WELCOME TO ATHENS!! a.k.a. my dream come true
We had a very long day today, but we saw some of the most impressive monuments in the world. Starting with the Ancient Greek Agora, the group followed our archeologist Demetrios through the ruins of what was once the city center of Athens. From the temple of Hephaestus to administrative buildings to common areas, it was very easy to understand that Greeks were very social people and they organized all their important and social areas together for that reason. Many of the buildings were crumbled, even those added by the Romans during their occupation — you’ll find that the Romans HAD to leave their mark on anything Greek. However, the temple of Hephaestus was still very stably assembled. Designed just like the Parthenon, the temple was smaller in scale but still a representation of grandeur.
After wandering the Agora, it was time for THE ACROPOLIS AND THE PARTHENON!! AHHHH!! Despite the size of the Acropolis, the hike up really wasn’t too bad, and it was also lined with artifacts from the ancient times. Prior to seeing the Parthenon, we listened to a lecture by our guide Nikki about the history of the area — including the myth of Athena and Poseidon’s dispute over who deserves the naming rights of the city. Clearly, the olive tree prevailed over the salt water spring. With that, we also learned that the Parthenon now was not the original. There was a much smaller temple built for Athena to begin, and it wasn’t until much later that the now-standing Parthenon was built along with a sanctuary marking the dispute of Athena and Poseidon, and a temple for Athena Nike — a combination of Athena and Nike (the Greek Goddess of Victory) to symbolize that Athenians are always the victorious. So as we traversed up the winding path and through the marble arches, the Parthenon appeared in all its shining and crumbling glory. IT WAS SO COOL!! Along with the temple of Athena Nike and Athena’s olive tree, we almost just had to sit and stare at one of the most historic and impressive artifacts of the ancient world. Not to mention, we could practically see the entirety of the city of Athens from the top of the Acropolis.
After taking a group photo, we headed down the winding path and back into the downtown area of Athens for a couple hours of free time and lunch. We found our respective souvenirs, some of them very very funny, and Dr. Kim bought us some ice cream :) Now onto the Acropolis Museum! I will not lie, we were exhausted by this point (some of us delirious), but Demitrios guided us through statues and pottery and carvings from the ancient times and it was very interesting. The coolest part was easily the original pediments from the Parthenon. On the roof of both the east and the west side of the Parthenon, two stories were depicted in stone — the birth of Athena (east) and the dispute between her and Poseidon (west). The British Museum actually has a lot more of the original stone and images (it’s a touchy subject), but we were able to see part of the sculptures and the stories, and there were smaller models of what they believed to be the whole depiction. Another interesting part was the impact the Romans had (yet again) on some of the stones. Because they opposed any pagan religion as Christians, they essentially “sautered” off the images of the Greek gods on some stones, leaving them almost completely uninterpretable :(
We had one last stop after the museum, and that was the Olympic Stadium of both the 1896 and the 2004 Athens Games!! 1896 as in the first modern Olympic Games… WHATTTT!! The stadium can hold around 50,000 people, but historians believe it held even more a century ago. It is not a typical track, but events and ceremonies took place in the stadium for both games; it happens to be a perfect arena for archery. And to this day, they still hold events and host crowds on the marble bleachers. This was another place where we just had to sit and admire, especially considering this was where the majority of the 1986 sporting events were held. Plus, we got to walk through the original cobblestone athlete entrance/tunnel underneath the stadium, and up to a small museum with the alter of where the Olympic Flame is lit and a replica of the reflection mirror used to light the flame with the sun. It was very very cool to be somewhere so pivotal for the Olympic movement.
Finished with our group activities for the day, we all did their own thing for a few hours before going various places for dinner. We all joined back up together later and explored the city of Athens for the night. We had a lot of fun after such a long day, and now we prepare for our last day of the trip tomorrow :((
We miss you GM and Prof. Ryan!
