Athens Day 2

Day 2 was a trip to Delphi, where the oracle of Apollo lived and relayed his prophecies to the people. It is now a UNESCO archaeological site.

The bus ride was about 3.5 hours from Athens. What I can say about the bus system is that it is very unsystematic. There is a ticket booth selling the tickets, but you can also board the bus without tickets and get them from the conductor halfway through your ride. Our bus ended up with more passengers than there were seats. Luckily we bought our tickets with seat numbers on it (13.60 euros one way). I can't imagine standing or sitting on the stairways for 3.5 hours. Sakit buntut nanti.

The layout of Delphi.

There were so many beautiful costumes on display.

Yes. I was quite silly to wear skirt that day. M who knew that Delphi was located on a higher altitude at the slopes of Mount Parnassus and didn't tell me about it. The weather wasn't great that day. It kept on raining and the fog was thick on our way to the archaeological site.

We're as high as the clouds

Our first stop was the Delphi Museum as we wanted to gain some knowledge about the place before exploring the real thing.

I must confess that I didn't know any of this while I was there. My motto is 'experience first, understand later' (just joking).

I was quite puzzled why we were not allowed to pose next to it for photo. I guess it is a sign of respect. This is the Sphinx of Naxos, a mythical monster with the head of a woman, the breast of a bird and the body of a lion. It was given to the oracle of Delphi as a gift.

Omphalos - the center of the earth. This piece could only be viewed by priests and priestess who had access to the temple of Apollo during that time. I think I would have died of curiosity if I had lived and knew about it then.

Cult statue of Antinoos, a youth of extraordinary beauty and beloved companion of the Emperor Hadrian. Sadly, he drowned in the Nile before he reached adulthood. It is one of the most beautiful and well preserved statues.

Famous bronze statue at the museum. For a detailed description of it, please visit this site.

So, after trying to absorb all that 'knowledge' that we learnt from the museum, off we went to see the real thing.

The treasury of Athens - the place where all my life savings are stored.

The temple of Apollo

I think the Temple of Apollo is where you go to see the oracle for advice. If you had the chance to ask that once in a lifetime question, what will it be?

The ancient theatre of Delphi

There are 35 rows and it can accommodate 5000 spectators.

I would say that the stage is quite small. I guess the advantage will be that all the spectators will be able to see from their seats.

We were climbing uphill and it rained at least twice along the way. Finally, at the top, we reached the stadium.

After snapping a few pictures, we made our way down.

Final shot before we went for lunch....

Let me say it again. Definitely the final shot before we went for lunch. M and F wanted to be in the picture as well.

Phew, that was a lot of history to take in. Let's change topic and talk about something which interests me - food.

As usual, a basket of bread.

Pork souvlaki. A traditional Greek kebab. It was really tender and juicy.

I must say that I forgot what I'd ordered that day. I think it was Gyros. I remember not understand what was the translation and I still cannot figure out what meat it was. I'm getting old.

Gemista. This is a vegetarian dish. It is oven roasted tomatoes and peppers stuffed with rice and herbs. Very delicious. Too bad I'm allergic to bell peppers. Why???

Garbage? Oh....gabbage. Wait, what is gabbage? Maybe it's cabbage. I think you know why none of us ordered that.

Waiting for the 4pm bus to take us back to Athens.

After the 3.5 hours bus ride, all of us were hungry. So, this day was the day when I felt like I was eating all the time. Such luxury.

We went to this family owned restaurant where there was live singing and guitar playing to entertain us throughout.

Melitzanosalata - Aubergine salad. The first time when I thought that aubergines tasted quite nice.

Taramosalata - Fish roe salad. Very strong fishy smell and taste, quite salty, but I liked it.

Tomato soup

Grilled squid

Stewed lamb. Very tender. I think they must have stewed it for the whole day.

Chicken with mushroom sauce

Spaghetti bolognese

Tired but happy people

We went to Syntagma square after dinner to visit the shopping area.

Again, we were hungry and we saw this road side stall selling pretzels. M and F bought the one on the top left which had chocolate in the middle of it and another one which had chocolate filling. So delicious.

