Athens, Greece - The City of Riots

On Tuesday June 14, we flew from London to Athens! Neither Kevin nor I had been to Athens so we were pretty excited (me much more than Kevin)! We arrived in Athens around 6pm and took a taxi to our hotel. As soon as we landed Kevin checked his email using the airports free wi-fi and found out that the ship we were supposed to inspect the following day, was not actually arriving until Friday, due to the scheduled protests and riots planned for Wednesday. At that point, I thought we would have more time to sightsee, but my hopes were quickly shattered. It turned out that the WHOLE city shut down to protest new legislation that was about to be signed. The whole city included all public transportation (some taxis were still out on the streets), restaraunts, and even the Acropolis! Needless to say, I was slightly disappointed – we finally made it to Athens and we were going to be stuck in our hotel all day! We spent Tuesday evening, and all day Wednesday at our hotel. We slept until 2pm on Wednesday and then I spent the afternoon getting caught up on the blog. Around 9, Kevin and I went downstairs for dinner (thank goodness this hotel has a restaurant and bar in the lobby) and drinks – we should have thought about the drink part earlier in the day J! We went back to the room around 11 and I fell asleep around 1:30am. Kevin on the other hand, didn’t fall asleep until 7am, just to wake up and leave the hotel around 11am on Thursday morning to finally explore the city – you can imagine he was not a happy traveler!

We took an airport bus that stopped just outside our hotel right into the city center and we were instantly pleased with our decision to stay out of the city the day before. The bus pulled right up to the National Parliament building where all the protests happened the day before and we could still smell the tear gas the police used to break up the rowdy crowd. We also saw a decent sized tent city in the square and lots of signs still hanging on the street. It was pretty crazy to see! We walked from Syntagma Plaza to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. From this site, we got our first look at The Acropolis! It was beautiful! We spent some time walking around the ruins and then were on our way over to the Acropolis. We entered at the gate to Dionysus Theatre and the view of the Parthenon and the city of Athens just got better and better the higher we went. It was HOT on the way to the top of the Acropolis and we didn’t have water with us. As soon as we got to the top, our goal was to find water and then explore. Surprisingly there was nowhere on top to purchase water, but we did find a fountain. As soon as we got to the top it started to drizzle some rain, which was so nice to cool us off a bit. We walked around for about 30 minutes and then began our decent. We stopped at the Acropolis Museum to see some artifacts and cool off a bit, and then proceeded directly to lunch! Kevin ate a gyro and I had some Souvlaki. It was a delicious traditional greek meal!

This was in Syntagma Plaza where the riots took place the day before we took this picture. It was pretty crazy to see and be a part of!

This is the ruin of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. 

Our first view of the Parthenon!

Just us at the Temple of the Olympian Zeus with the Acropolis in the background. 

There were wild/stray dogs everywhere...this one was particularly cute!

This is Hadrian's Arch. 

This is the Herodes Atticus Theatre at the Acropolis. It is still used to host summer concerts. 

The view of the Temple of Olympian Zeus from the top of the Acropolis. 

The Erechtheion - where Athena and Poseidon battled. 

A close up of the columns on the Erechtheion.

The Parthenon!

After lunch we decided to go see the Agora. We took the metro to Monastiraki and we were instantly in shopper’s heaven! Every direction we looked, there were side streets lined with tourist shops. We finally re-focused and walked to the entrance to the Agora, but it was already closed for the day, so we did some shopping instead. While we were shopping, we spotted a rooftop bar with 2 Euro beers so we decided to make a pit stop.  It turned out to be a great stop because it poured rain for about 30 minutes and we got to watch the rain come down on the Acropolis, while staying completely dry! It was beautiful! It started getting late, so we decided to make our way back to the bus stop. We stopped for dinner on the way and when we got to Syntagma Square again, the riots had picked back up. They were nothing like the day before, but the police were back in full force walking around with shields and masks. It was at this moment, we realized the road to our bus stop had been blocked by a SWAT van and we had to come up with an alternate plan. Fortunately I was very observant on our way into the city and realized we could take a metro train from Syntagma to Ethniki Amyna and then pick up the bus to the hotel from that station. What Kevin do without me!?! He would have spent a lot of money on a Taxi! We got back to the hotel around 11pm, redeemed our free drinks at the bar, and then went to bed. It was an incredible day and I had so much fun exploring a new city!

The view of the Temple of Hephaestus (in the Agora) from the top of the Acroplolis. This is the best preserved classical temple in Greece. 

Shopping!

The sun setting on the Acropolis and the Parthenon. 

The SWAT team vans blocking off the street (on the left). 

On Friday morning we left the hotel around 8:15 and took a taxi to the port. Our hotel was near the airport and apparently the port was not! It took us over an hour to get to Piraeus (which is where the ships dock, seeing that Athens is landlocked) and then we had a heck of a time finding our way to the ship. There must have been at least 15 ships at this port, and that was just one section of the port. It was the biggest port I have ever been to! We finally got on the first ship and finished our work around 11am. Then we took a taxi to the second ship (the ship that was supposed to be in port on Wednesday) and finished working around 1pm (fortunately neither of the ships needed any extra work done). We had just enough time to go back to the hotel, pack our bags, and fly to Malaga. We arrived in Malaga 2 hours late, but were glad to be in another new city!