Greece part 4

In the last post we touched briefly on the food. Please make sure that you take full advantage of being here and try the food. Many people say, and I agree with them, that you really can't get a true feel for a culture and a people without eating the food. That means the everyday food that the locals would have. If you can try to stay away from the tourist restaurants because not only will they be pricier in a lot of cases but they will be catering to the palates of the majority of the tourists. Get off the beaten path and find a small local pub or restaurant. I promise that you will not regret it.

Now on to the sites because we came here for the history did we not? I would certainly want to start at the Acropolis.

Here we find the Parthenon which is a temple to the goddess Athena.

Images Copyrighted by Historylink101.com & found at Greek Picture Gallery.

 

There is quite a lot of history here and I would expect to spend at least a full day and perhaps several days depending on your schedule.

Yet another site in Athens would be Agora. Agora means market and it was the site of many famous happening including supposedly being the site where Socrates was forced to drink the cup of poison which ended his life.

Another site would be Kerameikos which is a burial ground that was used to hundreds of years and has some remarkable carvings and statuary including a life size marble statue of a bull with an incredible amount of detail.

What I have here is just a small sampling of what is to be found in Athens and you could easily spend your entire trip just in this one city. I will be elaborating on more of the country in posts that are yet to.

Anyone that has been to Greece or perhaps lives there please feel free to correct anything that I might be wrong on and should you have anything that I should include in my posts including perhaps pictures, I would be glad to do so and will happily give credit for anything that I use.

Greece part 3

So we have finally arrived in Greece. Having just landed in Athens, which is how most people arrive, we now need to head off to our lodgings and perhaps nap a bit depending on how far the trip was and what the time difference is. I personally would probably just arrange things so as to get into Athens around10 or 11 AM and then stay up and sleep that night. I would probably be up from the previous day since, even though I love to fly, I find myself unable to really sleep on planes and I have found that just making the first day in a new time zone just an extremely long one I am able to sleep like a baby the first night and am up and ready to go.

Finding lodging in Athens should have been fairly easy when booking travel since according to europe-cities.com there are 478 hotels in Athens and I am sure with that many hotels you should be able to find something that would be pleasing to anyone.

Athens is a great place to start your time in Greece since the city is home not only to the Acropolis but also to the Olympic venues that were built for the 2004 Olympics giving you not only the wonderful history of the area that gave birth to the Olympics but also the newest structures created in the country for that ancient championship.

Along with the history of the area there is also the food. Perhaps not everyone likes Greek food and you can find other types of food but if you are in another country I believe that it is a necessity to try the local food. The Greek food that you got in a food court somewhere in the United States will likely have only a vague passing resemblance to the real thing. I have thus far not found any food that I will not eat although I do have a number of things I will not go out of my way to order. I am personally looking forward to the time when I can travel to Greece and, among other things, enjoy the food at local restaurants rather than tourist restaurants.

Greece part 2

So we have decided on Greece. How will we get there? Flying is obvious and if you are pressed for time it is absolutely the way to go. If not pressed for time then a cruise of the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea would be the thing. Flying in can have its advantages though because you can get a wonderful look at many things from above depending on the flight path that is used. An example of an approach to the Athens International Airport is at YouTube. I am not familiar with Athens in any way to know if anything famous was flown over during this approach but you get a good view of a lot of the city from the air.

Cruising can also be fun provided you have the time available. Here is a video of the island of Santorini from Google Video. Any way that you plan to get there will have its advantages and I feel certain that you will enjoy the trip regardless of the mode of transport to get there.

Greece

Despite the economic problems that are hitting Greece very hard at the moment I truly would like to travel there someday. Since I, along with many worldwide, cannot afford to do any travel anytime in the near future this will a more or less virtual tour based what I wish to see.

Greece is considered by most to be the cradle of Western Civilization and is also where Democracy, the Olympic Games, Western Literature and many other things come from. Much of modern history owes its existence to Greece. Most if not all of us have or should have heard of people such as Herodotus, Plato, and Aristotle to name a few.

Once in Greece I suspect that you could spend a lifetime just sailing on the Mediterranean or Aegean Seas and exploring the ruins of antiquity that abound there.

Modern Greece of course also holds many charms not the least of which is the food.

With my next post I shall endeavor to go into more detail on how to get there and what should be seen.