Virtual Tour of Athens
okay I think I’m live and the app is working hopefully hi John hi Anita how are you doing thank you so much for joining hope you’re having a really good day hi D hi Chrissy hi Betsy how are you thank you so much for being here today hope you’re having a really really good Friday and a happy weekend ahead of you hi hi Nick welcome how are you doing no worries hi Federica welcome how are you hi Darla welcome hope you’re all having a good week so far and uh yeah we have about five minutes and a little bit in here um I came early to the stream just because we’re actually not going to do the tour that I thought I I was going to plan i I put a couple of announcements up but I didn’t know if people got the message um so I will I will do a little preamble to it in a moment i I didn’t want to cancel and leave you guys with no tour so we’re actually going to do something else that will still involve views of the Acropolis um and we will go to the base of the mountain where we were going to start the tour but unfortunately the signal has just been really really really bad all across town they’re doing lots of works and it’s it’s really patchy but I’ I’ve recorded the route so we will be doing that route actually um as a as a live tour from home when I get back to the UK i I had the recording but I I wouldn’t have had enough time to actually uh do the recording go home put the recording in the computer and and play it for you guys hey James how are you doing thank you so much for joining hope you’re doing good i’m sorry I’m keeping my eye out because this is quite a a transit kind of area so I’m just making sure I’m not in anyone’s way welcome Elizabeth how are you thank you so much for joining and also keeping an eye on the doors of a couple of the places where I hope we can go in um timets for things can be a bit volatile so I’m uh I’m hopeful i’m hopeful even though uh sometimes hope doesn’t reduce really plan out but I think we can probably have a look in a couple of churches that are in the local area hi Katherine hi Odette hi Karen hi Hayward how are you thank you so much for joining welcome Claire hi Katherine welcome and for those of you who are just joining now just a quick preamble um I I will say this again at the beginning of the tour but the the tour that I had planned for you guys today is unfortunately not possible due to signal issues so instead of canceling the tour I’ve brought you to a different part of the city center of Athens um the tour that I wanted to do today has now been recorded um but I I didn’t have enough time to do the recording and and get back home and and do everything so um a little bit of improv i thought it was better than just cancelling and leaving you guys hanging hi Linda welcome Diane hope you’re doing good is that coming this way no that’s fine hi Dean welcome hi Larry hi Camilo how are you guys doing oh no no problems honestly it it’s officially the last tour I know I can do from Athens um I may be able to do some tours on the first but I am not going to know until probably tomorrow so I’ve not scheduled anything proper um so I thought it would be such a shame to just you know not be able to do anything so it’s a little bit unorthodox but well we’ll bite the bullet but the good news is that now I have three um three recordings of places where we couldn’t go to and um a place where we’ve already been that I can take with me to the UK and show you guys properly in my big screen with higher resolution as well um which is is good it’s good so it’s it’s not been entirely bad just a little bit you know difficult to to manage with the uh expectations of the signal and well and the app which has been a bit strange as well for those of you who may have not been using the app today just keep in mind that there’s been a few technological problems both on app and web um I think hey are aware of them so you know just giving you a heads up welcome Louis Vicki and Richard how are you doing thank you so much for joining us hope you’re having a really good Friday everybody uh but yeah we have about a minute and 13 seconds to go so then we will we will get started then okay that’s fine not too bad i thought there was I thought there was some people that were going to start setting up some music here but they’ve uh they’ve moved on so that that makes our route a little bit easier welcome Roger how are you doing over there in Canada thank you so much for joining us must be quite early in the morning for some of you guys thank you so much for being here hi Honda hi Janitka it’s been a long time hey Satyam welcome again oh greetings from Long Island nice it must be early for you too Richard thank you so much for joining us guys thank you thank you welcome Christine how are you doing thank you so much for being here hi Heidi hi Jane welcome Eliza how are you welcome back [Music] hi right so we’re about to go into the green so let me uh get ready and explain what’s happening today because we’ve had a slight change of Oh okay 10:00 a.m 10 10:00 a.m is not too bad thank you so much anyway right okay let me let me get in into this so hello everybody welcome to Athens my name is Dr lilian Fespedes Gonzalez if you haven’t toured with me before I’m a historian i have a PhD in history medieval history is my expertise um and I’m a tour guide as well and today we are in the city of Athens from which I am doing my last official tour at least for a while i have some pre-recordings that I’m taking with me to the UK um hi Tracy hi Colleen hope you’re doing good now officially today we were going to go up Philippus Hill um to learn a bit more about the history of that area and get some views of the Acropolis welcome Leah thank you so much for joining unfortunately Filipus Hill has been proving problematic um when the wind comes out in this city signal really goes very very weird and Philip Papapus Hill has no cover whatsoever so instead of canceling the tour and leaving you all hanging I thought that if that was okay with you I I put out some announcements so I’m just saying this for those of you who may have not gotten the announcements hi Gerald hi JV Grace Craig and Francis hope you’re doing good instead we are actually in the city center of Athens my hope is that we will be able to at least get to the base of Filipus Hill so instead we’re going to be seeing some other parts of Athens in the city center um just because I thought cancelling last minute would be bad i do have the recording for Philip Papus Hill um but I just didn’t have enough time to do the recording get home put it into my computer and show you live so I hope this is an okay backup plan since we’ve had this technological issue hi hi Allison hope you’re doing good welcome Judy and that’s kind of the plan okay and the bell is ringing which probably means we should properly get started hi Judy hi Anna hi Mark welcome for those of you have just arrived I forget how loud this bell is well it’s it’s officially 5:00 p.m in Athens that’s for sure yeah okay let me um I’ll be able to explain in a second it’s very persistent isn’t it right well we’re near a church you’re right you know what let’s uh let’s show you which church we’re nearby so yeah in case you were wondering what was the the sound this is what you’re hearing hi Katie Margaret Santo Hy hope you’re doing good i’m sorry if you can’t hear me the the bell of the church has been really persistent i didn’t realize it was going to go on for so long hi Jill welcome how are you doing thank you so