greece (day 8) - athens agora and archaeological museum
the weather forecast was supposed to be great in the morning and early afternoon today but with clouds and rain forecasted in the late afternoon, so i wanted to get an early start. i ate the free buffet breakfast at my hotel (tbd if i will have it again), and set off for the agora: round 2. the agora was the commercial gathering place of ancient athens and also houses the well-preserved temple of hephaestus (god of artisans, craftsmen, etc.).
the agora with the acropolis and parthenon in the background, taken taken from the temple of hephaestus:
the temple of hephaestus:
the stoa of attalos, a 2nd-century bc marketplace that housed hundreds of shops. it has been reconstructed and serves as the agora museum:
this ancient greek krater from the agora museum was cool because you can read the ancient text:
agora bonus:
next, i stopped at the hadrian's library, constructed by roman emperor hadrian in 132 ad:
cool tile:
then, i saw the roman agora, built 27–17 bc:
tower of the winds:
after visiting the three ancient sites, i headed towards the greek national archaeological museum. on the way, i walked through the neighborhood of exarchia and had ukranian crepes and a smoothie for lunch.
the athens archaeological museum:
i didn't take any photos inside the archaeological museum (it was very busy), but i did see the original mask of agamemnon (?) from mycenae (?) which i saw a few days ago (???). after looking back at my photo in this post, the one in the archaeological museum is the original, but whatever, they look the same :)
i finished up at the museum around 1:30. it started sprinkling, so i headed back to relax at my hotel for a bit. i think today was my highest step count (but definitely not highest elevation gain). once i got back to the hotel, it started pouring. i watched some youtube videos about fire emblem: the sacred stones, and then got some nearby pasta for dinner before calling it a night.