Taking for Granted Our Local Treasures - Athens, Greece

I’m not sure what sparked the idea for this article.  It may have been when a friend of mine mentioned that he was going to Yosemite National Park, and I realized I’ve still never been there.  I have lived in northern California all of my life and, on at least three occasions, driven my motorcycle right past one of the park’s entrances, but never went in.  That started me thinking that, during our upcoming trip to Greece, I would conduct an impromptu survey.

I wanted to ask local Athenians who have lived in the shadow of the Acropolis their entire lives, how many times they have visited this world famous monument.  (Actually, I had Helen ask, because my Greek is still pretty weak.)  I made a prediction before we left and it turned out to be pretty accurate.

We started with Helen’s cousin and his wife, who live in Piraeus, just south of Athens.  Her cousin Illias had visited the Parthenon once while in school on a field-trip.  His wife, Julia, had never been there.

At our hotel, with a fantastic view of the Acropolis and Parthenon from the rooftop bar, I asked the bartender how many times she had visited the Parthenon.  She told me she had been several times, but she was from Poland and had only lived in Greece for the last five years.  Each time members of her family would come to visit, she would take them on the walk up to the Parthenon.  She did, however, tell me that on more than a couple of occasions, actual Greeks, visiting Athens from one of the islands, had asked her what that “building” on the hill was.  Wow.

During a stroll around the Plaka, I wanted to get in a few more queries.  There were two police officers on the corner.  They didn’t really look too busy so, I thought, what the heck?  Besides, Helen would have to do the talking.  They were younger men, maybe in their late twenties, and quite friendly.  Helen went ahead and asked each of them how many times they had been up to the Acropolis.  The first replied that he had been there many times because it was on part of his patrol.  The second officer said he had only been there “maybe five times,” to which the first officer replied “What? Only five times?”  Then the first officer confirmed what I had a hard time believing before.  He said that, on more than one occasion, a Greek citizen has asked him, pointing to the Parthenon, “what’s that big castle on the hill?”  Honestly, I really would have thought that pretty much everyone on the planet has, on at least one occasion, seen a picture of the Parthenon.  Apparently, I’m wrong.

A little further down the street, we met a pair of police female officers, about the same age as the first two officers.  They were also willing to participate in my completely unscientific survey.  The first officer said she had only been up to the Parthenon once on a school field trip.  The second said she had been there many times as, like the first male officer, the Acropolis was sometimes on her patrol.

That was the extent of my survey.  I know it wasn’t very scientific and the sampling was fairly small, but it confirmed the prediction I mentioned earlier.  So what does Athenians not visiting the Parthenon have to do with me never having been to Yosemite?  Everything.  It’s exactly the same thing.  This leads me to think that people do this all over the world, which is sad.  It’s sad because life is too short and people don’t get out and take advantage of what’s in their own backyard.  And it’s not because people don’t care about the monuments or parks around them.  I think it’s more a case of thinking that “we’ll do it later.  It will always be there.  We’ll go next week.”  But next week comes, then next year, and before you know it, ten years have gone by and you still haven’t done it.

I live quite close to San Francisco, a beautiful, world-class city.  The last time I went was last year when some friends from Belgium came to visit.  Before that, it had been years.  I actually live in the Tahoe National Forest, but do I go to Lake Tahoe?  No.  Not since last year, again with the Belgians.  So, I’m just as guilty of this and this experience has made me see that I need to stop.  Everyone does.  We need to get out and learn about our local history and culture.  Explore what is near.  Now, even more, with the economy in the shape it has been lately, trips to local treasures are the way to go.

It seems to me that, instead of spending your entire life trying to make a living, you should just take some time to actually live.

Reaching Greece by Sailing Slow From Italy

Aphrodite and the skeletal remains of her love Temples were painted in neon and hung prominently on the broad beige wall across the lounge. These were just part of a series of paintings adorning the ferry’s restaurant lounges. All paid homage to ancient Greek art. They displayed the classics remixed, and acted as just a subtle reminder of where this boat was headed and why we should be happy we were on board.

