A Greek Summer – Athens day 2, part 1 | alison richards

Day 2 in Athens started predictably early. I wanted to get out and wander around before the heat built up.... plus I always like beating the other tourists. My hotel was over by the Psyrri district so I had a look around there first. I didn't feel really safe walking through there in the night time and usually took another route to my hotel, but in the early morning it looked really interesting! There was a variety of interesting graffiti, plus some of the streets were really colourfully decorated.

From there I walked through the Monastiraki area. As an Australian, I don't think I will ever get used to seeing things that are SO OLD just in the middle of a city. It was like that when I first went to Rome, and like that again in Greece. I mean, these stone buildings and structures have stood for centuries upon centuries, and they are still there and the artistry that is on them in the carving is still visible and beautiful. Oh the history gets me every time. I also walked past a few Greek people setting up their stalls and shops ready to sell all manner of things - from fruit and veg to tourist trinkets, hats and cool drinks.

This little Greek lady put out these trinkets every morning

Sleeping on the cool marble of Hadrian’s Library (AD 132)

Tower of the Winds, an octagonal marble building. Built between 200 BC and 50 AD depending on who you listen to

The door to the Medresse, with its Islamic decoration

I wandered through the Plaka, my absolute favourite area of Athens, to the Arch of Hadrian, where I watched a group of crazy runners in the heat... It wasn't even 10am and already hot! From there, I went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, where I paid to go see the monuments. The thing that I love the most about old architecture is the amount of detail that they put into it and the care the old artisans went into making columns and bits of buildings. Buildings are just not made with the same level of detail as that any more, and the idea that you make a building look beautiful just because... well that's totally lost on modern buildings. So I was fascinated that, not only had these amazing human structures lasted the test of time (these columns were at least 1800 years old), but that the carved details survived. I've never really learned much about ancient Greece, but what remains definitely gives you insight into just how advanced they were.