Spent last night up on the rooftop bar, drinking beer with an Israeli guy & an Irish girl. The local beer (Mythos) isn't all that great, but it was two-for-one during happy hour, so I didn't complain too much. I also took a few pictures of the Parthenon (the hostel bar is on the roof, and has a great view), but they turned out blurry. I have never been good at night shots, but I guess I've got two more chances to get a good one.
Today, I started out at the Temple of Zeus Olympeion. I probably could have taken some good pictures of it without paying the €2 to get into the grounds, but it was nice to get up close & personal with it. It also allowed me to see the lower section (closed off, unfortunately) where there was a Temple of Kronos & Rhea, built about 20 years after the main Temple of Zeus. That seems incredibly strange to me, since Zeus actually killed Kronos (and maybe Rhea? I'd have to look that up [ed: nope])... why build a temple to the Titan that your god killed?
**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!**
THE HOSTEL LOUNGE IS PLAYING CHRISTMAS MUSIC. WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE? IT'S NOT EVEN HALLOWEEN!
**END ANNOUNCEMENT**
From there I went through the National Garden. I would personally consider it more of a park, but it was quite nice. Lots of different trees, several ponds (one with koi & one with a crapload of turtles), a few fountains, and a "bird/animal enclosure" with everything from chickens & ducks to some mountain goats & a donkey in it... seemed like an odd mix of stuff.
After that it was the Byzantine Museum... managed to pick a free day for that too, hooray! Although that was mostly because a lot of the museums here in Europe are closed on Mondays. I personally would have gone with Sundays' guess I wouldn't make a very good European. Thank God for that. The museum was fairly cool, but not quite what I expected. It was mostly focused on art, with a bunch of different marble carvings and several centuries worth of icons from the Orthodox church. There was a pretty decent selection of Byzantine coins & stuff from daily life (mostly jewelry/pottery) as well, but very little in the way of military history, which is what I had been hoping for. Oh well, it was free.
My legs were incredibly sore by the end of the museum, but oddly enough they started doing better when I got outside & picked up my pace. It was only about 13:30--too soon to head back to the hostel & bum around--so I walked down to the city's main cemetery to check that out. So far as I know nobody famous is buried there, but there was an impressive variety of mausoleums, regular tombs, crypts, etc. Lots of hills though, so I only spent about half an hour or so there before hiking back to the hostel.
Spent awhile on a computer (they do exist here!) getting a blog post up & sharing a few more pictures, then catching up on blogs (Rachl Lukis is back, hooray!) and working on this. Right now I'm just waiting for the lady in reception to be free so I can figure out where the nearest mailbox is so I can get my postcards sent out, then grab a cheap dinner & figure out what to do with the rest of my evening. Probably not much, since I'm really pinching pennies at this point.
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