(Athens, Greece)

The picture above is iconic. But first…a little background. The term “Acropolis” roughly means “highest city.” It’s not just the famous Parthenon (as opposed to the Pantheon), but also the other structures still remaining on top of the rocky outcrop. However, it’s the Parthenon that gets most of the attention.

We bought tickets in advance, which granted us entry to the site during a one-hour time slot. Once we were in, though, we were allowed to remain on the site as long as we wanted. Near the end of the 15-minute walk from our hotel, we passed the Hill of Ares. This offers nice views of the ancient and Roman agoras in downtown Athens.

Once we passed through the entrance gate, we found ourselves at the top of a completely different historic structure: the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. This reminded me a bit of the Roman theatres in Lyon (one of which was also called the “Odeon”) that I saw in 2025. This Greek version had a capacity of 5,000, and the surviving wall is still 28 metres high. It was once much higher, and had a cedar roof.

As impressive as the Odeon is, it is only an appetizer. Up the hill and around the corner is the Propylaea. It is a building complex that seems to have functioned as the massive ceremonial gateway to the Acropolis. It was apparently unfinished, and of course has lost much to the ravages of time, but it remains imposing even now.

So imposing, in fact, that pretty much everybody takes a bunch of pictures as they begin to climb the steep steps to the top of the Propylaea. I can’t imagine how busy (and hot) this would be during the peak of the summer season.

Which reminds me: bring your own (full) water bottle when you visit. Despite claims of a fountain, we could only find small bottles of water selling for an astounding 5.00 Euros (which we saw selling for a paltry 0.13 Euros in supermarkets). We had some water of our own, but even in March there is little shade and you will need to rehydrate!

As you emerge from the Propylaea, you finally see it: the Parthenon. It is at the highest point of the Acropolis, and remains stunning even though so much of it has been lost. You can’t climb or wander inside the structure itself, and it would be even more dangerous now because restoration work (complete with cranes) is ongoing. But I don’t think it’s necessary to physically touch the Parthenon in order to appreciate it.

So, it’s big: 45 feet high. It was built in the 5th century B.C. And it has all kinds of nifty architectural tricks. I won’t go into the mathematical proportions, or the optical illusions, but the columns were deliberately slanted and they even “bulge” slightly in places.

The Parthenon isn’t the only famous building up here. The Erechtheion is also an imposing structure with a really unusual twist. The “front” of the building has a number of columns that look classically Greek. It’s impressive, although not nearly as imposing as the adjacent Parthenon.

On the south side, however, is a most unusual “porch”. The roof of the porch is held up not by classic columns, but by six sculpted maidens. In the 5th century B.C., this must have been an outrageous architectural statement. I have no idea if it inspired the “leg lamp” craze of the 1980s, but that is certainly quite conceivable.

We ended up spending several hours on the Acropolis, and I have a further bunch of photos that will show up in later posts. Is it expensive? Yes – at 30 Euros. But it is worth it? Yes. And the juxtaposition of the ancient Acropolis above the bustling modern city of Athens just adds to this unique experience. If you get a chance – go, and remember to reserve your ticket in advance!

(Athens, Greece)

Getting from the airport to downtown Athens is quite easy by subway…just don’t expect to see much of interest along the way!

Metro line #3 (a.k.a. the Blue Line) goes all the way from the airport to downtown Athens. It was about a 40 minute trip. The closest station to our hotel is Monastiraki…as often happens here, they stumbled upon a buried ancient community when they were building the station!

Our hotel is on Adrianou Street (see photo at the very top of this post), which runs through the middle of the Plaka neighbourhood. There’s no question that tourism is driving things around here but, with a little effort, you can still identify areas where locals still live and work.

For our first meal in Athens, we walked past multiple restaurants where touts were aggressively courting customers. It’s the same in many heavily-touristed cities. And I always ignore these places. We kept walking until we found a place (Taverna Saita) that was crowded, where most patrons were speaking Greek, and nobody addressed me as “friend” or promised me the moon.

Even though prices are likely higher here than in other parts of Greece, we still find food very affordable. And while Athens has a reputation for pollution, we don’t really find it to be worse than any other major city in eastern or southern Europe. Maybe the time of year is helping with that.

The Greek alphabet shares a lot of letters with our own Roman alphabet, although they often do not represent the same sounds. Nonetheless, I’m not finding my lack of Greek to be a problem. Many signs include the Roman alphabet equivalent under the Greek version. And knowing the Cyrillic alphabet helps fill some of the gaps when no Roman equivalent is provided. In any case, almost every person we’ve met so far speaks at least some English. We’ll see what happens when we move out of Athens!

For subsequent meals in the area, I did some quick online research to give us a head start. Once again, the main criteria were being off the beaten tourist path and having a lot of local customers. I’m also trying to choose places that focus on food from Greece or at least from neighbouring countries. This is a rare opportunity to make some new culinary discoveries!

I was really happy with our first lunch spot. It was called “Cocona”, and was on a tiny side street on the local side of Syntagma Square. They had a lot of great pies, often with cheese and/or spinach, but they also served a specialty called gőzleme from “Asia Minor” (Anatolia, in Turkiye). It is a type of stuffed turnover. I really enjoyed mine – I had it with yogurt sauce, and I was concerned that it would be loaded with garlic (like tzatziki usually is). However, yogurt sauce and tzatziki sauce seem to be two different things here, so I didn’t have to endure any garlic at all!

As we don’t have a lot of time before we move on from Athens, we have to choose our activities carefully. I think we will take advantage of our neighbourhood’s location and visit the famous Acropolis. It’s only about a 15 minute walk from our hotel to the entrance gate. Tickets are sold by time slots, in order to help avoid unmanageable crowds. I’m also hopeful that the time of year (definitely not high season) will keep things under control.

I’ll be back soon with our visit to the Acropolis…and more impressions of Athens!