Athens and Piraeus

Athens and Piraeus

5 January 2013

I got up fairly early today, and I decided to make use of the all day Metro pass I had purchased, so I headed off to the port city of Piraeus on the Metro, where a number of singing children with musical triangles walked through the cars, expecting money.  (I vaguely remember something of the tradition, but not the details.)  

I'm told they celebrate the holidays through the Epiphany, 6 January, so I'll be on my flight home before the festivities are over.

There was a bit of a surprise while I was grabbing lunch:  I was staning in one of the Everest sandwich shops when I was splashed by a Greek Orthodox priest with, what I presume to be, holy water.  It seems this is not entirely common, as even the store employees seemed a bit put off by this person walking about and "spritzing" people.

The Roman Agora was in ruins, rather boring.  

The Ancient Agora and Temple of Hephaestus, in contrast to the above, were excellent, incredibly well preserved!!  I may have enjoyed it more than the Acropolis.

Across the street, the Ancient Agora Areios Pagos was boring, again nothing other than ruins.

I walked to the Monastraika Square again as well as the surrounding flea markets and smaller shops, where I picked up some small gifts for friends.

My vacation is drawing to an end, as I am in my final few hours in Athens, "looking ahead" to a 3:00 AM wakeup call in less than twelve hours for a 6:45 flight to CDG then back to Seattle.  Three days was about right for Athens; sure I could always sit in one of the cafes and enjoy it, but I was able to see what I wanted to in Athens in three days.  Now to see the rest of the country, in particular the islands, you could probably spend weeks.  Athens was a very pleasant surprise, especially given all the talk about the economic crisis here!