Greece!

  Athens, Attica, Greece
Saturday, August 16, 2008

  We finally made it over safely and Greece was absolutely beautiful!  We had such a wonderful time there! Sorry it has taken me so long to update this, we have been so busy traveling every where and I haven't had access to the internet very consistently. 
  We left for Indianapolis Airport around 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug 11th.  Our plane left around 5pm Indy time.  We had a lay over in Detroit and again in Amsterdam.  We landed in Athens around 4pm Greece time ( on Tuesday)  and had quite the adventure once we got there.
  I brought two suitcases over with me-one medium sized and one semi-small suitcase.  Grandma suggested mailing the medium sized one to London in advance because it would be quite a hassle to lug it around for the next 3 weeks.  We looked into it while we were still in the states, but realized it was going to be quite expensive, so decided to wait until we were in Europe.  When we landed in Athens, our first adventure was to get that suit case mailed.  After being redirected by several people, we were told we would have to do this in the cargo department of the Airport, which you could only get to on a shuttle bus.  This shuttle bus, however, required an Airport personnel I.D. Some guy let us on though (after Grandma sweet talked him I'm sure :o) ).  We finally got to a DHL and found out it was going to cost 300 Euros to mail this thing! So obviously, that wasn't going to work out.  A Greek woman that was in there mailing a package was very friendly to us and offered to give us a ride to the post office. When we got to her car, we saw that it was this tiny little convertible (all the cars are so tiny here). Some how we managed to squeeze 3 people, 3 suitcases, and 2 backpacks into this car, pretty impressive I think. She put the top to the convertible down, so we basically had stuff stacked up, overflowing out of the car. I'm sure we were a sight driving down the road.  After going to a few other places and having no luck, she dropped us off back at the airport where we had started.  We decided to store the suitcase until Friday and we would come back Friday morning and take care of it then. So that's what we did.
   We took a train into downtown Athens and (of course) got lost going to our hotel.  We gave up and called a taxi figuring he could just take us there, but he couldn't find the hotel either! Guess we weren't just stupid lost American tourists after all.  We finally got to the hotel around 7.  Our hotel was called the 'Aristotles Hotel', which was really kind of a dump, consisting of a tiny room but it turned out okay.

Hotel Aristotles

We took a shower, and tried to find a place to eat. We settled on a small 'Americanized' restaurant, called "Smiling", across the street, basically because we were too tired to get lost again.  The owner of the restaurant was a very nice man named John, originally from Greece, but he was actually raised in Ohio, so he spoke flawless English.  He told us he had come back for a vacation/visit 5 years ago and never left.  He says a lot of people do that.  My Grandma likes to joke that I'm not going to come back after my term is over... yeah.. no comment..
  On Wednesday, Aug. 13, our tour guide, Michael, came to pick us up around 8am.  He drove us around the city, pointing things out as we went and gave us a history lesson on the acropolis and surrounding area. He had us first visit rock of Areopagos aka St. Paul's rock where the Apostle Paul spoke to men of Ancient Greece about Jesus.

St. Paul's Rock

This is also where Orestes, Agamemnon's and Clytemnestra's son, was put on trial for killing Aegisthus to avenge his father's death.

'St. Paul's' Rock

The sight from the top of the rock was breath taking- at least that's what we thought before we climbed up to the acropolis.

Athens

Athens

  Built into the side of the acropolis is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a stone amphitheater Herodes Atticus built in memory of his wife Aspasia Ania Regilla.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The restored theater is still used today.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The actual entrance into the acropolis was either under reconstruction or they are trying to conserve it by building a brace around it.

Propylaea, entrance to Acropolis

There are simply no words to describe the acropolis. It makes one wonder  how they got all of the marble to the top of the hill or how they even lifted it up to build the structures.  Everything is literally made out of marble. Everything. I wish I could have seen the Parthenon at its best--right after it was built.

Parthenon

I can't even begin to imagine how amazing it was.

Parthenon, top edge of building

Parthenon

The details on all the art work around the edge of the roof alone took years to complete.

Parthenon, top edge of building

Just a side note, if you ever get a chance to visit the acropolis, go in the early morning when the sun is not hot yet and the tourists and their buses are crowding the way.

View from Acropolis

After visiting the acropolis we went to the Arch of Hadrian  and the Temple of Zeus.

Arch of Hadrian

Temple of Zeus

Even though not as much is left standing of the Temple of Zeus, I think I enjoyed this structure the most because it revealed clues as to how it was built.  Among many of the columns that had fallen, one was left exactly in the position as it had fallen.

Temple of Zeus

You could see that the column was not made out of one piece of rock, but many stones placed on top of each other, set perfectly in line.  Each stone also had holes on the top.  Last spring, Dr. Kramer, my Latin professor, had a colleague from another university give a lecture on his research regarding how Greeks went about constructing buildings.  Among a few theories was one that involved a lock and key method in which they inserted a 'key' attached to a rope into the hole and once inside, it locked into the stone and allowed the Greeks to lift and stack the rocks using a crane. It was very interesting to get to experience first hand the theory that this professor was describing.  We also visited the ancient and roman agoras.

Tower of the Winds, Roman Agora

Roman Agora

  In the afternoon, we drove out to cape Sounion to see the Temple of Poseidon.

Temple of Poseidon

I think this was my favorite place we visited because the area was just so beautiful.

