Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Athens

  • Athens – Jazz Burger

    I walked by this restaurant, which is outside of the city centre and it looked welcoming and after a quick check of reviews, I went in. It has some stylish and on-trend branding, although it appears to have been trading for quite a few years.

    I didn’t understand the ordering process, but I suspect that you’re meant to order at the counter. I’m unsure because one other group ordered at the counter and went to sit down and another group had the order taken at the table. Either way, the service was friendly and helpful when I went to the counter.

    The restaurant was clean and comfortable inside, but there were no English menus, so this must be predominantly a location visited by locals. The restaurant also only has a Facebook page and no web-site, so I couldn’t use Google Translate to decipher it for me. I can work out the ingredients in most European languages, but not in Greek since I’m not versed in the Greek alphabet. Although, the name of the burgers were in English, but they were generic names and not ones that hinted at the ingredients. The staff member spoke sufficiently good English to ensure that, with some of my pointing, that all went well.

    A brioche type bun with a generous sized burger, with what I think were mustard and tomato sauces. The quality of the burger was exceptional, almost melting in the mouth. Absolutely excellent. In many ways I’m glad that I picked the basic burger, as it highlighted just how good the meat was.

    The onion rings were a decent portion and tasted fine, although were nothing particularly different or anything to write home about (although I’m writing it here, which confuses my comment somewhat). The Fanta was, well, Fanta.

    Incidentally, I think that the restaurant is popular with on-line orders, given the number of burgers disappearing out of the door during my visit.

    Overall, this cost just a bit over £5 for the burger, onion rings and drink, and I felt that the quality was all well above average. If I was local to the restaurant I might visit it more often. But I’m not, so I won’t. But hopefully lots of other people do, as this would be a marvellous small chain of restaurants if they opened a few more. If they wanted to, sometimes just one is enough.

     

  • Athens – Lord Byron Statue

    I didn’t know that Lord Byron had anything to do with Athens (I didn’t actually know much about him at all if I’m being honest), let alone that some people thought that if he had lived then he might have become the King of Greece.

    Byron, a complex character to say the least, sold his estate to give money to the Greeks to fight the Ottoman Empire. The money raised from that, combined with his other savings, came to £20,000 which was an enormous sum in the early nineteenth century.

     

    Byron died in Greece in 1824 at the age of 36 in what was an eventful life. He is a hero to many Greeks, hence the statue next to the country’s National Park. The statue is technically though called Greece expresses her gratitude to Byron.

  • Athens – Cats at Museum Sites

     

    There are a lot of cats in Athens and many seem to like the spacious open air historic sites where they can meander about. Or some are instead luxuriating on stones like some ancient Gods. They add a certain charm to the sites though….

  • Athens – Temple of Olympian Zeus (Main Temple Building)

    The project to build what would have been the greatest temple known was begun in the sixth century BC, but it took nearly 650 years for the work to be completed. Sounds a bit like Brexit. But anyway, moving on from politics, the temple was dedicated to Zeus, the God of Thunder and also the head of the Olympian Gods. Incidentally, it’d irritate me to be a God and then have to answer to someone else, but that’s another matter.

    The temple would have been enormously grand for the time, and indeed it remains an impressive sight nearly two thousand years on. The work was finished in the second century AD and it involved a substantial amount of effort to quarry for the marble, get it here and then erect it.

    There were 104 columns and they all stood 17 metres tall, with the temple standing on a platform that measured 108 by 41 metres. That’s one sizeable building project.

    In 267AD there was a Barbarian invasion of Athens and the temple was seriously damaged. If I was a Roman I’d be bloody angry at this, after all that time building it, then it was ruined. Clearly quite a few Romans were angry as they didn’t bother repairing it, not after all the effort in building it.

    So for the next few centuries the site was quarried for the marble and other materials. Although there’s an interesting story about that, as no-one (or at least no-one to my knowledge) is quite sure where they were used. If there were eighty or so columns pulled down for building materials, then where are they? It is possible that they were used to make lime, although it’s surprising that some traces of the missing columns hasn’t been found.

    By the medieval period there were only 21 columns left and the Turks demolished a few more for building materials, with the last one being pulled down in 1759. The section with two columns was used as a dwelling house for some time, which might have helped to save them.

    Today there are fifteen columns left standing and there’s one which is still left sprawled across the ground from when it collapsed in an 1852 storm. There is a project to protect the entire site and there is talk of reinstating the collapsed column. If a column fell today it’d likely be put back, so perhaps there is a good case for doing this since all the bits are still there….

    I’m not sure what this seemingly random collection of stones is, perhaps it’s part of the restoration.

    I’m reminded of my visits to Malta a few weeks ago, where they produced a large volume of documentation for most of their historic sites. The Athens heritage authority haven’t burdened themselves with this heavy responsibility, instead deciding that one single sign with three paragraphs of information will be sufficient to explain this site.

