Athens- A Place For Greeks!

Hi, Zoe here…

While enjoying our AWESOME cruise through Greece and Turkey, we stopped in Athens, Greece for a day to walk around and learn some GROOVY GREEK history! We learned a lot and can’t wait to share it with you and take you on our journey walking through the Athens.

Katherine here now…

Acropolis

The first place we visited was the Acropolis. The Acropolis was built in 437 B.C. The entrance to the Acropolis is called the propylaea or prologue.

In the Acropolis, there are two Temples, the Temple of Nike built in 420 B.C. and the Temple of Athena built in 480 B.C. The Temple of Athena is a beautiful Temple with 17 columns on the sides and 8 columns on the ends.  They have doric capitals and were made out of white pentelic marble. The temple was decorated with statues now located in London museums. There were two myths shown on the pediments of the temple, the birth of Athena and the contest between Poseidon and Athena.

Nike’s Temple

The columns holding Nike’s temple up

Athena’s temple

Tall columns on a BIG temple

The Acropolis reminded me of the one I saw in Rhodes back in 2008. The only difference between the two is that the one in Rhodes isn’t as big as the one in Athens. The Acropolis also reminded me of a science project I did on the Acropolis where pollution and acid rain will destroy the Acropolis overtime.

My opinion for the Acropolis is that I personally thought it was a smart idea to build the temple on a hill close to the heavens. I also thought that the views were amazing because we got to see all of Athens.

Temple of Zeus & Hadrian’s Arch

The Temple of Zeus is located on ground level and is located to the south-east of the Acropolis. The temple has been there since 600 B.C. and the construction continued on for hundreds of years later.

Hadrian, a Roman emperor finished the temple in 131 A.D. When Hadrian was finished the temple, it was the biggest ancient temple in the world. The temple had a total of 104 columns, 2 rows of 20 on the sides and 3 rows of 8 on the ends. out of all 104 columns, only 16 are left!

here is Zeus’ temple

I would like to have a temple built for me!

To thank Hadrian, the Athenians built Hadrian an arch. On one side of the arch, facing the Acropolis, the words ‘This is Athens the formerly city of Theseus’ are written.  On the other side, the words  ‘This is the city of Hadrian not Theseus’ are written.

What a beautiful arch!

Just above the arch is where the words are written

ta daa!

Hadrian’s arch reminds me of all the arches we saw in Rome. In Rome, we saw the arch of Constantinople, the arch of Titus, and the arch of Septimius Severus.  The Temple of Zeus reminded me of Zeus’ Temple in Olympia.

My opinion of the Temple of Zeus is that I thought it was very nice of Hadrian to build a temple for a god who he didn’t believe in. Also it was nice of the Athenians to build Hadrian an arch to honor what he did.

Changing of the Guard

The changing of the guard represents the unknown soldiers that had died in the wars. Two guards stand at attention for an hour guarding the tomb of the fallen soldiers. Every hour on the hour, they do a procession march to change the guards.

They all must step at the exact same time

Here is where they stand at attention for and hour

The outfits of the guards reminds me of the greek dancing that we do in Canada. It reminds me of this because they wear the traditional clothing when they dance, just as they do in the changing of the guards.

You can see the full traditional wear of the Greek soldiers

Here are the pom poms on their soes which is also part of the traditional Greek wear

My opinion for the changing of the guards I find is very nice of the soldiers to stand at attention to remember the dead soldiers. Also that they honor the unknown soldiers.

Stadium

In 1896 Athens held the first modern Olympics. Two years ago they took the Olympic rings down and never put them back up. Ever since then nobody knows what happened to them or why nobody put them back up.

WOW!

Here are the seats

This 1896 Olympic stadium reminded me of the ancient stadium we saw in Olympia because they both held the Olympics.

In my opinion I thought it was good that the Greeks were the ones to start and continue the Olympics because the Olympics teach us sportsmanship as well as honesty by not cheating.

The Plaka

The Plaka, is a big shopping market where you can buy lots of items. The Plaka is lined with restaurants, shops, and street performers.

The Plaka reminded me of Greek Town on the Danforth. The two are similar because they are both shopping areas but Greek Town is bigger and has more varieties of shops.

My opinion for the Plaka is that I thought it could have been awesome if it wasn’t as small as it is. Otherwise I thought it was pretty neat seeing all of the authentic Greek restaurants and musicians.

Saint Nicholas Day Parade

The Saint Nicholas day parade was huge. About 50 priests showed up just for this event. We got to kiss the icons of Saint Nicholas and got very tasty bread. They also gave us Saint Nicholas icons.

Gathering to celebrate

Starting the parade

Bringing the icon through the Greek streets

Saint Nicholas Church

The Saint Nicholas parade reminded me of Greek Easter where the priest carries the icons outside of the church and sings.

My opinion for the Saint Nicholas parade is that I thought it was very nice of many priests from all over the world to show up for this celebration.

Zoe here again….

Overall, we think that Athens is a beautiful city with lots of history and interesting stories.  We are happy to share what we have learned, and hoped you have enjoyed walking through Athens with us.