HUBBIE reckons all he needs are some good draftsmen, a chisel, hammer and cement and he could "fix" Athens.
He's not happy with the state the Romans and other conquerors such as the Heruli left it in, not to mention the following 2000 or so years of wear and tear.
Yep, all it needs is a little tender loving care, a few new building approvals and a good maintenance plan.
Haha.
Seriously, we love you, Athens, just the way you are.
We never would have thought just how much our imaginations could be captivated by a bunch of old ruins.
But we managed to spend hours walking among them, strolling the streets beneath the Acropolis and stumbling upon yet another major excavation site or monument or temple on our Athens map.
From our room in the AForAthens Hotel across from Monastiraki Square, thousands of years of history were laid out before us, and we could stare directly across to the Acropolis bathed in its golden light at night from the popular rooftop garden bar.
Feeling a little less than 100% after contracting the flu, we decided after disembarking from Star Clipper at Athens' Piraeus Port to buy two 12-euro tickets for four days to take our time visiting the major ancient sites.
Because of their close proximity to one another, we managed to snake our way through Hadrian's Library, Roman Agora and the Ancient Agora and Museum, and end on the rocky hill opposite the Acropolis at sunset for some magical shots on the first day.
We devoted day two to the massive Acropolis site (including the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, Propylaea and the Erechtheion), as well as the New Acropolis Museum, where we spent several hours for the price of another five euro each, as well as taking in the neighbouring Odeum of Herodes Atticus and Theatre of Dionysus. Later, we discovered The Olympieion (Temple of Olympian Zeus), walked past Congress Hall and the Panathinaiko stadium and ended up in the Plaka for Sunday afternoon drinks.
Day three led us on a long walk through the markets (reminiscent of Melbourne's Queen Victoria Markets) - full of spruikers seeking your business, every fresh food smell imaginable and a colourful array of all things good and Greek in this world) - to the National Archeological Museum where we managed to find those Santorini frescos and priceless collection of sculptures, funeral monuments, shipwrecked treasures of the ancient world, and everyday objects and jewellery that unbelievably have survived the test of time or have been painstakingly put back together like a jigsaw.
Hours seem to fly by here, much like the centuries to these pieces.
We change hotels to Hotel Adrian in the Plaka. And as the flu really grabs hold, we take things a little easier for our final day - just hanging around the Plaka's great little tavernas and bars and spending our final hours before flying out at the Kerameikos: the ancient cemetery of Athens where important Athenians were buried for 1000 years.
Within the site are the ancient walls of Athens and the Sacred Gate, the Dipylon Gate which was the main entrance to the city where the Panathenaic procession began, and between the two gates is the Pompeion, where the preparations were made for the procession in honor of Athena.
The Eridanos River which once passed through the Sacred Gate still flows beneath the site.
The onsite museum is also well worth a look for many of the original statues and funeral monuments.
Lesson of the day: I now no longer get out of bed for anything under 2000 years old.
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