What a city. We reached our city campsite on Wednesday around 2 p.m. and quickly agreed that we didn't want to deal with the stress of the city at 26°C that day. So we stayed completely relaxed at the campsite and just took care of ourselves and enjoyed a delicious dinner to our taste. We had wraps with homemade falafel.
The next day unfortunately wasn't as sunny as we were used to. We experienced the first rain after three weeks of sunshine. But that's typical for our city visits. And let's not complain about the weather.
After fighting our way to the Acropolis station by bus and subway, we were rewarded with a very impressive view of the Acropolis. It's really unbelievable how people built these huge buildings almost 2500 years ago on the hill in the center of today's Athens.
The Acropolis was originally a city fortress. In ancient times, people built city fortresses on hills to defend them well against attackers. Pericles, one of the leading statesmen of antiquity, had the city rebuilt after the destruction of Athens by the Persians. Between 467 and 406 BC, the Propylaea, Erechtheion, Temple of Nike and Parthenon were built on the nearly 160-meter-high rock. The Parthenon is probably the most interesting and also the most famous building of the Acropolis. At that time, it housed a 13-meter-high statue of the goddess Athena made of gold and ivory. The Acropolis has been occupied and redesigned for its purposes by other cultures over the centuries. For example, under the Romans in the Middle Ages, additional buildings were added. In the 6th century AD, the Panthenon temple was converted into a Christian church, and in 1456, under Ottoman rule, it was converted into a mosque. The disaster for the Acropolis came in 1687 from the Venetian bombardment. The Panthenon was finally destroyed.
During our exciting visit to the Acropolis, we also noticed other impressive buildings, such as the Dionysus Theater. It was the most important theater in ancient Greece and was named after Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy, as well as madness. It was huge back then. Unfortunately, not much is left to see today.
Or the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It's a theater at the foot of the Acropolis rock. It can accommodate around 5000 people and has been regularly used for events such as concerts since the 1930s. It serves as the main venue for the Athens Festival.
After our visit to the Acropolis, we continued with a very leisurely food tour (half strolling, half indulging). We wandered aimlessly through the city and ate or tried anything that looked delicious.
During the food tour, we passed by the Panathenaic Stadium. It is the Olympic Stadium of the first modern Olympic Games (1896) and was built as a reconstruction on the foundations of the ancient stadium.
We also found a small side street that was decorated by artists. Due to Halloween week, it was transformed according to the theme. ;-)
The second day in Athens started with something more practical for us. It was laundry day again. At least for the 40°C laundry. And since the campsite had extra sinks with built-in washboards, we washed the laundry by hand, like the Greeks did in ancient times.
We went back to the city for a stroll around noon. Later, we visited the Acropolis Museum, which was really worth it. It gave us a particularly good impression of how the Acropolis was built and rebuilt in the centuries before and after Christ, and how it was destroyed. Among other things, we got a very detailed impression of what the Panthenon must have looked like in all its splendor.
For the third day of our stay in Athens, we treated ourselves to something extraordinary. It was a belated birthday gift for Kerrin. We booked a local guide on the internet who took us on a 3-hour culinary tour of Athens. We can only recommend anyone to do something like this in such a city. It was awesome. Our Greek guide's name was Thudoris and he was 41 years old. He spoke fluent German and was in a really good mood. He took us to Athens' largest weekly market and we were able to try delicious local products at various stalls. He gave us tips on where to find really good home-cooked meals and where the locals like to meet for a chat, playing, and of course, drinking shots.Then he took us to a small shop with a small deli counter where we had a delicious, typical Greek meal at the table with him. In addition to the typical Greek salad, there was a sausage platter, bread, sheep and goat cheese, white and red wine, as well as tasty raki and rakilikör. Oh boy, we were already getting drunk! After leaving the shop slightly tipsy, we continued our journey across the city. We passed through an arts district and beautiful streets where life was buzzing. In a very popular rooftop bar among the Greeks (a bar on the roof of a building), we had a cappuccino together. In another restaurant, we had one of the best souvlaki in the city, according to Thudoris, at least. We can confirm this, even though we don't have much to compare it to. ;-) The tour ended with a truly delicious dessert. It was a very fun and relaxed tour, and you could tell that Thudoris did it with great passion. Simply amazing! The following day, we used as a travel day because we looked at the weather forecast and found that there would be no nice weather for the next two weeks. But since we still had a destination in northern Greece that we really wanted to see, we headed there directly. We wanted to visit the Vikos Gorge in the Pindos Mountains. And so we did. We drove up to Vradeto, one of the original villages high up in the mountains near the Vikos Gorge. We arrived there in the early afternoon and went directly on a short hike to one of the viewpoints. And what we saw... well, see for yourself.... well, see for yourself. ... Almost only fog. :-(On the way back to the car, something very strange but not entirely unknown happened to us again. A nice woman and her husband drove past us in their car and asked us to jump on the back of the pickup truck. They would give us a ride for the last part because the weather had gotten so bad. When we arrived at our car, the woman invited us to accompany her home. She lived in the village of Vradeto and owned a small tavern that she only operates in the summer. She could only speak a few words of English and it wasn't always easy to understand each other immediately, but she was very warm-hearted, that was clear. She immediately lit the fireplace and then stood by the stove. After coffee and tea, we had Greek salad, fried eggs, feta cheese, and bread. Damn good.Her husband didn't speak any English at all, which didn't stop him from joining in any conversation. It was delightful with them. When they understood that we were sleeping in the car, even in freezing temperatures ;-) , they even offered us to stay at their tavern. But we gratefully declined at around 10°C outside temperature. However, they didn't let us leave until we agreed to another invitation for breakfast. The lady's name was Eleni and she took care of us like a mother, even though she didn't know us at all. Kerrin even received a hand-knitted necklace from her. The breakfast the next morning was also delicious. To warm up, Eleni placed the table this time right in front of the fire. From her point of view, those were already wintry temperatures. So, if any of you ever pass by Vradeto, make a stop at Eleni's tavern. ;-)We continued with the Bulli to other viewpoints in the mountains after breakfast, and lo and behold, we caught a few more beautiful views. After a lunch break at the restaurant, we decided to continue our journey north through Albania, Montenegro, and Croatia, leaving Greece behind us with a slightly tearful eye. The weather became really bad as soon as we left Greece, and we basically just drove through Albania. And just to keep things exciting, we'll add another picture here. We don't know anything specific yet, and we will report back next week. :-(
