It was a cloudy morning at the Acropolis, occasionally dumping rain over us and the hoards of other tourists, but it cleared up as the day progressed and we moved on to visit other sites in Athens….
Athens is quite the mix of old and new. Often times the old seems to be randomly juxtaposed and out of place in a modern city. Almost as if you could imagine the ruins had just been dropped carelessly from the sky, lacking any regard to where they would land.
At many of the various archaeological sites we visited we discovered scattered bits of rocks, once parts of great statues and buildings, distributed awkwardly. It often felt a bit haphazard, and even though a pattern was suggested by the groupings, very incomplete. Despite this, it is fun to contemplate the amount of time that has passed since their original construction and how incredible it is that this much material was even left in place (or at least the general area) after all those years. Especially in such a prominent and busy city as Athens.
Looking up at the Parthenon on the hill with a backdrop of notably blue skies void of the rain clouds that had plagued us earlier.
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Columns. Athens was full of columns.
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| The Temple of Hephaestus |
And more columns.
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| The modern reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos |
And some new columns. Just in case you hadn’t yet got your fill.
With sunset approaching, we found ourselves back near the entrance of the Acropolis and decided, what the heck, and went back up for another go around.
This was a fantastic spur of the moment idea. Not only were there few tourists to contend with and an absence of rainclouds, but we had the treat of seeing the ruins practically sparkling in the splendor of the setting sun.
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| The porch of the Caryatids at the Erechtheum. |
Details of the underbelly.
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| Athens in the sunset |
Interestingly, I noted that these mountains were very reminiscent of “home” in the Southwest United States.
The textures of modern chaos.
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| Lycabettus Hill jutting out of the city in the golden light of sunset. |
After a full day of sightseeing, we gathered to have a drink with the crew. We ended up outside a small bar in a church courtyard, of all places. It was the kind of area in which you wouldn’t have even been able to tell there was a church until you practically tripped over its front steps. …Just another one of Athens’ many charms.
And there’s still more of Athens to come in Part 3!