A little from A, a little from B

Thought I'd break these out of the larger Athens post - mainly because I just like columns so much that I feel they deserve their own! I think I've developed something of a fetish... don't even start on what Freud would make of that. In fact, I think I'm going to go out on a limb and say the tumbled column shot (at the Temple of Olympian Zeus) is one of my favourites of any I've taken.

Acropolis... the other day

With a few spare minutes in Iraklio after catching a late ferry in, I thought I'd get the jump on putting some of the (ridiculous number of) photos I've taken up, and say a few things while it's all pretty fresh.

Athens I found to be full of surprises - and most of them pleasant, happily enough. For starters, after getting in late as the plane was delayed in Frankfurt due to thunderstorms (I politely gave them directions to Melbourne), I managed to find myself feeling surprisingly energetic after only 3 hours sleep, so set out to walk up the Acropolis.

By pure chance I managed to stumble through the Anafiotika neighbourhood - a little bit of the Cyclades in the heart of Athens; Anafiot stoneworkers were brought to Athens and built a little piece of home into the side of the Acropolis. This was my first glimpse of the white-washed Cycladic architectural style, a first taste which has led my quickly down the path to unhealthy obsession, as you'll no doubt see in future posts.

Getting eventually to the Parthenon (I cleverly took the long road all the way around the north and then south sides of the hill) I was struck immediately by the abundance of two things. Having been to a number of such sites, I should probably expect them by now - but there is honestly nothing more frustrating than trying to frame pictures of ancient wonders around a) shedloads of tourists of the loud shirt and large sunglasses variety and b) SCAFFOLDING!! I think I could probably put together a fairly decent slide show of nothing more than shots of scaffolding completely ruining the view of all sorts of exotic and exciting locales. It's an idle complaint I know - they are certainly a necessary evil and I don't do myself any favours by travelling to these places more often than not in the low (ish) season when locals take the chance to scrub up their monuments for the gawking purposes of even more busloads of gum-chewin', loud-tawkin' photo-ruiners.

Right, off the soap box.

After wandering the Acropolis for a decent while, I found myself with a good half-day in front of me to explore Athens, via every possible highly-recommended souvlaki and gyros bar. The Agoras, the Monistiriki quarter, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Temple of Olympian Zeus all fell prey to the wide-angle lens (picking that up before this trip is possibly the smartest move I've ever made). This only thing left was a little hike up the hill across from the Acropolis (it's name escapes me) to take the obligitory twilight shot...

Then my last stop - back to the Monistiriki neighbourhood for some calimari (served with head and all - brilliant!) and a greek salad. All in all, I feel that although it deserved more than a day, I did what I could to do Athens justice given the time constraints. My overall impression of the city was an interesting feeling that I've never really had in any other major city, certainly not a capital - that everyone new one another. Being a Melburnite (3rd largest Greek city in the world), and sitting here in Iraklio (3rd largest in Greece), I get the feeling that it is very much part of the Greek character - no matter how many there are, they all know one another! It lends a great atmosphere to the cities, making them feel like small communities despite the millions of people all around.

Now if they'd just pick up their act with the modern architecture - a city with this much incredible history of contribution towards human (well, western) civilisation deserves better than concrete blocks sprawled everywhere. Even despite this, Athens would have to go down as one of my favourites.