Athenian Acropo-Lips

For all my theatre cronies, I had to throw this one in there. Holla to Ya! The Theatre of Dionysius.

The Akropalis from afar.

The Greece Crew- Anna, Grant, Me, Kristin. This was taken at the Athens Airport; it's very old and a little crumbly & outdated.

Acropolis. So easy to write yet so difficult to say. It always comes out Acropolips when I say it. Whatever, it's all Greek to me. Given the choice of paying 13 Euros to have a guided tour through Athens, or pay nilch to have a private tour of Athens, we went for the latter. And I think we saw it all in that solo and sunshiney day. After eating an entire loaf of bread for breakfast, by myself, we walked past the mangy dogs and street peddlars selling bic pens (the peddlars were selling the pens, not the mangy dogs) to the Acropalis. I was tempted to buy a pen, but then I remembered my fingernails were long enough to scratch into paper. (Where did that come from?) In Syntagmata square I was offered marijuana, but again the Temptation Reduction Chairwoman suggested I pass on grass, and having never failed me for advice before, I heeded (to my friend, not the drug dealer). It makes you wonder though, what about me screams, "Drug User." Perhaps I should cut my fingernails a little.

Athens has many ruins, some of them of a modern nature, and the more impressive ones of a prehistoric make-up. We passed both notions but only stopped at the Acrapolis complex (maybe Acroppolis isn't so easy to write...) As students studying in London, we got free admission to all the sights, meaning we had money to buy three Skype minutes and call one of our parents to say "Hello! We've been on a gay, nude beach for three days. But don't worry, we left for Athens- where we got offered free shots at our hostel bar, and marijuana! Hope all is well at home!"

The Accroplis is aridly awesome and dryly distracting. Most of the Temples are on the top of a fortified precipice, anciently guarded by Cherubims and altitude, and currently protected by hot and homeless dogs and historic site personnel. We perservered though the gates only by boastfully flashing our International Student Cards, which we treated like police badges wrapped in silken gold, for that is what they were in Europe. They gave us access to everything, including a meet and greet with James Bond. The most spectacular thing about the Ocrapolis was its history. Many of the buildings were from 100 B.C., and still standing. That very fact brought much more significance to the structures and made them incredible in my eyes. I saw the Temple of Nike (yea, we just did it), the Temple of Zeus (which ironically got partially knocked down by a storm; perhaps there was lightening?), the Parthenon, the Theatre of Dionysius and many, many other sights that were very ruinous but not as noteworthy. There were water fountains everywhere, and vending machines juxtaposed to the fountains, selling only water. The water was cold and apparently quite memorable. The sites of Athens were hot, dry, and very spectacular.