Friday, July 3, 2009
Celebrating the end of summer school
This is how I celebrated the end of summer school. Now I know what a dog that sticks its head out of a car window feels like. It took me about 20 seconds to figure out how to breathe, (through the nose) after that it was awesome.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Paris - Day Three
Today was the last day of the trip, tomorrow we head out to the airport and fly back to the U.S. It will be nice to get home, but I have a lot to do. We get home on Monday evening and I have a full day of class and work on Tuesday. I also have to move this week, which will be a pain but I’ll get it done.
With all that coming up this week I took it easy today. This morning we went down to the Cathedral of Notre Dame and went to Sunday mass. The service was cool but I was a little disappointed in the building. I probably would have loved it if I hadn’t visited St. Peters in Rome a few days ago, but I did so when I came in the first thing I thought was, “where is all the color?” The building is very big, but it is also very gray, and while the rose design stain glass windows are nice, they look a little dull when compared to the mosaics at St. Peters. I think St. Paul’s outside the wall in Rome was more beautiful too.
(Notre Dame)
The acoustics in Notre Dame are great though and they have a giant organ, and a great choir, so it was really fun to listen to the music. Some of the organ music was pretty dramatic and gothic, a good match for the cathedral.After that we grabbed lunch and I decided to break away from the other people that I was with and head back to the hotel. I was tired and I needed some time to be by myself. Since the metro stop was on the way, I ended up stopping by the Louvre again to see if they had any paintings by El Greco. I spent about two hours in the museum again, this time just in the section devoted to the Italian and Spanish painters. Even then I missed some stuff but I was able to see some great paintings that I missed yesterday. They have some great paintings by Leonardo and Raphael that I missed yesterday. They also have some cool stuff by Caravaggio and Annabel Carracci. When I finally made it to the Spanish painters I did find a few paintings by El Greco, so all in all it was a good trip. I stopped by the Mona Lisa and the sculpture of Cupid and Psyche again today as well and today Cupid and Psyche were definitely my favorite. It is such a delicate sculpture compared to the rest of the marble statues, and it’s newer so the marble is cleaner and smoother.
(Cupid and Psyche)
(The Winged Victory of Salmonthrace)
Montmartre was more of what I expected Paris to be like. It is the Bohemian part of the city, where the painters and the musicians all live, and the streets and squares are smaller and feel cozier. We stopped at a great little restaurant and had a fantastic, fantastic dinner. I had a glass of champagne, escargot, steak, a pear tartan pie with ice cream for dessert and a cup of coffee. It was the best meal I’ve had in a long time.
(Top, Sacre Coeur, bottom, the steps leading down from the Sacre Coeur.)
After that we went up to the Sacre Coeur, and looked out on the city. It was different view of the city than the Eiffel tower view. From the Sacre Coeur, you see everything but it isn’t as small, instead of just seeing the lights of the city, you see all the buildings but they look like big doll houses. It was pretty cool. After that we headed down to the metro and rode it back to our hotel. I’m surprised how safe a city Paris is. Even riding on the metro at 11:00 pm, it felt totally safe, I even saw girls that were going down to take the metro by themselves as we came out.And that was it for today.
All in all it was a good birthday in Paris. Like I said tomorrow I’ll be back in L.A. I’ll try to get some stuff about Rome written and hopefully posted while I’m in the airport and on the plane. Until then, thanks for reading.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Paris - Day 2
Today was our first full day in Paris. We went to the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay. We were going to go to the Rodin Museum but when we got there the museum was closed. A huge police blockade was stopping traffic and blocking off a section of the city where there was a protest against Israel (and where the entrance to the Rodin museum was.) I tried to get closer to the protest to see what it was like but there were literally 30 to 40 police vans lining the streets and blocking off the section where the protest was.
On top of missing out on the Rodin museum, I also left the memory card for my camera in my computer again (I did that once in Rome too,) so I wasn’t able to take pictures of anything today. To make up for it, here is another picture of the Eiffel tower from last night.
So far I have been surprised by how happy and friendly the French people seem. The city is a lot cleaner and more open than Rome is. That also means that it has less personality than Rome. It is a cool city though. I think that it would be really easy to live here (if you could afford it, it’s pretty expensive.) I honestly think Paris may be the foreign city that is most like the U.S. that I have ever been to.
