Well since Brandon and I have been to Athens with Brittany, we have been going nonstop. Some days we sleep in (on accident) until 10:00, and sometimes we wake up early. But we always eat breakfast, and head out the door for hours and hours on end. And if we do come back to the apartment, we're only there for a little while, and then we're off again, and usually gone until after dark; and by the time we get home we're so tired and ready to go to bed that I don't have time to blog, read, or write. I've just happened to wake up early this morning, and decided I would blog before we leave.
I have mixed feelings about leaving. I am sad because it's fun to have few responsibilities other than enjoy yourself. It's fun to have worked hard to get here, and reap the rewards through the Greek culture and history. I'm also sad because I feel like this vacation has gone by so fast, and I am just wishing time would slow down a minute so I can enjoy the rest of my summer.
I'm excited to come home because I can't wait to see my family and friends. I want to spend as much as the summer as possible with them, and make new memories. I want to use the rest of my summer to improve my photography, sewing, and nursing skills (yes I'm excited about that). I'm ecstatic about coming home and being able to put all of my things where they belong! That's just the OCD coming out in me, but I can't help but be a little agitated over tossing things here and there, and moving them around because you're not at home, and nothing has a permanent place... again, it's the OCD, I love the feeling of being organized....
Brandon and I have done and seen a lot while we've been here, but now I realize how much more there is to see, and I really look forward to coming back. Brandon won't be able to live the rest of his life without coming back, at least I don't think so. History really does make some of the best stories of all time. There is tragedy, intrigue, and victory. Sometimes the bad wins, and sometimes the good wins. And sometimes both sides are bad, but everything is always interesting to learn about.
Two mornings ago we walked miles and miles. We went to the Ancient Acropolis, and visited the Parthanon and the other temples there. Which was pretty amazing. We also visited the Ancient Agora and the Ancient Agora Museum, and the temple of Zeus. We tried to see as many places as we could, because it was a free admission Sunday to the museum and sites, and a lot of them close around 3pm. It's the best we've slept in a long time because we were soooo tired when we got home. (I apologize ahead of time, because I'm only going to do a brief caption of each picture so I can get this done before we leave!)
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| On our way to the Acropolis on the Medieval Way! |
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| We've been pretty good about bringing water bottles with us everywhere we go... Brittany was sipping at this point as we were strolling along, and I turn around and see this... Luckily I had the camera in my hands, and was able to snap a picture of Brandon with the bottle cap in his mouth. None of us (including Brandon) have any explanation for this behavior... Typical Brandon... full of laughs! |
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| The Temple of Athena! Or Sanctuary, I can't remember and don't have time to look it up right now, sorry. |
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This is the Theatre of:
Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which was a Roman built theater in honor of his wife.
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| This Temple I believe was dedicated to a few different gods, such as Zeus and Artemis, perhaps a few others. You can also see the ruins of the Temple of Athena, so that makes me think the other little building was a sanctuary. I wonder what the difference is, exactly? Oh, and look at the caryatids, which are the columns in the form of maidens. |
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| The Parthenon! |
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| Some of the sculpting that remains on the Parthenon... I think it's the original..... |
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| We were able to get a kind soul with the exactly same camera and lens as we had to get a picture of us. |
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| The theatre of Dionysus! We didn't actually walk down there, we had to hurry, but look how far the seats go back! It's pretty big! |
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| You can see the Temple of Zeus from up here..... |
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| Some of the beautiful reconstruction. I like this construction much better than the Palace of Knossos, because it's based on fact and observation, instead of Arthur Evans speculation and imagination (sorry that rhymes....). |
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| You can also see the Temple of Hephaestus! The Lame god, known for his superior metal work. He made the immortals armor when they needed it, and also made many heroes armor. This is in the Ancient Agora. |
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| The Stoa of Attalos! This was the main marketplace of Athens. |
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| I can't remember what this is called... some type of theatre maybe, to/by Antipas? I might have that confused! But the sea men statures were pretty impressive and slightly eerie! |
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| The Grand Waterway, or Drain. Either way, its big! |
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| The Temple of Hephaestus, up close in person! This is the temple that in the best condition. You can see that it might have been set on fire once... or twice, but I don't believe there is really any reconstruction done to this, because it's so intact! One of the gazillion cool things we saw that day! |
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| This was on the Temple. I couldn't tell you what the scene is, but it lined the top. |
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| You can't tell how big it is, but this is a MASSIVE top to a Corinthian style column. |
