Today, this website is in English!
Hello from Athens, loyal readers.
I haven't been having a busy day. I didn't sleep well last night, plus this jet lag thing is still messing with me. By 8:30 enough people had been up and moving around in our room that I was fully awake. I decided that I didn't want to do the whole Acropolis thing today, since I wanted to enjoy it and not be a zombie. So I had a leisurly brekkie, and then went off in search of a little museum about traditional Greek instruments. It was pretty cool. They made guitars with turtle shells as the large part. They had a few violin-like instruments on display, with very ornately carved heads. One had a full bull's head, and another had a human face, and the tongue was one of the pegs that adjusted the tension on one of the strings! That amused me. They also had some tambourine-like drums, that seemed very similar to native Cdn ones. They also had sheep-stomach bagpipes. Bagpipes were introduced to Greece from Asia, in about the 2nd century.
After the museum, I went walking down a street that seemed to be like a combination of Kensington Market and Yonge. Yonge for the suitcases on the sidewalk, stores expanding their displays outward, and Kensingston for the little markets. I bought some fruit and some bread.
After aimlessly wandering for a while, I went back closer to the hostel and walked through the National Gardens. Lots of twisting and turning paths. Trees, benches.. it was nice! But humid. It's 27 degrees here today.
Random things I noticed:
-bus crossed with streetcar: proper tires, no tracks, but runs on wires and must follow them
-at least three of those music-making carts that people associate with a monkey turning the crank
-every "street," no matter how small, has a name and is on the map. So if you need the 3rd on the right, count every possible turn-off you pass! In trying to find the music museum I ended up somewhere that I wasn't sure how I ended up there.
I'm wishing I knew a little more Greek than I do. I saw this beautiful building with a mural of the pantheon, statues, etc, but couldn't figure out what the building actually was. Oh well.
7 comments:
Sounds like a fun first day! Have you met anyone in the hostel to do stuff with? Are you feeling safe in your journies around the city alone?
So three music-making carts, but no monkeys?
Are you taking lots of pictures?
Those "buses crossed with street cars" are also known as trolley buses. There were lots of them in Wpg when I was a kid!
can you please take a picture for me of one of the milk-vans that are called metaphor?
I am overwhelmed already by where you are (so quickly) and what you are seeing and experiencing. D
Wow, Mom and Dad posting comments on a blog... never thought I'd see the day! :P
Okay I am a little late on the whole reading your blog, sorry, but I am interested. In Boston we have the buses you speak of. Well not Boston itself, but the suburbs, we call them trackless trolleys, we thought they were weird at first too.
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