Exploring Athens: Part 3

Last night I had a my most enjoyable night out so far, although it involved little more than a meal and a couple of beers. It was memorable largely down to heading out with my dorm-buddy Robert     (a teacher) from Ireland. He and I were the only two occupants of room 12 from the torrid hotel Fivos and so naturally we conversed and found several topics of common ground. Travel, unsurprisingly, being one of them. This banter then spilled out to the streets which then led to some Mousakka and Greek salad. Well, it wasn’t going to be a Roast dinner was it…

Robert was at the end of this short trip and I was at the beginning of my (hopefully) longer trip. He spoke of how lucky I was to be doing this but of course I already knew this. Still, it’s massively inspiring when you hear an equally impassioned traveller express such emotion.

Back to today though as this is my final day of exploration Athens and I still have seen other notable attractions to visit, namely: The Temple of Olympian Zeus and The Panathenaic Stadium.

As Kate suggested on Instagram the other day, ideally I would be looking to head North to Thessaloniki and Halkidiki territory meaning I wouldn’t be leaving mainland Greece just yet. I would also really like to ‘island-hop’ in this part of the Med. Did you know that Greece claims over or around 200 inhabitable islands!!! Over the years I’ve gone on holiday countless times to the Balearic and Canary islands but the Greek islands have always escaped me. One thing is for sure though: I very much plan on returning to Greece to accomplish the above and perhaps by that point, some of you will be ready to join me for a few days…

Oh, as to why I’m departing Greece, well I have made another arrangement of sorts. I’ll update you with details in the next day or so. We will also be able to see if anyone from my farewell party has correctly drawn second place to receive that bottle of Champagne!

But before all of that, let me show you some of today’s impressive structures, starting with The Temple of Olympian Zeus:

Zeus1

Zeus2

Z3

Portrait1        Portrait2

Zeus4

Portrait3       Portrait4

The Panathenaic Stadium:

It was the Panathenaic Stadium, which hosted the 1st Olympic Games of the modern era, in 1896. However, its history goes way back and before then.

Stadium1

Stadium2

Stadium3

Stadium4       Stadium5

Walking down the tunnel with the audio tape playing crown noises really gave a small insight to what it was like exiting the tunnel and entering the arena to the 60,000 fans.

Stadium6

I hope to soon find the time to write a conclusion to my week in Athens so until then, friends.


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