much for joining right okay um so for those of you who have just arrived and as I was trying to explain to to everybody on chat just yet um unfortunately Philip Papus Hill couldn’t go ahead philip Papus Hill couldn’t go ahead because of signal problems um I have done the recording so instead of canceling the tour last minute which I thought would be quite a shame since this is the last proper tour I’m running from Athens i thought I would take you somewhere else in the city center hi Belle hi Katherine hi John how are you doing so we are not going to be seeing Philip Papus Hill but we’re still going to get some nice views of the Acropolis just from a different perspective and if everything goes according to plan we shall see um we will be getting to the base of Filipus Hill um hi Marian hi Polly welcome thank you so much for joining us and this is by the way the Metropolitan Church of Athens the the official cathedral of Athens it is a Greek Orthodox church by the way hi Jada hi Jose how are you doing um my intention is to show you the entrance and from the entrance sometimes if the doors are open we can see the entrance of the church the nave itself and whatnot the church by the way is from the 19th century i was going to say just from the 19th century which sounds really uh I guess pompus but considering that I’m hoping to show you some things that are considerably older than it I guess it kind of makes sense marian thank you so much for asking hi Lee welcome thank you so much for joining so that’s the reason why we’re not in Filipos but hopefully I’ll make it up to you and like I said I do have a spot for some views for the Acropolis which is topnotch so hopefully that will be good so everything that you see here construction and decorations are from the 19th century welcome Marott thank you so much for joining us here and uh I think I can probably take us to the uh I don’t think they are in mass right now i could be wrong nope they are the service has just started so for the sake of not disturbing people I will not go in hi Beth how are you doing however there is a little church here on the side which is actually a lot older and that I would like to show you cuz I think you will love it i loved it personally but um as a medievalist I could not not love it and that that appears between the houses by the way is the top of the Acropolis but you will not get a very good view from here so don’t worry I will show you in just one moment and this church that we’re going to right now is the church of Theotocos Giorgio Picos and Aios Ele excuse my Greek it’s not very good this beautiful church in front of you hi Karen hi Eva how are you doing thank you so much for joining this church that you’re seeing is by Santine um in origin uh the construction date um started in the 9th century and it actually went all the way up to the 13th century we believe it’s absolutely beautiful and there is actually a chance to go in welcome Memphis Stefan and Joan how are you doing the paintings are original um we just need to be quiet inside okay so I’m not going to be able to say anything while we’re inside but I’ll tell you a few more details when we’re out yep i’m just going to put out this Okay one two three vertical okay just coming out [Applause] sorry I just need to be quiet while I’m here [Applause] okay I’m one view now that the person that was praying has gone um I’ll just give you one last view since we can’t go any further it’s It’s very hard to get the painting that is there at the top but hopefully you can see at least some of it okay just going to come out right okay sorry guys but there was actually someone praying in there and you know as out of respect when someone is praying in one of these small churches we really should be quiet so I didn’t want to disturb them but that is indeed um a Greek temple it was done like I said in bantine times the origin of it is from the 9th century and the later stages of construction are actually from the 13th century hi Alison and Cynthia thank you so much for joining and I’m sorry if anyone just joined while we were in the temple sorry I couldn’t really say much so it’s a lovely lovely church like I said um thankfully it’s open most of the time um because it’s so tiny i don’t know if you noticed that the chairs were put in there creating a little bit of a barricade to not allow people in for the uh for the proper worship and and use of the church except when the actual uh mass takes place in there and it’s only special services that take place in there currently hi Terry thank you so much for joining uh one last view of the um Metropolitan Church of Athens i’m just taking us to the square so we can have that view again yes yes we’re still in Athens indeed hey Marylu how are you doing thank you so much for joining us here and for those of you who may have joined the tour late I am sorry we’re not actually in Filipus Hill the signal proved to be quite tricky um so instead of canceling the tour I decided to take us to the city center and see something we hadn’t seen before um so at least this is something and there you have so on the left is the Metropolitan Church of Athens which is technically a cathedral and the little charge of Theotocos thank you so much guys you’re very very kind let me just catch up with the chat quickly welcome Jen i hadn’t seen you coming thank you thanks and the temperature right now Diane um on the shade is a little bit cooler it’s starting to go down it’s about 13° but on the sun we’re actually up at 17 so it’s not too bad well before we leave we square and we go further down into the neighborhood of Monastaki which is the main historical neighborhood of Athens let me give you this lovely view hi Tracy how are you doing thank you so much for joining us one of the many statues that they have in the city the other best one that I’ve seen is actually in the port of Kyas um of uh Constantine Palogus the last Vansantine emperor Constantine 11 constantine was actually super important not just for the Bantine Empire because he was the last of the emperors after his beloved city of Constantinople gets taken over by the Ottoman Empire um but um here in Greece he was uh one of the main military leaders that actually created the the further advances of the Baantine Empire into the Penetones and in the area of Attica here in Athens so that’s why there is a few different statues dedicated to him and as you can see the statue is absolutely formidable um like I said is one of the very few ones that I’ve seen around the around the city that is really really lovely is that a likeness yes uh from well from the icons that we have of him it seems relatively faithful probably a little bit beautified I will not lie but it is relatively faithful yeah the particularly in terms of armor and and dress it is it is pretty decent with a modern twist of course as normally all these statues have it looks very determined yeah very much indeed well Constantine Pales was a very very fearless leader and he took a lot of political action both in Constantinople and here but unfortunately circumstances really took the best out of him right well um just to let you know guys we’re now going to walk down the neighborhood of Monastaki there is a lot of people in here sometimes there is traffic so I just need to be a bit watch watchful and on my feet um but this is essentially the old part of the city um and this is also currently the commercial and touristy part of Athens so everything that you’re going to see is