Athens and Cape Sounion

Athens / Αθηνα

All the travel marketing for Greece seems to show one of two things: The Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens, or the island of Santorini.

Let me go ahead and get one of them out of the way right now, and the Santorini pictures appear on the page dedicated to that island.

Athens is a great place to start, although it's certainly crowded, and dirty, and noisy. But start there and see the Acropolis complex, wander through the nearby Plaka district, and see the tight cluster of historic sights between the Acropolis and the Plaka.

Sunset lights the Parthenon as seen from below the Acropolis.

Monostiraki's night view of the Acropolis. Savvas and Thanasis are just off to your left.

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There are some great tavernas and sidewalk cafes near the Monastiraki metro station, some with views up to the Parthenon. All of them have views of the busy Athens street life. An especially good one is Savvas (Σαββας), just off the Monostiraki Square toward Syntagma. Thanasis (Θανασις), facing it across the narrow alleyway, is almost as good. The cafes in that area have great food and drink at reasonable prices.

Aphrodite's House has beds in shared and private rooms for not very much:
Aphrodite's House
12 Eynardou Street
(by the corner of 65 Mikhail Voda Street)
Athens, Greece
+30-88-10-589
+30-88-16-574 (fax)
http://www.hostelaphrodite.com/

Aphrodite's House, Athens.

Take the metro to the Viktorias station. Cross the park, continue down the hill on the street that T's into the park. The second stoplight should be Mikhail Voda, turn right. Find the Atlantik grocery store at #65, Aphrodite's House is right behind it. On the other hand, if you're at the train station, you're within a few blocks. Walk east until you hit Mikhail Voda, then turn north (left).

Aphrodite's has a basement bar, but it's about twice the cost of sitting at a sidewalk cafe or taverna in the Plaka district at the base of the Acropolis!

The entry to the Student and Travellers' Inn is the first door here, between the nearest awning and the air conditioner.

I more recently stayed at the Student and Travellers' Inn in the Plaka district. The location, atmosphere, and price are all great. There are several tavernas in the square at the corner, one is under the inn itself. See the tables under the large awning toward the left of this picture.
Student and Travellers' Inn
16 Kydathineon, Plaka,
+30-210-324-4808, -8802,
fax -321-0065,
http://studenttravellersinn.com/

Climb up Filopappos Hill some evening to watch the sun set. Above is the view of the sunset, beyond Athens' port of Piraeus. That's where you the ferries leave for the islands.

At left is what you see looking back toward the Acropolis.

Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.

Cape Sounion / Ακρωτηριο Σουνιο

Take a day trip out of Athens to Cape Sounion. You can take a bus, I think they still leave from near the Viktorias metro station.

Go out to Cape Sounion in the afternoon, and if possible, hang around until sunset.

The Temple of Poseidon appropriately overlooks the sea, with views to the nearby islets of Makronisi and Patrolou. More distant islands of Kea, Kithnos, and Serifos can be seen, and on especially clear days, even Milos, some 97 km away.

Homer mentioned the cape in the Odyssey, saying that the helmsman of the ship of King Menelaos of Sparta died at his post while rounding "holy Sounion, cape of Athens". Menelaos then landed at Sounion to give his companion the full funeral honors of cremation on a funeral pyre.

The original Temple of Poseidon was built of tufa in the Archaic Period, and was probably destroyed in 480 BC by Persian troops during Shahanshah Xerxes I's invasion of Greece in the second Greek-Persian War.

Sunset as seen from the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.

The ruined temple seen today was built in about 440 BC, during the rule of the Athenian Pericles who also rebuilt the Parthenon in Athens and generally never met a public works program he didn't like.

It's a typical hexastyle temple, with six columns of locally quarried white marble on its front portico.

But be careful — make sure that you know when the last bus leaves for Athens, and make sure that you are on it!

Graffiti and Communism

Greece may have been the birthplace of democracy, but it is the retirement home of European communism. Not mild socialism, but full hammer and sickle waving communism.

The Greek economy seems to be based largely on strikes and graffiti.

Some of the very common communist ranting is in the form of professionally produced posters, as seen above. And, as seen at left, the Working Class Proletariat often takes spray can in hand to spread the word informally.

The graffiti is especially an eyesore on the mainland. The islands aren't nearly as befouled by graffiti as the mainland is.

Athens to Paris by Train Back to the start, the origin of the trip
	Athens — Thessaloniki Αθήνα — Θεσσαλονίκη
	Thessaloniki Θεσσαλονίκη
	Thessaloniki — Sofia Θεσσαλονίκη — София
	Sofia / София
	Sofia — Veliko Tarnovo София — Велико Търново
	Veliko Tarnovo Велико Търново
	Veliko Tarnovo — Bucharest Велико Търново — Bucureşti
	Bucharest / Bucureşti
	Bucharest — Gura Humorului Bucureşti — Gura Humorului
	Gura Humorului
	Gura Humorului — Sighişoara
	Sighişoara — Budapest
	Budapest
	Budapest — Prague Budapest — Praha
	Prague / Praha
	Prague — Köln/Cologne — Brussels/Bruxelles — Paris
Also see: Travel in Greece Travel in Bulgaria Travel in Romania Travel in France

Simply finding your way around can be difficult. Many signs are completely obliterated by graffiti. The example at left is actually in very good shape for a Greek sign. It points the way to the Worst Toilet in the World, in Nafplio.

This page is also part of the Athens to Paris by Train series. Start at the beginning to get the background and the details so far.

More pictures! Pick your destination:

Α α Β β Γ γ Δ δ Ε ε Ζ ζ Η η Θ θ Ι ι Κ κ Λ λ Μ μ Ν ν Ξ ξ Ο ο Π π Ρ ρ Σ σ Τ τ Υ υ Φ φ Χ χ Ψ ψ Ω ω Greek language study guide
Athens and Cape Sounion	Meteora	Delphi
Mycenae	Tiryns	Santorini (Thira)
Mykonos	Ios	Paros
Other Islands — Patmos, Rhodes, Naxos, Samos	The Peloponnese — Corinthia and Olympia	Thessaloniki
Greek Food and Drink	Roadside Greek Orthodox shrines	Island hopping by ferry
Greek train travel	Greek bus travel	All the way back to the introduction
		How is the plumbing?
Α α Β β Γ γ Δ δ Ε ε Ζ ζ Η η Θ θ Ι ι Κ κ Λ λ Μ μ Ν ν Ξ ξ Ο ο Π π Ρ ρ Σ σ Τ τ Υ υ Φ φ Χ χ Ψ ψ Ω ω Greek language study guide

Click here for details on a free Greek language course.

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