A brief stop in Athens

So, here we begin the tale of my September antics. Due to a cunningly scheduled confluence of a student field trip to Crete and a PhD group seminar on the much smaller cycladic island of Serifos, I was privileged to spend nigh on three weeks of September learning about and getting to literal grips with the geology of the Aegean area.

Of course, the thing about islands, remote or no, is that it is always a tiny bit harder to get to them than some other places. In the case of my first destination, Serifos, the vagaries of flight and ferry schedules demanded an overnight stay in Athens before heading to the ferry the next day.

I didn't know much about Athens (still don't!) but my colleagues and I were clear on one thing: you're supposed to go and see the acropolis. So, less than 2 hours after stepping off the plane, we did! Athens is a different sort of city to the ones I spend most of my time in. There is little in the way of old (as opposed to ancient) buildings, and most of the streets are lined with 4 or more storied flat blocks. The pavements are pockmarked, occasionally narrow, and it is clear that street cleaning is slightly lower on the priority list than in central Vienna (though this is true of almost every city, I'd imagine). A lot more stuff was going on on the streets though, all kinds of small stores and hundreds of people with second hand things just spread out on blankets on the ground.

Other things I didn't know about Athens include how many hills are in and around it, adding a cool element to the city's skyline (can you can call it a skyline when it is made of hills not buildings?). The acropolis is of course situated on/around one such hill, sticking up abruptly right in the centre. After Florence it was a nice surprise to find that the acropolis in the evening is a fairly quiet place, partly just because it is so large. The view from the top was amazing, especially with the sun going down. From the top all the dusty streets and flat blocks of athens turn into a big white carpet lapping up against the occasional hills and stretching a long long way out towards the sea, just visible on the horizon.

The acropolis itself is impressive, of course! It is really quite impossible to get into one's head how really, really old it is, even at the same time as I think, geologically speaking, that it is really rather young! And the sheer size of the remains is impressive too, just enough to hint at how monumental it would have all looked intact and painted!

As is becoming terribly monotonous for you I'm sure, you can click on some words and they will lead you to pictures of the things I have been talking about!

Hopefully soonish you will get the first batch of field trip images proper, of the island of Serifos.

Till next time,

Der Tom