lots of shops lots of businesses lots of restaurants and bars uh and probably lots of tourists once we get to a particular part of the city hi Abdul welcome how are you doing hi Ora and yes lots of graffiti uh Athens is a city where graffiti is king there’s a lot of street art as well like proper murals but a lot of graffiti for sure is there a map showing where you are well Joy the uh map doesn’t seem to be working today in my app we’ve been having quite a few technical issues with the app and the website today so there is a chance that unfortunately may not be showing i do apologize for that feelings keep going through us yes for sure welcome Trudy how are you doing thank you so much for joining and we are in Athens in the middle of the city in the neighborhood of Monastery which is the uh city center and the oldest neighborhood the actual street that we are in right now is Pandrosu okay and now I have two options i can go to the left or I can go to front i think we’re actually going to go straight up front because if I remember my steps correctly and these couple of streets look a little bit similar so sometimes I get a little bit confused still but if I remember correctly if I turn here to the left I’m going to be able to show you at least part of one of the archaeological sites here in the city center of Athens which would be really nice to see and then we will also be able to contemplate some of the nice views of the Acropolis so as you can see there’s lots of jewelers in Athens of all types of um craftsmanship whether it’s metal work whether it’s all honestly I kind of have lost kind of have lost uh track of all the kind of things that they uh that they creating here and uh wait can I spell Oh the name yes is Pandro so P A N D R O S O U and now we are in one of the main streets which is I olu which is spelled as in a i o l o u i am just going to turn left here for two things hadron’s library so please bear with me while we walk through the masses this is an area of town that gets a lot of uh traffic so I need to be a little bit uh a little bit you know vigilant and careful and uh let me just get us to the corner yes very very busy only going against wararmongering church as well yeah okay now the light is a little bit difficult here but hopefully you should be able to see part of the library oh Hrien so all of the archaeological sites are closed now so even if I wanted to take you in I wouldn’t be able to um but this is honestly such a superb place um and I’ll explain you a bit more like why uh Hrien’s Library is amazing there is two more views of the library which I think are worthwhile one from this corner and one from the right and of course the view of the Acropolis in there guys it is fabulous honestly and there is barely any traffic coming in so I can actually go here in the middle of the road and and get you a bit more of a of a view there’s a van coming down now so I may need to get back onto the But yeah excellent so yes that was the library Eliza um the library of Hadrien which has been here since the 2n century AD um and there is another site just above from us i’m sure you can see that tower there um but I just need to be a bit watchful in this area so let me just give you one quick view from above here wow and then we’ll go to the area above so let me actually let me get the best uh the best viewpoint which is just a little bit further cuz I’m so short i can’t really I forget my legs are not as as long as I as I think um so getting up here is actually a little bit trickier but there is a spot right here i know that cuz I’ve done that before um where I can actually get up and give you the better view from this side right [Music] so there you go this is the eastern side of um Hadrien’s library um Joy there are actually lots of problems with the app so even though I have four bars and everything is working on my end it’s likely you may be having some issues it’s been on and off all day so uh I’m sorry about that welcome Patrick i hadn’t seen you coming in Roma thank you so much for being here guys this all dates from about the 2nd century AD and the farther part of the library the part that I’m uh pointing at now that is the best preserved side of the wall um this side of the library alone actually was home to about 166,000 books and with books I mean not necessarily you know to actually scrolls and and papyrus so imagine the amount of knowledge that was actually held in in this facility um it was absolutely amazing and super important and Hrien is actually someone that gets a lot of love here in Athens and in Greece overall because unlike pretty much everyone else that came before him in terms of Roman emperors he actually accepted Greek culture for what it was he didn’t try to romanize the Greeks they were already romanized in many aspects but he in many ways tried to revitalize their culture because he was fascinated by the Greek world and what the Greek world had to offer so it’s uh it is super important that this building is still well here and actually whoops sorry in a pretty good state of repair hi Margaret welcome how are you doing and this area Marian is from about the 2n century AD yes I know um I can’t remember what was their name they they unfortunately left and I don’t know if they’re still doing tours anymore but anyway we we need to move on from this area um I need to be watchful in this corner so please give me a moment and then we will go up to the tower of the winds where you will be able to get some further views of the Acropolis and from another structure of the ancient world which is Roman forum so let me Just get through here first and we’ll be there in just a sec okay awesome all good hi Julie hi Deborah how are you welcome Barbara thank you so much for joining us welcome Joe for those of you who uh have just arrived I am very sorry if you were expecting me to be in Philippus Hill so was I but the signal has been quite tricky up the hill um I did the recording so we can do that route at some other point but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to make the recording and and pass it over to my computer at home so we are in the city center of Athens where at least I can guarantee you views of the Acropolis and where the signal has actually been pretty stable so uh apologies for the change of plans but it was either that or cancelling and here let me actually get us to the vantage point in the shade welcome Kathy how are you there we go so that tower that you see there guys is also from Roman times that’s the tower of the winds all of this is actually the Roman forum and the area and the Acropolis on top of course and the area that I’m actually standing right next to this kind of little square area that you see here this is the public baths uh well the toilet specifically uh so that was actually an invention of pespatian who uh thought that charging for public toilets was actually quite a good idea to make coin and to keep sanitation going so we are in the side of the L and the tower that you see there i’m going to try and get us to the other side and get a better view of the freezes that was actually one of the first meteorological stations that they had here in the city i was supposed to help them um understand the weather a bit better particularly in terms of wind direction and impact hence the name Tower of the Wind but also some other type of astronomical phenomena that would have affected the city of Athens and and the rest of their business and again that is from Roman