“Knock Knock. Who’s there? Greece! Greece who? Are Greece and oil the same thing?” <– And with that corny a$$ joke, let’s dive into day 1 of our 6 day tour through Greece. A day in which Charles and I found ourselves in the capital city of Athens.
After a quick breakfast, we met up with our tour guide, hopped in the tour bus and made a short trip over to the main entrance of the Acropolis. Unfortunately, as we arrived at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the clouds rolled in providing an overcast day but we weren’t gonna let that get us down.
The Acropolis is an ancient citadel located high above the city of Athens and is home to one of the most identifiable temples in the world, the Parthenon.
^^ Making our way up to the top of the Acropolis.
^^ Made it to the Parthenon!
^^ In addition to the Parthenon, the Erechtheion Temple (above), Propylaea Temple and the Temple of Athena Nike are also located on the Acropolis.
^^ In addition to checking out all the temples, Charles and I found ourselves drawn to the edges of the citadel to take in the view of Athens below.
I was a little nervous at first because, if you’ve been following this space for a while, you know I’m a scaredy-cat when it comes to heights. But Charles did what he does best and told me to “get over myself”, took my arm and dragged me to the ledge area so we could take a few pictures together.
^^ Consider us a little naive because we spent most of our time in the touristy areas of the city but Charles and I really didn’t understand just how big Athens was until we were on top the Acropolis. The city just keeps going and going into the distance/mountains down yonder.
After exploring all the Acropolis had to offer, our tour group hopped into the bus and made our down to where the Acropolis Museum is located.
Established in 2009, the Acropolis Museum is located at the based of the Acropolis hill and home to over 9,000 artifacts that have been found on the Acropolis site.
A super interesting fact is that while the museum was being built, the construction workers found archaeological remains which caused a bit of controversy as to whether the building of the museum should continue or be moved to another location.
Their solution? Build the museum on top of the archaeological site on elevated platforms.
^^ My tour group and our tour guide to the left, Babis.
Unfortunately/Fortunately, we weren’t able to take photos in most parts of the museum. Our tour guide, Babis, explained that the Museum prefers their visitors to be present and in the moment when exploring through the museum.
Babis also mentioned that in Greece, in general, there is a rule that you are not allowed to pose with objects in a museum. This rule was established to maintain proper respect for the antiquities which I can understand (to a certain extent).
While I don’t have many photos to show for the Acropolis Museum, what I can say is that the artifacts they have in there are pretty darn amazing. I can only imagine the amount of work involved in bringing so many historical objects found in rubble back to life to pristine shape.
My biggest takeaway from our first day exploring ancient Greece was one of general amazement… How a civilization dating back to B.C. was able to build temples that were architectural feats in their time and create amazing pieces of work and artistry without the convenience of modern technology is just amazing.
As for what we did after our Acropolis visit?
Well first, the sun came out.
And two, we found a wine store right around the corner from the hotel we were staying at and got a few bottles of Greek wine to enjoy in our downtime.
From there, we zonked out for a quick power nap before I had to round up my tour group to go to our welcome dinner. The jet lag was real.
Would you brave the heights to see Athens from the top of the Acropolis?
—
Day 2 in Greece coming your way next week. Stay tuned from some island hopping fun. :)
P.S. Linking up w/ Wanderful Wednesday
1
