Med Cruise - Apr 06 - Day 11 - Athens (Greece)
Monday – 10th April – Athens
The port of Pireus, close to the city of Athens (16 kms away) was our port of call. Activities at this port date back to 500BC. As we drove in taxis towards the city of Athens, we stopped at the waterfront of this city. It was spectacular, a small bay with a hill on the other side, and restaurants lining the waterfront. The Greek shipping magnate, Onasis has a house there and that was perched well. After his death, the Onasis foundation donated the house to the yacht club. On display at this club is the yatch of the king of Greece (now exiled to London), in which he won the gold medal in the Olympics for sailing. We then proceeded towards the town of Athens and saw the several stadiums built for the Athens Olympics in 2004. Our first stop was the Acropolis (which in Greek means, the head of the city). The main structure at the Acropolis is the Parthenon, which is impressive and huge and is the crown jewel of the Acropolis. It looks majestic from far away, however from up close, it lost that grandiose look as it was propped up with scaffolding all around it, as it was under renovation (the pollution from the city of Athens is making the marble black). The views from the Acropolis were splendid. We then drove to the temple Zeus (which was sorta boring, as it had only 13 standing columns). Next stop was the old Olympic stadium, where the original Olympic games we held (1st century BC) and the modern Olympic games were restarted (1896). Next, we drove for the changing of the guard at the palace of the president. It was a very interesting site, especially the dress of the guards (their shoes especially which has balls of “fur” at the tip). During the changing of the guard, they did this weird thing in which the two guards touch their shoe tips (with the fur balls), and shake their legs, kinda like a cartoon thingie. Also, the traditional dress of the greek guards has 400m pleats in it, to remind them of the 400 years of Turkish occupation (the Greeks and the Turks really don’t get along, almost as bad if not worse than the relationship between the Indians and the Pakistanis). The final stop was then the district around the Acropolis, which has lots of interesting shops, bars and restaurants. We stopped at the waterfront of Pireus on the way back, to eat at one of the restaurants, and just made it back in time for departure (with the taxi driver doing a few runs to pick us up). An interesting thing was dinner in the night, the Italian night. At some point, they played nice Italian music, and all the people in the hall (majority Italians), held their napkins in their hand and started fluttering them around. The waiters then came in and whisked the ladies of our table and danced with them (included 80 yr old grandmom – which was cute). Finally, we formed a nice big line and ran around the entire ballroom, singing songs and being rather foolish. Italians sure know how to party!
The port of Pireus, close to the city of Athens (16 kms away) was our port of call. Activities at this port date back to 500BC. As we drove in taxis towards the city of Athens, we stopped at the waterfront of this city. It was spectacular, a small bay with a hill on the other side, and restaurants lining the waterfront. The Greek shipping magnate, Onasis has a house there and that was perched well. After his death, the Onasis foundation donated the house to the yacht club. On display at this club is the yatch of the king of Greece (now exiled to London), in which he won the gold medal in the Olympics for sailing. We then proceeded towards the town of Athens and saw the several stadiums built for the Athens Olympics in 2004. Our first stop was the Acropolis (which in Greek means, the head of the city). The main structure at the Acropolis is the Parthenon, which is impressive and huge and is the crown jewel of the Acropolis. It looks majestic from far away, however from up close, it lost that grandiose look as it was propped up with scaffolding all around it, as it was under renovation (the pollution from the city of Athens is making the marble black). The views from the Acropolis were splendid. We then drove to the temple Zeus (which was sorta boring, as it had only 13 standing columns). Next stop was the old Olympic stadium, where the original Olympic games we held (1st century BC) and the modern Olympic games were restarted (1896). Next, we drove for the changing of the guard at the palace of the president. It was a very interesting site, especially the dress of the guards (their shoes especially which has balls of “fur” at the tip). During the changing of the guard, they did this weird thing in which the two guards touch their shoe tips (with the fur balls), and shake their legs, kinda like a cartoon thingie. Also, the traditional dress of the greek guards has 400m pleats in it, to remind them of the 400 years of Turkish occupation (the Greeks and the Turks really don’t get along, almost as bad if not worse than the relationship between the Indians and the Pakistanis). The final stop was then the district around the Acropolis, which has lots of interesting shops, bars and restaurants. We stopped at the waterfront of Pireus on the way back, to eat at one of the restaurants, and just made it back in time for departure (with the taxi driver doing a few runs to pick us up). An interesting thing was dinner in the night, the Italian night. At some point, they played nice Italian music, and all the people in the hall (majority Italians), held their napkins in their hand and started fluttering them around. The waiters then came in and whisked the ladies of our table and danced with them (included 80 yr old grandmom – which was cute). Finally, we formed a nice big line and ran around the entire ballroom, singing songs and being rather foolish. Italians sure know how to party!
posted by Ash | 7:05 AM
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