We walked around Athens at night, visited the Parliment, Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We came back to the sites on the last day to visit them in the daytime.

Kapnikarea church at night. Acropolis can even be seen from here.

Watch out for Athens Day 3 - Poseidon's temple in Sounion and of course, more food.

Athens Day 1

Athens, the trip which I couldn't resist and I have no regrets for giving into this invitation. It was a 3 hours flight from London to Athens and all of us had to take a cab at 4am in the morning to the airport.

At first, I thought Athens will be just 1 hour ahead of London. But no, it was 2 hours ahead.

The train ride from the airport to town.

First stop, check-in to our hostel, throw our bags down, change, put sunblock and off we go hunting for lunch.

We were so hungry at that point that we just decided to have lunch in this small little restaurant near our hostel, which was not a very good choice.

M ordered chicken with spinach. The spinach tasted really good. It was boiled with rice and from now on, I have another lazy dish to make, inspired by this spinach dish.

I had macaroni, which was not too bad.

This one is Carbonara, which tasted good but the cheese was a bit too much. F ordered spaghetti with cheese from the menu and it literally meant only cheese and spaghetti. It's surprising how people can just eat that.

In Athens, whenever you're seated at a restaurant, a basket of bread will be served for the table. Depending on how expensive the restaurant is, sometimes they just charge per basket but there were 2 occasions when we were charged for each person. However, at this restaurant, the bread was one of the best and it was free.

C ordered chicken soup which I cannot comment on the taste as I'm allergic to citrus fruits.

Found the Hard Rock cafe while exploring the town.

On our way up to Acropolis - Acro (big), polis(city)

Group photo

The view while we were on our way up was breathtaking. I couldn't resist taking photo with the yellow flowers I saw.

Church of Metamorphosis

Acropolis was built between 437 -432BC by the skilled middle class group. It was really impressive how such magnificent buildings were completed in a mere 15 years without any machinery.

Propylaea - the grand entrance to Acropolis. Acropolis was once considered paradise but sadly, most of the architecture has been destroyed by years and years of harsh weather and wars.

Right outside the entrance was a small temple of Athena Nike. Legend says that Athena Nike - the goddess of Victory was captured, wings cut off and locked here so that victory for Athens will be guaranteed.

Erechtheion - the place where goddess Athena planted the olive tree.

Our guide told us that the design of the Statue of Liberty was based on the 3rd statue from the right. All the statues here are replicas. The originals are preserved in the Acropolis museum except for one of them which is kept in the British museum. Negotiations are on the way to bring it back to Athens. There are many statues and parts of Acropolis scattered around museums outside Greece as many were taken and brought back by explorers in the past.

The Parthenon. Oh my goodness. I remember seeing drawings of this in the encyclopedia my parents gave me and now I've got the chance to see it in real life. It was magnificent.

The Parthenon is a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. Apparently there is not a single straight line in this building.

Suddenly this group of soldiers came marching towards the flag.

Odeum of Herodes Atticus

Many famous opera singers and musicians have performed here. There is no need for sound system which gives the opportunity to test their vocals.

Sunset from Philopappou hill.

Acropolis can be seen from up here.

Greek letters are so confusing. Circle, delta, circle, sigma. Reminds me of mathematics.

Dinner:

Hungry people

Greece is famous for its seafood. To make up for our not so good lunch, we had a hearty dinner. Above is seafood platter with battered shrimps, calamari, anchovies, etc.

We were kept warm by these lighted lamps outside the restaurant. They were quite effective.

Tzatziki - traditional yogurt started with garlic, cucumber and dill in it. We kept on ordering this as it was really delicious to eat with bread.

Moussaka - oven baked mash potatoes layered with beed and aubergines. Really nice but I still hate aubergines.

That's it for Day 1. We were knackered by that time. Did I mention that the dinner time in Greece is 10pm till 12 midnight? But come to think of it, it's 8pm till 10pm London time.

Coming soon: Day 2-trip to Delphi.