A Whirlwind in Europe - Athens (Day 3)

It was an early start at 7am. Most hostels provide a free breakfast so don’t miss it! At this hostel, it was some Greek bread, hard-boiled eggs, cereal, milk and juice. A good breakfast was definitely needed for the morning ahead.

I started the morning where I left off the night before…the area surrounding Acropolis.

Following the tour guide map, the first stop was the Odeon of Dionysus…

…and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (it is still a working amphitheater today).

There were many other smaller ruins to see between the two famous Odeon, but it is not possible share them all unfortunately.

Finally, the highlight of the morning has arrived.

Escaping the crowd a little this was a better picture.

The morning sun made it extremely difficult to take a good photo of the front side of the Parthenon, but the back side was nicely illuminated. You can see some of the reconstruction work that was occurring.

Next was the Erechtheion

And the Maidens of Caryatids

So much history, so little room to share :(

Next stop was the Ancient Agora. There was a little Byzantine church at the entrance to the Ancient Agora.

The Stoa of Attalos is an piece of absolute art.

The sense of style and balance is very evident.

Outside the Middle Stoa was an immense structure if you can use a little imagination.

A little up the hill, the Stoa of Zeus was one of the most well preserved ancient Greek structure.

After an hour at the Ancient Agora, my plan was to visit the Roman Agora. However, another wrong turn took me in the wrong direction. Instead, I found another site from the same time period that was under excavation.

A stroll to the plaka was in order to get some fresh fruits, bread and lunch…and of course to appreciate some of the local scenery…

…and to get fresh bait at the fish market!

My next leg of the trip would take me to a Saronic island called Ydra where I would concentrate on catching some unique Mediterranean fish species.

This was all the Athens I managed to take in for the short evening and morning. Next time I would like to visit other ruins as well including Delphi and the temple of Poseidon. I would definitely return to mainland Greece in the future.