Bad For Hermits, Good For Foodies
I'm on a ferry bound for Naxos, and I am bored out of my mind. All I have to amuse myself with are my guidebooks. And there's only so much planning I can do, since it feels very much like work, and it'd thwart some of the romance of this trip. But on the other hand, lack of planning is inconsistent with my personality type, and it's causing some of that anxiety I'd mentioned earlier. I worry that every minute of my trip won't be jam-packed with awesome, or that I'll pick the wrong activities, forsaking something that would've been sublime. (ed: transcribing that last sentence caused me to go put my entire trip into google calendar) I'm worried I'll suddenly run out of time and have to book a flight back to Athens out of the nearest airport.

And so I plan. I'm constrained by transit schedules and travel times. I have to decide when the fast boats are worth the extra money. And I have to find the balance among my interests: ancient ruins, museums, food, shopping, hiking, tanning, diving, and (most importantly, perhaps) bumming around and absorbing the environment.

Today I hit the Acropolis, ancient Agora, and Philopappos Hill (a park with a fantastic vantage point of the Acropolis and the entire city). I also had lunch till I almost burst, and I wandered through the Benaki Museum.

Apparently, the eponymous benefactor had a taste for antiquities, and the museum was devoted to a broad spectrum of Greek art over time (he also established two other museums, topically devoted to Islamic arts and Byzantine and Christian arts). It was really quite interesting, and not packed with visitors--a welcome change after the Acropolis. I thought the Acropolis was bad when I entered, but the volume of traffic had doubled by the time I left. And the Parthenon was impressive and stuff, but you [understandably] couldn't walk through it, and the hordes made it difficult to appreciate. Plus, the Acropolis Museum was closed while I was there, so that sucked. By contrast, the serenity of Philopappos Hill made the Parthenon so much more impressive, even though it was farther away (but that also turned the people into tiny dots).

I ate lunch near the Agora. I think I ordered what was in fact two lunch entrees. But I was hungry and eager to sample different dishes. (ed: resumed much, much later, as both of my pens ran out of ink within a couple pages of each other) I was really in the mood for mussels, so I ordered the mussels under the "saganaki" column, whatever that means. It was basically mussels, feta, tomatoes, and basal, all stewed together and served with bread. Pretty tasty. But I also got a combo platter/sampler that included various fritters, tsatziki, roe, fried calamari, and fried anchovies. I was especially after the anchovies--turns out they aren't salty at all! It must be the curing process that gets them all deliciously salty. They were pretty good fresh, too, just different from what I expected. I guess that's the point of vacation, huh?

Before I got on the boat, I also hit up a small market. Turns out that "cream crackers" are actually crackers; I'd been hoping for some kind of cookie. But I also got some rockin' figs. Those things are like baby fists. Made of candy. I don't know if they're from around here, but they're delicious.

Oops, grilled feta's here!

Labels: Athens (GR), bar trip

- posted by roger @ 7:58 PM