In case you aren't up on your Greek, that's Athina, or Athens. I can't believe that I wasn't originally planning on coming here. People say that there are three places you have to go to say you've been to Europe: Paris, Venice, and Vienna. Well, I've done two of the three, and Athina should be ahead of them both. Maybe it depends on who you are, but for me there is nothing like knowing you're standing where the ancient Greeks stood over 2000 years ago. It's hard to describe the feeling of sitting in the Theater of Dionysos knowing that 2000 years ago, someone sat there to watch the plays of Aristophanes. It's really hard for me to explain how amazing that felt. Everything else here is amazing as well. Like the caryatids of the Erechtheion.
Truly beautiful. I spent all morning on top of the Acropolis looking at basically three buildings. Maybe it's because I've wanted to come here since I was like 16, but it was so cool to be up there. You also get a good feel for how large Athina is from up there. A city of 3.5 million people, it stretches as far as the eye can see (on a foggy day). I came to Athina to see old stuff. While in Sofiya, I went into a church that had been built during the reign of Constantine. Here, I've been to buildings several hundred years older than that. But surrounding all that old stuff is a big, new city. Full of people selling rip off Prada purses and Rolex watches, huge office and apartment buildings, and lots of traffic. Then right next to the subway station, Hadrian's Library is sitting there behind a fence. After a while, the ruins all seem kind of the same, so I find I'm not taking as many pictures of old crumbled pillars as I thought I would. But it doesn't stop me being blown away as I stand in the Roman Agora where the main commerce of the city took place after 300 AD.
In case you aren't up on your Greek, that's Athina, or Athens. I can't believe that I wasn't originally planning on coming here. People say that there are three places you have to go to say you've been to Europe: Paris, Venice, and Vienna. Well, I've done two of the three, and Athina should be ahead of them both. Maybe it depends on who you are, but for me there is nothing like knowing you're standing where the ancient Greeks stood over 2000 years ago. It's hard to describe the feeling of sitting in the Theater of Dionysos knowing that 2000 years ago, someone sat there to watch the plays of Aristophanes. It's really hard for me to explain how amazing that felt. Everything else here is amazing as well. Like the caryatids of the Erechtheion.
Truly beautiful. I spent all morning on top of the Acropolis looking at basically three buildings. Maybe it's because I've wanted to come here since I was like 16, but it was so cool to be up there. You also get a good feel for how large Athina is from up there. A city of 3.5 million people, it stretches as far as the eye can see (on a foggy day). I came to Athina to see old stuff. While in Sofiya, I went into a church that had been built during the reign of Constantine. Here, I've been to buildings several hundred years older than that. But surrounding all that old stuff is a big, new city. Full of people selling rip off Prada purses and Rolex watches, huge office and apartment buildings, and lots of traffic. Then right next to the subway station, Hadrian's Library is sitting there behind a fence. After a while, the ruins all seem kind of the same, so I find I'm not taking as many pictures of old crumbled pillars as I thought I would. But it doesn't stop me being blown away as I stand in the Roman Agora where the main commerce of the city took place after 300 AD.
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