The paintings were only one of the many beautiful and surprising details to be experienced aboard this ferry heading east to Greece. In my campout on the deck, I witnessed many of them - the inky night, the playful but skilled crew, the comfortably plush deck chairs, and the sound of gusting wind. This journey was the final leg of a long European adventure where I headquartered in Rome.

Greece, and a brief dip into Istanbul, was my final trip before heading home to the United States. I selected the ferry as my transportation for this holiday jaunt from Rome to Greece for two reasons. One, the practical reason, was my sincere anxiety about flying. The second, more imaginative reason was that the ferry offered the aroma of adventure and romance. The passage lasted just under a day. It was a mini-cruise, a brief reenactment of the Odyssey, and a popular plot development in Italian romantic comedies.

Since mid-morning I sat in the nearly empty lounge on the elegant upholstered sofas, pox marked by stray hot ashes, reading and nursing cappuccinos. I enjoyed the paintings, puttering waiters, and view of the expansive Mediterranean. Tranquility presided until noontime heightened the buzz in the ferry’s lounge. On the lunch menu: conversation and cigarettes.

As if called by a silent alarm, elderly men slipped out of their hiding places and congregated to settle in for a mid-day meal. With lit cigarettes, small tables merged with each other in an energetic possession of the restaurant. Puffing out clouds of dense smoke, men lifted chairs carefully over other’s heads to add them around tables and greeted latecomers with kisses and audible slaps on the back.

With the room in order, dominoes materialized. Clusters sunk into the game, cheering and jeering with their progress. Waiters stopped by to take note of who was winning. Intense with concentration, the games continued without stop. As soon as a round finished, a new game commenced. Pieces changed hands and new winners were revealed. The gaming tables created a current in the lounge, pulling stray men into a drifting loop around the domino matches.

Elsewhere in the restaurant, men leaned back in their chairs and spoke genially in Greek. They conversed with booming voices, hoping to be heard by their deaf friends over the din of two televisions broadcasting different Greek programming from opposite ends of the restaurant. Speaking, they shimmied and swayed to emphasize a point. Those who listened sat serenely with their hands folded atop plump bellies, occasionally offering a nod or a grunt as encouragement. Others, usually the oldest of a group, attentively followed the thread of conversation, swinging rosary beads absentmindedly in their wrinkled hands.

Waiters with firmly pressed black aprons waltzed between tables like honeybees over a flower field, delivering meals and endless little cups of strong black coffee. They chatted amiably with passengers, speaking without haste before going on to fetch a check or bring change.

At one table, a younger crowd feasted. They were truck drivers, regulars of this particular route, their trucks and cargo sitting below in the parking garage. It was a reunion of friends. Resting from hours of solitary driving, they treated each other to pitchers of frothy beer and ate freshly tossed greens and substantial sandwiches. Eating enthusiastically, they swapped stories and laughed heartily. When a waiter brought them their bill, they protested the fee a bit, but after realizing just how many pitchers they had finished off, pulled a thick wad of bills from their wallets and acquiesced with a chuckle.

As plate began to empty, a new face appeared. Switching off the televisions, the crewmember announced he would demonstrate safety procedures in case of emergency. Amid the hum of dominoes, smacking lips, clattering flatware, clacking prayer beads, and giggling waiters, he proceeded methodically through the presentation. Here is how we wear a life vest. Here is how we leave the boat. Follow the posted escape routes and take note of alarms.

Finished and having flipped the televisions back on, the crewmember slipped out with minimal acknowledgment. After his departure a new crowd began to arrive in the lounge. A few gray-haired women scooted into clusters of old men. Several families took their seats at cushioned booths. Little children pulled out decks of cards that they thumbed through and shuffled pointlessly. Games subdued, voices softened. Again, the scene of the ferry’s lounge shifted into something new, this time something more familial. I ordered a slice of chocolate cake and settled in to watch.

