Cradle of Democracy

My first impression of Athens was the smell sea air and oranges. I've never seen so many cruise ships in one place in this whole world cruise. Dozens. Then there were large ferries and yachts the size of cruise ships and then thousands of every other kind of water craft you could imagine. 

I took the On-Off bus through the city and there were orange trees ripe with fruit everywhere. I could have easily reached out and picked an orange from the top deck of my bus. The street side of the trees were flattened by passing trucks and buses. Apparently, people were picking the fruit from on-high as there were a lot fewer oranges within arm's reach than the rest of the trees.

I expected to be impressed with Athens.  More than that now having been here, I  was in awe. To be in the ruins of Acropolis, see the Parthenon, I could actually feel the presence and flow of history in everything my eyes saw and my ears heard.  The Greek language was mixed with a dozen other languages of excited tourists also feeling the rush of millenniums evidenced before us.

The weather was Mediterranean prefect and oranges and sea salt turned to the smell of grilled meat and fresh baked bread. So, besides sight, smell, feel and hearing I was ready to taste Greece. I found the perfect place. It was a 3rd story open patio restaurant named Strofi. I was seated looking directly at an unobstructed at the Parthenon.

I usually don't write about the food but, this was something to write home about.  I had a uniquely Greek salad in a barley bread bowl. It was fresh spinach, small tomatoes, goat cheese, black olives  and croutons made from pita bread with a lemon vinaigrette.

I tasted the edge of the barley bread first.  It was dry and uninteresting but, then further down where the dressing soaked in and some of the cheese and juice from the tomatoes tried to soak in, it was just fabulously tasty and the perfect texture.

The beer was called Fix and it was quite good as well. I didn't hurt to be served in a tall frozen glass.

Then came the broiled lamb wrapped in grape leaf. It came with potatoes in a delicious yellow sauce spiced with something I didn't recognize but, was very good. The different colored vegetables were stringed and steamed: very nice. I did not want to leave and no one rushed me at all.  I took my time. I enjoyed the food, the drink and the view all together.

Little things made Athens appealing. One was: people have dogs. They were out walking them instead of eating them or ignoring them starving, as in so many other countries. The difference was noticeable because I actually have seen very few dogs with people since leaving the U.S.  Here, there were pet supply stores all over and healthy happy dogs being walked by their owners.

Another thing that was aplenty were strip clubs.  Not tiny little grungy hole-in-the-walls but,  grand  palace-like structures along the major avenues.  At first I thought they were casinos, they were that elaborate. There were a lot of sex shops too but, none of them crass-looking, more like upscale shopping.

Athens is a beautiful modern city with a wonderful mix of new and older architecture.  There is one big blithe on the city though: graffiti. Every building, fence, pole, sign and even windows and sidewalks are covered in spray painteed tags and ugly, ugly "art." Even some on stone walls and buildings. It looks worse than NY or LA in their heyday of graphic vandalism. A complete ugly mess. Maybe 1 in a 1000 showed any artist merit at all but, not even much of that. Just plain ugly.

Still, this did not take away my initial feelings.  I love history and history loves me back. Though an  easy and laid back day, it was one of the most satisfying and soul-cleansing experiences of my world cruise. If I had to end the trip today, experiencing the weight of history in Athens was worth it. 

Leaving Athens