Alyssa’s Report on Ancient Athens

Today was our one and only full day in Athens and it sure was amazing! In the morning we had a tour of the Acropolis which was breath taking then in the afternoon we had a rest in our awesome air-conditioned apartment. Mum, Max and Dad went and did some shopping as well in the afternoon but I didn't want to get tempted into buying more clothes as my pack is too full after buying my hippie pants yesterday!

For the Acropolis tour we basically started when we were waiting in the line to get in after walking from the base of the tour company. We had a lovely lady who told us lots of good information but the funniest part was the pink ‘Karen’ we had in the group. There was a lady with three children dressed in a full pink track suit thing and fancy necklaces in our group who was NOT happy that the skip the line ticket did not skip all of the line and our guide certainly got a good talking to about that from her. During the whole tour this lady kept going off ahead and getting annoyed and being a ‘Karen’ about things, it was very entertaining! It was sad when she left early and sent one of her children to deliver the headset back to the tour guide as it was so funny to watch her but the tour guides smile as she left was definitely the best part! 

Anyway I'll tell you about the tour a bit now. So we started getting information from our guide as we waited in line (the line for the entrance that we did not get to skip but only took about 20 minutes to get through) about some of the different building and ruins and why they were built. She also told us a bit about the history of Athens and why it was called Athens. Athens is named after the Greek god Athena as she was the patron god of the city. 

When we got in we saw a lot of marble chunks lying around which was a very ruined ruin of the temple of Dyonosis, the god of wine. As we went along and slowly uphill to the top of the Acropolis (meaning high city in Greek) we saw two outdoor theatres, one that is still used today! The first one was small and had marble seats. There was a small stage at the centre of the semi circle where the three actors would preform. There used to only be three actors in every show and they would all wear masks and change masks and costumes very quickly to change their characters. There were also special seats at the front where the special people like the priests and other important people got to sit. The second theatre was huge and also had marble seats but this time also had a huge stage. The tour guide said it fit over two thousand people I think, which is pretty impressive for something that was built thousands of years ago! 

By the time we got to the top we were all a sweaty mess from the heat, but when you see something as incredible as the Parthenon it suddenly doesn't matter how hot you are, you will just stand in the blazing heat and stare in awe (well that's what I did at least). The Parthenon was so much bigger than I imagined it to be and they were fixing it and repairing the cracks and broken parts with new marble from the same mine and it looked kind of like cow patches which was cool. When the group gathered in the shade our guide told us more information about the Parthenon including the repairs and also some information about the temple of Athena Nike which was another temple we saw as we were coming through the gates at the top of the Acropolis. 

The temple of Athena Nike is apparently the only temple where the statue of Athena doesn't have wings because the temple was built after the Greek's victory in a war against the Persians and Athena having no wings was to symbolise that she would not leave, she would stay because Athens would always be Athens and be ruled over by the Greeks. 

The guide also showed us pictures of each time the Parthenon was rebuilt after a different empire took over or it was destroyed. The first one looked pretty similar to the one there is today except it was white, the second one had a lot of pictures on it in colour, and the one there is today was the one the Ottomans built with a red roof but the roof was destroyed and so is one side as it was hit by a bomb. There were quite a lot of different designs but I can't remember the rest as I was quite hot and wasn't really listening to the lady that much as I was distracted by all of the amazing buildings!

Overall I learnt a lot today and saw so many things that were cooler than I ever imagined. Athens and Greece in general was the place I was dying to visit the most and it certainly did not disappoint me! I can't wait to go to the Greek Islands and see what that's like because Athens is awesome and it doesn't even have a beach, so the islands are going to be awesome! 

And a bonus fun fact: the population of Athens is 5 million people, so the same as New Zealand! The population of Greece is 11 million so Athens makes up almost half of the population of the whole county and being on top of the Acropolis you can just see city for miles when you look any direction. It's HUGE!

Alyssa