Utkarsh Rai

The city of Athens is one of the world’s oldest cities and was so beautiful that according to popular legend both Athena and Poseidon wanted it to be named after them. The Athenians valued Athena’s gift of the olive tree symbolising peace and prosperity over Poseidon’s gift of a salt water spring symbolising naval strength and thus Athens was so named.

Today Athens, however, looks a lot like any other city of the world. Apart from the ancient temples and structures built in accordance with the Grecian style of architecture dotting the landscape, Athens is a modern city bustling with activity and traffic jams. We got delayed on our way to the Temple of Zeus and the Parthenon due to a protest rally held by teachers in front of the Greek Parliament. But instead of feeling upset, I felt right at home.

No tour to Greece is complete without ogling at the Mediterranean Sea whose clear, crystal blue waters are breathtaking. Naturally, we took a cruise to see a few Greek islands whose white washed Greek houses, cobbled pathways and quiet blue waves lapping at the sparkling white sand made the region feel serene and quaint.

We also made our way to the UNESCO World Heritage site Metéora which translates to “in the heavens above” and contains several orthodox Christian monasteries located in mountain peaks. Their resemblance to religious Hindu shrines located at mountain peaks all over India was striking.

Our trip included a visit to Delphi which was said to be the home of Apollo’s Oracle. Our tour guide had excitedly shown us a statue of a woman wearing a costume that looked a lot like a sari inside the museum of Delphi.

It was interesting to note that the ancient Greeks, who were pagans, were Sun worshippers just like Hindus. Their deities also used to face the East so that the first rays of the rising sun would illuminate their features. We visited many ancient pagan temples which can be found in every nook and cranny of Greece each one bedecked in their symbolic Grecian pillars and triangular roofs.

The star attraction of Greece for us was Olympia- birthplace of the Olympics. We were astonished to learn that the Temple of Zeus had been built from the money collected in the form of fines from athletes who used unfair means to win. And since there was no social media back then to burst into outrage over the use of performance enhancing drugs, the ancient Greeks took to engraving the wrong doers’ names for eternal public humiliation.

Finally, we visited the town of Epidaurus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose most famous attraction is the Epidaurus Amphitheatre. It is a masterpiece in engineering as well as in architecture. Apart from its striking symmetry, this amphitheatre has excellent acoustics. One can hear every word of the speaker clearly without a mic regardless of one’s seat. Our tour guide made us all sit randomly throughout the theatre while my daughter sang ‘Vande Mataram’ on stage to demonstrate the Epidaurus Amphitheatre’s most striking feature.