metro sign
We spent Thursday morning hiking up and exploring the Acropolis, a large, flat-topped rock in central Athens and the site of monuments such as the Parthenon, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Erechtheum, and Theater of Dionysus.
Afterwards, we walked to the new Acropolis Museum (opened June of this year).
The building, located at the base of the Acropolis hill, is a fascinating meeting point of old and new: the entrance, for example, mirrors the pillars of the Propylaea on the Acropolis, and the top floor of the museum, despite its modern lines and crisp glass fixtures, is rotated to be parallel to the Parthenon. Another nod to the past is the scattered, non-linear layout of the exhibits, intended to reflect the structure of the traditional agora.Also interesting is the none too subtle message to the British Museum, which currently the Elgin Marbles (originally decorations on the Parthenon temple): the Acropolis museum juxtaposes the weathered originals it owns with bright, white plaster copies of the Elgin Marbles.
In the evening, we had ouzo platters in Thissio for dinner and then headed to Glyfada for the night. My favorite stop was probably the Balux House Project, a seaside lounge/bar designed to resemble a beach house. Each room (porch, kitchen, library, etc.) is quite comfortable has its own unique atmosphere. We also stopped by a few other nice spots along the beach before heading back to Kifissia.
