Yasas Travelers!
As my trip around the world has now started I'm almost posting live from the things I see and experience. Yesterday night I arrived in Athen and after some struggle finding a good guesthouse I'm now settled down for a few days and I made already my first trip today. As you probably already saw it in the title and on the cover picture - I made my way to the world famous Acropolis!
Like in every other of my travelreports I will only share my very own and honest experience about this monument and trip.
How to get there?
As Athen offers a great Metro-System you can go to Acropolis from pretty much every part of the City. The location is in the center of the capital so there are a few choices you have.
- Metro: 1 day city ticket 4 Euro (Except Airport Line) - Just take the Exit at Atropolis
- Walk: If you live around the center its typically a walk between 15 - 30 mins
- Taxi: I've heard that Taxis are quite cheap in Athen but I can't tell from my own experience (As I always try to avoid them). Just make sure to negotiate the price before you take the ride
Entry
Tickets can be bought at the big square in front of the monument. The official ticket prices were different to the ones I saw online:
- Adults - 20 EURO
- Children and Students - 10 Euro
- Opening Time Mo - Sun 08:00 - 20:00
- Queue Time was around 30 mins at 9 AM
There are also other options which includes a guide or audiobooks for the visit. The online ticket sells are mostly higher from what I've seen.
At the ticket sell you can also take a map for free which pretty much replaces a guide if you don't want to go into detail too much. The Map looks similar to this one:
Acropolis
The Acropolis (City on the Air) is located at the hight of 150m sitting on a rock. The age of this historical monument is about 2500 years old and its now a part of the World Heritage. To find out more about the history I highly recommend you guys to check out the wikipedia page to get more details about this place. There really is a lot to read about and for some of you it may be really interesting.
We will now take the virtual walk together and I will share images of the different spots you will pass:
Theatre of Dionysos
Theatre of Herodes Atticus
After only a few minutes of walk you already get a stunning view over the city. The Theatre of Herodes is currently closed and you can only visit it from the outside.
Temple of Athena Nike
The temple of Athena Nike is right around the corner before you walk into the main entrance Propylaia. By the second image I got really lucky that the sun was shining directly on the temple.
Propylaia
I was super lucky that the sun was shining + a few clouds for a better atmosphere and vibe for all the images. This light really brings out the shapes and structure of this historical constructions.
Parthenon
The Parthenon is by far the biggest of the buildings on the rock. It was originally dedicated to Athena. Unfortunately (Well, for me) it's currently under renovation and you can't get very close to it.
Erechtheion
The Erechtheion - This building was also dedicated to Athena and is also know as the Temple Of Athena Polias
Olive Tree of Athena
Regarding the history books this was the place where Athena planted the first olive tree. The tree you see on the image may not be the original one but it for sure gives this temple a great look.
Something you should know..
I could just leave my tripreport like that but as I want to give you an honest opinion about this world famous monument - There is something I need to tell you..
Looking at the images may give you the illusion that this place was quite empty but it wasn't. It wasn't at all. That was just me walking around like crazy and trying to find angles which had no people on it but let me show you how the actual reality looks like:
This place is crowded! And by crowded I mean there are thousands of people walking around, pretty much an endless seeming queue. And to be brutally honest - I enjoyed watching my pictures 1000x more than being actually there. It's so crowded that you can't really enjoy this place.
Do I recommend this place?
If Ancropolis wasn't such an interesting and historical important place it would be a clear No. And even knowing that, I would never go there again and I can only recommend it to people who are really crazy about the Greek History.
Either way, I'm still extremely happy that I had the privilege to visit this place and I'm super thankful for this. And I sure hope that you enjoyed this little virtual trip with me :))
Best,
Chris