times that actually predates Hadrien um we think it was built at some point between the late uh sort of late middle of the first century um and the beginning of the second century right and now I’m just going to get here a little bit higher up it is really really nice um and then I’m just I think that light maybe I think the light may make it come a bit too dark but let me try and zoom in and hopefully is that clear enough in terms of image to see the the actual work on the wall excellent thank you so much hi Huma how are you doing thank you so much for joining us admittedly the vast majority of these carvings have been restored in the 19th and in the 20th century but they still give you a very very good idea of what this would have looked like in uh in Roman times they’re absolutely superb and I’m sure you can see they’re kind of like little angels flying with different uh you know aspects of how the weather would impact agriculture river water tides etc etc so that’s what they’re supposed to to represent right okay um and from here actually if I carry on down that way we’re going to end up in in a place where the signal is not so good so instead what I’m going to do is I’m going to double back ourselves through this uh through this side in a moment so I can take us to the front of the uh agora but one last be at the tower and then uh we’ll we’ll move oh and well I suspect many of you would like this say hi to the kitties there’s literally so many cats just hanging around amongst the ruins is kind of it’s a really strange combination just seeing Greek cart and and cats everywhere but they are honestly the true kings of the city almost everywhere you go and you stop in the city center whether it’s for eating shopping whatever a little street urging aka a stray cat will come and try and swindle you for food cuddles attention fuss anything it’s it’s honestly quite abrasive sometimes we were Yes Marian they’re completely just roaming on their own and a lot of the locals feed them and when James was here he was telling me that actually during fair amount of different periods in history Athens was known for having serious problems with rats and rodents um and of course in times of pestilence that would have been quite dangerous so um we have the working theory but no proven that perhaps the locals are quite keen to feed the stray cats to keep um you know potentially meddling rodents at bay so there we go and yes honestly there are so many well this is probably the best view I can give you of the Roman forum with the acropolis i’m sure you can see here the columns on the right some of the actual areas of the structure are still sort of visible the majority of them are just very severely destroyed and here with the tower of the winds I think that probably makes a nice a nice postcard and it didn’t matter that I was vertically challenged for this one what’s on the hill the the thing on the hill is the Acropolis joy that is literally the Acropolis but from the less um less famous view so what you’re looking at I’m just going to zoom once now the temple view that you’re seeing there you see there’s like an elevator some bits that are in ruins and then the temple the wall that you see guys by the way is the oldest part of the Acropolis we actually have pretty good evidence that um that was done during my time so we’re talking literally way into the ancient past of Greece we’re talking millennia away and the uh temple where you can see the little columns that’s actually the backside of the temple of the cares of the Ericon which was one of the many temples dedicated to the goddess Athena so there we go well we can go inside Kathy but um the Acropolis actually closes at 5 um so it wouldn’t have been possible to go in and no professional filming or recording is allowed in any of these sites properly so you cannot go in and film the whole site is simply not possible unless you have a very special permission which is only granted by the tourist um uh ministry to very specific guides uh that have you know certain contacts within the um within the ministry so it’s quite a tricky thing to get hold of and this by the way is one of the buildings that they are restoring from Ottoman times this one I’m too short to give you without the the fence so there you go hi Ly hi Gabriel how are you doing thank you so much for joining there is actually lots of ramps and uh stairs going up that way John so it’s uh it’s not very accessible um you kind of have to wind up all around it which is quite uh quite tiresome I tell you that much there is um another access point a bit further down on Arapeus Hill which is the um the hill where the Acropolis well in front of the Acropolis um through the temple of Dionis but um it’s not it’s not very well for a reception for example okay and now this is the other side of the Roman forum hi Leo welcome thank you so much for joining i think I should be able to get you a better picture of that entrance that entrance was also dedicated to the goddess Athena by the way yes we should be able to um cuz even though it’s closed the the uh entrance is is still over here so we should be able to to get it i think um there is no cable card in the um in the Acropolis there is a lift for accessibility purposes but it only works in the summer or if you have a special permission or mobility needs so uh there is no other way of getting up unfortunately right yes here we go i thought the the viewpoint here was better i just don’t know if the sun is going to be too bright for this postcard so again everything that you see here it is from the end of the first century AD and the beginning of the second and the Roman forum of course is essentially Rome’s interpretation of the agura but we’re going to be seeing the actual agura in just a moment in fact here the Roman forum is still called the Roman Agora because in many ways they were still following the Greek footprint rather than what will become the proper forum from places that we uh know today you know that are a bit more famous such as Rome so there we go so in case that you’re wondering what the forum Moragura would be used for essentially they were the main city center of any type of community in the forum you did your shopping in the same way that you hang out with your mates went to the bathroom or the baths and uh talk about politics so it was very much a multi-purpose space uh as you can imagine ah I think we may be able I think there is a frame here i was testing it earlier where I can get you the acropolis and the entrance to the forum in the same frame yeah there is a car here but if I There we go excellent awesome i I thought it worked i earlier I was able to go a little bit further but I have a huge car behind me so there’s not much else I can do well uh the it’s interesting because the romanization of Greece probably started a lot earlier than anywhere else um it’s quite weird because technically speaking Rome was originally a Greek colony so it’s kind of difficult to ascertain when the Roman influence really started being Roman instead of Greek influence revamped if you see what I mean and uh hold on before before I move on a full front view of this one well I’m glad this was at least a good thing that I could do instead of you know canceling the tour um I’ve just not been able to do tours around this area before because timing has been awful and the city has been packed with tourists and when the tourists are here it’s almost impossible the signal dies because there’s you know so