Amidst the Ruins of Athens

The Parthenon

TV news around the globe sensationalized the Euro-zone financial crisis and Greece was in the abyss of great depression.  Athens, the capital of Greece was disorderly; many establishments were closed.  Even so, the democracy loving people held their National Election Day.  That was the time I revisited Athens, May 2012.

For 20 euros, I purchased an unlimited ride around Athens that was good for one month.  Using bus, trolley, electric railway and train, I tried non-stop rides from morning until evening - Piraeus in the south and the suburb of Kifissia in the north.  Many times, I travelled the southern parts of Athens to swim along Glyfada area.  Each day inside the bus, I made it a point to befriend the person beside me. The Greeks constantly talk like bells. They are conversant in politics, history, and arts. They love to chatter. They are volatile and passionate. I met many OFWs who recalled life in the Philippines. Despite their distance from home, I only saw faces with traces of sadness.

One day, I met a simple guy who was also en route to the beach.  We had time to get to know each other. He had visited Mindoro. He invited me to a dinner at a Greek Pizza Parlor and wrapped up our acquaintance with a bottle of beer in his pad. I discovered that my new-found friend is none other than Munro Forbes, a TV director and executive producer in Scotland.  That evening, he was preparing to leave Athens for Azerbaijan for his show in Eurovision.  We remain in touch through e-mail.

Another encounter was so unlike Mr. Forbes. A man kept on blocking the scenes I liked to shoot. I failed to control my mood, I shooed him away. Like a schoolboy, he moved.  Wherever I went, he was also there until we reached the Temple of Dionysius along Acropolis.  Then something flashed in my mind, I have seen his face. “I have seen you,” I remarked.  “I’ve seen you on screen. What motion picture did you appear in?”  “Bring It On with Kirsten Dunst. Flag of our Fathers,” Jesse Bradford answered back. He is the child actor from the movie Far from Home and currently he is a TV star of NBC’s new comedy, Guy with Kids.

Touching the stones of the Ancient Agora, the Theater of Dionysius, the Roman Agora, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, entering Hadrian’s Library and looking at the ochre colored pillars of the Parthenon, 500 feet above sea level, I felt the winds of time. 

An error in my history class barred me from receiving the award in “Best in History”. How would Mrs. Josephine Marquez rate me now? With my five senses, I have gone through the passage of time. My education is completed.

People have different kinds of stories etched in books. Like the ruins, the stones witnessed the panorama of the epic of life.  “To the glory that was Greece…”