History and Hoopoes: a Guide to the Wonders of Athens

Athens is a very unique city, with history readily available for anyone to see. It is like someone pulled the city out of a textbook, and made it come to life. The city does not just showcase the past, it is the past itself meshing with everyday life today. Even the thought of this is amazing, and it is something that works even better in practice. For instance, you can just walk off a side street with a convenience store and find yourself near the ruins of massive temple, with huge columns scattered around the foundation of a massive marble building. While just wandering around is fun, you will probably need a guide to help. I certainly did, after all! While I have no doubt you could enjoy the city without one, seeing a lot of the sights and learning all the history that you can in the time that you are there almost certainly requires a guide. The guide I used, Dimitria, was very nice, and knew a ton about the city. I, for one, highly recommend her tours for anyone interested in learning about the wonders of the city, because her tours can teach you everything you need to know about the city. Her email is dpapadopou@yahoo.com, and, if you would like to schedule a tour, email her.

For my Athens walking tour on the first day, I started in the new Acropolis museum. The way in was paved with glass windows looking down into an excavation site. It was quite impressive, as the museum was not just showcasing history, it was quite literally built on it. Understanding the past is an important step towards understanding the future, making Athens a city of knowledge. The exhibits on the first floor were amazing, with tons of ancient pottery and statues. The statues were particularly impressive, and although some were missing sections, they were still quite clearly excellently made. Most of these statues either depicted mythological Greek monsters, heroes, or Athena, however, some depicted the day-to-day life of Athenians. One particular set of statues once supported the Erechtheion in the place of columns, and one was actually missing for a strange reason. During Ottoman occupation of Greece, the British actually stole one of the columns, as well as some statues and tiles from the Acropolis. These statues are currently displayed in the British museum, and the Greek government is attempting to get the statues back. Until then, however, the museum is leaving an empty slot where one of the statues once stood in order to remind people of what happened.

After learning about the history of the statues, I moved one floor up to examine the statues and tiles once adorning the roof of the Parthenon. There were tons of beautiful tiles depicting a battle between centaurs and humans, and triangular frames filled with sculptures of the Greek gods and the contest for Athens. This particular legend involves Poseidon and Athena competing for Athens. Poseidon gave the city a saltwater well, and Athena gave the city an olive tree. The citizens supposedly chose the olive tree and dedicated the city to Athena. The sculptures were incredible, with some impressive art of the Greek gods. I was actually able to identify almost all of the gods in the sculptures, which I was quite proud of. This level also had a film about the history of the Acropolis, which was quite interesting, explaining the periods of occupation and how the Acropolis became so damaged (a Venetian shot a cannon at it and blew part of it up). The Acropolis was made in the 5th century BC, so it is quite old, and surprisingly well-preserved for its age.

After the museum, I went exploring in the other sections of the city. I left the area where the museum was situated and continued through the old town. The old town (the Plaka district of Athens) was quite pretty, with tons of red tile roofs and beautiful trees set along winding streets. I stopped at the ruins of the temple of Zeus, with massive columns marking where an imposing temple once stood. It used to be designed similarly to the Parthenon, only on a smaller scale, but now it is only a few standing columns and some fallen rubble. I walked back onto the streets and continued walking through the city. Then, I reached the Olympic stadium, and I was stopped dead in my tracks by the massive scale of it. The stadium was an enormous, multi-tiered affair in a giant horseshoe shape. The stadium was quite impressive, with its huge walls and enormous flagpoles, and it is an impressive historical site, even if that history is more recent than the Acropolis (the stadium was built in 1896).

On the way back, I passed through the botanical garden, which contained some pretty birds and trees with huge canopies spread over the path. These birds included, oddly enough, parrots. Yes, you heard me right, there are parrots in Athens. The other strange part is that there are actually a lot of them. It is not just the occasional parrot, they are all around the gardens. The plants in the garden are also impressive, making the area a nice forested park with trees and some flowers. There is even a little pond with some turtles in it. After I left the park, I emerged near the monument to the unknown soldier. This is a monument near the gardens, with an engraved stone wall behind it. This monument is not actually dedicated to a specific soldier, and is instead dedicated to the cost of war. Every hour, there is a changing of the guard ceremony that is quite impressive to watch. At eleven on Sundays, there is a larger changing of the guard, complete with the outfits worn by the military at the time the monument was created. These changing of the guard displays are quite busy, but are an impressive spectacle for anyone willing to endure the crowds.

