Published Thursday November 18th, 2004

Heh.. Wow! Day one in Athens has finished and I feel very constrained.. If every other place I visit is like this, A.) my 20gb portable hard disk will reach its max capacity very quickly, B.) I'll be very busy and overwhelmed, and C.) EEEEEE!

I slept very poorly and horribly this morning. I woke up feeling the exact opposite of what I felt the night before. I wondered what I was doing here and felt like just laying in bed all day..

I got up anyway and went to nibble on some bread for breakfast at around 08.30. By 09.00 I was ready to leave the hotel. With my camera bag and tripod I walked to the Acropolis. Because I was under the age of 19, admission was free.

I explored the surrounding walls below the Acropolis for a while. Saw a theatre, various ruins, and so forth. Having exhausted the trail surrounding the base of the Acropolis, I finally made my way to the top, dodging through hordes of guided tourists and more tourists. It must be absolute hell in the summer seasons..

I made my way about and around the Acropolis. At around noon I found a comfortable niche in the old rock city wall on which the Acropolis stands. There were few tourists around at this time. I sat there and enjoyed the marvellous views. I looked down on the Plaka, or the old-city at the base of the Acropolis where I had eaten dinner the night before, and would do so again later in the day. The buildings of the Plaka are much more aesthetically pleasing than those of much of Athens's multi-storied off-white block buildings.

From my niche, and again later in the day, I had a nice view of most of the city of Athens. Athens appears like a splotch of dripped off-white paint nestled between local mountains to the north, east, and south. The city spreads all the way out to the harbour at Piraeus and to the very slopes of the local mountains. Multi-storied buildings everywhere. Most buildings have at least 3 floors with the exception of most buildings in the Plaka, surrounding the Acropolis. Buildings lead right to the base of the mountains where they stop abruptly. Buildings don't dither up the slopes. There is a clear end to the buildings of the city. No scattered homes up the slopes of the mountains. Really cool picture, or really cool so see.

As I finished resting in my nitch at around 13.00, tourists returning to the Acropolis with their guides, I finished my round around the Parthenon and left the Acropolis walking down in the direction of the harbour. I remembered around 15.00 that humans generally need to eat food in order to not die. For this reason I found a restaurant with a nice view of the Parthenon and the Acropolis from below. I ate a Greek salad for 10.80 Euro's.

After eating, I continued wandering (with a destination in mind) and passed by the prison cell in which Socrates was imprisoned. I continued walking until I reached the top of Filopapou Hill. Here, I took many photographs, many in 360 degree sequences. Views down the the Aegean, over to the Acropolis, to the Ancient Agora, and most if not all of Athens. I spent the rest of daylight up there. I found a bench hidden away from the wind which was very powerful up there compared to the pleasant breeze down in the city.

I sat on the bench, took in the sights and sounds, and took a little nap. At around 18.00 I set up my tripod and camera to photograph the Acropolis throughout the sunset and in the dark. This lasted about 90 minutes. Another photographer also joined me, but we spoke very little to each other.

Today I photographed the Acropolis facing the east, tomorrow I'll face west from another hill.. Assuming I can find out how to get there and that my plans don't change.

While photographing throughout the sunset, horns and cheers rose up from a stadium don in the city where there must have been some sort of sport event taking place..

Church bells here sound and ring differently than in less Orthodox, more Catholic nations I've visited. They chime a ding-dong-ding [pause] ding-dong-ding [pause] ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong-ding! The bell tones are also different. They seem to be smaller bells producing higher more tight pitches than larger bells would.

Walking about these monuments (there was a monument on top of Filapapou Hill, of course) and especially in the Acropolis, the rock on which one walks on is extremely smooth and worn down, immediately jagged and rough where fewer tourists thread and have walked in the many years past.

At around 20.00 in pitch dark (as dark as it was going to get in a city.) I headed back down the hill and made my way southwest to the beginning on one side of the Plaka. Local Greek music played from various corners, the weather in the comfortable range of 21-26 degree Celsius. It was rather peaceful walking along the small streets littered with shops left and right.

I found a restaurant called Daphnes and had read a bit about it in my Frommers guide on Greece. Unfortunately there were absolutely no tables left and the waiting time was until closing.. So I continued walking and found some other restaurant on the corner of a street. The restaurant looked like a mob front with all the waiters and hosts being male in suits and greased, combed-back hair. Behind me sat a Swiss couple, and this time they were actually speaking Swiss-German.

After paying 27 Euro's for dinner, I moved onwards, heading back towards my hotel. Athenians all seem to be out at night.. Many more people were around than in the morning.

On my way, I came across some "hippies" with Rasta-dread locks dancing around to bongo-drums, throwing around torches and other flaming objects. I watched them for a while until continuing back to my hotel.

After buying some shampoo, because my hotel room didn't have any, I took a shower and then called my family in the U.S.A. for 30 minutes. Now I am here writing this.

Interestingly enough, the channel which my T.V. with its UHF receiver receives clearest is RTL, a German channel.. Ey? Heh..

Well then, I'm off to bed for another days adventure.. I, and my body are exhausted. If it wasn't for my nap on a marble-slab bench on Filapapou Hill, I would be sleeping now due to the lack of energy.

Note that photos in this entry have not been altered and could possibly use some white-balancing, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue adjustments among other touch-ups.