Athens, Greece

April 12th through yesterday gave me 6 flights, 6 countries, 16 or so cities, 18 international border crossings, and somewhere around 600-700 photos. It did not give me, however, decent access to the internet.

I flew from Berlin to Athens on what I expected to be the pinnacle of my six months. I took a lot of photos and saw a lot of culture, but other cities/countries will top my list of favorites.
Athens is a massive city that boasts of being the birthplace of democracy. Within Athens there are still a few temple ruins that rival the greatness of Rome. The sacred sites are bunched together within endless apartment buildings that look as if they were designed by the communist block.
The picture atop this blog is of the Greek flag on top of the hill that houses the Parthenon and other temples. The second photo is of Hadrian's Arch and the above photo is the Ancient Agora. The Agora is in excellent condition. It is the only Athenian relic that stands without scaffolding.

It was warmer in Greece than it had been in Germany. Their wildflowers were already in bloom.
Major renovations are saving the integrity of nearly everything. This is the Temple of Athena Nike, looking towards the Parthenon.
A few other half fallen temples stood on the same mount but I did not see what they were called or who was worshipped there.
After much effort and a few laps around the Parthenon I managed to find this angle that shows the least amount of scaffolding possible. The 10 yards or so around the entire temple are filled with pieces that the contractors have pulled off the temple, then numbered. I assume they will re-piece together everything that they have dismantled once they have figured a way to strengthen the structure and maybe earthquake-proof it.
Below the temple mount are a few amphitheaters. This one is still in great condition.
This one, which they let us climb on and lounge around, is in a slightly worse repair.

From the Parthenon mount, I could have walked to all four sides and taken pictures of endless apartment buildings. They didn't stop until they faded into the haze.
Below the temple mount is another site, the Temple of Zeus. Unlike the others above, it is at city level (the Parthenon sits on a big flat-topped hill). Anything below the Parthenon is subject to the thousands upon thousands of wild dogs that are running around. It was actually difficult to get photos without random, ugly dogs in them.
Beyond the sites, Greek culture, while dirty and loud, lit up at night. Their dinnertime (around 10:00pm) was when they were in the best of spirits. I'm not sure when the city slept.
After a few days in the big city, I took a local's advice and took a long fairy ride to one of Greece's prized islands, Santorini. I'm working on a few of those photos so check in say in two days or so and enjoy. I'd like to blog each of the cities I've been in the past month so check back often.