Lessons on Clean Monday (Athens Day #2)

When people learned that we were planning to spend time in Athens (this was when there was still uncertainty if Greece would receive the aid it needed), they’d frequently ask if we weren’t at all worried or concerned about things going south while we were there. There had been some protests and riots in Athens too, so this wasn’t an entirely absurd concern. And to be fair, I’d joke that we were monitoring the situation to make sure we didn’t need to try and exchange euros for drachmas. But by and large, the financial and social troubles affecting Greece did not affect us, except for a metro system strike on our last day in Athens (more on that to come, let’s not get ahead of ourselves). What did throw a bit of a wrench in our planning though, was a Greek public holiday.

The majority of Greeks belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, which is the “prevailing religion” of Greece (thanks, Wikipedia!). As in many Roman Catholic countries where Lent is observed, there is a huge celebration just before Lent begins – in the US it’s known as Mardi Gras, but in Greece it’s called Carnival. We arrived in Athens on the last day of Carnival, and in a future post we’ll share more about our experience at a Greek taverna that night. The first full day of Lent is known as Clean Monday, and in Greece, it’s effectively a public holiday. Lots of places are closed, hours are irregular, and generally Greeks take the day off to spend time with their families.

Our first planned stop for the day was the Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Center. The main thing that I wanted to see here was the virtual reality tour of the Ancient Agora. Having walked through the ruins of the Acropolis trying to imagine it in its prime, a virtual reality simulation set in the ancient millennia seemed like it would be cool. Unfortunately, we arrived to find the Center closed for the holiday. Now, you might think we should have checked the Center's website for the schedule before we ventured out there. Well, we did in fact do our due diligence. The navigation bar on the Center’s homepage has a link for “Schedule”, which lists the Center’s opening hours and showtimes, and did not reflect closure on Clean Monday. If you click around a little more, however, you’ll find a separate page for “Information – Tickets”, which does state the holidays that the Center is closed. But Clean Monday isn’t listed, at least not as Clean Monday. Instead, it’s “Ash Monday” (insert Homer-esque “Doh!” here). Lesson #1 in vacation planning around a public holiday: When checking the website, be paranoid and don’t assume there’s only one name for a holiday.

Thankfully we were both good-natured about it and chalked it up to a learning experience. It was a nice day out, and we enjoyed our walk to find the Center (i.e. we got lost and took the long way around, exploring most of the neighborhood before we found it). Our next planned stop was the National Archaeological Museum (NAM), so we hopped back on the subway and rode out there. Now, we’d taken a look at the NAM website the night before as well, just in case they too were closed for Clean Monday. The NAM website has a single page dedicated to “Opening Hours and Tickets”, which helpfully lists both the schedule and the holidays when the museum is or isn’t open. According to the page, NAM remains open on Clean Monday (sweet!) and on Mondays, the opening hours are from 13:30 – 20:00 (1:30pm to 8pm). We got there around 1:00pm, and since we had some time before the museum opened, we sat down at a nearby café for crepes and coffee - a light lunch for a heavy afternoon of museum-ing.

The National Archaeological Museum. Pretty imposing, eh?

As Holly put it, the crepes were “Nicer than what you’d expect at a museum café, but not Simply Crepes (a Rochester crepe place).” I ordered Greek coffee, which I must say, I did enjoy.

Greek coffee. Looks a lot like Turkish coffee.

It’s essentially the same as Turkish coffee. Because it’s unfiltered, you need to let the very fine grounds settle to the bottom of the pot, and pour the coffee out slowly into the cup to drink. Bitter, strong, and delicious.

By the time we were done, it was almost 2pm, and we casually sauntered up to the front doors of the museum. When we got there, however, we encountered a printed sign on the door, with the following text: “CLEAN MONDAY OPENING HOURS: 10:00 to 15:00”. Lesson #2 in vacation planning around a public holiday: Don’t assume information posted on an attraction’s official website regarding holiday opening hours is complete. We debated whether or not to actually go in, since we only had a little over an hour. As it turned out though, admission was free on a public holiday, so we tried to get through as much of the museum as we could. First stop, Prehistoric Antiquities!

To begin with, it’s astonishing at how much has survived, in some cases for 3000 to 5000 years. When I first read some of the labels, I blinked, thinking I’d read them wrong. Jewelry, pottery, paintings, even tools. It was also humbling to see some of the craftsmanship on display. Some of the jewelry was as intricate and ornate as pieces you’d find in a Tiffany’s or other high-end jewelry shop today, and perhaps even more beautiful. It’s impossible to think about how many countless generations have passed between the people who lived then, and us now, and not gain some perspective and respect. Perspective on how much life stays the same, generation after generation. But also respect for how fragile are the gains we’ve made when it comes to peace, and how quickly peace can be shattered, just as it has been countless times throughout history. In the last century, we've already suffered two world wars, and there are men and women alive today who fought to keep the world safe from Hitler's nightmare.

Unfortunately, we only made it through Prehistoric Antiquities, one out of the six collections on display, before our time was up. It was better than nothing, especially for free. We grew in our appreciation for our shared human history and our perspective on life today. And we definitely learned some lessons that day about trusting what you find on even an official website!