The Louvre was a cool museum, but it is so big that it is overwhelming. It is probably the biggest museum I’ve ever been in. There are three different sections and each section is as big as a normal sized museum. The most famous things that we saw at the Louvre are: the Venus De Milo, the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and Michelangelo’s Dying Slave. The coolest thing may have been the statue called “Cupid and Psyche” but I did think the Mona Lisa was pretty cool. I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but there is something about her smile. I whenever I looked at her it seemed like she was just about to or just finished smirking.
After a stop at Starbucks we headed over to the Musee D’Orsay, which was really great. I was worried about time since I wanted to see the Rodin museum too, so we started at the top floor and worked our way down (the top floor has the impressionists.) They had some great and really famous paintings by Manet and Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Gauguin and Pissarro. My favorite paintings were by Van Gogh and Degas. Even in a museum section that has all the great paintings that this one did, the colors in the Van Gogh’s were just amazing, the only things that were even close were some of the pastel drawings that they had up there. And Degas had some really cool paintings too, I even got a print of a painting called something like ‘Blue Dancers’ (the title was in French, so I’m guessing.) But maybe the best thing I saw in the whole Musee D’Orsay was a statue of a little girl ballerina by Degas, it was amazing. If I had my memory card with my camera I would show you a picture of it, but as things are you’ll have to trust me.
It turns out that we had plenty of time to see all that we wanted of the Musee D’Orsay, it’s not nearly as big as the Louvre, so when we all had our fill we headed off in our ill fated trip to the Rodin museum.
It turns out that we had plenty of time to see all that we wanted of the Musee D’Orsay, it’s not nearly as big as the Louvre, so when we all had our fill we headed off in our ill fated trip to the Rodin museum.
After our unsuccessful attempts to get close enough to the protest to see part of it we walked back up to the Eiffel tower then up to our hotel and rested for a little bit. After that it was off to dinner (tonight was McDonalds) and then over to the Eiffel tower. In general, the Eiffel tower is just way cooler than I thought it would be, especially at night. It’s awesome. We were able to make it up to the top tonight and the view of the city from up there is breathtaking. I didn’t get any pictures of that either, I will try to get some that other people took and post them.
That was it for today. Tomorrow we’re going to try to catch a church service at Notre Dame, go into the Catacombs at Notre Dame, and maybe climb up the Arc de Triumphe. For my birthday tomorrow night we’re going up to Montmartre (the bohemian part of the city) to find a cool café to have dinner in and then we’ll head over to the Sacre Coeur. And then the next day it’s off to the airport and back to L.A.
As always thanks for reading. Until tomorrow…
Friday, January 23, 2009
Paris - Day One
I know I'm behind. I have a lot to say about my days in Rome, but again I'm too tired tonight. I will try to fill in my time in Rome soon and upload some pictures from Athens and Rome, but not tonight.
I am in Paris, most of the class is on their way back to L.A., but five of us are staying in Paris for a few days. I'm staying at the Marriott here (thanks mom and dad) and it is really nice. After we flew into Paris today, took a bus from the airport to the city, and then dragged our bags to the hotel we rested for a few hours. After that we walked out to the Eiffel tower, which is really, really cool. We were going to go up to the top, but it was so windy tonight that the top level was closed, so we'll try again a different time. After the Eiffel tower we walked over to the Arc de Triumphe and up the Champs-Elysees. We had dinner up there and then headed back over to the hotel.
Tomorrow we're starting out with the Louvre then headed to the Musee D'Orsay and then the Rodin museum. We'll see what we do after that. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Day 23 - Rome
Rome is great. If you haven't been to Rome you should come. It's that good.
Today we went to the Vatican, saw the Vatican museum, the Sistine chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. Then we went to St. Paul's outside the walls, which was built over Paul's burial spot, then we went to the church of the three fountains, which was built where Paul was beheaded. After we got back to the hotel I went out and had dinner (lasagna and espresso) then walked to the Spanish steps and the trevi fountain. On the way back to the hotel I stopped and had gelato, the chocolate chip is pretty much the best chocolate chip I've ever had.
I am almost falling asleep as I write this, so I will stop now. I will try to come back tomorrow and fill in a little bit more about the stuff we saw today and post some pictures for today and the last few days. I will just quickly list the things that took my breath away today: the Disputa and the School of Athens (Raphael painted them on opposite walls of the same room,) the Sistine chapel (seeing a picture isn't in the same universe as seeing the real thing,) the Pieta, my first steps into St. Peters, my first steps in St. Pauls, and the front facade of St. Pauls.
