Acropolis=Parthenon (Athens, Greece 12/27/08)

Another early excursion morning. We had a 6:30 am wake up call and were out of the room (except for going back 2 separate times to get the water bottle and my hat respectively – I should have gotten directions to the Hard Rock as well…oops!) at 7:56 – can you tell I’m now Swiss, I tell time like one! We hopped on the bus and our tour guide sounded like a cross between elevator music and a soothing vacuum. I totally thought I was in for a raging snooze-fest. Luckily she, and the tour, got much better. We started by winding through the city streets and along the harbor. EVERYWHERE you look here there are ruins. E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. In the middle of the city-ruins. Along the shore-ruins. In the parks-ruins. At the top of a giant hill-ruins. It’s super cool!

After a quick bus tour of the city they dropped us off at the base of the Acropolis.

**Stupidity Side Note** The Acropolis and Parthenon are NOT two different things in 2 different parts of town. The Parthenon is inside of the Acropolis. “Acro” (think Acrophobia) means high or heights and “Polis” (think Minneapolis) means city. The Acropolis means ‘high city’ and was built in the highest point of the area. I stupidly asked my sister (she spent a month in Greece over the summer before coming to see me-what I wouldn’t give to be in College again!) what was the ONE THING I had to see in Athens and she told me the Acropolis. When she said that I thought to myself ‘What about the Parthenon, I think that would be cooler…?’

Also the term ‘acropolis’ is actually very ambiguous. Every city in the world could have an acropolis – it just happens that the most famous one is in Athens and that’s what you think of when you hear the term.

The Acropolis has some really cool mythology behind it. (Brookie, I hope I get this right – If I’m wrong let me know).

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, came directly from Zeus (somehow, I think she was a part of his head or something…). She had a pet owl and because she was so smart the owl is now associated with smarts.

Well, Athena and Poseidon (the god of the sea) were up chillin’ at the Acropolis and wanted the city below named after them (you can probably guess the outcome). The other Gods got together and said that each of them had to present a gift and the best gift won the right to have the city named after them. Athena presented an olive tree (she struck the ground with her trident and there appeared the tree). Poseidon did the same and his gift was water.

That watered the tree and made it grow beautifully. (If you ask I would have presented something that didn’t help the other guy out. My gift would have been dry rot or termites, or fire to burn the sucker down! I guess hindsight is 20/20)

Probably needless to say, Athena won and the city was named Athens.

The reason the Acropolis is destroyed now is because in the 18th or 19th century the Parthenon was used to store gun powder and other explosives during a war. The gun powder caught on fire and exploded. They left the building to decay and let looters and urchins steal from the area. (Again, if you want the real, complete history break out your text books – my attention span is only so long).

Currently, they are trying to rebuild the Acropolis with the marble that is lying around. (And I mean LYING around I stubbed my toes at least a dozen times on marble columns and stuff strewn about). It will take at least another 15-20 years to rebuild and Kyle and I will be back to check it out…



After a couple of hours at the Acropolis we were able to do a little bit of shopping at the couple of souvenir shops (I got a magnet with an owl on it and ‘Athens’ in Greek – Kyle said I got some style points for that one) then back on the bus. The bus took us to where the first modern Olympics were held. The tour guide said it was built on the site where the first Olympics EVER were held but I’m not sure I agree – I thought I saw a picture of where my sister was running around a dirt track and THAT was where the first Olympics where held.


We loaded back on the bus but some of us wanted to go shopping in the main area of the city. The bus basically slowed down to about 30 mph where it tossed out a couple of people before it continued on to the dock. Kyle and I, of course, got out so we could get our Hard Rock pin. Luckily Kyle has his ‘crackberry’ and is able to Google (yes, it’s a verb now) where we are going. Just around the corner and there we were! We get our pin and found some nice people in the store from the boat as well. They told us how to get back to the boat and the second we hear 30 minute walk after a train and tram we decide a taxi is in our future. An ATM stop and $27 later we are in the comfort of our stateroom drying ourselves off.

The rest of the evening we spent sitting on the top floor of the boat where we could watch the scenery and Kyle read his ‘guns and mud’ book (the 2 things that boys love more than anything in the world – I tease him about it all the time). I worked on typing out the blogs. Tomorrow we’re off to Rhodes!