We have now been in Athens for a week and we depart in the morning to continue the rest of our journey. We have come to the conclusion that mass transit in Athens is not always the most pleasant experience...ever... As we dicsussed in our last blog, the bus systems is quite chaotic and this seems to be the trend of the other types of transportation. We experienced a rather cranky private bus driver who was particularly strict when it came to being clean. We were unable to eat on the bus, (we ate anyways!) and then we were forced to shower off all the sand and oils before we were allowed to take the bus home from the beach. To say the least, he was rather intense. We also rode the metro and the tram and since our group is larger than the average one or two Athenians, we tend to take up the majority of the space and most of us tend to stand, which can be dangerous with how these bus drivers drive. We were all nearly killed as we sped down a hill side and another bus came around the corner unexpectedly!!! Luckily, none of you have to worry because our lives have been spared! haha
Besides the interesting transportation system, Athens has stray dogs...this is not normally unusual since most cities have stray dogs, however, these dogs are 'special' and in order to explain the monstrosity of this subject, you could think of it being a stray dog on every corner. We have encountered dogs who walk all over the sacred ruins of temples that are roped off to us humans, we have had dogs walk with us as if we are part of their pack, and today we had a dog start crossing the street for us in order to get the crazy Athenian traffic to stop!! This dog then continued to follow us around the temple of Olympian Zeus and barked at passersby.
Something we had forgotten to mention earlier was this idea of 'honor food.' Greeks have an interesting way of trying to convince you to eat at their restaurant rather than going elsewhere by trying to bribe you. The bribes only go so far and tend to be a way to trick 'stupid americans' into spending money at their place. We have been given honor food a handful of times, and usually the food is good, however one sunny afternoon while eating on the Plaka, we were given a dessert. Dessert is usually good, however imagine this...take plain cherrios, and soak them in water until they are soggy, then eat them. Thats how this tasted and if you do not eat honor food you are insulting them so those of us who did not enjoy it put it in a napkin to throw away later.
Now onto what we have actually been up to! We went to the American School, which is where American archaeologists run many of the dig sites around Athens and the Agora which is the site that was the ancient market place. We were given a private tour of the Agora and given special permission to walk around some un-dug sites that when we return to Athens we will be able to see some of the things that they are beginning to find. After the Agora we walked over to the Kerameikos, which were considered the fringes of the city in ancient athens and the cemetary since people were not buried within the city walls. We return to the Kerameikos later on in the week for a rather interesting experience. We also climbed up to the Areopagus, where I (Jessica) gave my reading of Athena laying down the law. The Areopagus is where you would be given the verdict of a murder trial and it has a view of all of Athens.
We were finally given the opportunity to go out and experience Athens nightlife, which turned out to be quite the ordeal. Since we are obviously new to Athens, we were not exactly sure how the night would go and where we would end up so we began the night with limited expectations. We have been seeing women wondering the city in heels and had been curious how they were doing it with marble and cobblestone flooring and thought we'd give it a try...not the smartest idea and we give credit to these women. Not only is the marble slippery, it is not at all flat making it a challenge to say the least. The group of us begin our night by getting lost on our way to dinner and it took us at least a half hour of walking just to end up somewhere less than 10 minutes from our hotel. After dinner we started looking for this bar, which we cannot find after walking up and down the entire street it is supposed to be located on. We asked for directions but according to locals this place did not exist so we took their advice and headed to 'ZAS.' Keep in mind that locals dont go out until 1 or 2 and stay out until sunrise so when we head to this bar its nearly empty except for a few very interesting people. After about five minutes at ZAS we decide to leave and move on to plan c and we run into some other Americans looking for a place to go so we continue on our journey around Athens. Their hostel tells them there is a place right down the road- keep in mind these are greeks and that could mean anything- so we continue walking. After about 10 minutes we end up at the Kerameikos, half of our group bails at this point but others insist on continuing so there are probably 5 of us left at this point. We walk another 10 to 15 minutes before finally getting to the street where everyone seems to be hanging out. At this point our feet feel like they are going to fall off and we we are all too miserable to enjoy anything so after getting a drink and taking a few minutes to relax we leave to get a taxi home. However, taxis will only take 4 people and we have 5 and they will not drive our whole group. We are stuck walking back. The walk back is probably only like 15 or 20 minutes but it seems like it takes forever. At the end of the night we are left with only blisters, swollen feet, and this story to show for it...all in all, an interesting adventure but only now are we beginning to be able to laugh about it. :]
If you are curious about our title...google herm! It will all make sense from there...this is in reference to some classical greek terms mixed with fun american ideas!
