Another text means another field trip! This time we decided to stop and smell the roses along the banks of the River Ilissos. Well, we would have if the river hadn't been driven underground long ago by the expansion of the city of Athens into a metropolis. Speaking of which, we took the metro again after a crowded bus ride and got off at Syntagma. This time we walked out of a different entrance and passed the National Gardens on our way to the dried riverbed. After passing the Temple of Zeus, we turned right on to the street that now runs parallel to where the river would have been in ancient times. We passed a hill that apparently used to be very important but now is just covered in trees before stumbling on the ruins of a church that used to sit by the river.
Our stop by the basilica was brief and we continued on down the road until we reached a modern church. Here the vegetation is more overgrown than other places in Athens despite being in the middle of the city, so that was the first hint that we were drawing near to our destination.
The Greek students were hesitant to descend into the dry riverbed at first, but once they saw how much fun we were having they decided to join us.
Unfortunately we weren't allowed to lay by the river in the shade and rest our heads on a grassy hill. But it was fascinating to be in the riverbed and see the power that the subterranean water still has to help so many plants grow and fight the scorching summer heat. On the subject of vegetation, our next stop was the aforementioned National Gardens. If the theme of last week's trip was centrality, this week's was definitely nature. More specifically nature and the city. The riverbed was unceremoniously presented to the public in front of an old church, similar to a drainage ditch back in the States. There were no signs and no glorification of the once beautiful river. The National Gardens, however, were a different story. They are distinctly European and show us what modern beauty is defined as.
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| A statue representing Eros, pleasure and leisure |
There were plenty of imitation art statues scattered around the gardens that tried, and failed, to connect with classical roots. Mostly they felt cheap and out of place in the serene and lush landscape. Eventually we made our way across the Gardens and found a plane tree. Yes, like the plane tree that shaded Socrates and Phaedrus in the text! Unfortunately there were no chaste trees to be found. Or maybe there were, but I have no idea what a chaste tree is either way.
Soon we came to the "natural" part of the Gardens, the central lake and nearby zoo. A small bird sanctuary and cages full of goats greeted us as the trees and manicured bushes shied away from the intrusive man-made metal wire cages. The zoo felt disconnected from the rest of the Garden, another disconnected element in the strange jigsaw puzzle known as the National Gardens.
Before departing we wandered into a field littered with exposed, unpreserved ruins left by the Germans who funded the Gardens to begin with. Their taste in what is beautiful was evident throughout the space.
At the conclusion of our trip, I questioned what can be considered nature or natural in the middle of an urban metropolis. Is it the rows of manicured shrubs and trees within the confines of the National Gardens? Or is it the abandoned, dried up riverbed without any attention paid to it? The two ideas of natural beauty are so staunchly opposed that it is difficult to see that they are competing over the same idea. Personally, I find the beauty in pieces of both. Exposed, decaying ruins in the middle of a dried up riverbed? Now THAT would be beautiful indeed.
