub!

Cats, everywhere there are cats. Maybe the whole thumbcat thing is true after all...

So, it's back to haunting cafes again.. at least this one had some good music.