More to come tomorrow, until then, thanks for reading.
Today we went to the Vatican, saw the Vatican museum, the Sistine chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. Then we went to St. Paul's outside the walls, which was built over Paul's burial spot, then we went to the church of the three fountains, which was built where Paul was beheaded. After we got back to the hotel I went out and had dinner (lasagna and espresso) then walked to the Spanish steps and the trevi fountain. On the way back to the hotel I stopped and had gelato, the chocolate chip is pretty much the best chocolate chip I've ever had.
I am almost falling asleep as I write this, so I will stop now. I will try to come back tomorrow and fill in a little bit more about the stuff we saw today and post some pictures for today and the last few days. I will just quickly list the things that took my breath away today: the Disputa and the School of Athens (Raphael painted them on opposite walls of the same room,) the Sistine chapel (seeing a picture isn't in the same universe as seeing the real thing,) the Pieta, my first steps into St. Peters, my first steps in St. Pauls, and the front facade of St. Pauls.
More to come tomorrow, until then, thanks for reading.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Days 21-22 - Athens to Corinth to Athens to Rome
No pictures again today, I'm too tired to upload them. Tomorrow I should have time to post pictures for both the last post and this one.
This will be another double post. I’m here in Rome and I’m pretty wiped out. We have two more full days here and then I have three days in Paris and then back home.
Yesterday we woke up in Athens and then drove out to Corinth, the Acrocorinth specifically, which is this huge hill where the temple of Aphrodite was. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, so naturally her temple was a huge brothel. Corinth was a big time port city, any ship travelling east or west would travel through Corinth so the temple of Aphrodite was the first stop that a lot of the sailors made as when they got to Corinth (and let me tell you, that wouldn’t be easy, we drove half-way up the Acrocorinth and it was still about a 45 minute hike up to the top.)
Every other year there is a Talbot class that goes to Turkey, Greece, and Rome and the alternate year a class goes to Israel. There are some people on the trip this year that went to Israel last year and yesterday a girl came with us who went to Israel last year but now lives in Greece. She is starting a ministry here in Athens that is focused towards girls who are involved in human trafficking. I guess Greece is one of the top ten countries that are destinations for human trafficking (Italy and the U.S. are also in the top ten.) The girls get tricked into thinking they are signing up for a job and then are forced into prostitution when they get to the new country. She told us about one girl who she met at a women’s shelter whose story is pretty typical. She is a Ukrainian girl who was from a small town and applied for a job to work at the Athens Olympics. She went through a whole interview process, she was 17 but lied and said she was 18, she said there were 13 and 14 year old girls who did the same thing. She got the “job” and so did a bunch of other girls from her town. The girls all left on a bus, thinking they were headed for Athens. The bus took the girls to Istanbul, where they were checked into a hotel and brutalized for a couple of days to break the girls and get rid of any resistance they had. After that they were taken to Athens (prostitution is legal in Greece) and forced to work in a brothel where they worked 14 hour days and saw 20-30 clients a day. The girls are threatened if they try to leave, if threats to them don’t work their families are threatened (the girls give all their personal info when they think they are applying for a normal job.)
It was pretty wild to hear Kelsey (the girl who is trying to work with these girls) talk about that then go and visit one of the major prostitution centers of both the Greek and Roman worlds. I’m not sure what the temple of Aphrodite was like, but I’m sure there were plenty of things that went on like that in the 1st century as well.
After the Acrocorinth we went and visited the old forum (or agora) in Corinth, had lunch, and then visited a shop where they made authentic museum copy pottery and statues. I got two small pieces, a little vase with Hector on it and a little container that had Achilles. I really like both of them. Before we headed back to Athens for the night we visited a port town that Paul stopped at on his way back home from his second missionary journey. I skipped some rocks there and we tried to get Jin to break open some sea urchins but she said they were too small to eat.
After dinner a few of us hiked from the hotel up to the top of the highest hill in Athens, it was really cool. It was another beautiful night and we had a great view of the city. We looked down on the Parthenon, which was cool. There was a church up top there, and we prayed for a little bit and then headed back to the hotel.
This morning we got up extra early, headed to the airport, and said goodbye to Athens and hello to Rome. The flight wasn’t bad but it was delayed about 45 minutes and then it took forever for us to get our bags so we were a little behind schedule for our first day in Rome. From the airport we drove straight to the town of Ostia which was the primary port for Rome for a while, and then was the secondary port for Rome. If Paul ended up going to Spain like he said he was going to in the book of Romans, he would have come through Ostia.
