My Holidays to Greece, June 2001
Athens - First things first, we went to see the Akropolis. Lots of people, lots of scaffolding, hot, couldn't get very excited about it - never related to Greek history much, blame my teachers, really dry stuff at school! Afterwards we had along walk around the centre of Athens, mainly Plaka, which is the oldest part of town, full of tourists and souvenir shops, but nonetheless probably the nicest part to look at.
National Archaelogical Museum - "one of the largest and most important museums of ancient Greek art". Trust me, it isn't! Large? I don't think so, half of the damn thing was closed and the presentation of the rest was really really bad. I was pretty dissapointed. Those guys should travel to London and have a look how good museums are set-up!
View from the Acropolis over Plaka
Benaki Museum - Now this is a really good museum! Modern, plenty of info, excellent! As ususal, I got the biggest kick out of the pre-historic section, but there was a stunning collection of byzantine art - worth looking at! Luckily I had just finished reading "From the holy mountain" by William Dalrymple, so my excursion into Byzantine history and art was pretty recent and I actually knew what I was looking at. Very good! Big collection of folklore, costumes, furniture - yawn!
But overall this museum is a must-see for Athens! You can find them at
www.benaki.gr
Afterwards we went to the Museum Of Cycladic Art, which was nice, but nothing extraordinary. They had a special exhibition, running until December 2001, "The city beneath the city - finds from excavations for the Metropolitan Railway of Athens". Basically they are extending they metro for the upcoming Olympics and when they started digging, they found all these things.... Nicely done, they show you models and photos of the sites, which gives it a nice twist. To be found at www.cycladic-m.gr
Finally, by metro to Piraeus to catch the hydrofoil ferry to Paros. We staid in Naoussa, in the north of the island, very nice, looked as if it was right out of a brochure, white buildings, blue doors and windows, relatively small, not too many tourists yet, nice shops, I liked it! Also to see are marble quarries, villages with byzantine trails, monasteries, churches and lots of beaches.
Paroika is the harbour of Paros and the ferry hub of the whole of the cycladic islands. Have a look around, we actually found a nice restaurant and there is a pretty good internet cafe close to the harbour. But don't stay there, Naoussa has a lot more charm to it.
"Map of the Cyclades.
Lying in the central Aegean Sea, between the Greek mainland in the west and Asia Minor in the East, just north of Crete, this group of small, barren islands played a significant role in Greek history already during the Neolithic period (5th - 4th millennia B.C.) and till the present day. The Greeks called them Kyklades (Cyclades) because they formed a circle (in Greek kyklos) round the sacred island of Delos. Even today, the visitor standing on the highest peak on Delos is able to see Mykonos to the east, Tenos to the north, Syros to the west and Naxos and Paros to the south."
Southwest of Paros lies its little neighbour, Antiparos, much smaller, calmer, less tourists. The thing worth looking at here is a 70m deep cave with huge stalactites, featuring graffiti hundreds of years old. Pretty breathtaking - the sights and the climb.
Naxos - went to see the castle, museum, cathedral, the remains of the temple of Apollo and and and.... That might be a possible holiday spot for the next time, heard plenty of others say that it is a very nice island to stay on.

               

                          Temple of Apollo near Naxos
Delos - a barren island covered in ancient ruins. Problem - I did not know much about the site or its history and was too hot to fight my way through the terribly unpractical guide they were selling, so it remained a pile of rocks without much interest. Will have to read up on it and perhaps come back one day.....
Mykonos - help, what is this? Knightsbridge transplanetd onto an island, argh! If I want Gucci, Armani and Philippe Patek, I certainly won't look for it on a Greek island! If you are looking for a nice realtively unspoilt Greek island to do some soul-searching, avoid Mykonos like the plague!!! If you want to shop and party with zillions of other tourists, this is the place.
Finally, the end of the holiday and back by ferry to Piraeus, stored my luggage and went shopping for earnest this time. Sales in Athens had started, even better! About 10 books, 7 DVD's, t-shirts, skirts...... Great! I love shopping..... Bus to the airport, bye-bye Greece!
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