many cameras and so many phones it’s really challenging but there you go well technically Marian yes the tour guide that I had on my way to Deli the other day actually told me that high season starts literally in a month in March so uh I think high season is pretty much all year around except December January and February and what they consider high season is very different from my concept of high season or if Mark is still in the chat I think I think the levels of tourism that I’m seeing here in February Mark Mark would consider them charming to be considered low low season but it is honestly so so full of people still thank you so much guys you’re very kind and hi Elaine welcome to to Greece Athens we’re just trying to get to the uh Roman sorry not to the Roman to the Greek Agora which is just around here yes Delelfi was very good um but I couldn’t really do many recordings in there so unfortunately I don’t have a lot of material from there but I learned a lot and I’m planning on putting a session about some Greek history together when I’m back in the UK so if nothing else it was very useful to inform me uh for that session thank you so much Betsy you’re very kind welcome Susan how are you doing and at the time right now well Athens is 2 hours ahead of the UK when we started the tour it was 5:00 and I think I’m about half an hour in so it must be 5:30 here most things um in terms of you know touristic venues and whatnot close between 4 and 6 this time of the year most of them are already closed which is the reason why even if I could take you in I I wouldn’t be able to take you into anywhere um so it kind of makes it a bit challenging because of course the time difference makes things a little bit more awkward particularly for those of you who live on on the other side of the Atlantic um so that’s been another peculiar challenge of this city things sometimes open very very early but they also close very early which of course in the summer is really useful you know think that in Greece at this time of the day in the middle of the summer you you would be you know cooked like a lobster so it is uh it’s quite a lot well oh 10:30 is not too bad i thought it was earlier honestly my my time difference arrangements are so bad i need to get better at it um you’re coming in October well I suspect it will be a lot more similar to what you’re seeing Athens now than uh what is in the summer the road that we’re going to go down now next to the Agura by the way is full of restaurants but these are the kind of restaurants where you pay more money because they are touristic places any side street that you take from here you will eat just as well without paying you know prime location um instead of you know just good food but they are very nice restaurants i have nothing against them i’ve actually tried a couple however if you want to come to Athens and you want to try really good restaurants I have two very good recommendations well I know I have the name in Greek which I can’t type or pronounce so if you want them get in touch and I will send you the details um because they’re really wonderful but this is this is very nice people here normally stay out uh quite late which is lovely and as you can see all of the terraces are prepared for uh CO situations they’re prepared for the heat they’re prepared for the cold it is honestly really nice spending some time around here so there you go no worries thank you so much guys hey Louis Angela and Carl hope you’re doing good my best holidays oh that’s amazing Margaret oh the Well you know what uh Elisa the Musaka has been the thing that I’ve enjoyed less i’ve eaten a lot of other food here which has been amazing this by the way is the Greek agora hope you’re doing good oh yes sublaki sublaki is so good but the best view of the agura so I can show you the stoa which is this huge building over here is actually from the other side but I think there is some nice views here with the light as it’s coming down um and I’m also going to try and show you the best view that we can get from here of the temple of Heistas which is actually amongst the best preserved uh Greek temples in the whole world it’s going to be a little bit in the distance the zoom will do some miracles um but let me let me just get you there i’m just going to get away from all of the people because as you can see this is quite a it’s not the widest street and it gets quite busy so there’s just a turn here into the left which is normally the entrance to the actual uh site and where the views I think are best in any case right so let’s uh let’s do this excellent right one second let me just get through the uh motorbikes cuz yeah parking in Athens as well is something else so that is the original store with the Acropolis there at the back and this is the Greek agura now the building that you see in front of you have been incredibly restored and renovated in the 19th and 20th century so it’s not original per se but it is you know as as original as it gets uh there is still a lot of elements from there that are from the fifth century before Christ or before the modern era hi Brenda how are you doing thank you so much for joining us yes dessert is great and yeah they they are predicted to have actually quite a lot of heat heat strokes um this year so the the Greek authorities are quite scared i’m just going to put the zoom in so you can appreciate the building a bit better um you can see that it has two levels this is currently hosting the exhibition of the museum of the Greek Agora which has a lot of the archaeological finds from site the majority of the archaeological sites from most of us have actually send their things over to the National Archeological Museum which is actually pretty good so um it’s it’s a small exhibition but it’s definitely worth seeing if you come over and of course the added views from the Acropolis are 100% worth it hey Robin thank you so much for joining us hope you’re doing good and if I just go over to the other side I should be able to show you um not from this angle actually just cuz the sun is going to kill that uh postcard otherwise but from a little bit further ahead I should be able to show you the view of the temple of Hefistas which is that building that is currently being blocked by the by the fence hi Roman how are you doing thank you so much for joining this um I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it and I don’t know if you can hear it but these terraces are also very good if you want to actually listen to some lovely rebe which is this [Music] is a very nice thing to do just having some Greek food and listen to traditional Greek music i think we probably arrived just as they were going to have their break but anyway it’s in this area particularly and in this restaurant particularly they always seem to have it um from about midday to to nighttime um but there is many many other places where this is quite common um so you get to you know enjoy lovely food and have a live music show um all at the same time and this by the way is the north side of the ancient Agora which is not open to the public because they’re still doing archaeological excavations in here so as you can see everything is still very much work in progress hi Carla how are you doing thank you so much for joining us oh Greek honey is amazing honestly I’ve had my full of it since I’ve been here now they’re doing a lot of um preservation work in here still um they still have uh archaeological surveys to be carried out um and they