Y’all. Today was incredible-and yet-very overwhelming. We woke up in Piraeus, Greece, the port city by Athens. We had our breakfast and met for our tour at 8:15. Please believe that when I booked these excursions, it was only because at the time with Covid restrictions, the only way off the ship was through a cruise purchased excursion. Two weeks before we left for the cruise (aka: already in Italy), they lifted those restrictions. If I had waited to purchase, the ones we wanted would have been sold out.. sooooo here we are on day 8 million of getting up way too early on vacation..
Our tour guide, Miriam, got on the bus and explained that our first stop would be at the acropolis.. from where we were, you could pretty much see the hill the acropolis was built on, which was the point back in ancient times-it was to be built on the highest point to be seen from anywhere in the city. Which-Athens now is HUGE!
Athens is surrounded by what Miriam called “9 Hills” for the 9 muses of artistry.. which is how the word museum came about, a display of the artist’s muses.. pretty neat. Miriam was full of facts like this-like how Agora means market, and back in the day the agora was a huge open air market bustling with tons of people-so agoraphobia is the fear of being in big open spaces (or outside in big crowds).
Anyway, the acropolis consisted of three buildings but the most famous is the Parthenon. Every city had one dedicated to some god or goddess, but Athen’s Parthenon takes the cake, because of its scale and that it’s mostly (ish) still standing. It was built to honor the Virgin Athena. There’s a Mathematical importance that architects at the time used to determine the length and width and the number of columns, Miriam explained this in detail, but I kinda zoned out.. sorry about that.
It was SO DANG CROWDED here today. Miriam led us in and up more than 200 stairs to the top of the acropolis. She’d stop here and there, tell us about the stuff we were seeing, the differences between theaters and Parthenons.. theaters had open air, the Parthenon has a roof. We’d huddle under some trees while she pointed and talked, then push our way back out into the chaos to try to attempt to follow her up up up.
At the top and at the actual entrance, we came through a ruins building so impressive that I thought surely it had significance, but Miriam said this was just the entrance hall. Off to the side of it was a temple built to honor the Goddess of Victory: Nike.. which of course Miriam says is where Nike athletics got their name. I kinda wanna Google that..
We saw several people fall, the marble we were walking on was so slick, and where there wasn’t slippery marble there was marble stone chunks sticking out of the ground like mini boulder fields. I can remember seeing at least 5 actual falls in front of me-actually, 6.. and thankfully none of those times were Mom or me. Once side the entrance hall, Miriam turned us loose to go get some pictures and get back down to the exit spot.
We did, it was so hot on top of that hill, and people were slap everywhere! It was exhausting. The line to get down was worse than coming up, and had to be single file at the slippery marble sloped path area.. which people couldn’t wrap their minds around and kept going ahead and shoving their way in.. it was like merging on 285 or in a construction zone-and im here to tell you we will both go off this mountain before I let you and your 17 friends walk up and cut in front of me.. it is absolutely mind boggling.
Down from the chaos, Mom and I got a slushy and kept walking with our group. We ended up at the acropolis museum.. which, from the top floor you can actually see the acropolis! The museum’s top floor was built to replicate the size and direction of the original. Pretty neat really. From the museum, she showed us mini replicas of the pediments of the Parthenon. The pediments had sculptures of many Gods and Goddesses being present for the birth of Athena.
The story behind Athena, per Miriam, goes like this: Zeus was the God of all of the land, where as Poseidon was the God of the sea, and Hades the God of the underworld. So, Zeus was married to Herra.. a goddess. But he had many mistresses. One mistress in particular irritated him so much, buzzing around and not letting anything go like women do-Zeus “ate” her.. where she then continued to buzz around inside his actual head-because she was pregnant.
One day, walking along the shoreline, Zeus had a raging headache that he couldn’t make stop.. he asked friends to help-until shockingly his head split open and out popped Athena-grown and with her shield and with huge blue eyes. Because she was born from Zeus’ head and had big eyes like an owl, she became the Goddess of Wisdom. Alrighty then..
Later, as the world and population of humans grew, Zeus gave other gods and goddesses the title of being protector over a city state in an area-like his overseers, as he was still the head honcho. So, he let the people choose their protector. The area of Athens had to choose between Athena or the god of war (I forget his name now), to prove their abilities, they had to do something the people could impressed by to vote for them.. I forget what the god did-which, sorry, I’m several glasses of wine in here.. but Athena planted the olive tree, symbolizing peace for the city, as in she would bring peace and wisdom if she were their protector-hence why giving an olive branch means a peace offering now-anyway, she was chosen and they renamed the city Athens after her.
From the museum, which was a pain to get out of because Miriam abandoned us lololol, we got back on the bus and we were taken to the “Plaka,” a little car free shopping district. We got to sit inside an air conditioned restaurant and have salads, bread, and gyros. Umm.. YUM. It was delicious! And just what we needed after the stress of the crowds the last several hours. Mom and I sat across from a couple from a small fishing village in England-and they were pretty dang entertaining. We sipped our free beers and laughed about the frustrations from the day but also about all the things we loved.. and everything in between. It was a good time for sure.
We got to walk through to the shopping area and had some free time to meander. Mom ended up finding all kinds of stuff she loved. She got a couple dresses and some earrings and before we knew it, we were rushing to get to the meeting spot for our bus pick up. Thankfully, we made it in time and Miriam was full of information on the semi short ride back to the port.
She told us about how since the Olympic Games were such a big deal, and only Greek men could compete, how there was a “sacred truth” for three months during the games. 1.5 months before and 1.5 months after the 5 days of the games to make sure people could travel from wherever they were by chariot or horseback or foot, crossing many “territorial lines” without being harmed, either to compete or to watch. While there were still bandits and murderers, they’d be considered inhumane and damned to hell if they hurt someone coming to or from the games.. and they wouldn’t just be damning themselves, but their entire family line.
Anywho-we made it back to the port, and when we realized we’d have to walk a very long way to get back to the shops and restaurants closest to port, we bailed and just got back on the ship. We got some pasta from the buffet place and sat out on the back patio and waited for sunset. This seems to be our favorite thing to do, it’s just such a great view.
After the sun set, we went to the theater and watched the band sing boy band songs.. I was hoping for NSYNC, prepared to be ok if it was more Backstreet Boys-or even 98 degrees.. but alas, it was oldies, like 50s-60s songs. I still enjoyed them! I wanted some “bye bye bye..” oh well. Lol we actually stayed until the end, then went to the room for me to change into my running clothes. I knocked out my 2 miles on the upper deck-the gym closes at 10pm, and it was already 10 by the time I started-and it’s just so much easier outside with the wind blowing and the ship moving.. I’ve really started to enjoy these runs.
Back in the room, I’ve showered and gotten ready for bed-tomorrow is our last cruise excursion, and I’m quite happy about that. We have to be ready to meet at 9:45 so we do get to sleep in just a bit. Thank goodness.