After that we drove to the Appian way and walked the last two miles into the city, which was the main road into Rome and the road that Paul took. Then we saw some catacombs and then drove to the hotel.
Our hotel here in Rome is very nice, it’s about ten minutes from the Coliseum and the Forum and it is practically across the street from the church called St. Peter in chains, which has Michelangelo’s Moses. I had pasta and pizza for dinner (it was great,) gelato for dessert (won’t get banana again,) and then walked around and saw the Coliseum and the Forum (St. Peters was closed; I’ll try to see it tomorrow.)
Tomorrow morning we’re going to the Vatican and St. Peter’s basilica, and I’m really excited about both of those. We have seen a whole lot of archeology stuff, and I’m ready to see some art. So tomorrow is the Sistine chapel, the school of Athens, and I think the Pieta. And I’m sure there will be other really cool stuff too.
Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.
This will be another double post. I’m here in Rome and I’m pretty wiped out. We have two more full days here and then I have three days in Paris and then back home.
Yesterday we woke up in Athens and then drove out to Corinth, the Acrocorinth specifically, which is this huge hill where the temple of Aphrodite was. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, so naturally her temple was a huge brothel. Corinth was a big time port city, any ship travelling east or west would travel through Corinth so the temple of Aphrodite was the first stop that a lot of the sailors made as when they got to Corinth (and let me tell you, that wouldn’t be easy, we drove half-way up the Acrocorinth and it was still about a 45 minute hike up to the top.)
Every other year there is a Talbot class that goes to Turkey, Greece, and Rome and the alternate year a class goes to Israel. There are some people on the trip this year that went to Israel last year and yesterday a girl came with us who went to Israel last year but now lives in Greece. She is starting a ministry here in Athens that is focused towards girls who are involved in human trafficking. I guess Greece is one of the top ten countries that are destinations for human trafficking (Italy and the U.S. are also in the top ten.) The girls get tricked into thinking they are signing up for a job and then are forced into prostitution when they get to the new country. She told us about one girl who she met at a women’s shelter whose story is pretty typical. She is a Ukrainian girl who was from a small town and applied for a job to work at the Athens Olympics. She went through a whole interview process, she was 17 but lied and said she was 18, she said there were 13 and 14 year old girls who did the same thing. She got the “job” and so did a bunch of other girls from her town. The girls all left on a bus, thinking they were headed for Athens. The bus took the girls to Istanbul, where they were checked into a hotel and brutalized for a couple of days to break the girls and get rid of any resistance they had. After that they were taken to Athens (prostitution is legal in Greece) and forced to work in a brothel where they worked 14 hour days and saw 20-30 clients a day. The girls are threatened if they try to leave, if threats to them don’t work their families are threatened (the girls give all their personal info when they think they are applying for a normal job.)
It was pretty wild to hear Kelsey (the girl who is trying to work with these girls) talk about that then go and visit one of the major prostitution centers of both the Greek and Roman worlds. I’m not sure what the temple of Aphrodite was like, but I’m sure there were plenty of things that went on like that in the 1st century as well.
After the Acrocorinth we went and visited the old forum (or agora) in Corinth, had lunch, and then visited a shop where they made authentic museum copy pottery and statues. I got two small pieces, a little vase with Hector on it and a little container that had Achilles. I really like both of them. Before we headed back to Athens for the night we visited a port town that Paul stopped at on his way back home from his second missionary journey. I skipped some rocks there and we tried to get Jin to break open some sea urchins but she said they were too small to eat.
After dinner a few of us hiked from the hotel up to the top of the highest hill in Athens, it was really cool. It was another beautiful night and we had a great view of the city. We looked down on the Parthenon, which was cool. There was a church up top there, and we prayed for a little bit and then headed back to the hotel.
This morning we got up extra early, headed to the airport, and said goodbye to Athens and hello to Rome. The flight wasn’t bad but it was delayed about 45 minutes and then it took forever for us to get our bags so we were a little behind schedule for our first day in Rome. From the airport we drove straight to the town of Ostia which was the primary port for Rome for a while, and then was the secondary port for Rome. If Paul ended up going to Spain like he said he was going to in the book of Romans, he would have come through Ostia.
