Athens is the pre-eminent city of Greece and the main arrival destination.  No town mixes history and a chaotic energy better than Athens. 

Athens

Athens is city with striking archeological sites, colorful neighbours, overcrowding and smog like you have never seen it.  For many travelers, the general impression is one of a poetic chaos.  Roads are packed, taxi drivers are nuts and shops appear to spill off the paths and into the middle of roads.  Yet, in the middle of this chaos you’ll find calm places like the Acropolis, although it is packed with tourists. 

History

You can’t mention Greece without talking about the Greeks result on civilization.  The city is littered with sites of intensely heavy importance.  This is not the place where you may stand in front of an old structure where Sir so and so fought Sir so and so to the death in a duel that established something faintly significant.  Instead, you’ll stand in front of monuments where civilization took a quantum leap forward. 

The Acropolis is the dominant archeological site in Athens.  It is one of those rare locations you may visit where the massive number of holiday maker don’t diminish the impact.  Soaring over Athens, the Acropolis saw better days until you consider how old it is.  The Pantheon and Erechtheion are the 2 standing structures and both are galvanizing. 

While contemplating the Pantheon, one can not help but be impressed by the capability of the Greeks to build such a towering, stone structure when much of humanity still considered a hut a luxury.  The Erechtheion is amazing as it contains the famous Caryatids, the columns molded into the form of female figures.  Standing upon the mount, you will have a view of Greece that will uncloak the chaos and a sense of the age of the town. 

Athens has much to offer beyond the Acropolis.  Books have been authored on the subject.  Massive books.  I’m not going to try and cover them here, but you need to try to get over to the Tower of the Winds, where the whisking Dervishes got their start. 

Walking thru Athens is like walking through history.  They say time travel is most unlikely, but Athens appears to suggest otherwise.

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