    There are several TripAdvisor reviews commenting on this situation, such as:

    “This is one of the largest of the ancient monuments in Athens. It’s very impressive, but there is absolutely nothing to be gained in paying to enter the site. The information is almost non existent and you can see everything that you need to from outside the site. Save you money and do that.”

    and:

    “Only worth it if you bought the combined ticket that gets you into many attractions. Otherwise its literally only an empty field with a few columns, no signboards whatsoever. Would definitely not pay to enter here.”

    I have one of those combined tickets and I must admit to being very impressed by the site, but underwhelmed by the museum’s efforts here. And I’m also surprised that this isn’t a UNESCO World Heritage site given the history.

    Anyway, a truly stunning site and I’m glad that at least some of the columns have survived through the centuries.

  • Athens – Roman Bath Site

    There they were in 1995, some builders, quite happily starting work on a new ventilation shaft for the city’s metro system. And then they discover this, an entire baths structure dating from around the third century AD.

    The site, which was opened up to the public in 2003, is near to Hadrian’s Arch and is freely visible at any time, primarily because it’s next to a large road (Leoforos Vasilisis Amalias) and it’s difficult to imagine what else they could do with it.

    The planned ventilation shaft was moved to the south of the site, since there was a huge heap of archaeology in the way, and it’s thought that there’s more of this structure under the National Gardens.

    The original baths were badly damaged during some raid, of which there were a lot, but they were reconstructed in around the fifth to sixth century AD.

    Dating from the Byzantine period, some of the pots used for storing cereals which were sunk into the floor.

    It’s wonderful to be in a city where this sort of history can just be uncovered having been gone unrecorded for centuries.

  • Athens – Hadrian’s Arch

    It’s a slight mystery to me that this hasn’t fallen down. It was constructed in 131AD as a monumental gateway with some people thinking it marked the entrance to the new part of the city, others disagreeing. But such is history…

    I’d add though that a lot of buildings and structures which have been constructed in recent times have already either fallen down or been pulled down, so I have to credit the Roman civil engineers. Although I expect they had a lot of philosophers to help them.

    Anyway, when the Romans left Athens it sort of got abandoned and was left to the elements. There’s some evidence that it was later used as a wall of a church, which might explain why it was protected for so long. The bottom portion of it also became buried down the centuries, which helped to ensure that it didn’t erode away at the base.

    The base was uncovered following an archaeological dig, the entire arch is now visible once again. The downside of this is that the gate has been left open to the pollution of the city, and the stonework and inscriptions have suffered over the last few decades. But, nonetheless, it is remarkable that this structure has survived.

  • Athens – Coffee Joint

    This is Coffee Joint, a corner coffee shop and cafe pretty near to the Acropolis Museum. It’s not perhaps particularly exciting from the exterior, although it’s clean and well maintained.

    The interior of the cafe was functional and clean. I was also welcomed promptly and there was a friendly vibe in the cafe which made it feel a comfortable place to be.

    But the service was impeccable, with two staff members (who I would guess are the owners) who were not just kind and helpful, but were clearly genuinely nice people. The latte was served at the appropriate hot temperature, but without being scalding hot, and had a rich and agreeable flavour. The pastry was offered free of charge by the cafe, which was another positive touch.

    The staff members were conversational, engaging and warm, so I felt that my €3 spent for the coffee was very well spent. I’m very pleased that places like this exist and that owners care so much for their premises, so it’s no surprise to see just how highly this is rated in reviews.

    Quite marvellous and a contender for my most friendly location of the year….

  • Athens – The Greco’s Project

    Centrally located, this restaurant is well reviewed and serves a range of traditional and innovative Greek dishes. I was welcomed immediately on entering the restaurant and offered a choice of tables, so it all felt seamless.

    The interior of the restaurant was clean and comfortable and there are apparently two floors, although I was seated downstairs. The service was attentive and helpful throughout the dine and the two staff members who served me spoke English perfectly. There was quite a difficult customer nearby who asked an inordinate number of questions about the vegetables in the dishes, but the staff member remained calm and understanding throughout.

    This was one of the specials of the day, chicken and pork gyros in pita bread, with tomatoes, onions and sauce inside them, and potato chips on top. It seemed to be more pork than chicken, but the taste of the meat was rich and succulent, with a real flavour. The tomato was perhaps slightly bland, but the meal all worked well together. It was also much more filling than I had expected, a generous portion size.

    The ALFA beer, which is a Greek lager, was served at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature. It’s perhaps not a great product, quite bland in terms of its taste and lacking any distinct flavours or after notes. However, it was inexpensive and was a refreshing drink.

    These two small portions of cake were brought over at the end of the meal with the compliments of the house. A nice way to end the meal which cost around £10 for the food and drink, which I thought was reasonable given the central location of the restaurant.

  • Athens – Views Over the City

    Extensive views, although it’s a bit overcast….

  • Athens – Acropolis (photos from afar)

    I’m visiting, or at least I’m hopefully visiting, the Acropolis tomorrow. Nonetheless it’s quite exciting to see it in advance from afar, although it hadn’t occurred to me just how high a hill I’ll have to climb up to get up there….