Famous stuff...

Thursday 21st June

Today I joined the “accompanying persons” tour and went to the National Archaeological Museum- what a fabulous place! I dredged my brain cells and recalled 5 minutes of 7th Form Classics and felt in awe. I think I thought that these things only really existed in books… I was blown away by the vases and took about 1000 pictures and also snapped any number of marble busts: Aristotle, Agrippa, Claudius…. all those famous dudes…

After a genuine Greek lunch (lots of meat), I spent some more time in Plaka and Monastiraki. I wandered the shops and the stalls but I’d have to say that it is hard to do any real damage when your buying power is in the NZ dollar. It seems that most every day items are about what you would pay in dollars but in Euro. To date, my biggest investment in the Greek economy has been in the form of bottled water. It’s cheap (between €0.27-0.50) and available everywhere. I did break out and buy a frappe (coffee in crushed ice) the other day. It’s Greece’s signature coffee (invented by a Nestle distributor and still made in the traditional way- with Nescafe) and cost €3.70… it’s a hard habit to justify when you know you are really paying about $7. On the other hand, I can see why smoking is a popular pastime in Greece; my coffee cost more than a pack of cigarettes does (around €1.80) so I guess if you have no objection to the potential health outcomes, it’s a reasonable habit to adopt!!

As I have already mentioned, Athens does look exactly like you see it in the books. There’s nothing swept up or flash about it- it has a ‘take me as I am’ kind of attitude. However, what the books don’t mention is the (mostly) glorious noise. Wherever you go, there is music (often live on the side of the street) and always car horns. I have come to realise that our taxi driver experience was nothing out of the ordinary. Greeks drive like they are always in the middle of an emergency and use their horns with liberal abandon.

Last night we went on a conference social and visited the Acropolis. I found the visit a bit surreal. Firstly, it was so hot that we sweated standing still, but also, most of the main temples on the Acropolis (name of the hill rather than the buildings- the most famous of which is, of course, the Parthenon) were covered in scaffolding. It sort of spoiled the 5th Century BC effect… It was, however, very cool (well, actually hot) to stand on the top of the hill and look out over Athens in all directions. Half way up the Acropolis is a mound of rock where St Paul (of Bible fame) allegedly preached his first sermon in Athens. He must have been pretty fab- officially around 98% of the population is Greek Orthodox Christian. Once again, I had a profound sense of the span of history- St Paul stood there in the first Century AD looking at a building that was already 500 years old… and here I am…

And finally, dinner. Greeks eat a lot of meat. Or, at least, they serve their visitors a lot of meat. Even Marty has started to feel overcome by the sheer volume of it. Having a slightly ambivalent relationship with meat at the best of times, I am hoping that Turkey will have a more vegetable-friendly approach to eating!