Friday-Saturday-February 4-5--Athens, Greece

Friday--Saturday--February 4-5-- Athens, Greece

I tell you it’s too hard to write, edit my photos and sight see all day.  I’m out from morning til dark and I’m exhausted by the evening.   Oh the problems with traveling.  Ha.

Friday morning I woke and it wasn’t raining.  Weather.com said it was and that it was suppose to rain all day but I was determined   to get my ass out of the hotel, (however, I carried an umbrella with me just in case).  First stop today was the Bernaki Museum.   

front of Bernaki Museum

The museum was a short walk from the hotel.  The hotel is not in the center but easy enough to get to things.

The Bernaki Museum in Athens Greece contains a vast collection of art from Antoine Bernaki.  The museum is housed in his former Athenian residence and contains artefacts and works of art from the Bronze age, Egypt, Asia Minor, Mesopotania and Greece.

The Bernaki Museum is in an old mansion on one of the main streets of Athens Via Sofia.  The collection they have is fantastic and after having been to several museums over the course of my stay here I would say it’s one of the best.  If you come to Athens and you can only go to one or two museums, I highly recommend this one and the new Acropolis Museum. 

I spent nearly three hours in this museum totally out of interest  not from wanted to stay in doors.  The collection ranges from artifacts of Greek antiquity, lots of (very old) jewelry (the highlight of the day), traditional costumes of Greece (fabulous fabrics) and some things from the last hundred years.  This museum was started by a man who was at one time the mayor of Athens and from a very wealthy family.  The jewelry was incredible it certainly didn’t look thousands of years old.  What I wouldn’t do for a pair of earrings.  Shout out to Nancy and Stefano Grando (make some copies).

After several hours of looking and reading about the objects, I needed a break and went to the cafe for a coffee.  I also wanted a little something to eat.  

While the waiter was taking my order I saw another waiter deliver what looked like a piece of chocolate cake to someone sitting next to me. I asked the waiter what it was and he confirmed that it was chocolate cake.  

“I’ll have a piece of that and a Greek coffee”, I told him.  I love the Greek coffee.  Yummy.  The cake was delicious. The portion was two pieces so I ate one and wrapped the other one and took it with me for later.   

woman sitting in cafe

This was the perfect snack and gave me a good reprieve from standing on my feet.  

After my short break I continued to the last floor which had more current things.  

The costumes were interesting but not as much jewelry.  Did I mention I loved the jewelry?  

Sorry got a little carried away with the jewelry photos.

The one thing I will say about the museums is the descriptions of items aren’t the best.   It might be because of the translation, not sure.  Each display case contains many items with numbers next to them.   There is usually a one line description saying “earrings, 4th century BC” or something of the sort.  (At the Archeological Museum, many items in the display cases had a number but no corresponding description.  This was very frustrating.)

After the Bernaki museum I asked where Kolanaki Square was.  I had heard it was the “hip” section of Athens and wanted to check it out.  It was just around the corner I was told.

Yep, this is the happening place.  Lots of restaurants, high end shops, chocolate stores and more optical stores than you can imagine in such a small area.  However, for me this was a good thing because I needed my reading glasses tightened.  

I found a very nice man to tightened my glasses and then asked how to get to Syntagma Square.  The is where the Parliament Building is and the changing of the guards. 

changing of the guards

From Syntagma Square I continued to the Plaka, which is the “old” Athens.  All I saw really was a lot of tourist shops and restaurants.

I walked back to Syntagma Square and got the metro back to the hotel, which was only one stop.  The metro is very clean and cheap, 1.40 Euro and the ticket is good for 1.5 hours in any direction.  

Had dinner around the corner from the hotel, it was o.k. just had soup and spinach crepe.  Off to la la land.

Saturday, my day started at the new Acropolis museum.  
http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr


It’s called that because there used to be another Acropolis museum that in now closed so they call this one the NEW Acropolis museum.  

street vendor near the museum

It’s incredibly modern and displays findings from the Athens Acropolis.  (no photography allowed)

what you see across from the museum

This museum is set up very well and has excellent descriptions of the items.  
The statues I liked the most were the Kore's especially the braids in their hair (done in marble or stone).
One of the interesting things is they are actually restoring the  Carytatids


The Acropolis Museum has started a program for the restoration of the Caryatids from the Erechtheum. The operations include laser tools to clean Caryatids from pollution and other damaging factors.


 (there was no one working today)  There is a video playing that explains how the work is being down with lasers to remove the dirt. They are being very careful not to disturb the original material.   They have learned some bad lessons over the years during restorations using bad chemicals and destroying things.  

They also have “archeologists” who are wandering around the museum that you can ask questions to.  They do offer guides when there are enough people.  Missing out again. 

I had read a few reviews that said it was better to go to the museum first before going to the Acropolis and I would agree.  There’s lots to learn here.  I realized how bad my Greek history is.  Who are those gods?  What are those myths?  Dionysus,  Athena, Zeus,...Note to self, get a book on Greek mythology.  Kids, pay attention in class.

After the museum I walked around and discovered I was in the Plaka again but found more interesting local color than the day before when all I saw was tourist shops.  

house in the Plaka

Gotta get out and walk around to know what’s going on.

I had made a list of the museums I wanted to visit and what days to go to what.  Some are open on some day and the times vary especially in the winter there are shorter hours.  My next stop was the Contemporary Art Museum.  The theme of the exhibit was “The Politics of Art”.  One of the installations was “What is Democracy?”.  This was by far the most timely and interesting exhibit I saw.  The installation consisted of 7 T.V.’s (with head phones attached) and one big screen playing interviews of people from 21 countries asking the same question “What is Democracy?”  


I’m not sure it would have struck me as much if the crisis in Egypt wasn’t happening at the moment.  This guy started this process of interviewing people 4 years ago and look at what is happening now.  There were hours of interviews.  I sat for an hour listening to two of the T.V.’s.  It was incredible.  Actually no one in any country believes their country has democracy.  Is this true?  Is there no democracy in the world?  Something to think about.   Interesting that this exhibit is here in Greece where democracy started.

There were many more photographs and installations related to “the politics of art” by artists from around the world showing the bad things that are happening in different places.  One of them was photographs of the border of California and Mexico. 

After several hours of this and what I had seen in the morning I was worn out.  

Fortunately I was very close to my hotel.  

I got back and laid down.

I went across the street to a cute cafe and had a cosmopolitan (I needed a drink), a Greek cheese pie with a salad and one of the best pieces of apple pie I’ve ever had.

Great day.