Ambivalent about Athens

I have never been to Greece before, and I must say I was slightly in chock after my first hour of encounter with its capital. It was almost like a new continent to me - I had forgotten how busy and loud and dirty and chaotic overpopulated cities can be.
But, after having arrived midnight and woken up to a sunny day, I decided to get the best out of it.

For a walk in greenery and peacefulness, I made my way to the National Gardens, where you could clearly see the slight decay of Greece's grace. The gardens were not very well taken care of and every location making them nice for gatherings was closed. But there was a central pond with a little island, inhabited by approximately a hundred turtles!





As always completely fascinated with animals, I hung out there for a while... There were also goats and rabbits and birds in the park, but still rather poor compared to Bandängen at home.

Then I spent the last hours of the afternoon seeing that Acropolis (with surrounding sites) which is apparently the most visited European site for travelers. I was a little bit ambivalent - the Ancient Period is not my favourite historic era, but as I did not seem to like Athens very much anyway, I might not come back so maybe I should take the opportunity... If nothing else would have convinced me, it is quite a top view from up there.

So of course I went up to see the cultural cradle in which we all rock by the hand of history in our part of the world. Thousands of years ago and all those brave Roman heroes and all those temples they built, so grossly huge. Yep, now I've seen them, and they are really big. That's all I have to say about it. I still don't find it very interesting (sorry, all my antique-history-loving friends).

The coolest thing though, and most well-preserved, was the Dionysos Theatre. That I am really happy to have seen!

Old-school phone booths

The Athenians were very nice, though. Almost everywhere I was greeted with a smile and a willingness to help. Small talk with the guy selling you your morning coffee is nice when you're a single traveler, and getting a Greek friend is even nicer.








I got mine on recommendation from a mutual friend in Italy. He took me for a coffee on a windy off-season beach in southern Athens on my second day.











As the other days in Athens actually went through very cold and dull weather, and I caught a severe cold and did not feel like running around much, it was very nice to have a walk and dinner with him again the last evening in the old part of the city, Plaka.

I am now in what my friend referred to as the real Greece - on one of those idyllic islands.
And yes, I now have fallen completely for Greece....