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| Taking a break on the cool steps of the Stoa of Attalos! This was pretty cool, and it has also been turned into a museum. |
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| The face of Nike, or Victory! |
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| I couldn't believe this... a child's commode! This was in the museum. |
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| These are ostraka's.... It has something to do with the official ostracism's of the times. You will have to get Brandon to explain more of it to you, but the ostracism of Themistocles is in here, and he was a very important political statesman, so he was super excited about this. |
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| Look! We found a nice smelling and pretty tree! |
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| We made it to the Temple of Zeus! Our energy was really running out at this point. |
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| Brittany and me in front of the Temple.... I believe this would have been the largest Temple in antiquity. It would have had 160 columns, and just look at that size! You can barely tell it's us! |
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| This little guy trotted right up to us all smiles, begging for attention. He came to the right people! Look how happy he is! |
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| Hadrians Arch. We weren't able to get the best picture of it, but it's pretty big! |
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| This is the Bath-house of the Winds, built in the Roman Agora... by the Romans. We didn't have time to go in there, but at least we can see the whole thing from the fence! |
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| We wanted to get a night shot of the Parthanon, and we were told by this waiter at this cafe that we could see the Acropolis from their roof top garden... Yeah, you could see the wall of the Acropolis... Still, Brittany got to try some baklava and kataifi, and we relaxed after such a long day. |
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Yesterday we had planned on going to the Acropolis Museum, the Archaeological Museum, and the Museum of Cycladic Arts.... both the Acropolis and Cycladic museums were closed because it was a Holy Day.... but the Archaeological Museum was open, and FREE! Brandon also made me not take a million pictures of the Museum... we still got quite a few!
Warning: there are some Greek statues in this section of the blog, and contain unclothed figures.
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| The face of Agamemnon, the famous King of Mycenae! He is the one who launched the battle on Troy, on behalf of his brother, Menelaus, who's wife (Helen) was swept up (willingly) by Paris. |
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| Some pretty jewelry with different semi-precious stones. |
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| This was a device used to smoke out bees! |
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| Jade spoons! |
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| A rather large vase. |
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| This is the style of some of the first monumental Greek sculptures. Slightly adopted from the Egyptians and people of the Middle East, the Greeks did not begin monumental sculpting until the 8th century BC. |
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| Some part of a wall, if my memory serves me. I thought it was interesting because it's the scene of a cat and dog fight for the pleasure of people. |
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| A statue of the Minotaur and Theseus! |
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| This was interesting... this piece of pottery depicts of the scene of "Helen's first abuction" by Theseus... I haven't really heard the myth, so I am a little confused by it. But according to other myths, Theseus was in the business of stealing women, as he did it a few times..... |
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| A statue of Apollo! |
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| Hermes |
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| Aphrodite. This is armed in this sculpture, and would be holding a spear in her left hand. |
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| The face of Hera. |
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| Artemis. |
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| A very interesting piece of pottery..... |
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| Aristotle |
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| Alexander the Great! I think it's interesting that he's depicted with a lions mask/adornment. Hercules is also depicted this way many times. |
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| Athena! By far my favorite of the gods and goddesses because she doesn't seem to have nearly as many vices as the others.... |
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| The great Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar! |
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| We finished up some shopping, walked around, had coffee and a snack after the museum. Brittany got a backgammon board, and we played at the top of Hotel Attalos. Why were we at the top of Hotel Attalos? Because we were going to try again and get some night pictures of the Parthenon! |
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| Success at last! |
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| We got a pretty monastery to! |
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| Obviously we got back way after dark.... and since it had been awhile, we got dessert on the way! Looks good? It was. |
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Well, I guess it's time to finish packing! I'm all nervous and excited! And I'm also dreading the plane right home. If Brittany and I calculated corrently, it's 11 hours from Athens to New York! Bummer....
Until again! Send lots of comments!