The next day, I woke up and went on another walking tour with Demetria. This time, I met her outside the Ancient Agora. I just expected some ruins in the Ancient Agora, which would have still been cool, but it had some impressive bird life, too! Specifically, Hoopoes, which are one of my three favorite birds in the world. That is a pretty high bar, considering that there are around 900 species of birds in Europe alone. In case you didn’t know what a Hoopoe is, (and don’t worry if you don’t, most people have never heard of them, let alone know what they are) let me tell you. A Hoopoe is a small orange bird with black and white wings and a massive orange and black crest on their head. They have large, checkered wings, and crests larger than those on a cockatoo, even though the bird itself is about half the size of one. They are beautiful little things, smaller than a dove but larger than a finch, and have so much character. I could have watched the one I found forever, but I wasn’t there for the birds (unfortunately). I went to the temple of Hephaestus next, and it was a beautiful temple, and was still almost perfectly preserved to this day. Another interesting place in the Agora was the prison where Socrates died. Sure, it was just a ruin in the ground, but it is historically significant. On my walk back from the prison, I spotted another Hoopoe walking around near the ruins. An additional unique thing about these birds is that usually, small, colorful birds have smaller beaks. But not Hoopoes, these things have massive beaks that look more suited for wading birds than ground feeders.

After the Ancient Agora, (which I would have stayed in for a lot longer if I could have) I began walking up to the Acropolis. The walk up was quite difficult, with very little heat and a lot of heat. At one point, I found a spot under a tree, and rested there for a little bit, because I knew the shade would be hard to come by. About halfway through the walk, I lucked out and found another Hoopoe on the ground. This one was not particularly shy, and walked towards us, turning its funny little head to look at us, then digging in the ground for more food. This was the most photogenic Hoopoe I found, and therefore my favorite. After the Hoopoe, I continued walking up the hill to the Acropolis. When I reached the gate, I spotted something strange, cats. There were stray cats sunbathing around the Acropolis gate, mostly near the ticket boxes. Once I got my tickets, I began the ascent up to the door, and stopped to see the theater. This theater (dedicated to Dionysus) was quite impressive, and is huge. It actually used to be indoors, but the roof was destroyed, and it is now used as an outdoor theater instead. To this day, the theater is still used for concerts and other performances.

As I crested the final few steps to the Acropolis, I got my first view of the temples on the hill. They were enormous, with massive columns of chiseled limestone and huge stone blocks. The temples would have been cool even if they were smaller, but at the scale that they were built on, they were incredible, filling the hill with huge, magnificent architecture. The temples were extremely impressive, however the Parthenon was still being repaired due to the Venetian cannon shot that hit the temple during the Ottoman occupation, as well as natural decay. There actually used to be a golden statue of Athena in the temple, but unfortunately, that is now gone. Even damaged, however, the temple is an imposing sight, and the setting is amazing, built on a massive hill overlooking all of Athens, giving you a bird’s eye view of the whole city. The Erechtheion was amazing, too, and was also better preserved. This one had the column statues, and had a huge, beautiful olive tree out front. After I investigated the temples, I didn’t linger on the Acropolis for too long (it was far too hot up there) but I did take a good look over the city, and it was an impressive view. Believe it or not, there actually used to be a superstition about the Acropolis, saying that birds did not fly over it. I do not believe birds avoid it because the area is sacred, but rather because of an extreme lack of food on the top of the hill. It just makes more sense that way.

Speaking of food, there was not a lack of good food in Athens, in fact, there were tons of good options. Some of my favorites included Smak (a shop for pengyri, a dish similar to pizza), O Thanasis (extremely tender souvlaki), Portatiph (a treat shop with perhaps the best desserts I had there, with an exceptional bannofe and pistachio velvet cake), Ama Lachei (for tapas, or small shareable dishes and some very cute restaurant cats that would also love for you to share your plates), and 2 Mazi (an excelent dinner place with exceptional dessert). All in all, if you couldn’t tell, Athens has amazing food! A trend in Greek food is that rather than overcomplicating their food, they use simple, high-quality ingredients for most things. Greek food is all about the simple things done well.

Athens is a wonderful city, rich in flavor (metaphorically and literally) and history. If you want to be transported into history, you should go to Athens, as you can get all the beautiful temples and ancient history without losing the convenience of being in a city. It is like traveling back in time, but taking everything from today that you would miss with you. Athens blends the past, present, and future in a very special way, which can be found nowhere else, and should be visited at least once in your life.