One of my favourite walks in Athens

One of my favourite walks in Athens is from Makrygianni to Thisio. We take the bus, get off  just before Syntagma and start walking. We did so last week, for the first time this summer.

I like this little side street because it always looks so cool and shady under all those Seville orange trees.

We very soon reached the side of the Museum of Acropolis, just by the Metro station.

Lots of cafeterias around here

We turned left at Dionysou Aeropagitou. The queue for the Acropolis was long

snaking around to the entrance

Lots of sellers of souvenirs on this stretch - this one is selling gold laurel wreaths, the kind that Olympic winners wore on their heads in Antiquity. We saw loads of those during our walk - I can't imagine people wanting to wear them, it's so corny, I guess it's the kind of tourist tat that one buys and then forgets about once back home.

A xylophone player

The Acropolis on our right

not sure what this guy was selling

We reached the main entrance of the Acropolis Museum

a better view of the Acropolis from here

One of the few Art Nouveau buildings that are left in Athens

detail

the entrance

This is such a relaxed walk

some beautiful buildings around here

I like this entrance, and its steps

no crowds anymore, which makes the walk so much more pleasant

another gorgeous building

and another

A reference to Documenta 14

an unusual little church

A good view from here of Mouseion Hill and the monument at its peak

The Philopappou Monument is an ancient Greek mausoleum dedicated to Taius Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappos, a prince of the Kingdom of Commagene.

We have reached the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a stone theatre that was completed in 161 AD and then renovated in 1950. We have been to many performances here, the most memorable being a Mikis Theodorakis concert

This path leads to the second entrance to the Acropolis and I presume this is where all these people are going

We have now reached Apostolou Paulou Avenue

which will take us to Thisio.

The sanctuary of Pan. Excavations inside the underground chamber behind this entrance uncovered a relief chiselled directly on the bedrock depicting Pan, a naked Nymph and a dog. The cult of Pan in caves is well documented in the countryside of Attica during the 5th century BC.

Nice view of Lycabettus Hill from here

The church of St Marina and the Athens Observatory.

At this juncture we left the main road and turned into this side street

as we wanted to visit the Observatory where Adrian Villar Rojas' The Theatre of Disappearance exhibition is staged.

An hour and half later we retraced our steps back to Apostolou Paulou Avenue

turned right at the end of Avenue into Adrianou Street

and went to Kuzina for a delicious lunch.

Good Friday in Greece - Megali Paraskevi



 

 

We decided to spend the evening of Megali Paraskevi, Good Friday, in Plaka, as there is a large number of Byzantine churches in the area.





Plaka is the oldest neighbourhood of Athens, a labytinth of small streets clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis

 

which also affords good views of Lycabettus Hill.



 

 

It's a residential area

 



 

 

full of bars and restaurants

 

 

 

some beautifully restored neoclassical buildings

 

 

 

with a vibrant night life.

 

 

and where antiquities sit comfortably next to the bars

 or can be seen under glass.

 

 

 

 Our first stop was the Byzantine church of Agia Katerini, St Catherine's, built in the 11th century. Its Epitaphios is meant to be one of the most beautiful in the city. (You will find more information on Epitaphios and how Good Friday is celebrated in Greece, here ).  It was extremely crowded and we couldn't get anywhere near the church so we decided to move on to another church.

When we got home we found out that Alexis Tsipras and his family had commemorated Good Friday here, and you can see more about this here .

The next church we visited was the church and monastery of Agios Dimitrios, built in 1600

 

reaching far above the heads of the devout, I managed to get this photograph

 

we moved through the church to the back exit and entered the small courtyard where the cells of the monks are.

This little church is the annexe to

the church of Agios Nikolaos Ragavas, built during the 11th century. It was the first church in Athens to have a bell installed after the War of Independence against the Turks in 1821 and it was the only bell to ring out for Easter in April 1833. The bell was also the first to ring out after the city's liberation from the German occupiers on October 12, 1944.

The queue of people trying to get in was long.

 

The church of Agion Anargyron, better known as the Metochi tou Panagiou Tafou was our next stop.
The crowds were overwhelming even before we could get a glimpse of the church.

We managed to go down the steps and the crowds were even denser.

The church was built during the first half of the 16th century on the site of an ancient temple of Aphrodite and functioned as a nunnery at first.

 

This is where the Holy Fire that arrives from Jerusalem on a special flight is first deposited and then distributed to all the churches all over Greece (you can find out more about this here )

 

 

Moving towards the courtyard was very slow

and once we arrived, things got tricky - it took us ages to move towards the church

and this is the closest we got. And then, nothing. We were stuck. We could not move in any direction. Even after we decided that we were going to give up, we could not do a thing. Stuck. We could not get out. By then it was 9:00 and we knew that the Epistaphios would start moving and people would light their candles - packed like sardines we knew how dangerous this could be. Visions of when I was a child when a woman's hair caught fire from the candle of the people behind her came to mind. We were hot, sweaty, and slightly panicky. It took us absolutely ages to move towards a smaller gate and get out.

We heard later that even though most processions started between 9:00 and 9:30, this church's  Epitaphios could not get out for the crowds. It was delayed by at least one hour.

Our next stop was a tiny church, Katathesis tis Timias Zonis tis Theorokou and Agios Spyridon,

its Epitaphios had already moved off so the little church was relatively empty

the frescoes are in desperate need of restoration

 

 

 



We passed another church on the way

as well as people standing in street corners or sitting on steps, holding their lighted candles waiting for an Epitaphios to come their way so that they could join in - sensible people who had not tried to get into a crowded church.

By then we'd had enough of crowds and needed some space. We sat here and had our evening meal - still very crowded, both the taverna and the streets, but at least we had our own, allocated space.

 

After midnight things got a bit calmer.