Keen to see it up close, I wandered outside into the hot, sunny and fragrant Sunday morning. Beautiful singing drew me towards the church across the street from the hotel and I slipped hesitantly inside to watch the patriarch sing as he blessed babies and children and gave communion to their parents. The inside of the church was beautiful lapus and gold. It was a glorious sight, and only that Lucy didn’t know where I was got me back outside.
It being Sunday, we wandered down fairly quiet streets. It was weird to see very very old churches just sitting in the middle of tower blocks and shopping centres, although they are still quite picturesque:
Eventually, we settled ourselves at a café so that Lucy could try Greek coffee (thick, frothy, very bitter) and we could watch the world a bit. Being right in the tourist area, entrepreneurs offered us holy numbers, a song on a guitar, fluorescent plastic pets, roses, a song on a harmonica, rosary beads, pirated DVDs, a song on an organ and, naturally, the latest Louis Vuitton. Sadly, the organ fellow was the worst singer, but seemed to need the money the most:
Having decided it wasn’t really our kind of neighbourhood, we headed east towards the tourist information centre, but found only the changing of the Parliamentary Guards. Their uniforms are very sweet (note pom poms on the shoes), and it was good entertainment to watch as various persons lined up to have their photograph taken next to what is essentially someone standing still:
A man whose assistance eventually ventured into creepiness tried to help us find the tourist centre, but to no avail. So, instead we checked out the National Library and Athens Academy from the outsides and decided to part with E4 to tour the ‘City of Athens Musuem’. This was some oddball’s personal collection, and was quite nice in an eccentrically Victorian way. Lucy fell in love with the old jars and vases in the backyard, but I was just weirded out by how many paintings the fellow owned of Lord Byron.
By some excellent twist of fate, we then found ourselves on the glorious kebab mile near the central station. It was very touristy and completely overdone. However, it was 2pm and we were too hungry to care. This is Lucy and I demolishing a chicken kebab, lamb doner, tomato and cucumber salad, fries, more beer, and an extra serving of pita bread the waiter saw fit to give us:
Captain Wheeler then decided it was time for us to be brave and wander map-less up into the hills. The first sign that she was right (as always, of course) is when we found ourselves sitting on a rather large slate of granite taking quite nice photographs:
Once we had exhausted every possible Athenian angle, we headed further up the hill for the unique tourist experience of paying E9 to a man with a monopoly on Acropolian food and drink. Not surprisingly, the sugar and flavouring in icy water masquerading as ‘refreshment’ didn’t really help my headache, so we had to forego the monuments and head back to the hotel to sleep off the effects of the sunshine.
To my eternal relief, a few hours’ rest did the trick, and we headed back out in the cooler evening to see more sights. We wandered old streets near the flea market and discovered Taverna Platon just as we were getting hungry. It was a cute side-alley spot, with chequered tablecloths on little tables just for two and a lovely older gentleman singing along with his guitar. A very romantic end to the first day.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment