+ Amazing Acropolis and Pretty Park
For sure that’s a big overstatement but remember I am trying to restore my mojo and it sounds good. I wake feeling better than the day before so have a cruisey morning. We head downstairs to have a buffet breakfast and it’s terrible. It’s cold, not even luke warm just cold. I still miss my deck, with coffee and fresh berries and a view.
We are on level two and see nothing but another level 2 looking back at us and level one,three, four and five. There is a big park across the road from the hotel so we head out for a look. It’s amazing. It has this huge building which is the opera house at one end and the libarary at the other with a big glass elevator going to the sky deck. The view is 360 and its beautiful.
The roof is a green roof and you walk down a long path into the gardens where there is a big lawn, bike tracks, volleyball, a maze and heaps of families enjoying it.
No tragedy here. We go back to the hotel and I catch up on blogs as we are planning to go to the Acropolis this afternoon. Technical tragedy, say. No more. Normal services will hopefully resume shortly.
We had a handy tip from some friends we met on the cruise. “Make sure you buy your skip the line tickets online as the queues are huge, and go later in the afternoon”. So we book online for 4pm.
We catch an Uber to the Acropolis. Yes that’s right an Uber. We go to the app, type in acropolis and whola an Uber arrives and drops us off 15 minutes later. No tragedy here. We see the line snaking its way to the ticket office and walk past with the right amount of poor you smugness, whilst heading to the turnstile. “Sorry” the man says you must go to the ticket office and validate your ticket. “ No no “ we say look it says 4pm, Saturday the 9th. “Sorry” he says, actually I don’t think he did say sorry he just said “ no, wrong website you have to go and validate” and if he did say it he sure didn’t mean it. Ticket tragedy.
Tragedy line
We finally validate our ticket, along with other poor souls who have done the same as us, and then reach the turnstile with all smugness gone. The Acropolis however does not disappoint. It is worth the queue. There is just something about it. I know I said I was done with ancient stuff for a while but this feels quite special.
We wander slowly and watch the stick followers and earplug wearers and even the little get your guide or I;m a local whatever the tour is I am glad to just be here and wander and read and take it in and go wow how did they do that. I did read that it was a temple, then a church, then a mosque, then a church, depending on who the current raider was and that the most damage ever done was by the a Scottish guy who was the ambassador who decided to dismantle quite a bit and ship it back to the British museum. So that was enough learning for one day.
We leave this wonderful place and wander back down into Plaka where I wanted to have a traditional Greek dinner, on the cascading steps, that we had seen previously. We find a cute spot but it feels a bit early as I want to wait until it gets dark so I can the Acropolis towering above us all lit up, its gunna be spectacular. However the body is pretty tired after 15000 steps and in need of a sit down so we decide to sit and eat.
The man says we can’t sit on the stip we have to sit around the corner as these ones are reserved. We oblige and then we wait. And wait. I did mention I was pretty thirsty. Finally we manage to get some service after I catch someone’s eye and I order an aprerol spritz and WH a big beer. I order crispy zucchini balls with tzatziki followed by Moussaka and WH order stuffed tomatoes and then a traditional Greek dish of zucchini stuffed with mince and herbs and feta cheese. Yummmy
We wait. We wait. We wait. I did say I was thirsty. Finally we get someone’s attention and say we ordered a drink and quite soon after my Spritz arrives and it’s delicious. Alas no beer. Tragedy. It’s thirsty work climbing the Acropolis so again we ask and it is delivered. We decide its third time lucky restaurant.
Then very soon after that I get serviced my main of Mousakka and WH gets stuffed tomato entree. “But what about the crispy zucchini balls with tzatziki. And what about the Greek mince balls for WH”. Tragedy. The Moussaka was average and about the size of a small saucer so even sharing it was hardly enough for hardy mountain ooops I mean Acropolis hikers. We decide to cut our losses and ask for bill. Waiting to see if the other things are on there. Of course we have to ask three times. We decide they didn’t even have a bill for us and had to make it up.
I give up on the waiting until it gets dark thing as the tragedy of our Greek dinner – stuffed tomato ball and tiny moussaka did not leave a good taste so we Uber back to our hotel and wander across the road to the park where all the families have still come out to play and we watch the people go by and the sun go down. It’s a beautiful space.
Athens has been good and I feel we’ve seen a lot even though it’s a fraction of what there is to see, but I don’t think I will come back. For me it doesn’t draw me back to want more of the same in a different time and space. Unlike much of France and Italy. I have enjoyed it all, apart from the minor Greek tragedies but I am happy to be moving on.
PS
Don’t use skip the line tickets from acropolis-tickets.com as they are not skip the line and evidently not the offical website for acropolis tickets. Who knew?
The park is called Stavros Niarchos Park and it’s definitely worth the look. Coffee was the best we had since we left home and was 2 euro. Homemade lemonade was absolutely delicious (was like a virgin mojito) and was only 2.50. This was at the canal cafe. By comparison a small coke at the restaurant in Plaka was 4 euro.
Uber works well and taxi’s charges are very variable.
There are two more blogs before this one but they are still experiencing technical difficulties and will not post so if random ones turn up and send you backwards then so be it.
The subscribe button is broken so you have to come back and check if there has been a new post. Blog tragedy.