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pax_athenaOf course the best time to post about the trip to Athens we took between Christmas and New Year's Eve is on the way to the next vacation (finishing this post in the airport, once again), but if I don't do it now, I never will. So ...
Taking photos with the phone makes me concentrate on different aspects, a different aesthetics. Something more Instagram-like or at least what I imagine Instagram to be, given how I, very much on purpose, don't have an account. But maybe it's a cool look at the city that you will enjoy, too.
The temple of Zeus during our first walk through the city after arrival - it was late December, so it got dark very early.
So much food on this trip. Dinner first night and lunch second, respectively.
Also tons of Greek coffee. This was a random, very hipster-y place with excellent coffee and absolutely amazing atmosphere.
Even in the more tourist-y parts of the city we were in, one could still see/feel the financial crisis. But it makes for good photos, eh?
Athena, obviously. (Atop one of the university building. At that point I wished for a phone with optical zoom, alas that's absolutely out of my price range.)
Even the simple buildings are different then what I am used to (this is one of my favorite things when traveling, to look for the differences in everyday things, like the way building facades are).
On the Mount Lykabettus.
This city had cats everywhere - street cats, but friendly, well-fed ones. We've been told they are being caught and neutered and have indeed seen comparatively few young cats. A lot of people seem to feed them in all kinds of places. (If I were living in Athens, I would totally make a "cats of Athens" Instagram account; I bet it would be an absolute hit.)
♥ -- oranges -- Akropolis.
More food in a lovely, tiny local restaurant (we stayed a bit off the main tourist area, even though within walking distance from Akropolis), where the other guest was a boisterous group of young people drinking and joking and an old gentlemen on a table, solving a cross-word, just next to them. We came back here on our last day. And yes, Greek salad almost every time. Partly because we love it, partly because given all the meat and potatoes, we felt that we needed the vegetables.
The tiny coffee shop downstairs from where we stayed - once Christmas was over and it open, we would get a coffee and something sweet every morning there.
Two views from Philopappos Hill: over the city and towards Akropolis.
Food and art in a hipster-y fastfood place - this one was a google find, not a random one.
A cool graffiti on a random wall. We've seen several big ones, but I did not manage good photos ... We did not manage to find the main area, though, - we did not try too hard, though, the city just has so much to offer and we were trying not to overload our days (and still did).
When we talk about the people in the past, we seem to forget that they were also people like us, wanting to laugh ... Just look at those things, far more than two thousand years old, and tell me that people who made them did not have a good laugh on their job?! [from Benaki museum]
Beautiful renditions of Athena. [from Benaki museum]
Old traditional clothes. [from Benaki museum]
I'm pretty sure this is not how the selfie spot was meant to be photographed, but who cares? This shot talked to me a lot more than the intended one. [from Benaki museum]
Don't you just want to write a fantasy novel? And yes, this was the reality of it at a certain point of time. [from Benaki museum]
Food! I did warn you about the food and I did not even photograph all of it ...
Instagram-able Athens, remember?! In any case: just too cute. And absolutely random, a tiny side street we only took since we had to walk from our apartment to the city center every day at least once and were trying to vary the routes.
The most amazing cat at Acropolis. He was super friendly - I did not pet him, but others did.
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus as seen from the Acropolis.
The Acropolis itself (also spot the cat on the second pic). It's just beautiful and impressive (and used to be colorful). And standing there in the theatre of Dionysos (not on the pics, the pics are all from atop of the hill), thinking that this is where theater started? Where my favorite Aristophanes plays, with they dirty jokes and intertextuality and meta-within-meta were played for the first time and understood by people who actually god all the little implications?
And then to remember how the temple was destroyed, not by time, but by rather modern people ...
A very yummy vegan (!!) take on Greek food. Mushroom gyros is something I need to try making myself!
Just a random mosaic in the National Garden.
A random male genitalia from the Acropolis museum.
Athena - Museum - more version's of Athena.
And finally her! I did not realize she was here - I love being surprised by art, by its sheer presence, by the happiness of finally seeing it with my own eyes!
(I had this particular Athena representation as an icon before I visited the museum - just in case you wonder. I love this particular one *_*)
The Akropolis museum is super impressive architecturally (I can really, really recommend it both for the exhibit and the building itself!) - here are some of the lights they used.
