"Journey to the West" - Greece (Part 3): Back in Athens, More of Athens

- April 21-22, 2014, Monday-Tuesday.

- We arrived mid-afternoon in Athens, and since we had our free time, our other tourmates were itching to shop in Monastiraki for branded stuff. Our local escort accompanied them to shop Monastiraki, but my family, however, wanted to explore Athens more. My dad particularly wanted to see the Zappeion, a conference hall and a former parliament house, since we had a small restaurant a long time ago in the province named after the Zappeion. I still am not sure why, of all the structures in Greece, my dad fancied the Zappeion. We tried to ask but he didn't really give a straight answer; he just told us that he wants to see it, and that's final (oh father.)

Bridge.

Finally I was able to take photos of the university, library, and the academy, even just from the bus.

Zappeion.

- After visiting the Zappeion, which was heavily guarded since Angela Merkel was in Greece for some official business, we visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus right across the street. We were not informed beforehand that our Acropolis ticket was also a valid ticket for around 5 more historical sites. Since we did not have our Acropolis tickets with us from the first day, we had to pay a small 2-euro entrance fee each.

Parthenon at the right side.

- The Temple of Zeus had nothing much left, aside from a few Corinthian columns. It was completed during the term of King Hadrian, after more than 600 years of building the temple. It was destroyed during a barbarian attack around 3rd century AD.

- Right outside the temple was Hadrian's Arch. The arch was said to have been built to welcome and honor King Hadrian for his contributions to Athens.

Parthenon underneath.

- I proposed to visit the House of Parlimaent once again, but this time actually visiting it rather than a view from the bus. With the stroke of luck, we were able to witness the really really slow changing of guards at the Tomb to the Unknown Soldier. (The changing of guards in Seoul's Gyeongbok Palace was more theatrical and majestic compared to this one in Athens.)

Passed by an excavated ancient Roman bath in the middle of the sidewalk. Haha.

Sophocles.

Eurypedes.

Preparing for the changing of guards.

They're wearing the fustanella.

- Before going back to our meeting place, I told my family that we should visit the Syntagma Metro Station, right beside the House of Parliament, because I saw in a certain travel show that the Syntagma Metro Station had a permanent exhibit of the things unearthed during the construction of the metro station. The exhibit was free of charge, and was located at the first basement level. The exhibit was small, but interesting.

Layers of soil.

Not sure if this is real.

A nice Byzantine-style church tower, with my newly-bought Greek fez.

The church (and its bell tower) was right beside our meeting point.

- We met our tourmates after joining them at our meeting point (the bus.) They were not able to shop too much because most stores are still closed since it was Easter Monday. I think they were only able to grab a few more souvenirs. Our escort told us that we had the option to go back to Monastiraki the following morning, since we had a free morning before our bus would pick us up and send us to the airport.

- After dinner, we were driven to our hotel, this time at Athenaeum Intercontinental, a few doors away from Ledra at Syngrou. The hotel did not have free wifi, but its shuttle van to Syntagma was free of charge.

- On our last morning in Athens, we had to take the free shuttle van to Syntagma, since we could not use our bus for some reasons; it was only designated to take us to the airport later that morning. We all got off at Syntagma after a few minutes, and all the others were excited to go to Attica and shop. Attica is the only mall in central Athens (malls are not a thing in Athens,) and has really expensive branded stuff. The stores around Attica are also popular brands like Zara. I, on the other hand, wanted to maximize my Athenian experience, so once again, I opted to go alone, and meet everyone else at the meeting point, where the hotel shuttle would pick us up.

Kapnikarea in the middle of Monastiraki.

Parthenon above.

Tzisdarakis Mosque (now a museum) and the Parthenon.

