The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-06-26
ATHENS TODAY
GREEK CITY Is A DIsAPPoINT-
MENT TO TOURISTS
A Fascination to Winter soiourners.
Acropolis and Carthenon Never
Lose Their Interest.
Paris Daily Messense,

Paris Daily Messenger.
To the avowed tourist, who sets
apart two days In which to do" the
Parthenon, Mars Hill, Socrates Pris-
on. the Orators Seat and the Temples
~ Yu,.it.v al r.hceeus, Athens Is
something. of a disappointment, but to
the sojourner who spends some months
ta.a curing the winter 1t is as fas-
cinating from a modern as 1t Is from
historical point of view,
city of colors-that is the first
Impression the new Athens gives the
visitor who views 1t from some ia
nous vantage point, such as Socrates
fapocryphal) Prison or Mars Hill;
souare-built. fiat-roofed collection of
buildings, whose severe simplicity still
carries something classic with 1t. The
Piraeus Is uninteresting and like any
other European harbor, and the bar
rem, green-gray country between the
coast and the capital is so stony as
to strike the observer with sense or
desolation. Even Athens is singularly
treeress to eyes used to the full veg
citation of England; a black cypress
here and there is all that breaks the
incessant stone and stucco of the
streets, and the ranges of Hymettus
and Parnes are more gray than green.
But driving through the city itself
and out beyond 1t, one becomes aware
of gardens, and. indeed, the Athenian
cultivates his vine and fig tree that
he may literally sit under them. 1t
IL an open-air life even in winter. Men
and women take their meals outside
the cafes, basking in the midday sun
shine, and slipping Masticha or Ret
sinato.
when at Athens it is we'll to do as
10 htrf IN
toned palate the wines of the eoun-
try are very far from nectar. Much
more agreeable are the native dishes
of strangely prepared fish, egg chow
lder, stuffed meats. and, before all, that
honey of Hymettus HILL" which, as
Mr. Bunner says, is gold brown and
cloying sweet to tastef" There is no
honey like the Greek. and none to com
pare with that which the peasants
bring down from Mount Hymettus,
and announce with their strange cry
of "Meli" 1t is offered for sale at
the hotels in ready packed round boxes
OF two or three pounds. but unless the
traveller is only staying few hours
| in Athens 1t is better to wait until
| one can buy direct from the street
sellers. They are less exorbitant and
their honey is often more genuine
The Acropolis and the Parthenon
never lose their attraction for strang-
ers and native alike, and no one stays
twenty-four hours in Athens without
hiring a guide and a ramshackle car
/ riage to do the round of sights. but
of all the old ruins. which have so
wonderfully withstood times ravages
the most impressive Is surely the Tenn
pie of Theseus. 1t Is older than that
| dedicated to Jupiter. and In such per-
4 feet preservation that IL is hardly
| less regular in outline than the
Church of the Madeleine. at Paris,
which is modelled on 1t. The Temples
of the Wingless Victory and of Jupi-
ter, whose columns are fifty-five feet
high, both betray themselves as ruins,
but the Temple of Theseus fronts one,
stern and unbroken, as when the
men of Athens" went up to worship
in its hollow sounding interior.
To come back from the past to the
present, the sojourner who wishes to
buy souvenirs of Athens and has re-
sisted the opportunities of the
sellers of strings of beads stamps
and spurious coins, ETC., who haunt the
ruins, will find the best shops in Her
mes street. For curios one should go
to Shoe Lane. where one can buy the
tsaronkia which the peasants wear,
and ornamented belts to tobacco
pouches. Pottery is. perhaps, the best
purchase that can be made in modern
Athens but this Is everywhere procur-
| able and not confined to one quarter,
| though one must buy I'm the Oriental
fashion which, by the way, is so OBJ
| jeetionable to the British mind. as one
is forced to combat the scandalous
prices from which the salesman grad
ually descends to a moderate sum- As
to material comfort, one can dine at
any price In Athens. from darchma
| upward.