The Budget Babe | Affordable Fashion & Style Blog

Savvy Travel: We Adore-a That Agora!

An awe-inspiring journey to the cradle of Western Civilization has the Budget Babe's International Travel Advisor Fifi LaMode channeling the ancients and singing their praises. —TBB


by Fifi LaMode
Athens is great. It's big, it's busy, it's noisy, it's teeming with life. After a 10 hour overseas flight, it's downright overwhelming. We stop at a cafe in Omonia Square, the business hub of the city, sip a cappucino, and people-watch. Stalls abound, selling newspapers, chachkis, whatever. People from just about everywhere converge on this metropolis (a Greek word, you know).

But a different Athens awaits us in the evening. We go to Plaka, and from the ruins of the old city we look up at the Acropolis. My husband suggests we climb to the top. I ask where the cable car is. He says the ancient Greeks had no cable cars. I reply that the ancient Greeks were dead by the time they were my age!

We climb. It looks harder than it is—actually quite a gentle climb. Here we are, the Parthenon, in all its splendor. You've seen the pictures, but it doesn't compare to the reality, actually being in the same place as Socrates, Pericles, Demosthenes, et al. And the view takes your breath away. I'm choked with emotion and can not believe I'm actually here.

All the ancient history and mythology I studied as a child comes back to life in front of me. I touch one of the marble columns and feel it channelling the past. Athens, the birthplace of democracy. It's truly hard to convey in words what it feels like to be here. Looking out over the city, we wonder what it looked like for the ancients when they stood in the same place. It's hard to tear ourselves away.

At the bottom of the hill, we come across the ruins of the Agora, the marketplace, the forerunner of the shopping center. Now it's a tranquil place: There are just columns, some stone benches (where no doubt weary husbands rested while their wives tried on the latest jewelry and sandals), and some sleeping dogs. But it's huge. This was the real center of town in its heyday. The philosophers strolled down its streets with their pupils, along with ordinary citizens going about their day-to-day business.

When we see the crowded streets in the new part of town (actually, practically all of Athens is the new part of town—this is the only old bit), we stop and think what travelers a few hundred years from now will see of this busy city. But for now we ponder how short our time here is compared to the millenia of history we view during our travels. Puts all our problems in a different perspective, doesn't it?

Two hundred years from now, will it matter how much we saved at Macy's last weekend, or whether we saw some new film the first weekend it played? Will it matter 2 weeks from now? So what remains after OUR agoras have turned to ruins? If we live wisely, the same as in Athens: The principles, the philosophy, the art this wonderful civilization passed on to us.

Later that evening, from the roof of our hotel, we look at the Acropolis all lit up. Then we look at the rooftops around us and hear people talking, making dinner, pretty much as they've done for centuries. The more things change, the more they remain the same.....

To complete our visit, we go to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens to see marvelous statues, vases, and other artifacts dating back thousands of years. Suddenly, the modern shops with their trinkets pale in comparison to the art that has endured all these centuries and we marvel at the beauty man is capable of creating. How inspiring!

Tips for the Budget Traveler: Sunday the Acropolis is free! Otherwise you pay 11 Eu's (over 15$!) Athens, despite being very busy and huge, has a remarkably simple, modern and clean subway system. Tickets are 0.80 Eu per ride, so getting around town is easy and cheap. The subways stop at Syntagma Square (a short walk to the Plaka and Acropolis) and Omonia Square (lots of restaurants, hotels and cafes).

The Archaeological Museum is a short walk from Larissa Station or from Omonia Square Station, depending where you start out. The trains even go to the airport (much cheaper than the 40 Eu cabfares). For a nice restaurant/brasserie in the Plaka where you won't get ripped off, try what looks like "Tepina" but it's really Terina (different alphabet, remember?). All street signs in Athens are in both the Greek and Latin alphabet so it's not as daunting as it seems at first glance.

Take another trip with Fifi LaMode. >>
Comments
I would love to be able to go to such a beautiful place so full of history and culture! I can't wait for my chance! :-) Love the descriptions, very vivid!
#1 Peaches (Homepage) on 2007-11-14 13:35 (Reply)
I love Fifi's wardrobe! :-)
#2 pirate jenny on 2007-11-14 14:29 (Reply)
thanks - for Fifi's wardrobe money is no object! :-)
#2.1 The Budget Babe on 2007-11-16 11:52 (Reply)
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