2600 years later and still standing

I had absolutely no idea what to expect when traveling in Greece.  The only type of Greek knowledge I had previously were some miscellaneous greek letters that were used in math and science class, and the fact that I have seen "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" close to a dozen times.  I've always wanted to go to Greece, but I never thought I would actually get the opportunity.  Sadly, I can't say that I know any new Greek words after my two days there, partly because almost everyone seemed to speak English anyway.  

Just to clear this up right away- we were pretty frightened when we first got to Athens and started making our way towards our hostel.  We took the metro from Syntagma Square (a very popular, busy area of Athens) and then walked the remaining few blocks to our hostel.  Immediately we noticed that we seemed to be the only three females in the entire area, which obviously other people noticed as well.  I also became aware of the strong odors of the city- which I now realize are probably from the hundreds of stray dogs that roam the streets.  

I was shocked when I saw so many large dogs sleeping on the sidewalks, walking down the streets, running through traffic, and just following people.  I didn't understand this, but they were all pretty healthy looking- like they have all been well-fed.  And they were all large breeds of dogs like labradors, or other mixes.  I had no clue what to do when one came up to me so I kind of just skirted around it, apparently they are pretty friendly though.  Something else unusual about them is that they all have collars because when the summer Olympics of '04 were held in Athens, the government thought it would appear better to tourists if the dogs looked like they belonged to someone.  This seems very odd though because why would so many dogs with collars just be hanging out on the sidewalks? 

Our first night in Greece we were shown to a traditional Greek gyro hang-out spot by a friend of one of the girls I traveled with who is studying in Athens.  Sadly I did not have my camera with me to document the mouth-watering gyro and greek salad that I ordered.  It reminded me of something that would be on Man vs. Food- the cooks sliced the meat off of a huge rotating tower of meat and loaded the pita bread with many other delicious things (including french fries).  The Greek salad was enormous and topped with a slab of feta that was more appropriate for 3 or 4 salads.  I had never tried a gyro before this, but I'm very glad that my first one happened to be in Greece :) 

Now that I had eaten more feta in one night that I had in the last two years, it was time to plunge into our pan of Baklava.  Yes, we bought an entire baklava "pie," I suppose you could call it.  And we literally dug into it, since we had no utensils in our 15 euro per night hostel room.  It was probably one of the sweetest things I have ever eaten, (and most hilarious to watch) dripping with honey, topped with pistachios, and full of mysterious and delicious baklava ingredients.  I have yet to figure out what exactly baklava is made out of, but I know for a fact that I will never find any exactly like this again.  

Theater of Herod Atticus- still used today

Day 2 we were on a mission to be the ultimate tourists of Greece.  We woke up bright and early to get to the Acropolis (which means "upper city"), and it was a good thing we did because we were able to beat the crowds and the heat.  It turned out that because the Acropolis had been closed to tourists previously because of strikes and other reasons, it was FREE to get in the day we went.  The Acropolis was completely the opposite of everything else in Athens.  It was quiet, clean, and smelled like nature.  

Erechtheion

The Parthenon has been undergoing reconstruction for about 30 years, which has led us to respect the ability of Greek architects even more.  The reason for the reconstruction (not surprising after almost 3000 years) is because it was once used to hold Turkish gunpower (doesn't seem like a great idea), and it was partially blown up in the 1600's.  It's amazing that these structures like the Parthenon and the Erechtheion that were built in 400 BC are still in such good shape.  Looking at all of these ruins, wandering through the Agora area and seeing things that archeologists somehow know are "greek gymnasiums" or "ancient bathtubs" made me wonder about how everyone always wants to travel to look at these ancient buildings, and how when they were being built the architects probably never dreamed that they would be being attended to 3000 years later.  I also wonder about the architectural work of today, what have we built that people will be swarming to take pictures of in the year 5000? 

For the sake of this turning into an even longer novel than my Rome post, I won't go into extreme detail about everything we did between this and the Olympic stadium.  We meandered around some more ruins surrounding the Acropolis, saw the "gateway to Olympieion," and ate some yogurt and cheese pie, which wasn't at all like the name implies.  I expected it to be cold, but apparently a "pie" in Greece is always hot, it was more like a quiche than anything else.  

Time for the best part of the day! (Being the track nerd that I am, according to my coach..) The Panathenaic Stadium- renovated and completed entirely with marble in 329 BC, it is the only stadium in the world constructed completely with marble (leave it to the Greeks).  The stadium hosted the original modern-day Olympics in 1896 where it had a capacity of 80,000 people.  It was also the host of the archery competition and the marathon finish for the 2004 Olympics.  

As you can probably tell from the picture, the track is not standard size whatsoever.  The straights are 185m long, instead of the usual 100m.  We took an audio tour of the entire stadium and listened to a man with an accent taking us on a journey through time, and we literally walked the same path through a tunnel where the athletes entered the stadium. The stadium was amazing and I'm so glad I got to see it- and also run on the track! 

Greece was definitely a culture shock, I was especially unnerved to see all of the guards on the streets carrying considerably large guns.  I'm assuming they are stationed in case there is some kind of spontaneous strike or uprising.  There were also the traditional guards of Parliament and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as well.  These guards were a bit scary as well, but mostly because of the expressions on their faces.  They stand perfectly still, wearing pretty ridiculous outfits, but every half hour they do a marching routine called the changing of the guards.  It's very official and traditional, and they way they walk is over-exaggerated.  I have a video of the entire thing, but the blogger video up-loader has yet to work.  

6 days, 4 flights, 3 hostels, 2 buses, and 1 train left me feeling like I had just run a marathon (or two).  I appreciate Valencia, its cleanliness, relatively level sidewalks, and the fact that I know where I am and can communicate even more now.  My trip was a great experience, but I was extremely relieved to be settled again.  The blogging never seems to stop either- I went on a day trip to Calpe last weekend which will be my next story to tell :)