Yasas!!!
Besides the interesting transportation system, Athens has stray dogs...this is not normally unusual since most cities have stray dogs, however, these dogs are 'special' and in order to explain the monstrosity of this subject, you could think of it being a stray dog on every corner. We have encountered dogs who walk all over the sacred ruins of temples that are roped off to us humans, we have had dogs walk with us as if we are part of their pack, and today we had a dog start crossing the street for us in order to get the crazy Athenian traffic to stop!! This dog then continued to follow us around the temple of Olympian Zeus and barked at passersby.
Something we had forgotten to mention earlier was this idea of 'honor food.' Greeks have an interesting way of trying to convince you to eat at their restaurant rather than going elsewhere by trying to bribe you. The bribes only go so far and tend to be a way to trick 'stupid americans' into spending money at their place. We have been given honor food a handful of times, and usually the food is good, however one sunny afternoon while eating on the Plaka, we were given a dessert. Dessert is usually good, however imagine this...take plain cherrios, and soak them in water until they are soggy, then eat them. Thats how this tasted and if you do not eat honor food you are insulting them so those of us who did not enjoy it put it in a napkin to throw away later.
Now onto what we have actually been up to! We went to the American School, which is where American archaeologists run many of the dig sites around Athens and the Agora which is the site that was the ancient market place. We were given a private tour of the Agora and given special permission to walk around some un-dug sites that when we return to Athens we will be able to see some of the things that they are beginning to find. After the Agora we walked over to the Kerameikos, which were considered the fringes of the city in ancient athens and the cemetary since people were not buried within the city walls. We return to the Kerameikos later on in the week for a rather interesting experience. We also climbed up to the Areopagus, where I (Jessica) gave my reading of Athena laying down the law. The Areopagus is where you would be given the verdict of a murder trial and it has a view of all of Athens.
We were finally given the opportunity to go out and experience Athens nightlife, which turned out to be quite the ordeal. Since we are obviously new to Athens, we were not exactly sure how the night would go and where we would end up so we began the night with limited expectations. We have been seeing women wondering the city in heels and had been curious how they were doing it with marble and cobblestone flooring and thought we'd give it a try...not the smartest idea and we give credit to these women. Not only is the marble slippery, it is not at all flat making it a challenge to say the least. The group of us begin our night by getting lost on our way to dinner and it took us at least a half hour of walking just to end up somewhere less than 10 minutes from our hotel. After dinner we started looking for this bar, which we cannot find after walking up and down the entire street it is supposed to be located on. We asked for directions but according to locals this place did not exist so we took their advice and headed to 'ZAS.' Keep in mind that locals dont go out until 1 or 2 and stay out until sunrise so when we head to this bar its nearly empty except for a few very interesting people. After about five minutes at ZAS we decide to leave and move on to plan c and we run into some other Americans looking for a place to go so we continue on our journey around Athens. Their hostel tells them there is a place right down the road- keep in mind these are greeks and that could mean anything- so we continue walking. After about 10 minutes we end up at the Kerameikos, half of our group bails at this point but others insist on continuing so there are probably 5 of us left at this point. We walk another 10 to 15 minutes before finally getting to the street where everyone seems to be hanging out. At this point our feet feel like they are going to fall off and we we are all too miserable to enjoy anything so after getting a drink and taking a few minutes to relax we leave to get a taxi home. However, taxis will only take 4 people and we have 5 and they will not drive our whole group. We are stuck walking back. The walk back is probably only like 15 or 20 minutes but it seems like it takes forever. At the end of the night we are left with only blisters, swollen feet, and this story to show for it...all in all, an interesting adventure but only now are we beginning to be able to laugh about it. :]
If you are curious about our title...google herm! It will all make sense from there...this is in reference to some classical greek terms mixed with fun american ideas!
Yasas!!!
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