NEW FINDS IN AN ANCIENT CITY

WHILE THE GREEK ISLANDS STEAL THE LIMELIGHT, THERE'S MUCH TO.UNCOVER IN ATHENS, INCLUDING TOP-NOTCH STAYS AND LESSER-KNOWN STORIES FROM THE PAST

- SHREYA CHEEMA

IT WAS A BALMY THURSDAY AFTERNOON. The sun washed the whole city in its golden light. I was just one of the many thousands pressed against each other, trying to take a decent picture of the Parthenon that stood gloriously on a hilltop like a gem on a crown. A few steps away, I saw a father whispering something to his daughter and her eyes turning wide with wonder every passing second. I assumed he was telling her one of the great Greek tales. Maybe the one about the battle between Athena and Poseidon over who gets to claim the city of Athens or the melodic tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice.

I saw her take it all in with rapt attention. Her animated expression took me back to the time I first discovered the Greek mythological world through Percy Jackson books as a child. At that minute, as I returned to have one last look at the Parthenon, I felt that same rush of childlike excitement and curiosity to discover a city so ancient yet new.

Luckily, that feeling didn't wear off as I made my way out of the ancient structure-the pièce de résistance of a trip to Athens. What more was there to see? I wondered.

Whenever I have spoken to anybody who has visited Greece, Athens barely takes up a minute of the conversation that eventually concludes with mentions of Mykonos and Santorini. Most often reduced to a transit point, the city remains unexplored beyond the Parthenon.

However, with almost four and a half days left, I was intrigued to discover more. It was, after all, one of the oldest cities in the world, where democracy was born, and great philosophers like Socrates and Plato gave the world their ideas.

OLD TOWN WONDERS