Athens 2016: Two more days in the neighbourhoods.

Athens is Utopia for active tourists who can walk themselves around the City, and the inactive ones can use the Metro! We say that because the main sights and ruins are clustered in the bottom half of the City and very close together - after all just how many Greeks and Romans lived here in 1 AD?

Even today the distinct neighbourhoods, which are clustered around many of the Plateia (Squares or traffic intersections) can be walked to and from. Usually most tourists never get past the areas of Plaka and Monastiriki, that is because a lot of hotels are located there and also they are the liveliest shopping areas found in smaller folksy alleys and streets. They are obviously the most expensive places to shop. We have made it a practise to explore some of the other neighbourhoods as we visit the sights in the guide books.For example today we went to the National Archaeological Museum (NAM). This was located outside of the normal area that tourists visit and when we were done, we had walked ten minutes to get there, exploring the Exharhia neighbourhood was the order of the day. Nothing special, just a place we hadn't been to before. However passing buildings that look interesting certainly sparks questions. Just South of the NAM was a huge complex of stately buildings that looked abandoned and certainly underused. Festooned with protest banners and more than the usual amount of graffiti we noticed that the gates were shuttered. But turning towards Exharhia square we passed the main entrance. "let's go and look" Talking to one of the many young people just hanging around I asked, "Just what is this complex?" "The National University of Athens." was the reply. Checking further it was the Fine Arts and Technical Campus. No wonder the graffiti was so colourful and imaginative.

Getting to the neighbourhood locus - the square - we sat down, rested our feet and ordered the mandatory thirst-slaker - "One white wine and an Alpha beer, please" Came at a might fine price!

Yesterday we explored another mandatory tourist sight "the Monastariki fleamarket" It takes place in the normal place of the fleamarket except on Sundays the amateurs come to Town. They fill the open spaces of the market and some of the nearby streets swelling the number of dealers/vendors twice normal size. Of course three cruise ships were in the City and the number of 'lookyloos' swelled as well making it almost impossible to walk at your own pace. This event came after us watching the Weekly Changing of the Guard at the Parliament Buildings. On Sunday they put on a bigger pageant and a Band and the Platoon performing the Sentry Duty is there as well. The video shows the parade as it marches from the Barracks to the Parade Square and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. These soldiers are wearing the White traditional uniform, on other days they wear the Khaki No. 2 dress.

Being both walked out and thirsty we moved over to a semi-touristy area - Iroon Square. This is smaller square than most but it is definitely the gastronomical centre of Athens, if you judge it by the number of eating establishments per square inch. Settling into a minibrew pub type of place we wimped out and went commercial - white house wine and a Greek beer. But the people watching was fantastic. This place, the brew house was one hundred metres from the place we ate lunch at yesterday.

That place, the Taverna with the Secret Garden, takes over the whole street with its tables. A bit of a shock to find the traffic doesn't doesn't stop for the diners, but it was worth it as we said in a FB post, "I would pay for this view even if we weren't eating here!"

But back to today. This morning at breakfast were discussing what to do when we return from Santorini on Friday. Finding a tourism booklet in the lobby we decided that a trip to Corinth and a wine tasting trip would be good. Told on the phone to book online the credit card we had was not acceptable so jumping on the Metro, it is so easy to get tickets and being of that age we qualify for a half price ticket; this way to travel certainly is the better way! Arriving at the travel agent we were told "You should have booked at the Hotel!" Anyway we paid cash and then because we down near the sight Ben decided to see "Socrates's Prison". Following the map we found it - just yards away from the bus stop we had waited at for so long on the first day.

Back on the Metro four stops later we were at the NAM. Some guide books tell you that a day is not long enough to see it all. I guess it wouldn't be if you were on the tour that we passed several times as we circled the rooms to get the next rooms. Those poor tourists had glazed eyes well before this guide finished explaining each item in the cases! Anyway we zipped through in about three hours, took plenty of pics and enjoyed the place. At least these artifacts were in the air conditioning no in the day's temp of 32 C.

A few of the pics I took, I think Ancient busts are so interesting - that's why there are so many of them in my photo collection: