Acropollis Now
I didn't plan to go to Athens. While I was certain there were no direct flights from
Estonia to Egypt at least not in the Summer, I figured I could fly into Athens and out the same day.
So I made the most of it Athens. My grandfather always liked Greece.
For him Greece was the land of Heredotous, Plato, and Socrates whose works sat
peering down from the plateaus of his bookshelves as a child.
Greece was also the land of the Greek Myths. He taught me in the classic stories
the same way they had been taught in university by word of mouth. As a former college professor taught countless ones giving me a proper classical education on visits to his house in Sun City.
For one of my birthdays I was gifted with a massive children’s edition of Greek myths from my Grandparents.
Later I read Edith Hamilton's Mythology and it was his well worn copy I used for my 9th grade
English class.
Eventually my Grandfather sought to see the land of hedonistic gods and deep-thinking mortals.
Plato had dreamed of world ruled by Philosopher Kings. Though this was hardly the moment that my
Grandfather and Grandmother found themselves in when they visited Athens in 1967.
My grandmother related that the same plaza in front of the Parliament where hundreds crowd
each hour to see the changing of the Guard at the tomb of the Unknown soldier. Was completely empty
as Martial Law into effect. The since of fear she felt as soldiers searched each bus.
My grandfather ofcourse didn't let a silly coup ruin his time in Greece and soon
it was off to a cruise of the islands. He returned I'm sure with a new found appreciation of
the classics . and A massive picture of an eyeless Zeus statue which sat in the garage in Sun City, CA staring at me when I would get my ubiquitous summer buzz cuts.
Other than perhaps the Acropolis the ruins of Athens, like my grandfather's tales of Hercules
require a good bit of imagination to visualize the city of the Ancient Greeks
*****
Furthermore I had no cruises or coups to contemplate. Just a quick lay-over trip.
Flying into Athens it looked just like California. I felt right at home. It wasn't until I reach the terminal
and I got that first whiff of the Grecian Air that I knew this was not Cali...you could smell the cigarette smoke everywhere. A larger percentage of Greeks smoke than the citizens of any other developed country.
I packed light and was on a bus in moments. The bus took us through the hills while I chatted with some Aussies.
There are tons of Aussies in Greece. Partly because there are tons of Greeks in the land of Oz.
Infact Zorba Hostel was so full of the 'roos I thought I was going to start hopping.
By 5 o'clock I had found my hostel in Victoria and thrown my bags down.
I jumped back on the metro and was determined to see the Acropolis the first day even though it closed at 7.
I ended up seeing half of Athens on the first day.
I stepped off the Metro anxious to see the Acropolis, to ponder the origins of Western Civilization, to ponder
mythology and philosophy of long dead white guys in togas.
I looked around the square for landmark…wait a minute was that a mosque? Actually it was. One of two in the area called Plakka. At one time there were hints of 400 years of Ottoman Athens all over Greece. The same Junta who nearly ruined my grandparents trip also went about chopping up most of the Turkish bits of Athens. Ottoman residences and so fourth were destroyed. The Acropolis at one time served as a mosque.
The Acropolis was hidden on a hill and I could not see it from my angle. I walked up the hill towards its
entrance. Just after I stepped into the Acropolis I ran into a Corean engineer (spelling intentional).
His Name was Sung-Woo Seo and more specifically he works for Samsung Heavy Industries on the 32nd Floor
of the Samsung Life Insurance Tower in Seoul. I only know this because he gave me his business card, twice.
He was 28 and had just started a career with Samsung in the heavy industry side of things.
Before that he went to an average school in Seoul and did a tour in the ROK Army.
He was by himself so I talked to him as we trudged on pausing to take photos or in his case video.
We came to a path should we go left or right? I asked more to myself than anyone else
We should go left said this acquaintance from the Land of the Morning calm"
I practiced the Corean that Brian Lee, my former Corean roommate, had taught me. Then we talked about the thing men all around the world have in common: sports. We talked soccer and baseball. \
"I just love Chan Ho Park" I blurted out citing my admiration for the former Los Angeles Dodger pitcher
"Chan Ho Park...yes he was my hero in middle school." We talked a bit about famous Korean baseball players. Most of whoms names I could only mispronounce.
The long route brought us amazing views of Athens, the Aegean Sea, of the Lykanious hill, the new Acropolis Museum which had just been completed in late June.
Finally we began climbing the steps that wind through the former temple of Athena Nike
"We are in the nursery of Western civilization, the cradle is on the other side" I comment
We climb the final steps carefully marble and slippery even in August.
Finally we pass under an arch and in front of us Behold, the Acropolis, like bandito gunslingers we reach for our cameras.
I don’t have a full DSLR unlike most serious photographers but I’m just shocked when my friend.
Produces a small pink camera that looks like it should be found in a woman's handbag
not in the grips of an Asian tourist. It looks more appropriate for some drunken photos
at a nightclub than a expedition to another continent.
Sung Woo-Seo is instantly defensive " This is my sister's....I'm not gay" He quips.
We do a 360 around the Acropolis and try to get some good pictures of the Acropolis.
By good pictures I mean ones with few tourist and without scaffolding. Like Michael Jackson
the Acropolis was getting another facelift.
We spot two girls
"there Corean" He notes
" Go talk to them homie" I try to encourage him. He glances there way and says
"I HAVE BEEN HERE 10 MINS i'M NOT THAT DESPERATE YET!" He says jokingly. Perhaps the best joke he tells me in the two days were together.
I chuckle and change the topic
“Ok, What do you think of the Acropolis?....Up close it doesn't look that impressive ”
“Agreed I think it is more attractive from a far. “
Yeah we climb to a nearby hill to look at the acropolis. It proves treacherous marble
As I climb I tell hill I was at the World Baseball Classic in March.
"Yeah it was a big deal in Corea, we were all at working watching the game"
Corea lost that game to Japan in a close one. If you think baseball is boring, if you think baseball has lost its way see Corea vs. Japan is one of the greatest rivalries in Sport.
We decide to climb and even taller hill to see the Acropolis.
I surprise an English bloke when I say "Excuse me sir, Can you take a picture of me and my friend"
We descend and decide to orientate for a moment and the engineer reaches and produces
a box of Marlboro 100s.
"You smoke?"
"Not in Corea"
Not in Corea but in the sanctuary of the Greek gods? Certainly this
was not the place to start !
A moment later one of Zeus thunderbolts came smashing down upon my friend for daring
to smoke in the sanctuary of the Acropolis...he disappeared into nothingness
and I sat petrified like I'd just seen Medusa.
Ok, not really. What did happen was that my friend dropped his sisters camera
in such a way that it landed that it landed awkwardly and broke which is pretty much the same as a thunderbolt from Zeus.
We both expressed our opinions in a short English language expletive as Virginia seed tobacco
wafted in the air. For this further sin the immortals decided not
To punish us.
"I'll send you my pictures"
"Well once you get Corea back we worry about it
He had planned to travel with a friend but suddenly his friend had got a big interview with a big company and
had cancelled on him. Conversely he told me His mother and sister would be doing the same route he was (Athens, the Greek Islands and Turkey ) threes later when his mother suspected there would be less tourists. He had to travel at peak season because Samsung takes a week long summer vacation together so this was the only week he had.
I could just imagine his mother and sister in white with gloves and hat trying, at the end of August trying to not get dark.
Aren't you worried about getting dark I ask him? I recall many students from Seoul in my college dorm loving the
good California sunshine but worried about tanning. Dark skin color is associated with so many Coreans with field workers.
"Well really I don't care, but I have a big head so I look silly in a hat" He confesses. Besides he comes from the countryside originally he told me that as a child in rural career him and his friends would "ski" on frozen rice paddies.
We trudge on and manage to squeeze in trips to three more places of interest: Hadrian’s Gate, the stadium of the first Olympics in 1896 and the new Acropolis Museum.
****
I had met a Greek woman in Estonia who gave me some advice on sightseeing in Athens
"you must go to Plakka one night"
Well luckily I only had one night to walk around. The Plakka is a series of sidewalk cafes
and tourist shops at the base of the Acropolis.
It is a perfect place for an evening stroll. We choose a cafe that looked
reasonable. I had a plate of Greek veal with Tzatazki. The Tzatki was really
good so I offered some to my friend.
"Greek Kimchi" I said jokingly
Men around the world have another thing in common besides sports: women. So this became are next topic of conversation
He had a girlfriend of three years who works for a auction house in art management. I think she designs the catalogs or something.
As we ate he lit up another cigarette. Maybe his girlfriend doesn’t let him smoke in Corea
We finished eating and took a stroll through the Plakka while the Parthenon looked down at us.
We decided to meet up again the following day at 11 am for the changing of the big changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
I told him I wasn’t at the meeting spot by 10:30 to just meet me after the whole shindig was over.
Good idea
We were perfect companions making occasional small talk but usually just trudging on in silence.
My hostel was partying when I got back. The 'roos were all down stairs looking there best.
There were so many Aussies I felt like a little Joey in the pouch. There were other characters too.
A Swedish-Russian girl from Malmo who told me she had been obssesed with moving to LA since she was
a little girl. Than while was she was in Greece? She told me her ex-boyfriend was a "French-Greek"
So I guess that makes him a "Freak" I joked
Then a couple of English Jews who asked me if I was Jewish, and then I ran into a Cape Verdian kid from Boston. Wearing a Red Sox cap. We talk about Tavares the famous 1970s group from Cape Verde and then Baseball and Steroids.
THe bartender was a bit younger than me and told me he was from Canada
"Vancouver well I'm from LA and Vancouver is just the West Coast of The Maple Leaf state! " I said jokingly
Mistake. He went livid.
"Oh come on I mean the best, I love Canada! I could live in Montreal!" Canada and America are two brother separated by taxes we need to realize this and work to creating more economic intergration like the EU.
"You guys are a bunch of conservative cowboys!" He told me
"Look we have Texas and you have Alberta and I can't tell which is in the gas tank" I retort
Despite the popular that we get oild from "Mid-East dictator Canada is where we get our largest share of oil imports
"Yeah well Canada is not an imperialist power invading the world " He accuses
"I'm pretty sure the Canadians are over there in Afghanistan homie and thousands of you jumped the border
went with us to Viet-Nam to fight communism"
He was flabergasted
"well at least we don't treat Marijuana like Cocaine"
"Well I can't speak for all 0f America on this one but I can assure you in California we are quite aware that
one has far more street value than the other...but whose your favorite hockey team? " I ask trying to
defuse the tension from my Canadian friend
"I am 'Habs fan.…” I begin to explain.
"Oh I don't watch Hockey" he tells me right before he tells me he doesn't speak French, doesn't like the cold and has spent the last 5 years of his life trying to avoid his national military service in Israel.
I’m not sure how Canadian this makes him but later he put him on some Johnny Cash and we sang away our tensions...though I was sure he would of choose Celine Deion.
Later I went and chatted with the Aussies before turning in for the night. Around 6 am three more ANZACs
came stumbling into the room.
I woke up late the next morning and by the time I made it to the Parliament building I was 10 minutes late
Filipino time. I knew he'd be on time, Coreans are always on time.
Sure enough he was there smoking a Malboro 100s.
“Sorry I’m late”
“No really I just got here maybe 5 mins”
We made it up the hill to the center divider in front of the Parliment and stood and waited for 11 am changing of the guard.
Around 10:50 we heard some noise coming from the direction of the Egyptian embassy.
We looked at the changing of the guard which on Sundays like in Spain is a big deal with a platoon
of men in blouses marching out to change guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
As the platoon came trotting out a group of stray dogs mixing in and out of the formation as they came to parade to dress
Stray dogs at the tomb of the unknown solider?
I turned to the former Korean soldier next to me.
"We wouldn't let these dogs in my ROTC formation"
"Yeah" he added after a pause
"Actually in Corea....some people would...catch these dogs and eat them"
I burst into laughter
"No, no I'm serious" He say without blinking….ok maybe that was the funniest joke he told me in the two days we were together.
Suddenly the two girls in front of us jumped off the center divider and raced toward the formation
the whole crowd surged forwad until the police stopped us.
We stood 20 feet away for 15 mins as they goose-stepped in and goosetepped out with dramatic arms. Then we walked back across the street as they played the Greek national athemn.
“Where now?” he asks
“the Betakai Islamic Art Museum.”
"Ok"
We walked several blocks off the tourst path through the flea market where dusty street corners could easily be Jordan or Syria. On blankets men sold everything old powertools to used trashy novels.
We reach the art museum, I didn't have a student ID card with a date on it. All I had was a willingness to swear by God that I was a student.
The guard waited to see if a Zeus lightining bolt would strike me down and then he let me in.
Perhaps he did so because we were the only ones in the whole museum. Another guard silently followed us from Room to room to make sure we didn't touch anything
I think now I have been to every sizeable collection of Islamic art the Pergermmon in Berlin, the LACMA, Malaysia, excepting anything in England I suppose.
The collections are always the same. Ceramics, Weaponry, Calligraphy, etc. To me the most interesting is always the textilles . For textitles to survive a thousand years is simply stunning. I have T-shirts which don’t last a thousand hours of use.
What is cool about this place is they let us take photos. We proceed on in silent I snap
The centerpiece of the collection is the rooms of a former Ottoman official in Cairo,
“This is what my room is going to look like in Cairo I tell, he smiles.
A room fit for a Pasha.
The roof has a view of the Acropolis and a Greek girl sipping a macchiato and talking on her cellphone.
We take some photos and go to Agora.
" Is this the Roman Agora or the Greek Agora?"
Last night we had also passed another Agora.
I'm not sure what an Agora is I finally tell him
The Agora I believe is the ancient marketplace and today it has been restored. It sits at the base of a temple admist other ruins.
The ruined streets aren’t worth a photo until I find the former speakers box. I'd like to imagine Homer here. Homer ofcourse wrote more epics(12) than we have today. My grandfather exposed me
to the Odyessy ofcourse. Many stories existed about Homer’s origins my grandfather told me. Perhaps he never existed or perhaps he was a wealthy priest.
"But, I'd like to believe " my grandfather would say with a twinkle in his eye "the story that Homer was a blind slave.”
I named a few possible destinations to my friend as we left
When I mention the war museum he tells me
" I like War"
So we go trudging off on the way I am mistaken for a Greek. This is the third time that has happened in Athens.
Every Korean man unless he wins an Olympic medal has to do national service in the military. Until recently
an exception Hienz Ward who is half-black half-Corean was super bowl MVP and this was embarrassing
so the law was changed.
My new friend was a combat engineer in the army.
"My job was to clear the mines for Abraham tanks" he explains proudly. Once apparently the Americans
were kind enough to let him fire an M2 Heavy machine gun.
I’m not sure how one clears mines in the middle of a war with North Korea but instantly
I imagined my new Corean friend (with an unusually large helmet thanks to his head) under fire from some malnourished Norks (North Koreans)
taking hellish fire as he runs to a fox hole flips a switch for Bangalore torpedoes and some explosions go off in front of him.
For a moment dirt flies in front of the camera and we can’t see anything.
My friend peers above his foxhole covered in mud, sweat and grime just to see some Americans blow by at 40 miles an hour in a big fucking shiny Abrahams tank. They flash my buddy a thumbs up and
tear off into combat with Norks.
"That's a pretty shit job I told him" The lunancy of this just seemed huge to me all this...Why would we need to blow
the mines any way couldn't we just
snipers, tanks, horse calvary, who needs this stuff lets just blow that up from the air? the future of warfare
is unmanned drones buzzing around the air blowing shit up right? I mean us Americans have been playing video
games for nothing right?
My grandfather Hammond though shared no such idealist hopes. "You'll always need the infantry." He assured me once. "You can bomb from the air but, you are always gonna have to have some grunts on the ground"
Greece has changed a lot since when my Grandparents were here and I don’t just mean you can now take a metro or the Olympics. Probably the biggest thing change is immigration.
Greece is the most multicultural today it has been since the Ottoman days…. at least in Athens.
Everywhere I look there are Filipino nurses and maids going to work on the metro, Arabs in the cafes,
Africans selling knockoff women’s hand bags, South Asian men selling toys and running kiosks.
***
The war museum was unfortunately bit of a hike on the other side of town practically near the first Olympic stadium
It closes on Sunday at 1400 hours ….errr.. I mean 2:00. We walked around a few tanks and cannons that were outside. Then we went back to Victoria Square via the metro for a final meal together.
I had a good time with him and we enjoyed a final Greek Gyro together.
*********
Greece reminded me more of Lebanon or Alexandria than Paris. I must admit
Still my trip brought up questions about the Cradle of Western civilization? Or do you need Athens and Jerusalem(Abrahamic monotheism) to get Western Civilization?
Or does Western Civilization and Eastern Civilization? Is Japan in Western Civilization? Is Russia?
Do we even need civilization? where does that leave us in a world like the one wee answers to these questions. ?
My grandfather taught me He loved Western Civilization and literature. Though I think he saw America as both different yet a part of that tradition he had a great experience with Japanese tradition and culture I can't imagine him falling for the whole "Clash of Civilzations" thesis.
These are the kind of deep questions I must save for another time.
All I know is that my grandfather, myself and Seo all have one thing in common: Baseball. If Baseball isn't civilization I don't know what is.
