Changing of the Guard

Plateia Syntagma (Constitution Square) is the central municipal seat of government, where the Hellenic Parliamant, the Presidential Mansion and the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are situated.

These key government and historical installations are guarded by members of the Proedriki Froura (Presidential Guard), also known as Evzones (singular – Evzoni). Evzones are apparently selected based on physical attributes: only the tallest and handsomest in the mandatory Greek military service are selected. The elaborate ceremonial attire worn by the evzones draws its roots from the rebels who won the War of Independence for Greece (1821-1832). The short white poofy skirt apparently has 400 pleats symbolizing the years under Turkish rule!

Every hour, a changing of the guard ceremony takes place, rain or shine, in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

View of Syntagma Square from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Evzones marching in for the changing of the guards

An elaborate marching ceremony ensues where the previous guards handover to the incoming guards

Coordinated marching in their elaborate traditional uniforms. Love the fuzzballs on the clogs! :)

Evzoni are not allowed to blink, move or pose for pictures without the head guard's permission. So even if the guardhouse next to them goes up in flames, they are not allowed to move from their position! Visitors are also not allowed to make funny faces or instigate a reaction from Evzones on duty otherwise the head guard will come at you!

The Acropolis

In spring semester of freshman year, I registered for Classical Greek Archaeology as one of my electives. Twice a week, I’d spend 1.5 hours sitting in a rather dank, windowless basement classroom of the library, poring over pictures of sarcophagus, koroi and various ruins, learning the architectural and design period they belonged to, and wondering what I’d ever do with this information in my head.

10 years later, I stood before the Parthenon on the famed Acropolis. Vague memories of time spent studying pillars and carvings suddenly came to life as I slowly tried to pull out the differentiation between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian pillars from the dark recesses of my ageing mind.

The Parthenon was exactly how I imagined it would be, from the days that I had spent staring it from a glossy coffee-table book that doubled up as my textbook. You know how some legendary must-see-before-you-die sites in the world end up being disappointing compared to the reputation that they’ve acquired (eg. Mona Lisa in the Louvre)? Not the Parthenon. The grandeur of those white pillars that have weathered thousands of years, standing tall and proud on the top of the rock overlooking the rest of Athens...it deserved the fame that surrounded it. We were even lucky enough to get free entrance without planning for it! It was likely due to the Easter open house special or something like that since we went on Holy Saturday. Not complaining!  

Built in 5^th century BC (before Christ!!) during the Golden Age of Athens, the temples on the Acropolis Rock were built to honour Athena – the Goddess after whom Athens was named.

Pity the Ottomans and Venetians destroyed parts of the Parthenon during various stages in history, ending with Lord Elgin sneaking off a whole load of the metopes, friezes and sculptures to England in the late 19th century.

Greece is now making it a political stand, cloaked in cultural and historical claim to identity, to demand the return of the stolen marbles known as the Elgin marbles (now housed in the British Museum in London).

The Parthenon on the Acropolis Rock - view from the roof of our Herodian Hotel at night. Too bad didn't have a tripod to get a sharper shot.

 

Hand painted sign pointing the way to the Acropolis amongst the winding roads in Athens neighbourhood.



Herodes Atticus Theatre - a later addition to the Acropolis structures in 161 AD.

View of Athens from the Rock

Incessant tourists making their way up to the Propylaia - the grand entrance through which all visitors must pass through to reach the inner temples.

The Parthenon - the epitome of classical Greek architecture and the finest Doric order temple in its day. The name is dervied from Greek referring to the temple of the virgin Athena, who was represented by a giant gold and ivory sculputre inside. All that remains now of the north facade are 17 columns and some surviving metopes and friezes.

The famous caryatids guarding the Erechtheion. Legend has it that Athena and Poseidon battled for the patronage of Athens at the very spot where the Erechtheion is built. No prizes on who won that battle!
The Erechtheion 's design actually unites 2 separate temples to each of the 2 gods.

Proof of presence! In front of the East pediment of the Parthenon.