After that we drove to the Appian way and walked the last two miles into the city, which was the main road into Rome and the road that Paul took. Then we saw some catacombs and then drove to the hotel.
Our hotel here in Rome is very nice, it’s about ten minutes from the Coliseum and the Forum and it is practically across the street from the church called St. Peter in chains, which has Michelangelo’s Moses. I had pasta and pizza for dinner (it was great,) gelato for dessert (won’t get banana again,) and then walked around and saw the Coliseum and the Forum (St. Peters was closed; I’ll try to see it tomorrow.)
Tomorrow morning we’re going to the Vatican and St. Peter’s basilica, and I’m really excited about both of those. We have seen a whole lot of archeology stuff, and I’m ready to see some art. So tomorrow is the Sistine chapel, the school of Athens, and I think the Pieta. And I’m sure there will be other really cool stuff too.
Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Days 19 & 20 - Delphi to Athens to Athens
We’ve got some internet troubles at our hotel here in Athens, so no pictures right now, I will try to upload some if our internet situation improves here or if the internet access is better when we get to Rome.
I know that I said I wasn’t going to post two days at once again, but I’m going to give it a shot again. This post will cover yesterday and today.
Yesterday we went to Delphi. Delphi was the religious center of Greece and much of the surrounding world. There was a temple to Apollo at Delphi, and at the temple they had an oracle that people believed Apollo spoke through (Apollo was the god of divination.) It started out that one day a year (April 7th) the Pythoness (priestess) would come out and answer questions. Eventually they would do it once a month (the seventh day after the new moon) nine months a year (Apollo apparently wintered somewhere else.) So nine days a year people would come to Delphi to ask the oracle what they should do. The oracle always gave these mysterious answers that could mean anything, but people believed they were from the god. There was a king (I think the Lydian king, they had a city in what is now Sardis, Turkey. One of my favorites on this trip) who asked the oracle if he should go to war against the Persians. The oracle answered that if he warred against the Persians, a great kingdom would be destroyed. So, thinking that the oracle gave him the ok to go to war, he attacked the Persians and lost and his kingdom was destroyed.
Ten percent of the spoils from battle always went to the gods, and Delphi was where that ten percent was offered. So there were all sorts of monuments that were built as offerings to the gods at Delphi. Most of them are gone, but a few of the Athenian things were still there. One of them was a treasury that the Athenians built to commemorate their victory over the Persians at Marathon.
We had a beautiful day at Delphi, so it was really fun to hike up the mountain and look at all the stuff. I was even able to crawl underneath the foundation of the temple of Apollo where the Pythoness would go to get the answers of the questions from Apollo. That was fun; I also hiked up to the top section of the city on the mountain and saw the theater and stadium that were there. You’re not allowed to climb on a lot of that stuff in Greece like you are in Turkey, but it was fun to see stuff that was in really good shape.
After Delphi we drove to Athens. Athens is a really cool city. We had great weather here yesterday, and today the high was in the mid fifties, which is great. After we checked into the hotel last night we walked out and saw some of the city. We saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier, which became I lot more impressive when I found out that each of their shoes weighed six pounds (there was a whole lot of high stepping and holding the feet out in the air.) Then we went to a gyro place, had dinner, and then walked out and took some pictures of the Acropolis at night.
Today we went out and saw the remains of the temple to Zeus, then went over to the acropolis, where we saw the Dionysus theater, which is the oldest theater in Europe, then we hiked up to the top of the Acropolis. There we had a great view of the city, and the Parthenon and another temple was up there too. It was a great place to see the old Agora, Mars hill and other old places in the city. After spending some time up there taking pictures we went down to Mars hill, where Paul may have made his defense to the Areopagus. Then we went down to the old Agora, and went to the other place where Paul’s defense to the Aeropause may have taken place.
All of that stuff was great, but seeing the theater was one of my favorites since it is so old, then every famous Athenian has probably seen a play there. If Socrates or Plato had seen a play in Athens, they would have seen it there. Pericles was probably there, Alcibiades probably lived there. If Paul went to see a play in Athens it would have been there (and there is an interesting line in his defense to the Areopagus that is very reminiscent of Aeschylus’ Eumenides.) And the great Greek playwrights, Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides probably all debuted plays there.
After that it was on to lunch and then the Athens Archeological museum. When we got back from the museum we had a little church service, and that was it for the group activities for the day.
