We have met with a small problem.
An unfortunate event occurred while we were breakfasting and/or showering in Prague one fine morning. A midget opportunist of indeterminate gender who had been sleeping two beds over went on a crime spree (with two people asleep in the room no less!) and then promptly checked out of the hostel. Dan's laptop was among the victims, leaving us with very limited blog creating abilities.
But all is not lost: Dan is still taking photographs and we will resurrect the blog once the insurance money comes through. And on the bright side, I now know how to make money if we can't get jobs in Edinburgh.
The Parthenon inspires awe. Its sense of presence is spine tingling and once you have recovered from a brief case of slack-jawed yokel syndrome you begin talking in hushed tones out of respect for this immense, perfect, geometric structure. Even when the structure is covered in scaffolding and no longer perfectly geometric due to a somewhat embarrassing incident in the 16th century which involved the storage of gunpowder within.
Your brain then reels with jarring, lurching confusion when you look down from the Parthenon to the city of Athens below – a white concrete jungle that sprawls for miles in every direction... how did the civilisation that created “the foremost monument of western civilisation” way back in 447BC advance to this?
The mind boggles.
But once you are in the concrete jungle it’s actually pretty neat. The inner city is very walkable and dotted with interesting ruins, marketplaces, funky public squares, creative street art and kittens. The people are friendly and the house wine is delicious and practically free. But there are definitely signs of discontent – there is a lot of angst in the graffiti, the cafes are filled with people talking exasperatedly about political matters, the police are kevlared to the hilt and all planes were grounded and all tourist attractions closed for a strike during one of the three days that we spent there. The enraged shouting was audible almost a kilometre away from the protest.
Despite warnings... we headed into the battleground.
We didn't see too much unrest, but the police presence was hard to miss. All of the attractions were closed on our first day too, luckily we were on our walking tour which only visits the outside of everything anyway.
The gates of the Acropolis from an ancient hill.
Our very own archaeologist/walking tour guide, and yes the guy to the left is wearing stubbies. Back in the good ol' warm days...
Jumping for joy in a renovated roman market hall. It was really cool to see a roman structure as it would have been, since this was done the UNESCO rules have changed and no longer can you fully renovate an old building like this.
Our Brazilian buddy Louis, about the join the crowds with us for the main attraction..
The Parthenon... after learning so much about this structure is was amazing to finally see it. For those who don't know much about it, there's a couple of reasons I think it's so great. Firstly, the design. Although it looks like a simple building, the Parthenon doesn't have a single straight line on it. The ancient Greeks were masters of their craft and employed subtle curves throughout to correct optical distortions in our vision and to embue the structure with a real presence. The angle of this photo is no accident either, the architects designed the Parthenon to be on the perfect viewing angle just as you walk through the gates of the Acropolis. Secondly, the craftsmanship. The Parthenon is built like a massive jigsaw puzzle and because of the curves, every piece is unique. This actually threw off the modern Greeks when they tried to renovate it in the past, they thought the column pieces were interchangeable and it wasn't until the 90's with help from modern Japanese imaging teams they worked out the Parthenon's great secret. Since then they have pulled it apart completely and put it back together, giving us apparently the best Parthenon we've had for centuries. That also highlights another feature of the craftsmanship, the Parthenon is entirely held together by the interlocking pieces, there is no "glue", which makes it really earthquake proof. If it weren't for the idiot soldiers who stored massive amounts of gunpowder in there during a siege and subsequently blew it up from the inside, the Parthenon would be to this day surviving earthquakes unscathed. Even though, it's still an incredible monument from a civilization that was ahead of their times. Look up 'Secrets of the Parthenon' on YouTube if you've made it this far and you're still interested!