Addii and her nike shoe below the Temple of Athena Nike. Gettit??
The temple represents victory and sits next to the Propylaia, perched on the Rock most vulnerable to attack.



The Theatre of Dionysus - or what's left of it. Site of competitions of Greek tragedies and comedies in ancient Greece.

Advice: go early in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the crowds and also a sunburn!

Visit the New Acropolis Museum after for interesting information on the history of the Acropolis, the restoration efforts and the political and cultural efforts to retrieve the missing bits of Greek history from the British.

Easter Triduum - Greek style

Easter in Greece is an interesting dilemma.

On one hand, as a cultural tourist, one expects, and looks forward to, great Easter celebrations given the staunchly Orthodox Christian history and religious identity of the Hellenic state. On the other hand, as a commercial tourist, one also expects the entire country to shut down during this period of first mourning (on Good Friday) then feasting on Easter Sunday. So not the best time to see the sights.

But oh well, we decided to go nonetheless. After all, if we couldn’t visit any sights, we could certainly revel in the Easter mystery with our fellow Christians!

The island of Patmos is supposed to have the most exciting Easter celebrations throughout the entire Greek nation. But we were warned against going there because the rest of Greece would have descended upon it and we would not have seen much but would have paid pockets full of euros for accommodation.

So we scratched that. And stayed in Athens instead.

Plaka, the Old Town neighbourhood of Athens, is dotted with little churches that blend right into the low rise, single storey homes that look like little igloos built into hilly slopes. On every other corner we wandered, we saw a church. Which remained locked during the day (unlike Catholic cathedrals that tend to remain open for sinners to wander in) but which suddenly came alive on Good Friday night.

Having arrived on Good Friday morning itself, we wandered out into the Plaka neighbourhood right next to our amazing Herodian Hotel at the base of the Acropolis to see if we could find some action.

Home made Easter nest hanging above the door to one of Plaka's more exquisite looking houses.

The Plaka neighbourhood - my favourite area in Athens - unusually quiet on Good Friday afternoon.

As night fell, we saw loads of locals streaming into the normally touristy Plaka area, trying to squeeze into one of the many little churches to participate in the Good Friday service. Street vendors leveraged on the opportunity to sell overpriced candles at street corners in anticipation of the candlelight street procession that would soon follow the end of the service.

Addii and I dutifully picked up a candle as obliging tourists – after all, how does one partake of a candlelight procession without a candle??

As we were not able to squeeze into the small little churches, we spent quite some time wandering between churches, peeping through stained glass windows and hanging outside the church compound with other stranded procession-hopefuls and patiently waiting for something to happen.   

The faithful sneakin a peak through the barred windows of a

small chapel  to partake in the Good Friday service by proxy

 

Stranded hopefuls milling outside the church waiting for the candlelight procession to start

Then suddenly, with an intangible surge in the atmosphere, the crowd starting moving. Flames were passed around as strangers lit each other’s candles, and we followed the inevitable squeeze of human bodies as expected. Up and down stairs hewed into the slopes, through winding roads and past other clueless tourists having a late alfresco dinner in the cool spring night. 

 

Lighted Chinese paper lanterns used by locals
during the procession!



The crowded procession making its way through
 the winding streets of Plaka

It never seemed to end though. And after some time of aimless wandering, the crowd started to thin. And saddled with jetlag after having just arrived that morning, we decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.

  

The other thing that we were told not to miss as an Easter specialty was lamb grilled on a spit. All families roast their own lamb for their family meal on Easter Sunday and it is a decidedly Greek thing to do and eat.

So we went hunting for lamb spit.

And lucky us, just around the corner of our hotel, we found an old man with a dead animal skewered above orange coals, and we promptly decided to have our Easter lamb there.

The unfinished product....and 3 hours later....



Sensing my desire to have a go at the lamb roasting, the old man invited me to hold onto the roasting handle then asked Addii to take a photo of us. How spontaneous!

Final product: succulent roasted lamb with fries

And for the more adventurous palate: roasted intestines stuffed with other innards from the same lamb.
Yup. I did say adventurous, didn't I?