Living on a backpack

Acropolis

The sight of this ancient building by itself is one of the most majestic views in the world. For me, it had always been a dream to be there and see it by my own eyes. I spent a good two days exploring Acropolis, Greek and Roman Agoras, and the city of Athens. 

I found Athen to be one of the liveliest cities ever. However, from the presence of the riot police in the street, and sporadic protests by the unions in response to austerity measures imposed by the Greek government, anyone could feel that something is not right. One year later, we all have heard how things have turned around for the Greek people. But, for people who have been around for thousands of years and have gone through many more challenges, they will leave this one behind too. There will be some casualties, but Greece will be always Greece. 

The first day, I climbed to Acropolis through the park that is beneath the sight. You can buy a ticket, which I think was ¢12.00 and you can go to 6 different sights including the Agoras and a couple of other places. The entire sight is an archeological wonder that has been under restoration for decades and as a matter of face most of it was opened to public after decades just last year that I was there. 

Learning about the history of this place is quite a sad experience. Learning that how it was destroyed and the ignorant and bigot people in the early christian time destroyed many of the statues and defaced many others just leaves a hole in your heart. One comes to realize that this is the very foundation of western civilization, the very foundation of our societies today, the way we think, philosophy , art, architecture and so on. These are no light matters. 

I spent a good hour on the sight. This is the highest point in the city, which offers a great view of the city of Athens too. A lot of things have changes since the ancient time, but I could imagine that many of those Greeks including kings, warriors, and many more stood by at the same spot and looked in to the same direction and never thought someone else will do the same thing 2500 years later. 

And it continues

I love to write, but then I love to do it when I am relaxed and my brain functions in the right frequency. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen very often. Again, it has been a while since my last post. All I can share with you is that I left my day job to fully dedicate my time to a startup that I have been working on for the past 6 months. It is still not complete, but the vision is there and I have brought in another technical person to join me to finish this project as soon as possible. I have no funding yet, but it is not that important anyways.  In the meantime, I teach mathematics and do other side projects to have a side income , but thanks to my minimalism life style I have saved enough money to live for a good year without breaking down! 

I have been guessing about my next trip overseas, may be somewhere in Europe or South America or may be nothing at all. May be I just stay in and work harder on my startup, perhaps that is what is going to happen. 

A bitter night in Athens

After an initial tour of Athens, I returned to my hostel to move to a new room. I moved to a new apartment across the street. Amazing room with quite nice features. Two British kids joined me as well. By the evening, I went for a drink and socialization. A few blocks down the street, I found a Greek restaurant that served gyros for €2.00 . It was hard to beat this price. The difference between Greek gyro and the Turkish ones are quite significant. The Turks use lamb, and the bread is not necessarily pita. The Greeks go with pork and they add fries to the gyro, a good deal of Greek yoghourt, and a toasted pita bread complete the experience. I would go with the Greek version anytime. 

Upon returning to my hostel, for a moment I checked Facebook on my iPhone. Through my brother’s status update I found out that my only living grandmother had passed away. It was an unfortunate event. During the passed decade, I met her only twice briefly while I didn’t have a chance to meet my other two grandparents before they pass away. My grandmother was badly ill and she was weaken by old age. The news of her passing left a hole in my heart, reminding me again that we all are dying, some of us are closer to the finish line while others might be farther away. No matter what, one day sooner or later I will die too, and I hope I have not much to regret. 

Exploring Athens

A little bit noise and ding and dang here and there, I woke up in the morning in the Backpackrs apartments in Athens. Excited to find out what is going on around, I got up too. The Australian girls in the room were getting ready to go out for a tour of the city with a guide from the hostel. I took a shower, shave and jumped out to find something to eat for breakfast. By 10 AM, I was in front of the main entrance to join others for a tour of the city. One of the Australian girls in my room was there, I think her name was Ruby. We all started walking along side of a young Greek man, who I think was a history student or had finished her studies. Soon we passed by an ancient wall, the Roman wall. This wall would separate the classic Athens from the Roman era Athens.

I believe the wall was constructed during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, who loved Athens. On the right side of the wall is the Zeus temple, which Emperor Hadrian completed the site again.

The Greek guide kept talking about the roots of Athens, and the conflict of Athenians and the Persians. We kept moving and after passing the Zeus temple, the next stop would be the Olympic Stadium.

The ancient Olympic stadium site was reconstructed for the 2004 Athens Olympic games, so everything looked nice and shiny. There was a admission fee of €6.00 to visit inside, which I didn’t need because I could see it through the open gates.

We kept going and going, passing through the gardens of Athens, the next stop was the parliament of Greece. A quite historic site that was built based on the classic Greek architecture.

The weather was quite warm even though it was September. We stopped to get some water and rest by the ruins of Roman Agora. We didn’t spend much time to explore it, passing it by quickly we headed toward Acropolis.

Climbing from the side of Greek Agora, we arrived at a great vantage point on the hills around Acropolis site.  Great opportunity to catch a shot at a site that I had dreamed all my life to visit, and now I am there.

Let’s write again

It has been more than a month that I haven’t written a thing for good reasons. Upon returning from my last tour of EU on August 21, I found myself sick and well behind some of my projects. It took me a week to recover from bronchitis and some other illness. Still sick I went to Dudly house party at Harvard University and pretty much brought down the place by 2 AM. A rough night that followed up by a rough day. I started to take over my projects and meet my friends in group or one on one. Some big changes happened in my life, which I am hoping for much more improvement in near future. Overall, 2011 has been a very intense, adventurous and productive year for me. Perhaps one of the best years in recent times.

I am back

I arrived back in the US last night after 24 days of traveling in East Central and Western Europe. I have a lot of stories to tell and many many important tips to share. I learned a lot of important lessons in this trip. The writing will start soon. 

Hello Athens

Almost 12 hours after leaving Samos island, the giant ferry approaches Piraeus port, the main port of Athens. I have mix feelings, excited and anxious. I had no place to go, I only knew the address of a hostel and I wasn’t even sure that if they have room for me. Moments later the ferry docked at the port and I found myself in a long line for cabs. A good 10 minutes was wasted till a cab picked me up. An old man was the driver of this beaten Mercedes Benz. I passed the address of the hostel, he didn’t figure out. Thankfully, I had the location on my iPhone, I showed him the iPhone, he still couldn’t figure out. He could speak English a little bit and asked e where am I from? I responded, Boston. He started talking and I remembered that Boston has a big Greek community, and this guy used to live in Boston for a while, but for whatever reason, he decided to go back to Greece. A 15 minutes ride and for a price of € 17.00, I landed in front of the hostel. No joking, this was on the foot steps of Acropolis, the location could not be more perfect. 

Knocking the door of the hostel at 2:00 AM, the receptionists opens the door. It is way too late, and I am falling apart, simply too tired. The guy sets me up with a bed in a room with 5 Australian girls. Excited for what was coming, I went to bed.