We had a very relaxed day in Athens on this day. We decided to revisit one of our favorite areas, and see Socrates prison in the daylight. We climbed around for a bit at Philopappos hill, stopping at Socrates' Prison, and to play on some very randomly placed monkey bars. This time the gate was unlocked at the "prison", which was probably a house, and probably had nothing to do with Socrates. The small caverns were used to protect ancient treasures and artifacts during World War II, when there was a huge concrete bunker in front of it to add to the protection.
Don't worry, the door isn't actually locked.
Trying to escape from Socrates' Prison.
Protip: Photoshop Steve into awesome fight scenes for flying kick action!
Acropolis, with the Odean of Herodes Atticus in the foreground.
The elbow patches really are sexy, aren't they?
A small tomb carved into the rock, we can't remember the name of it.
This little church, the Agios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris, had interesting masonry. Much of it was recycled from ruins in the area.
One thing we haven't mentioned was the street performers and peddlers. It was hard to find a historic monument without a young foreign man selling splat tomatoes
and splat pigs
on a little wooden panel. Everywhere we went there was the ubiquitous whack of a tomato or a pig being annihilated to demonstrate to every passing tourist that it was "very good product", "very high quality", and "good materials". There also seemed to be fierce competition for the best place to set up shop, often there were two or three young men within meters of each other, showing how the tomato will re-form every time he throws it against his little wooden panel. Occasionally there would be musicians, performers, or living statues. The musicians were usually on accordion, but we did see an excellent jazz trio on trumpet sax, and flute.
and splat pigs on a little wooden panel. Everywhere we went there was the ubiquitous whack of a tomato or a pig being annihilated to demonstrate to every passing tourist that it was "very good product", "very high quality", and "good materials". There also seemed to be fierce competition for the best place to set up shop, often there were two or three young men within meters of each other, showing how the tomato will re-form every time he throws it against his little wooden panel. Occasionally there would be musicians, performers, or living statues. The musicians were usually on accordion, but we did see an excellent jazz trio on trumpet sax, and flute.
These two guys had a pretty good slapstick routine, and they were using a good portion of the street to do it.
Remnants of a wall lead up the hill towards the Philopappos Monument. Yet another example of how favorable the conditions were to photography.
*Catch up on our entire Athens adventure by checking Our Travel Page, or our Greece tag.*
Catch up on the rest of our adventure:
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