think what they may have found in here may be actually part of one of the um potential schools of Athens maybe even another library and the Agora John is essentially the uh marketplace uh the center of the city where people came to work to shop to discuss politics and to have their uh baths so here like I said still doing some work and uh well the research of this will probably not be available for quite some time they’ve been doing this site has been in excavation since the 1930s actually which I know probably sounds like a really long time ago but consider that the majority of ancient Athens has actually been excavated since the 19th century so the actual bit of the agora that we have with us currently the Acropolis everything else um has a 100red years worth of research prior than this side of the city which is the reason why there is still a lot of unknown and since a few buildings around here have been derelict for quite some time it’s kind of made it you know difficult to um to acquire you know further information yeah I know i know it’s mind-blowing um the other problem that they’ve been having as well of course is funding at the end of the day they have a lot of buildings a lot of stuff that needs to be you know restored and preserved and it cannot all go to the same place so it’s hard hey Andrea hi Diane welcome how are you doing well Joan that’s a very good question but um considering how some sites in Greece are currently um I doubt that may not be the case they’re probably I I hate to say this and I never thought I would say this until I saw some places around the city they’re probably safer in the uh in the British Museum than in some of the places here um even some places that are supposed to be under proper UNESCO preservation they they don’t have the best they don’t have the best um preservation right well that building that you see there which is kind of hidden by the trees and the light is probably going to kill that is actually the temple of Hefistas which is amongst the best preserve uh Greek temples in the whole world and it is dedicated to Hefistas which is interesting since we don’t find a lot of temples to him you know Hephistas is the second son of Zeus and Hera the first one well the first one was Hephistas then Hera thinks that he’s disgusting throws him off the side of Mount Olympus then they have Aries and then Heistas comes back and becomes the god of the blacksmiths and craft essentially so finding temples to him are not actually as common and particularly not in this good state of repair so we are quite lucky to have it and then if I turn around the camera and go to another spot just here you’re going to have probably the best view that I can give you today of the Acropolis but let me just um turn around there we go so that is the Acropolis there on top of the hill with the agoda right underneath i will do a quick zoom in case that that brings a different perspective welcome Gregory how are you doing thank you so much for joining us in case you’re wondering the sort of uh side of arches that you can see toppling over that is actually the parthonon um which is by the way being under heavy heavy uh conservation work once again due to the impact of mass tourism and well to the sheer damage that weather and climate change have been having recently uh although the vast majority of this is marble and and it’s a very durable stone it doesn’t mean that it’s completely you know impervious to the past of time so it’s important to keep that into consideration yes of course no worries hey thank you Mark you’re very kind you can imagine them all s Yeah it would have been quite something but those of you who have been in my tour around the academy um you know the the trilogy with the uh research center the University of Athens and the library would remember perhaps some of the shapes of those buildings particularly the academic building itself with the two statues of um Athena and Apollo that is what you would be seeing back in ancient times on top of that on top of that um on top of that hill so there we go thank you so much edit is very very lovely of you hey Nat welcome how are you doing thank you so much for joining us yes relaxing or or maybe not so relaxing conversation eliza would you have Well Deborah I’m I’m trying I’m trying to get to Pyas but um it’s a matter of not so much finding the time but finding the time where I can do a tour where you guys may be available um it takes nearly an hour to get to the port of Kyrieas from the city center of Athens and uh well it’s it can be a bit tricky in some cases but I I I am trying i’ll see if I can do it for the last day that I’m here um but it’s it is proving a bit tricky plus the signal in Pyus because of all of the fairies can also be a bit patchy right now that the light has gone down a little bit and one of the reasons why I’ve been wanting to hang around here is so you could see a bit better the side of the temple of Histas which is just right there hi Donna welcome how are you doing the no the statue that was literally towering here over the Acropolis and that you would have been able to see in ancient times Eliza would have been the statue of Athena who is the uh the well goddess patron of the city of Athens is it worth going if not in the area of Paris yes it definitely is worth going um but really just to Pyas between the city center of Athens and Pyus there is nothing but modern blocks of flats so it’s a little bit dull but in the area of Paris there is a building I really wanted to show you which is the National Opera and the library uh the Stabros Foundation which is a gorgeous modern building plus the views from that area are just breathtaking so I’m trying to figure out if I can work out the logistics to make that happen hi Anna how are you doing thank you so much for joining us right now i am going to try to take us to the very base of Filipas Hill and I say I’m going to try because a certain point the signal goes crazy so I don’t know how far into the walk up to Filipas I’m going to be able to take us guys so I’m just giving you a forewarning in case it gets really bad obviously we will not carry on that way um but I thought it would be a nice way there’s a particular place where there is a lovely view not just of the Acropolis but the whole side of Athens and even like a betas hill which I would really love to show you if the signal holds with us um so my aim is getting us there whether we get there or not well I make no promises but but that’s the aim hey yes lots of lots of berries and boats and that makes things hard and another thing I kind of wanted you to see as well on on this walk up there is the flea market so everything that you see out here these people are out here pretty much from sun to sun um selling all sorts of jewelries and watches goods trinkets of all of all kinds of metal work and whatnot so it’s a very interesting place to come and just not just eat but also you know find some nice souvenirs hi Latitia how are you doing thank you so much for joining hope you’re doing good yeah it’s it is not too bad how long on a boat ride to myas um I’m not sure to Myonos to Santorini is the best part of 7 hours by boat if you get lucky um and I think tomos when I was looking at it is the best part of most of the most of the half day i think it was something like 10 to 11 hours if not a little bit more so it’s it is hard in that sense getting around the islands particularly in the summer um sorry in the winter months because well the