In Italy, the clean, glittering seaside town of Ancona sent us into winter waters after significant delay, but we had long ago abandoned the shallow, lacy waters of coastline. Sometime in the night the seawater morphed into a dense, gelatinous mass. Our mammoth iron tank of a boat inched along over the white-capped waves, held up like a fork in a wobbling plate of gray Jell-O. The windows framed sea and only sea. Deliberately, our ferry swam across undulating waters, cruising at a sluggish pace, but without great angst.

This ferry hardly provided the scene I imagined, rooted in frothy Italian films. In summertime, a steady stream of ferries and boats connect Italy to Greece, toting natives and foreigners to their sunny getaways on the Greek Isles. I envisioned each of them overflowing with sunbathers - sunbathers on the deck, sunbathers in the lifeboats — and smashing into one another because the sea is so crowded with boats. In the off-season, when I traveled, ferry service across this thin strip of the Mediterranean slims down to a few giant vessels occasionally cruising into select Greek ports. In the middle of December, the scenery was not beautiful exactly, but stunningly wind-whipped and stark. The passengers were not tourists or sunbathers, just plain folk headed home for the holidays, their company transforming this ferry into a movable Greek island.

photo by scrapygraphics on Flickr

Walking along a preserved section of the Berlin Wall

Drinking at Zapata, Kunsthaus Tacheles

Ahh, the Trabant. On display at the DDR Museum.

10 of the World’s Best Observation Decks

A city is best explored by foot. We follow our map, walking from place to place, turning off down tangents when a sound, a sight, or a smell catches our interest. We see doorways. We see ground floors. And sometimes, when we crane our necks back at an angle that no chiropractor would recommend, we begin to get a faint understanding of a city’s full scope. But to really take in the magnitude of a city, to see where it ends or just how far it stretches to the horizon, we need to see it from above. We need to visit an observation deck.

Nearly every city has one – either a designated observation deck that charges money for visitors to get an aerial view, or just a building that happens to offer a great vantage point from which to see the city. Some are tall, some are small, for some the appeal lies in unobstructed views and for some the appeal lies in the total experience. Here are some of the best views worth checking out around the world.

Sears (Willis) Tower, Chicago

Though the Sears Tower (recently renamed Willis Tower) offers stunning views of Lake Michigan and the city of Chicago, many people prefer heading up to the lounge on top of the John Hancock Center (no admission fee, plus drinks!) instead. But with the addition of the new glass-bottomed viewing decks at the Sears Tower Sky Deck, that could change. Now, instead of just looking out at the city skyscrapers, the clear blue of Lake Michigan fringed by golden beaches, and the ant-sized people and cars below, you’ll be able to stand over them, seemingly suspended in air 1,353 feet over the city.

Taipei 101, Taipei

You may not fully comprehend just how big Taipei is until you take the high-speed elevators, which travel over 50 feet per second, up to the 91st floor observatory of the Taipei 101. The tower holds the current distinction of being the world’s tallest building (though once the Burj Dubai is occupied, it will lose the title) and offers sprawling views of the city. As you see Taipei spreading to the horizon, you realize just how big it is, and how very small you are in comparison.

Eiffel Tower, Paris

If Paris were to be summed up in one iconic image, it would be that of the Eiffel Tower. One of the most famous landmarks in the world, it is the tallest structure in Paris. Visitors can ascend to the second level for a view of the area surrounding the tower and the thousands of tourists taking pictures below. Or you can go all the way to the top, about 900 feet above ground, for views of the whole city. In the distance, you can just make out landmarks like the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre.

Shanghai Oriental Pearl, Shanghai

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower stands 1,500 feet over Shanghai. The tower is composed of spheres of varying sizes suspended at different points along the tower’s height as though they were slowly descending. While the view of the tower is impressive enough, the one you’ll get from inside is even better. Fifteen different observation decks include a restaurant, revolving tearoom, and an outdoor observation deck with a glass-bottomed floor.