- I walked down Monastiraki, until I passed by Hadrian's Library. I didn't find the need to go inside Hadiran's Library, and a decent photo could be taken from outside, so I just took a photo and left for the more important place. I arrived at the nearby ancient agora (old market,) and was a compound that housed the Stoa of Attalos, which is now a museum and exhibit hall, as well as the well-preserve Temple of Hephaestus (Hephaestus in proper Greek, is supposed to be pronounced as /I-fes-tos/, accent on the first syllable; the "i" at the beginning is a short "i" sound, like in "pick" or "sit.") Despite the good preservation of the building's exterior, like most temples, the interior was empty. Since I remembered this time to bring my ticket from Acropolis (thank God I didn't throw it away,) I got to enter for free; I saved 4 euros.

Stoa of Attalos

Parthenon again.

Temple of Hephaestus.

Hadrian's statue.

- While I had the time, I tried to looked for the famous Melissinos, poet and sandal maker. I first came to know about Melissinos from my well-traveled Asian history professor in college, and another friend who had her sandals made during a trip to Greece. While Melissinos' sandals can be a bit pricey compared to most, the prices were still reasonable, and the quality of the sandals were also good. Melissinos' sandals are so famous that celebrities and politicians across the globe have had their sandals made during their trips to Greece. Melissinos is located at 2 Aghias Teklas Street, corner Monastiraki.

- After easily locating the store after reviewing my map and the store address, I found out that I was the first customer of the store; the store opens at 10am, and I was there at almost 10. The current owner is the third generation Melissinos (Pantelis Melissinos,) and was the one who assisted me in choosing the perfect gladiator sandals. Because he only had to adjust the sandals' straps, instead of making a pair form scratch, I quickly got my sandals, had a photo op with him, and left to go to the meeting point.

Found it!!

Fitting the sandals; he had a hard time with my big feet.

His dog.

Photo taken by his assistant.

- I was 15 minutes early at the shuttle stop, so I decided to visit the House of Parliament again to have a photo with the guards. The guards were just finishing their changing ceremony (and I felt very lucky to have seen the changing of guards twice during my short visits to Athens within this trip,) and I had one nasty problem - I didn't have my tripod with me, and no one was there to take my photos, and wanted a full-body photo. Without any choice, I talked to a kind Russian tourist, who was kind(er) to me since I spoke to her in Russian (thank youuuu basic Russian class in college.) Not only was she willing to take a photo of me with the guard, she also made sure that she took the perfect photo. What a sweet lady.

Yay!! Thank you kind Russian lady for taking my photo!!

Passed by the Pan Athenaic Stadium on the way to the airport.

- I rushed back to our meeting place, and everyone was happy because we all got what we wanted; they got their shopping, I got my adventure.

- We checked out of Athenaeum Intercontinental, and headed to the airport, accompanied by the president of the Greek counterpart of our Philippine travel agency. Aside from telling us more stuff about Greece, I was surprised when he told us that "Greek is one of the most intelligent languages of the world, only next to India's Sanskrit. The Indians also gave the world one of the most important inventions - the number zero." I wasn't sure why he brought up a lot of stuff about India, but it was perhaps the nicest thing I heard from a European during my trip to Greece.

- I was tired as hell during my flight to Abu Dhabi, and even more so during the long flight from Abu Dhabi to Manila. Still, I couldn't help but think that I finally found my way outside Asia for the first time, on the land of one of the earliest (again, but not "the" earliest,) civilizations of the world. Greece did show and feel like a mixture of many Eurasian cultures, from the Persian (Iranian,) Ottoman (Turkish,) to the Greco-Roman cultures; understanding Greece leads to a greater understanding of the east-west encounter throughout history.

An elephant-shaped cloud while on the plane.

- I'm thankful that I got to visit Greece during the low (and mildly cold) season, because I had to deal with less stress and less noise, making me concentrate better on the places that we were visiting. The Greek people were very good-natured, generally, and a bit chatty too, and as always, although the Greeks knew perfect English, knowing Greek (or the language of any destination) is still a big bonus (language empowers, trust me.) I'm looking forward to visiting Greece again some day, since many restorations and major urban plans in Greece are being done these days. Recently, Greece has also entered the world market once again (according to our guide) after 3-4 years of economic plight, so hopefully, Greece will stand again on its own feet really soon.