the services don’t go don’t go around as often there is a very nice statue here which I would like to show you it’s modern it’s not it’s not old at all but it’s in homage to all of the Greek heroes so I thought it may be interesting to see hi Barbara hi Virginia welcome hope you’re doing good because this is very nice this is just from 2002 so like I said it’s not it’s not ancient Greek or anything but you can obviously see all of the iconography in there the shield on the side the helmet it is very Achilonike in some ways hi Colleen welcome how are you doing thank you so much for joining us i think that’s probably the nicest part of the view if I get a bit lucky in between the trees no the angle is too too small i went to access and serious by a large ferry yeah well it just takes a long time and the other problem that there is is that um a lot of the Greek islands don’t actually have u they don’t actually have um what’s it called you know an airport so the fairies can be quite long-winded now this is all part of a a park that goes around the area of the Acropolis and that belongs to Arapeus Hill and Filipus Hill so between the two hills there is a little bit of a valley what you’re seeing is that thank you so much Polly he’s very very generous of you and here as you can see there is more and more of this little flea market that goes all the way this main street which they uh they call the the ancient pathway because it connects of course the ancient city center of Monastery here in Athens to the top of the hill where uh Filipus is and at the top of Filipus which is what I wanted to show you but unfortunately we won’t be seeing today by the way these replicas are very cool um there is the panics and the panics is the place where Athenian democracy actually happened where the voting actually took place so this whole way is actually super important to telling the story of this city um again this is a very nice part of the of the city very very walkable all of all of this area um they have lots of restaurants cafeterias and whatnot over here um which makes it for a nice stop all the way up the hill uh so if you’re planning on coming to Athens I definitely recommend that you come over this way and you see the um the ancient way from from top to bottom it’s not a it’s not a hard climb i promise you it’s actually quite gentle um just obviously be prepared for it thank you so much Colleen you’re very kind great so let’s see if I can get us to the final viewpoint that I wanted to fingers crossed fingers crossed guys i’m going to try so there we go there is a museum here as well by the way which is interesting um in case in case let let me give you a quick view of the park since this side is actually open it’s it’s very nice in the summer to stay cool because otherwise as you may have noticed the city center of Athens is actually just pretty much you know construction construction and that’s it so finding these green areas is super super important thank you Margaret thank you and actually other than a few trees that they have planted on both sides of the road normally orange trees um the majority of the vegetation in Athens comes from the from the hills around it so it’s quite a deserted area from that perspective at least um which is you know one of the reasons why this park is handy if you’re in the center of Athens you just need to go to the Agura and and hide here for a little bit and then of course all of these cafeterias with all of them have air con and they have these uh I’m sure you’ve seen them these outdoor heaters for when it gets cold well for what they consider to be cold which still fascinates me a lot of places like this at 18° still have the heaters on and I’m like okay your idea of cold and my idea of cold clearly very different but uh never mind you know 18° for me is British summer pretty much so there we go but it’s um it’s a very nice area to come and uh there’s a couple of very good places for ice cream here as well and for Greek yogurt so there there is a good recommendation there hi Eileen how are you doing thank you so much for joining us welcome Harris and yeah yeah height of summer 18 degrees exactly it’s it’s not uh you know something I would call particularly winter but well and this the Eureka Museum which is in a very nice neocclassical building this is where they have the science art and technology of the ancient Greeks they have a bunch of replicas and original artifacts um it’s a very small museum but it’s worth seeing i like better another one that is closer to the other side of Athens the Kotanas Museum where the replicas actually work so uh but it’s it’s still an interesting place to come and see the HeraCladon hi Bert hi dot dot dot hope you’re doing good right I believe my viewpoint is just approaching and the signal is still with us so fingers crossed we will be able to do this because I completely found by random chance the best views from this um from this terrace and I was like uh I need to find a way of getting here so I did I I spent my whole lunch break literally wandering around here with the camera and praying to the technology gods please please please let the signal be okay and I think it will probably hold for a few postcards um and this is almost as good as the view you would get from Filipos from the top not as good because you will not get to see all of the Acropolis but pretty good hi Louis hi Amy how are you doing thank you so much for joining us hope you’re doing good and uh if you’ve seen the edge of the hill from here you probably you probably know what I’m trying to do so let me Let me get us to go i think I have to go around or across yes I need to go across sorry I’ve gotten through the wrong entrance my bad this is a confusing layout give me one second thank you John you’re very kind thank you right it’s because the terrace is closed on that end and then I have to go around the other end so hang on with me right getting there i mean as you can see the terraces all around here are actually really nice they’re really nice places where to eat um I wouldn’t recommend necessarily eating like having your lunch or dinner in this part of the city since it’s quite touristic because of the views for a drink it’s okay it’s going to be just as expensive as anywhere else drinks in Athens are quite expensive i would say that um but for for everything else uh you would be better off actually in Monastaki just because you would have a bit more variety hi Paul hi Lou welcome hope you’re having a good time right and I believe that literally just on this side I should be able to show you the view which is well what is approaching there but without you know the the parasolles and all that jazz thank you so much Larry you’re very kind oh I have four bars of signal Deborah so maybe try refreshing because we are pretty much there and pretty much at the end of the tour let me just get here to the actual viewpoint which is just over here and again if if the refresh guys is not working I’m I’m sorry we’ve had so many problems with the app and the website that um Okay now tell me those are not views worthwhile huh so it’s not as as a good view of the Acropolis as it would have been in Filipus because we’re seeing it from a more um southern perspective southwestern perspective and instead from the top and the east but the views of the Acropolis are lovely and here from this side if I get them both together again if I can yes I’ll do some zooms in just a moment the hill that you guys see there on the