Guinness Storehouse, Dublin

At only 7 stories up, the Gravity Bar on the top floor of the Guinness Storehouse is the shortest building on the list. But it is also the only one where you can get a complimentary glass of beer to take in along with the view (after a tour of the brewery). You’ll only be about 130 feet above ground, but as the rest of Dublin’s buildings aren’t much taller, you can still enjoy a nearly unobstructed 360-degree view of the city along with your Guinness.

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore Duomo, Florence

The 15th century Duomo, or dome, at the Santa Maria del Fiore church in Florence remains the largest masonry dome in the world. Visitors have the option of not just gazing at the dome from below, but of actually climbing up the nearly 500 steps to the top. The climb is narrow, but not too difficult, and the rewarding panorama of the city of Florence below makes any exertion worth the effort.

Hallgr?mskirkja, Reykjavik

Iceland’s Hallgr?mskirkja church is the largest in Iceland and Reykjavik’s most recognizable landmark, but when it debuted in the 1980’s, it was to mixed reviews. Some praised the unique design, which symbolizes the lava flows that run through the country, while others found it gaudy and ostentatious. If you’re in the latter camp, you might change your mind once you see the views from the observation deck on top. Below you you’ll see the brightly colored houses of Reykjavik, retired whaling ships in the grey-blue waters of the harbor, and snow-covered mountains in the distance. With a view like that, you might forgive any shortcomings of the exterior’s design.

Space Needle, Seattle

On clear, sunny days in Seattle, there’s no better place to be than at the top of the Space Needle. Head up to the revolving restaurant for brunch, or just take the elevators to the 520-foot high observation deck for a panoramic view of the “Emerald City”. To the north you’ll see Lake Union, with its houseboats and sea planes. In the west, you’ll find cruise ships docked in port, ferry boats in Puget Sound, and the lush greenery of islands like Bainbridge Island fading into the background of the Olympic Mountains. As you make your way to the south end of the deck, you’ll see the city below and just beyond that, the snowy peak of Mt. Rainier.

Top of the Rock, New York City

There’s no city in the world like New York. And there’s no view in New York like one from the Top of the Rock, the 70th floor observation deck at 30 Rockefeller Center, which offers sweeping views of New York, including Central Park and the city skyline. The Top of the Rock also boasts views of the city’s most iconic skyscraper, the Empire State Building (which of course you wouldn’t see from the Empire State Building itself). And the Top of the Rock has glass walls enclosing the observation deck, meaning you get unobstructed views from eye level to your feet.

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

The unfinished famous work of Antonio Gaudi, Sagrada Familia’s main draw is not the view it offers. But the view is a nice perk to visiting this architectural masterpiece. For a few extra euros, visitors can take the elevator up into the towers, about 230 feet above ground, and walk out onto the connecting bridges. Unlike on most observations decks, where visitors are kept safely behind glass or enclosed by tall walls that cannot be scaled, here you are virtually unrestricted and open to the elements. While you fight the crush of tourists and try not to drop your camera while attempting to take in the view, the only thing that keeps you from falling to the city below is the few feet of stone that form the bridge’s walls.

From the Washington Monument in DC to the Sky Tower in Auckland and nearly everywhere in between, there are countless places to rise above a city and enjoy spectacular views. Next time you think you’ve seen a city from every angle, make sure you’ve also seen the view from above.

Photo credits:
Willis Tower by thomas.merton on Flickr, Taipei 101 by misterbisson on Flickr, Eiffel Tower by switchhook on Flickr, Shanghai by Pixeloflight on Flickr, Guinness by Ian Wilson on Flickr, Florence Duomo by Tama Leaver on Flickr, Reykjavik by Wrote on Flickr, Space Needle by anneh632 on Flickr, Top of the Rock by qbix08 on Flickr, Sagrada Familia by Andifeelfine on Flickr