The Acropolis

The Acropolis, all lit up the night before, called to us just as strong in the morning. And after breakfast we were out the doors of our fancy looking hotel to the bus. Getting there would be somewhat of a history lesson in itself. Our tour guide pointed out the architecture contingent with the Hungarian (?) duke who led the city in the 19th (?) century. What surprised me was how much the city didn’t look like a capital. This despite the fact it was an important piece in the Roman-Greek empire. Evidentaly when the barbarians stormed the city much of it was destroyed and it remained little more than a town of only a few thousand people until Greece won its independence a few short years ago.
At the drop point for our tour of the Accropolis our intructions were clear; be back at this point by 10.20 or be left behind. So many people come to the sight on buses, off cruises indeed, that its movements are more frequent than Athens international. If there was a flight controller overseeing this mess I would not be surprised. Our guide led the way up the hill over marble steps polished by millions of feet. Yes they were slippery. Through the turnstiles, not unlike those at a sports stadium, we looked up and there was the Acropolis still standing strong. We had roughly an hour. Our guide powered through stopping frequently to talk with us. The capacity of the arhitects of this era continued to amaze me. Their belief was the structure should work with nature. Therefore, rather than levelling a pad for the Acropolis, they curved the marble floor over the crest of the hill. And, like the Pantheon in Rome, they curved the floor to aid with drainage. Now for most people this would cause a big problem. The columns would be at all angles. But with hammer and chisel they shaped the columns to keep them all precisely in alignment. This was no mean feat considering the columns themselves are tapered as well. Their genius didn’t stop there either. They Greeks and Romans were well aware of what the area’s seismic activity would do to this structure. Linking these giant slabs are iron pegs coated in lead. Without that coating the iron would have corroded and weakened the stone to the point of collapse. Alas, after 2000 years, one could only expect some wear and tear. The stone in places is crumbling. So engineers inject it with a saline solution to slow if not stop the process. Where damage has already occurred some marble sections are being replaced to maintain the structural integrity as a whole. The pegs used today are titanium.
The only thing more astounding than all of this was the number of people up on that hill. Still so early in the day and in 30 degree-plus heat. Being all stone the heat is intense. I could not imagine what it would be like in peak-summer after midday. We grabbed a few photos with what little time we had and started our descent. It was at this point, with people running past us, we realised it was a quarter past. We had five minutes to get back down all the slippery stairs through the hordes of people. Members of our group were running and Alysia even left me behind for a bit. Damned thongs. It’s like the British say: If tying shoelaces requires an IQ of 60 then why do so many Aussies wear thongs? Luckily I proved to myself at least I had the dexterity to achieve the task and not get left behind. But could a soap dodging Pom do the same? I ask you.
On the way back to the hotel, with everyone on board, we stopped to look at the reconstuction of the world’s first Olympic stadium. All stone, the original must have looked amazing, considering how good the reconstruction looked. It did host a few events when Athens hosted the first modern world Olympics. From my perspective though it was a photographic nightmare being too big to squeeze into frame with zero time to compose something a little bit fun.
Around the corner from our hotel we sat down to eat some more souvlaki in pita. All up it was less than 10 euro and so good. Time was soon up though and we had to meet our new tour manager for the cruise which started the next day. Seated among some now familiar faces Dominique - Dom she insisted - filled us in how it would work in a very straight forward way. This South African was one straight shooter: “You will hand over your passports to the cruise company because that is the way it works.” Gulp.
The afternoon was ours to do as we wished. For me, that was kick back in our room, with the energy-sapping beginnings of a cold. While Alysia slept I started investigating alternative transport to Venice. The ferry ride from Bari to Corfu, seeing how we would travel to Venice for 30 hours, turned us off. Quite simply it would not be a comfortable trip - 30 hours - without a bed or cabin. How would we watch our belongings in our sleep. Researching flights and different destinations took all afternoon and still we weren’t sure which way to leap.
With the sun getting low in the sky we made for our farewell dinner. This optional extra didn’t leave us hungry either with there being no shortage of food. I just wished I could enjoy it and some wine without the sore throat. In between mouthfuls traditional Greek dances would entertain us and “accidentally” fall into the laps of some onlookers. One girl was even distracted and quickly hoisted onto the shoulders of the stocky Greek man and spun around above our heads. It was good value. Just outside the restaurant we posed for an impromptu group photo on some stairs. Then we head to the bar near our hotel for drinks. Alysia embraced the old friend that is SoCo while I sought out something to anaesthetise my throat a little. Jack straight up did the trick. Over the next few hours I sipped on a few of these and talked with a small, revolving group of people, off the dance floor. It was only now over these drinks, virtually at the end of our time, that everyone started to gel. It was good to see but I for one was disappointed this hadn’t happened the frst night. Faring well those with whom we parted with the next day, we called it a night about 1am.
Sam