far left that’s Lake Abetes some of you have done the views of Lake Abetes with me now you know the distance and the comparison in terms of height that’s the reason why the view from Lakeet is amazing and by the way everything that you see here are still uh bits of the Acropolis and ancient Athens that are either just been left as they are or still um under excavations so right I’m going to zoom into the Acropolis now okay this is the farthest zoom that we can probably get which is not the clearest i’ll take one into a second and the Acropolis is from the well the actual part of the cult of the temple is from the fifth century BC from the time of the golden age of Athens uh but the walls the fortifications are actually a lot older they are from Mcinian times and we reckon they are probably from the easily 10th century before Christ uh which is a really really even even older than that there’s different theories but they are very very very old and uh well that’s a good question um but inside the Acropolis it would be uh it would be impossible actually getting in to to do a tour so unfortunately not in the acropolis of this area perhaps I will be doing a recording of this area so there will definitely be something else I can take home with me but maybe I don’t know if I’ll have time for another live tour so there we go um I’m just going to take Zoom out once um it’s not a matter of um we cannot go there on tours is that they don’t allow professional filming and recording unless you have a very special permission from the tourist ministry of culture and and tourism um so it’s nearly impossible getting that unless you’re specific you know people with connections so it’s it’s hard otherwise and actually the signal up there is not that good either to be fair because it has the same problem than most of the hills in Athens as soon as the wind comes through it’s it’s completely done hi Sue welcome hope you’re doing good right i’m just going to turn the camera a little bit to the left so you can see the views of Athens sort of in the flat and yeah well not have had um access to it it depends you know some guides that have good relationships with the National Tourism Board may have special access um particularly during the pandemic since you know there wasn’t anything else going on but currently and considering that the Acropolis makes a minimum of €20 per person that goes in uh you know the fees to do any of these stuff ends up being really really hard hi Denise welcome how are you doing thank you so much for joining us yeah that’s that’s likely to have been the case so for those of you who may have just joined you’re just seeing the views of Athens city center with like a betas hill right at the front and then I’m just going to zoom out so we can do another swipe across the Acropolis and the whole area so let me give you a frame where maybe we can get both the Acropolis there we go and like a betus and part of the archaeological site and then I’ll do another another swipe i’ll I’ll get to the edge here and I’ll I’ll try to do a 180 so the mountain Patrick on the left on the far left that is like a beta’s health on the right that is the top of the Acropolis and Aragus Hill okay right hi Mikey welcome how are you doing and yes that must mean that I’m now over an an hour 6:00 uh you honestly can hear them everywhere it’s quite uh it it does wake you up in the mornings trust me right so let me do a a 180 from here from the edge over so you can see part of the archeological site and then to the top i’m so glad that this has worked out guys cuz I was genuinely fine when when I realized signal was already playing up again and that the wind was out i generally didn’t know if if it was going to be viable um so I’m I’m glad um and I didn’t know cuz it’s Friday i was also concerned that there was going to be so many tourists the signal would be complete pants in the middle of town but I’m I’m glad that it’s actually been more or less without problems and the app has you know stayed stayed more or less stable so thank you guys it’s very very kind of you oh thank you so much thank you Katherine very very generous right I’m just going to point to the ground for some views of the actual archaeological site in there and the trees by the way that we’ve been seeing it’s a combination of them but the ones that are in bloom right now they’re almond trees if I remember correctly my tour guide to Delelfi told me that the other day and since I don’t know anything about plants as you guys know I decided ooh I’m going to remember that for the budgeters and we have a couple of wild olives around here thank you so much Christine and Joy you’re very kind it’s very very lovely of you oh thank you guys very very nice thank you i’m I’m glad this worked out honestly makes me feel so much better i I did not want to to know this was my only last tour that I knew I was going to be able to do and and potentially have to cancel that that would have broken my heart i will try and do one more um before I go but um like I said I make no promises cuz I genuinely don’t know if it’s going to happen oh thank you so much Eliza it’s very very generous of you those postcards your thumb must be must be starting to be tired thank you Hy and Margaret thank you so much right and one last view of both Mont Lacabetes and the Acropolis together guys and that will be the end of the day I think cuz well actually not not because I say so but I’m sure you can see the light has changed dramatically in the last 5 minutes and that means that I’m about to run out of light in the next 5 to 10 minutes it goes down very quickly so on that note uh take the last postcards that you can thank you so much for spending some time with me and for allowing me to do this proxy tour even though it was not as advertised but I promise you the actual tour of like a of Philip Papus Hill will be coming to you live once I am back in the UK from my recording thank you so much guys i’m very sorry Mary you’re literally just arriving to the end of the tour so you have literally like a couple of seconds to snap that postcard thank you so much Luth you’re very very kind and um yes thank you i I’ll try my My dad and my sister actually arrived today at 1:00 a.m so that’s the reason why I cannot do many more tours cuz unfortunately I I’ll be I’ll be tour guiding them around the city so uh I’ll be I’ll be busy with them but uh that’s that’s that so I’m going to turn the camera around now i’m sorry i know this is such a lovely view but I’ll take some pictures as well and post them onto the Facebook groups and um honestly thank you so much guys it’s been my absolute pleasure spending some time in Athens throughout the whole month with you i’m very sorry things haven’t always gone according to plan but like I said I have at least three recordings of routes that we’ve done or we’ve not been able to do taken to the UK with me that I’ll show you once I’m back there on the big screen and um it’s actually been quite an interesting experience overall so um it’s been lovely sharing that with you guys so take care thank you so much for all of your lovely words for your time and uh for your patience and I hope that you have a really really lovely weekend see you later bye bye
Join us for this virtual tour recording of a livestream we did in the city of Athens. We will enjoy its ancient history, Greek and Roman monuments, learn about the fate of the city during the middle ages and beyond!
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