I (finally) made it!*

After a whole lot of "where the heck is the Embassy of India, anyway?!" I (finally) made it there on Friday. Of course, the Consular Services division had only been open from 9-11am (I didn't get there til 1:30pm), so I have to go back on Monday. It could take a week for my visa to come through which means I have to figure out what my next step will be. I have some ideas, but I'll have to post on those later.

I left the embassy and headed to the New Acropolis Museum which I believe just opened in June of this year. It's only one euro to get in because they're trying to encourage people to go; in January it goes up to 5 euros. The museum is built over ancient ruins, but there are glass floors installed so you can see them. (As an aside: I cracked up when I heard a lady say, "Look, Mark! Ruins!" Um, duh, lady.) The artifacts at the museum were very cool, but I'm not gonna lie. After awhile of seeing slabs of marble in various states of disrepair, it all starts to look the same. Especially when pieces are so damaged that you really have to use your imagine to envision Athena coming down from the chariot or whatever. I caught myself becoming jaded to it, though, and quickly reminded myself of what I was looking at. These very old pieces of marble and clay were touched and molded by human hands about 2500 years ago. Of course it's not going to be in perfect condition; that we're even able to see it today is awesome!

Then I (finally) made it to the Acropolis. (Is it strange that I don't see a city's biggest draw until I've been there for days? First Prague Castle, now the Acropolis.) When I left the museum, I decided not to use the main road to the Acropolis because I'd walked it already days earlier. I just kind of picked a narrow road/path and headed in the right direction. I'm SO glad I did. I found myself in a many millenia old neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis. It was the coolest thing ever and I had it all to myself. Perhaps even cooler is that this was no abandoned neighborhood. No, people still live there today. How cool would it be to live in this place?!

Walking around the ruins is indescribable. Even though there are a lot of tourists, restoration is taking place, and it's kind of weird seeing scaffolding and lighting everywhere, the Acropolis is still incredible. You walk through the ruins, then you get to the top and look down on still more ruins. I know I've said it before, but being there just makes you think about the smallness of you in this world. Having a bad day here seems impossible.
I'm having some minor upload issues, but I hope to have more Athens pictures uploaded very soon.

*Alternate Title - The Acropolis: Not Overrated