A slow start to the morning, enjoying the view out the hotel room window directly to the Acropolis. Springing the extra cash for Acropolis-view is great when the hotel room is only eighty bucks, but on the third floor it’s a little obstructed by a neighboring building, so last night we asked about moving higher up the building. The receptionist asked us to check back in the morning, and when I did on our way out, they were able to get us into the fifth floor, so we took a few minutes to gather our belongings, stashed the suitcase in the hotel office, and stepped up the street to grab coffee while they cleaned our new room.
(I appreciate the hospitality, the effort to please us, and will highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Athens, and will remember this for any future stays!)
After acquiring coffee (and a cardamom bun, yay fika) up the street at Dope Coffee Roasting and then moving our things into our new higher room, we were finally fortified to make the climb up the Acropolis. I think like probably any tourist in Athens, the Acropolis was priority number one for our time here, and we chose to do it today because the sky was supposed to be cloudy and the temperature was supposed to be low, thus hopefully keeping other tourists to a minimum.
(we were right)
First thought: the climb is gonna be hard for me, an out of shape non-hiker who hasn’t even reaped the normal benefit of being in Europe, which is having to walk everywhere and thereby at least getting a little ready for it.
Second thought at the top: It’s not as hard as you think. Thankfully.
As we had hoped, the walk up the hill and the ticket office itself were pretty much devoid of other people. There was no line for tickets, and while there were some Instagram influencer wannabes taking advantage of the sparse crowds to get as many sexy-posed pictures as their poor boyfriends could muster.
The Parthenon itself is majestic. Even if you only take it as the most recognizable example of the art, architecture, philosophy, sculpture, literature, science, and medicine of the ancient world, hell, I don’t know, that sounds actually like a lot to think about. It’s awesome. It should be inspirational. It might be overwhelming. It makes you feel a little … underperformative. This is what humanity could do with basic tools and inspiration. Best I can do is make lasagna.
(I mean it’s good lasagna but still.)
I didn’t take many photos but I did take a solid amount of video. I will let the muses flow through me and edit them together and hopefully do some of it justice.
The temple of Athena Nike and the gate into the Acropolis is spectacular too. The third building, the Erechtheion, is small but includes a portico supported by caryatids, sculpted in amazing detail. We spent around four hours on top of the mountain, talking, walking and stopping, taking pictures and video, just … absorbing it.
With my phone dead and H’s close, we came back down the hill, grabbed some sustenance at an Asian noodle place around the corner, and then took a break in the room, charging our phones and watching the sun set on the Acropolis. We finished out the night resting our feet, then grabbed a late dinner of Italian pasta and gelato.
One thing we did not consider when we requested a change up to the fifth floor was the proximity to the sixth floor, where late tonight some sort of “bubble party” was taking place. Not quite Mexico City Easter, but we felt a bit of thumping late into the night. Totally worth it.