Steve Goes to Athens enroute to the Rethymnon Conference on
the Ancient Novel.
I stayed in the Crystal City Hotel near the Metarxourghio
Station of the new Metro, which is awesome. For the 2004
Olympics a new pedestrian zone was created around the
Akropolis, making it easy to visit the sights on foot.
I began my first day near the plaka at Hadrian's Arch and the
Temple to Olympian
Zeus, then onto the Akropolis monuments (theatres,
Parthenon, Erechtheum, views of
the city, etc); then walked through the agora,
where I took some pictures of the mosaics in the
christian
church there. and up to the Theseion (Temple of
Hephaistus). In the agora museum I took some pictures
of the ostraka
collection.
Second day i headed out for the National Museum, again
refurbished for the Olympics with excellent presentation of
Greece's finest antiquities. I saw some very famous
bronze age material, archaic, classical and
hellenistic. The vase collection was endless and full
of important pieces, but without a flash I only
managed a few presentable examples.
I also visited the nearby inscription museum,
where I was saw some familiar lines of Greek. Not many
visitors here, but lots to see.
Lastly, I went to the Kerameikos museum
and site, at the foot of the Akropolis.
Day Three I visited the Benike Museum (no pictures allowed)
and the Museum of Cycladic Art.
Later that day I took off for Crete for the conference and
never took another picture. Good conference!
