Athens!

After Santorini, we flew to Athens for a few days. As someone who's always enjoyed Greek mythology and Ancient Greek history, I was beyond excited! We explored the city a bit with Emily's class and professor. Everyone was wicked friendly and welcoming and her professor, who was from Greece, was very informative and knew the way around much better than we did and definitely saved us from getting lost! We visited Lykavittos Hill, the highest point in Athens, for an amazing view of the city. I thought we would have to hike all the way to the top, but thankfully there was a train that took us up instead. It wasn't a typical train though; it went up at a 45 degree angle, like a mix between an elevator and the beginning of a roller coaster. Once we got up there, it was amazing! You could see the whole city!

You can see the Acropolis in the middle of the grassy part to the right

Professional siblings

Professional huggers

Next, we walked by the Prime Minister and the president's homes (yes I didn't know they had both, but they do). We didn't take too many pictures because there was security everywhere. It was a little intimidating to be casually walking down the street and to see men with machine guys and machetes.

There were guards called "Evzones" outside dressed with traditional kilts, caps, and clogs with pompoms. They presented an amusing contrast to the more severe officers down the street.

The streets everywhere were lined with orange trees, but we weren't sure if you could eat them or not!

The Panathenaic Stadium hosted the first modern Olympic games in 1896, but its history goes back much farther than that. It was built sometime around 500 BC and is the only stadium in the world made entirely out of marble!

Weeeee areeeee the championsssssss

The next day we visited the Acropolis!!! For anyone that might not know about it, get ready for a tonnnnn of fun facts with Lauren! The Acropolis is kind of like a small, ancient city on top of high, rocky hill overlooking the city. It is believed that it was inhabited back in the 5th century BC. Can you believe that? People lived there 500 years before Jesus was born and it's still (partially) standing! The most famous structure is definitely the Parthenon, a former temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. Since a lot of it had been severely damaged throughout the years, construction is everywhere.

Most of the statues and decorations on the buildings were based on the myths surrounding the city of Athens. Poseidon, god of the sea, and Athena, goddess of wisdom, both wanted to be the patron deity of the city so they held a contest. Whoever gave the city the best gift would win the city. Poseidon went first, and he lifted his massive trident and struck the earth, producing a sea which is now called Erekhtheis. Unfortunately the water was salty and not much use to the Athenians. Athena went next and planted a seed which grew into an olive tree. This turned out to be a much more useful gift for the Athenians because not only the olives themselves were sustenance, but also a source of oil for their lamps and for cooking their food as well as the wood from the olive tree to build their boasts and houses. Athena was named the winner and the protector of the city so most things in the Acropolis are dedicated to her.

When you first walk through the gate

Monument of Agrippa

This is where the statue of Athena Promachos used to be with the Pandroseion in the background. Every part of the massive statue was destroyed except for the marble base which you can kinda see about halfway up the picture. The bronze statue was supposed to be huge! It was built in the fourth century BC and was kept there for about a thousand years until the Romans stole her and brought her to Constantinople. Then in 1203 a mob of crusaders destroyed her. 

The Pandroseion
This was a sanctuary dedicated to one of the daughters of the first king of Athens. This is supposedly where the olive tree was planted by Athena.

The Erechtheion
A temple dedicated to Athena and Poseidon and the supposed burial place of ancient kings.

The Old Temple of Athena
The ruins behind us were where an old temple used to be that acted as a shrine to Athena. It was built sometime around 525 BC but didn't last very long before the Persians destroyed it in 480 BC

The Parthenon!!
After the Old Temple of Athena was destroyed, the Athenians replaced it with the Parthenon as the location to worship Athena. It took from 447 BC until 432 BC to complete and was primarily used as a treasury by the Athenian Empire, not just a temple.

The Parthenon
The religious affiliation with the Parthenon shifted throughout history as Athens fell to different empires. In the 6th century AD it was a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Then in the 1460s, after the Ottoman conquest, it became a mosque. 

Parthenon under construction
The Parthenon suffered a lot of destruction over the years. In 1687, a Venetian attack resulted in huge explosions that caused most of the damage and killed about 300 people

Temple of Athena Nike
Nike was the goddess of victory and is generally depicted with wings. Because the Athenians wanted to always have victory, they removed her wings so she couldn't fly away and erected a temple for her on the Acropolis.

The Parthenon had great views of the city!

The Theater of Dionysus
This is the oldest theater in the world and honored Dionysus, the Greek god of theater and wine. It was built in the 6th century BC and could hold 17,000 spectators. The acoustics are phenomenal, even by today's standards. We took this picture looking down on it from the Acropolis. 

Odeon of Herodes
Another Theater next to Dionysus' is better preserved, but not as famous. It could fit 5,000 people and was built in 161 AD. It was destroyed in 267 AD by a raid by an East Germanic tribe.

Odeon of Herodes
The theaters were closed to the public but we could see the stage from outside the gate.

Temple of Zeus, Olympia
An ancient temple dedicated to the god Zeus and was built in the 5th century BC. This was closed too when we went to see it, which was too bad cause I really wanted to relive the Disney version of Hercules where do goes to talk to his dad here.

Next we visited the Acropolis museum, which has only been open for 6 years, but is used to house all of the artifacts found at the archaeological site of the Acropolis.  It has everything from the Greek Bronze Age, to the Romans, to Byzantine Greece. A lot of the old artifacts that had been uncovered were sold to the UK, but in the 1950s Greece asked for them back. The British argued that there wasn't anywhere suitable for the Greeks to display them so the plans for the new museum began. We weren't entirely sure if we could take pictures inside and I'm not much of a sneaky sneak so I only took a few.

The "Metopes" were marble panels that originally decorated the outside walls of the Parthenon in a way to tell different stories. The Metopes on the East wall of the Parthenon were situated above the entrance and depict the battle between the Olympic gods and the Giants. The North Metopes illustrate the Greeks fighting the Trojans in the Trojan War. The West Metopes show the invasion of Athens by the Amazons, which references the Persian Wars. The South Metopes present the battle between the Lapiths (people from Thessaly) and Centaurs.

The Centauromachy, or battle of the centaurs, is a favorite subject of the Athenians. It metaphorically depicts the struggle between civilization and barbarism. This metope was taken down from the Parthenon very recently after being there for 25 centuries to be preserved in the museum.

The first floor was see through so you could see parts of the excavation beneath you 

The hall showed decorative statues depicting the competition between Athena and Poseidon, 

The Caryatids
These sculptures of women were used as architectural support in the place of columns. Four and a half of them are on display at the museum (one was smashed by a Turkish cannonball) and the sixth one is in the British Museum.  

Greece wasn't exactly what we expected. Athens especially was a surprise; it was really interesting how a city with this amazing history has ancient temples mixed in with modern technology. But unfortunately much of the city was dirty and there were homeless people everywhere. There were also people trying to sell you things and steal your money around us constantly. We couldn't sit through a single meal without someone coming up to us begging for money. And the saddest part about it was that it was predominately young kids doing this. This amazing city helped created a form of government thousands of years ago that is still partially used today, but now they're currently one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Regardless, we still had great time exploring and hanging out with Emily!