Plaka, Byron, Tourists

This is the promised picture of the temple of Olympian Zeus, which I walked past on the way to Plaka yesterday. This is only part of it- there are a few more columns which are a bit farther away, and a fallen column that collapsed during a storm in the 1800s. The temple is particularly noted for its Corinthian columns- the really ornate bits at the top are a prime example of that sort of column. Ionic and Doric columns are generally much simpler. This is the sort of thing that I am going to learn to talk about in an intelligent and informed manner in my Archaeology of Athens. (I'm so excited! Our first field trip to the Acropolis is on Thursday!)
The Greeks have a mysterious obsession with Byron. You notice it particularly on the walk over to Plaka- you go past a statue of him, and the "Byron Hotel," and this street, Vyronos. (Athenian streets are often named after writers, usually Greeks. In Kolonaki, there is a Loukianou, an Irodotou, and an Isiodou. Street names are also always in the genitive- it's the street of someone. "Odos Vyronos" is "the street of Byron".) (In modern Greek, beta is pronounced as a v- one of the many differences in pronunciation between modern and ancient Greek. My modern Greek class, which is composed entirely of classics majors who know ancient Greek, is hysterical- we spend most of the time correcting our pronunciantions. There's a lot of "ay-m-eye e-toy-may- I mean, no! not that! ee-may e-tee-mee- is that how you say it? Really?" whenever we have to read out loud.) (Actually, the obsession isn't really that mysterious- Byron was one of the many philhellenes who supported the Greeks during the War of Independence, and he was instrumental in organizing supplies and funding. His death in Greece also attracted a lot of European attention, as did his poetry.)
Plaka is the land of tourists. It's the area right below the Acropolis, and most of the streets, which are charmingly narrow and winding, are filled with souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants. It's a lot of fun to go to, though- I have no idea why you would want to buy half the things they're selling, but it's cool to look. If you leave the main streets and wander a bit, you see a lot of roads like this- very quiet and narrow, and full of stairs. You couldn't have a car here.

It's actually very funny. I've only been here for seven days, and already the tourists stop me for directions all the time. It's particularly funny when they stop me and ask me in very badly pronounced Greek if I speak English, since I am American and make no effort to hide this fact when dressing of a day. I think they stop me because I look like I know where I'm going and don't carry a map around- in their minds, this clearly means that I am an expert in Athenian geography and therefore Athenian. What it really means is that I have realized that maps are useless in this context and find my way around by guestimating how close I am to the various landmarks. Which is effective, but not useful for giving directions.
And this is one of the very nice churches that I saw while wandering around. According to the plaque, it's a chapel of St. Catherine, and was built in the 11th century. My guess is that the 11th century is probably the date when the foundations were made- the rest of the building is in very good condition and looks considerably newer.