The Museum

Is it Poseidon or Zeus?
They can't decide

My fav of the day

I know, you're saying, ''the whole bloody town is a museum!'' Be that as it may, they say that the National Archeological Museum is spectacular. And they're not wrong.

I'm not going to go into great detail about our visit (I'm sure you're relieved). It was truly magnificent but after about 5 hours we still had not seen everything, and our legs and empty stomachs could not bear it any longer.

On the way to get a bite, we happened to be passing by the Parliament building during the changing of the guard.

He has a superb moustache

Every hour, on the hour the two Evzones (special presidential guards), are replaced with two fresh guards. Like most of their contemporaries around the world they stand perfectly still without expression. Not an easy feat when you have people taking pictures with you every moment you're there. Evzone means ''well-belted'' a saying that hails from Homer's time. Basically it means a well dressed. The two guards are protecting the tomb of the unknown soldier. They wear the traditional uniform of the mountain guerrillas that resisted Turkish rule. The skirt/kilt is called a fustanella and it has 400 pleats and it takes 80 days to make. There are only 10 people who ever know how to make them. The guards' shoes each have 60 hobnails in their soles and have massive pompoms on top that each weigh 1.5 kgs. They also wear woollen stockings. I don't know how these guys didn't pass out. It was sweltering. There's also another soldier there making sure that people don't get too close to or touch the guards. He's also there to get people out of the way when they change the guard because those boys don't stop for anyone - they will walk all over you with their hobnail shoes.

After a quick bite, we went off to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus, one of the largest temples of the ancient world. It was 110m in length had 104 columns (Corinthian, in case you're wondering) of which 15 still stand.

It is HUGE. It took over 700 years to build, mostly due to lack of funds. It was started in the 6th century BC but wasn't completed until the emperor Hadrian took up the project and finished it in 131 AD. He put a colossal statue of Zeus in it upon completion, and then proceeded to put an equally big one of himself beside it! Classy. Neither of those statues are there today.