Athens - Best of Athens Tour (25/6/2010)
ok - I'm going to try to start catching things up over the next couple of days..
25/6/2010 - Athens (Best of Athens Tour)
We arrived at the port of Pireaus early in the morning, it's a very neat and clean place, very modern!
Next was the one place you can't miss when visiting Athens, the Acropolis/Parthenon!
It's a reasonable walk up from where the buses park, but definately worth it - aside from all the ancient ruins (which are being restored) there's a great view of the city!
One thing to watch out for when you're in Athens.. pickpockets! One guy on our tour had his pocket sliced open and his wallet stolen, not a particularly fun memory of Athens for him!
Lunch was brilliant - Greek buffet, I really like greek food!!
After lunch we went to the historical Museum - it was quite impressive, the artificats they've pulled out of the ground in this part of the world are really impressive, so much gold!
The statues were interesting, although some of them are missing some vital parts (aparantly early Christians didn't think that sculpting that part of the male anatomy was 'proper' so they made some 'modifications' OUCH!) Oh - the bronze statues were ok, aparantly early Christians couldn't figure out how to break 'em off when they were made of bronze!
The above statue is one of the more famous ones - Posiden.. There were tons of them.
The tour concluded with a break for some shopping, we looked around a bit and then spent some time in a cafe just relaxing. It was a very pleasent way to end the day.
The only thing that made me a little nervous was all the police and guns. Greece is having some financial issues, strikes/etc and there was a small army of police out in force - all wearing body armour and carrying machineguns!
Athens is a very nice city to visit, I'd recommend it to anyone!
25/6/2010 - Athens (Best of Athens Tour)
We arrived at the port of Pireaus early in the morning, it's a very neat and clean place, very modern!
The tour buses were very funky (Picture below) - definately the nicest we've had so far.
The other more modern addition is the headsets we were given - basically they're little wireless recievers that allow the tour guide to explain about the sites we're seeing and everyone can hear them perfectly - until you get about 25-30m away, then the signal drops off. Very convienent, you can walk around and look at things, but still get the explanation from the guide! excellent idea!
Athens is quite a crowded place, not much room on the streets, lots of traffic - but interestingly it's got a clean/open feel to it. There are lots of people, but I don't feel too crowded, like I did in India.
Our first stop was the Olympic stadium - the original one. This was the stadium used to hosted the first moderm Olympics! it was very interesting to see how far things have gone, from this reasonably small marble strucuture to the more modern ones we have today!
Athens is quite a crowded place, not much room on the streets, lots of traffic - but interestingly it's got a clean/open feel to it. There are lots of people, but I don't feel too crowded, like I did in India.
Our first stop was the Olympic stadium - the original one. This was the stadium used to hosted the first moderm Olympics! it was very interesting to see how far things have gone, from this reasonably small marble strucuture to the more modern ones we have today!
Next was the one place you can't miss when visiting Athens, the Acropolis/Parthenon!It's a reasonable walk up from where the buses park, but definately worth it - aside from all the ancient ruins (which are being restored) there's a great view of the city!One thing to watch out for when you're in Athens.. pickpockets! One guy on our tour had his pocket sliced open and his wallet stolen, not a particularly fun memory of Athens for him!Lunch was brilliant - Greek buffet, I really like greek food!!
After lunch we went to the historical Museum - it was quite impressive, the artificats they've pulled out of the ground in this part of the world are really impressive, so much gold!
The statues were interesting, although some of them are missing some vital parts (aparantly early Christians didn't think that sculpting that part of the male anatomy was 'proper' so they made some 'modifications' OUCH!) Oh - the bronze statues were ok, aparantly early Christians couldn't figure out how to break 'em off when they were made of bronze!The above statue is one of the more famous ones - Posiden.. There were tons of them.The tour concluded with a break for some shopping, we looked around a bit and then spent some time in a cafe just relaxing. It was a very pleasent way to end the day.
The only thing that made me a little nervous was all the police and guns. Greece is having some financial issues, strikes/etc and there was a small army of police out in force - all wearing body armour and carrying machineguns!
Athens is a very nice city to visit, I'd recommend it to anyone!
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