More food. A tavern we would have never entered if not for a random online recommendation (and the food was so, so, so good!) and where for the only time we had what we so loved on Crete: a small thing on the house to finish the meal (in this case a bit of yogurt over crumbled biscuits; it's really not an expensive thing, but it rounds the food of perfectly to have something small like this or a piece of fruit).
Temple of Hephaestus in the Agora.
More random male genitalia and tiny shoe sculptures in the Agora museum.
Metro train (on our way to Piraeus).
Piraues impressions.
Inside a tiny church on the coast.
Sunset in Piraues.
Streetlights and lovebirds.
Piraues at night. I have a ton of photos from this daytrip, even though I don't think the city was truly interesting - but it made for a few good photos.
We had food on one of the boat-shaped restaurant - the view was amazing, the food OK (but mainly I was somewhat annoyed that I could not make ♥ go to the super fancy one two boats down with me, I would have loved to see what one can do with Greek food in a Michelin-star restaurant).
But the cat! The cat! This was definitely the restaurant cat - she was so fluffy and so good at begging (meowing and almost getting into your lap and letting herself be petted *_*).
More Piraeus impressions. The children's restaurants are a genius idea - why don't we have them in Germany? The children can play under supervision while the parents have food. I'd love that - it's often hard when friends with kids visit, especially at that age between 2 and X (X>= 6), when they need to be constantly entertained.
More perfect phone photo moments.
I know the mask of Agamemnon (somehow it's just part of that very nebulous thing called my culture), but I did not know, at least not in the way that made me go "oh, this! this is X!" the bull's head. It's intricate, beautiful, impressive, dreamlike, all the things. Just all the things. [National Archaeological Museum]
So much intricate details so many thousand years ago! [National Archaeological Museum]
The Troian people clearly liked squid (so do I! See my skirt above!) and did not say no to jewellry. [National Archaeological Museum]
More fun squid and the first ever antique status of a hedgehog I've seen! [National Archaeological Museum]
A swan vessel and a nipple ewer. (And nope, the nipples were definitely not tiny legs to prop up the ewer, we looked into that and it does not work out!) As said, they were not very much different from us ... [National Archaeological Museum]
Poseidon! Another "oh, I know this!" moment for me. [National Archaeological Museum]
Don't ever tell me that it's hard to do more than one facial type, if even the old Greek could (and did!). [National Archaeological Museum]
Taking photos with the phone makes me concentrate on different aspects, a different aesthetics. Something more Instagram-like or at least what I imagine Instagram to be, given how I, very much on purpose, don't have an account. But maybe it's a cool look at the city that you will enjoy, too.
The temple of Zeus during our first walk through the city after arrival - it was late December, so it got dark very early.
So much food on this trip. Dinner first night and lunch second, respectively.
Also tons of Greek coffee. This was a random, very hipster-y place with excellent coffee and absolutely amazing atmosphere.
Even in the more tourist-y parts of the city we were in, one could still see/feel the financial crisis. But it makes for good photos, eh?
Athena, obviously. (Atop one of the university building. At that point I wished for a phone with optical zoom, alas that's absolutely out of my price range.)
Even the simple buildings are different then what I am used to (this is one of my favorite things when traveling, to look for the differences in everyday things, like the way building facades are).
On the Mount Lykabettus.
This city had cats everywhere - street cats, but friendly, well-fed ones. We've been told they are being caught and neutered and have indeed seen comparatively few young cats. A lot of people seem to feed them in all kinds of places. (If I were living in Athens, I would totally make a "cats of Athens" Instagram account; I bet it would be an absolute hit.)
♥ -- oranges -- Akropolis.
More food in a lovely, tiny local restaurant (we stayed a bit off the main tourist area, even though within walking distance from Akropolis), where the other guest was a boisterous group of young people drinking and joking and an old gentlemen on a table, solving a cross-word, just next to them. We came back here on our last day. And yes, Greek salad almost every time. Partly because we love it, partly because given all the meat and potatoes, we felt that we needed the vegetables.
The tiny coffee shop downstairs from where we stayed - once Christmas was over and it open, we would get a coffee and something sweet every morning there.
Two views from Philopappos Hill: over the city and towards Akropolis.
Food and art in a hipster-y fastfood place - this one was a google find, not a random one.
A cool graffiti on a random wall. We've seen several big ones, but I did not manage good photos ... We did not manage to find the main area, though, - we did not try too hard, though, the city just has so much to offer and we were trying not to overload our days (and still did).