Cape Sounion

The temple of placed at the top of a hill and surrounded by two different seas.

Cape Sounion

The color of the ocean here is something I have never seen before- a deep blue/green.

Cape Sounion

There is nothing like this in the U.S.  The hill was incredibly windy, I took a picture of Grandma, almost looks like she was about to get knocked down.

Windy on Cape Sounion!

  I wonder if it's a coincidence that the Temple of Poseidon is built where it is windy, since he was the god of the sea and inflicted harm to those traveling on it. 
  On our way back to Athens, we stopped along the coast and got out and walked in the ocean.

Ocean

   Later in the car, I guess I had touched my lips with my fingers and licked my lips and noticed they were salty.  Apparently, the ocean's here are much saltier than the Atlantic, or Pacific for that matter.  We also stopped and bought some fresh figs.  I've never even seen a fig in my life.  The closest thing I've ever had is a Fig Newton cookie.  Definitely not the same thing though--fresh figs are much more delicious.  They grow on trees, you pick them, peel the skin off, and eat them.  I think they are probably one of the sweeter fruits I've ever had.
  Michael also took us to the Plaka, or the ancient city of Athens.  This is beneath the acropolis and consists of many little shops and restaurants.  It is pretty much a tourist scene, I don't think we saw many natives there.  Michael also showed us the Palace of Athens

Athenian Palace

and the Parliament building.

Athenian Palace

We took a picture with one of the guards.

Athenian Palace Guard

The guards are much like the British guards, they are not allowed to show any emotion, they just stand there lifeless.  Notice the outfit that he is wearing, each article of clothing he has on represents something.  We also visited the Panathenaic Olympic Stadium that was refurbished in 1895 for the first contempary Olympics.

Olympic Stadium

  In the 2004 Olympics, the stadium was the finish line for the marathon.
Later that night, we went back to the Plaka, enjoyed a nice meal, and did some shopping.

Restaurant in the Plaka

  On Thursday, the 14th, we visited the Osios Loukas Monastery and Delphi.  The monastery was on the side of a mountain-the best part about it was the view.

View from Monastery

View from Monastery

The church was being restored, some parts of it were closed off.  There were a lot of pretty mosaics, painted by the monks I suppose hundreds of years ago.  We only saw one monk still living there, I was hoping we'd see more.  I doesn't look much like a functioning monastery anymore, but really a tourist site.

Monastery

 
  Delphi was a lot of uphill walking.  I was actually a little disappointed that there wasn't more left of the ruins.  Except for the Temple of Apollo,

Temple of Apollo, Delphi

every thing else just looked like a big pile of rocks to me.  However, I was impressed by the Stadium at the top of the mountain.  Once you thought you had seen everything, if you kept climbing to the top of the mountain, there was a giant stadium.

Stadium, Delphi

Stadium, Delphi

We didn't have a tour guide when we visited, I think it would have been much more interesting if we had.  I was surprised by the location of Delphi because it was only accessible in ancient days by the sea.

Delphi

Looking at it, it was quite a far ways up from the sea and by means not a convenient location.
  We also passed by the Castalia Spring, where priestesses who pronounced the oracles bathed and obtained drinking water from.  It was blocked off because of falling rocks, so we couldn't go in.  I've heard that 3 specters of women have been seen wandering around the area.
  After leaving Delphi, we went to a small restaurant nearby that had the most beautiful view off a balcony that overlooked the mountains and the sea.

Restaurant by Delphi

The balcony railing actually had real grapes growing along it too.

Grapes on Balcony of Restaurant

  On Friday, the 15th, we made our way back to the airport in the morning to take care of my suitcase.  Good thing we did too--we found out that there was a 19 minute lay over at one point in the train ride.  If we didn't know that for the next day, we could have missed our flight!  Anyways, we got the suitcase out of storage and took a shuttle bus over to the cargo department of British Air.  They redirected us to some one else, who redirected us to someone else and so on.  We finally ended up at Aegean, who shipped the suitcase for about 97 Euros (expensive, but still a lot better than 300!). It was about 2 in the afternoon by the time we got back.  We were supposed to go on a night tour that night with Michael to see the nightlife at Athens, but we decided to cancel it and save money.  We figured we could show ourselves around, all he would be doing it driving us and dropping us off somewhere.  So we canceled the tour and decided to go to the beach and go swimming for the remainder of the day.  We took the train to the tram and took the tram along the coast.  We got off at stop before Voula.  
  The beach was so dirty.  In fact, that is something I haven't really mentioned, but Athens is a very dirty city.  I would much rather be in Chicago or Seattle.  If it wasn't for its history, Athens really wouldn't be that great.  I mean its a fun place, but its hot and dirty, and a city is a city no matter where it is.  Anyways, the water was nice and warm.  The beach was packed with people because it was a national holiday (the assumption of Mary), so every one was off work and enjoying themselves.  Grandma and I had a nice time at the beach, she hadn't been swimming yet this summer, so I'm glad we got to go. 
  We went back to the hotel, showered, and packed our things up to leave the next day.  We went down to the Plaka for one last time and ate at another good restaurant and did some more shopping.  This time we got to see the acropolis at night--that alone made the trip down to the Plaka worth it.
   On the 16th, we got up and took the train to the airport and left for Stuttgart, Germany, to visit Matthias, Miriam, and their girls..... More to come!