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In dividing heaven, the watery realm and the subterranean land of the dead, the Olympians agreed that the earth itself would be ruled jointly, with Zeus as king. This led to a number of territorial disputes among the gods. Poseidon vied with Athena to be patron deity of Athens. The god demonstrated his power and benevolence by striking the Acropolis with his three-pronged spear, which caused a spring of salt water to emerge.
Athena, however, planted an olive tree, which was seen as a more useful favour. Her paramount importance to the Athenians is seen in her magnificent temple, the Parthenon, which still crowns the Acropolis. The people of Athens were careful, all the same, to honor Poseidon as well (as soon as his anger calmed down and he withdrew the flood of seawater with which he ravaged the land after his loss in the contest with Athena).
[/legend][post has been back-dated][click on the pictures to have an enlarged view]*** Day 1, May 5, Sat ***
Am I in Athens? It didn't feel like it.
A brand new transportation system. Miles of farmland and unclaimed land in equal portions. Every where I turn, there are hills all about. We got off at
Monastiraki station and I look upon
Acropolis. I'm in
Athens.
Am I in
Athens? It didn't feel like it.
Run down buildings with an European feel. Graffiti graced every possible surface. Is that it? Where's my
Ancient Athens?
We did some light exploration in the afternoon and had sandwiches. We returned to the hotel and met up with the group. There's
Paul and
Lina from
New Zealand.
Carrie and
Gerrie from
United States and..
the others. We were briefed by our guide
Mary and were to gather for breakfast tomorrow.
Dinner was our first taste of
Greek food. Bread was served right at the start and the selection was chiefly grilled meat. When I tried to pay for our dinner, it was discovered that I had brought
Australian dollars instead of
Euros for this trip.
I suddenly found myself 600
Euros short.
[click on the pictures to have an enlarged view]*** Day 2, May 6, Sun ***
We had a feeling of being in the clouds after
Roger inserted a piece of contraband material into the toaster. He was let off with a gentle scolding and we proceeded to eat our breakfast. We were introduced to two new guys who were late for last night's briefing,
Melab and
Sia.
Once we were done,
Mary took us on a quick tour around the major attractions. I found it amusing that she considered the weather to be hot. We passed by the
Temple of the Winds, the
Roman Agora, Parthenon,
Temple of Zeus,
Royal gardens and the
Tomb of an unknown soldier, where we were treated to a display of the changing of the guards. We took a break at a nearby cafe and were given the rest of the day off to ourselves.
The three of us decided to head for the art museums and left the guys. To our disappointment, the first one was not open so we went to the one with the mosaics. It was quite an eye opener and guess what? Entrance is free as it was a Sunday!! Can you get that back home? Seeing so many young dedicated museum attendants around, I can't help being impressed. As an additional bonus, the mosaics museum has an exhibition of
Greek and
Byzantine art as well. This took up a large chunk of our time.
We returned to join the others for our welcome dinner, which was paid for by
TopDeck. The food was great and we polished off everything till they told us it was only the appetiser! After that, I could hardly eat anymore and
Mary thought that the food disagreed with me. There was traditional
Greek music and dance and everyone had great fun.
[Links]
Index (not so soon...)
Day 1-2: AthensDay 2-4: ParosDay 4-6: Mykonos;
Pictures at MykonosDay 6-7: Santorini-part ADay 8-10: Santorini-part B (WIP)Day 10-12: Back to Athens (not so soon...)