When we talk about the people in the past, we seem to forget that they were also people like us, wanting to laugh ... Just look at those things, far more than two thousand years old, and tell me that people who made them did not have a good laugh on their job?! [from Benaki museum]
Beautiful renditions of Athena. [from Benaki museum]
Old traditional clothes. [from Benaki museum]
I'm pretty sure this is not how the selfie spot was meant to be photographed, but who cares? This shot talked to me a lot more than the intended one. [from Benaki museum]
Don't you just want to write a fantasy novel? And yes, this was the reality of it at a certain point of time. [from Benaki museum]
Food! I did warn you about the food and I did not even photograph all of it ...
Instagram-able Athens, remember?! In any case: just too cute. And absolutely random, a tiny side street we only took since we had to walk from our apartment to the city center every day at least once and were trying to vary the routes.
The most amazing cat at Acropolis. He was super friendly - I did not pet him, but others did.
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus as seen from the Acropolis.
The Acropolis itself (also spot the cat on the second pic). It's just beautiful and impressive (and used to be colorful). And standing there in the theatre of Dionysos (not on the pics, the pics are all from atop of the hill), thinking that this is where theater started? Where my favorite Aristophanes plays, with they dirty jokes and intertextuality and meta-within-meta were played for the first time and understood by people who actually god all the little implications?
And then to remember how the temple was destroyed, not by time, but by rather modern people ...
A very yummy vegan (!!) take on Greek food. Mushroom gyros is something I need to try making myself!
Just a random mosaic in the National Garden.
A random male genitalia from the Acropolis museum.
Athena - Museum - more version's of Athena.
And finally her! I did not realize she was here - I love being surprised by art, by its sheer presence, by the happiness of finally seeing it with my own eyes!
(I had this particular Athena representation as an icon before I visited the museum - just in case you wonder. I love this particular one *_*)
The Akropolis museum is super impressive architecturally (I can really, really recommend it both for the exhibit and the building itself!) - here are some of the lights they used.
More food. A tavern we would have never entered if not for a random online recommendation (and the food was so, so, so good!) and where for the only time we had what we so loved on Crete: a small thing on the house to finish the meal (in this case a bit of yogurt over crumbled biscuits; it's really not an expensive thing, but it rounds the food of perfectly to have something small like this or a piece of fruit).
Temple of Hephaestus in the Agora.
More random male genitalia and tiny shoe sculptures in the Agora museum.
Metro train (on our way to Piraeus).
Piraues impressions.
Inside a tiny church on the coast.
Sunset in Piraues.
Streetlights and lovebirds.
Piraues at night. I have a ton of photos from this daytrip, even though I don't think the city was truly interesting - but it made for a few good photos.
We had food on one of the boat-shaped restaurant - the view was amazing, the food OK (but mainly I was somewhat annoyed that I could not make ♥ go to the super fancy one two boats down with me, I would have loved to see what one can do with Greek food in a Michelin-star restaurant).
But the cat! The cat! This was definitely the restaurant cat - she was so fluffy and so good at begging (meowing and almost getting into your lap and letting herself be petted *_*).
More Piraeus impressions. The children's restaurants are a genius idea - why don't we have them in Germany? The children can play under supervision while the parents have food. I'd love that - it's often hard when friends with kids visit, especially at that age between 2 and X (X>= 6), when they need to be constantly entertained.
More perfect phone photo moments.
I know the mask of Agamemnon (somehow it's just part of that very nebulous thing called my culture), but I did not know, at least not in the way that made me go "oh, this! this is X!" the bull's head. It's intricate, beautiful, impressive, dreamlike, all the things. Just all the things. [National Archaeological Museum]
So much intricate details so many thousand years ago! [National Archaeological Museum]
The Troian people clearly liked squid (so do I! See my skirt above!) and did not say no to jewellry. [National Archaeological Museum]
More fun squid and the first ever antique status of a hedgehog I've seen! [National Archaeological Museum]
A swan vessel and a nipple ewer. (And nope, the nipples were definitely not tiny legs to prop up the ewer, we looked into that and it does not work out!) As said, they were not very much different from us ... [National Archaeological Museum]
Poseidon! Another "oh, I know this!" moment for me. [National Archaeological Museum]
Don't ever tell me that it's hard to do more than one facial type, if even the old Greek could (and did!). [National Archaeological Museum]
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Date: 2019-02-26 07:35 pm (UTC)