I went out to dinner with my roommate Brian and some other people, we went to a crepe restaurant where I got a calzone, but should have gotten a crepe. After dinner we walked over to a hill in the city called the hill of the muses and hiked up it. It is pretty close to the Acropolis, and gave us a beautiful view of the city. It was such a pretty night, it was great sitting up there and looking over at the Acropolis and out over the rest of the city.
Now is a good time to note one of the really strange things that I’ve noticed in almost every city we’ve been to, in both Turkey and Greece. There are stray dogs everywhere. In the places where there aren’t stray dogs, there are stray cats. And we have a tendency to pick of the dogs as members of our groups. They just follow us along, herd the people at the back, and bark at cars or motorcycles that drive by.
I don’t know if it is us or the dogs, but even tonight, when six of us hiked up to the hill of the muses, we picked up two dogs that followed us up, down and almost all the way back to the hotel, about a two hour walk. They even chased off some other strays that got close to us, it was pretty cool.
Well I had better go; tomorrow we’re driving down to Corinth and then back to Athens for the night. Then Tuesday morning we fly to Rome. As always, thanks for reading and until tomorrow…
I know that I said I wasn’t going to post two days at once again, but I’m going to give it a shot again. This post will cover yesterday and today.
Yesterday we went to Delphi. Delphi was the religious center of Greece and much of the surrounding world. There was a temple to Apollo at Delphi, and at the temple they had an oracle that people believed Apollo spoke through (Apollo was the god of divination.) It started out that one day a year (April 7th) the Pythoness (priestess) would come out and answer questions. Eventually they would do it once a month (the seventh day after the new moon) nine months a year (Apollo apparently wintered somewhere else.) So nine days a year people would come to Delphi to ask the oracle what they should do. The oracle always gave these mysterious answers that could mean anything, but people believed they were from the god. There was a king (I think the Lydian king, they had a city in what is now Sardis, Turkey. One of my favorites on this trip) who asked the oracle if he should go to war against the Persians. The oracle answered that if he warred against the Persians, a great kingdom would be destroyed. So, thinking that the oracle gave him the ok to go to war, he attacked the Persians and lost and his kingdom was destroyed.
Ten percent of the spoils from battle always went to the gods, and Delphi was where that ten percent was offered. So there were all sorts of monuments that were built as offerings to the gods at Delphi. Most of them are gone, but a few of the Athenian things were still there. One of them was a treasury that the Athenians built to commemorate their victory over the Persians at Marathon.
We had a beautiful day at Delphi, so it was really fun to hike up the mountain and look at all the stuff. I was even able to crawl underneath the foundation of the temple of Apollo where the Pythoness would go to get the answers of the questions from Apollo. That was fun; I also hiked up to the top section of the city on the mountain and saw the theater and stadium that were there. You’re not allowed to climb on a lot of that stuff in Greece like you are in Turkey, but it was fun to see stuff that was in really good shape.
After Delphi we drove to Athens. Athens is a really cool city. We had great weather here yesterday, and today the high was in the mid fifties, which is great. After we checked into the hotel last night we walked out and saw some of the city. We saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier, which became I lot more impressive when I found out that each of their shoes weighed six pounds (there was a whole lot of high stepping and holding the feet out in the air.) Then we went to a gyro place, had dinner, and then walked out and took some pictures of the Acropolis at night.
Today we went out and saw the remains of the temple to Zeus, then went over to the acropolis, where we saw the Dionysus theater, which is the oldest theater in Europe, then we hiked up to the top of the Acropolis. There we had a great view of the city, and the Parthenon and another temple was up there too. It was a great place to see the old Agora, Mars hill and other old places in the city. After spending some time up there taking pictures we went down to Mars hill, where Paul may have made his defense to the Areopagus. Then we went down to the old Agora, and went to the other place where Paul’s defense to the Aeropause may have taken place.
All of that stuff was great, but seeing the theater was one of my favorites since it is so old, then every famous Athenian has probably seen a play there. If Socrates or Plato had seen a play in Athens, they would have seen it there. Pericles was probably there, Alcibiades probably lived there. If Paul went to see a play in Athens it would have been there (and there is an interesting line in his defense to the Areopagus that is very reminiscent of Aeschylus’ Eumenides.) And the great Greek playwrights, Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides probably all debuted plays there.
After that it was on to lunch and then the Athens Archeological museum. When we got back from the museum we had a little church service, and that was it for the group activities for the day.
I went out to dinner with my roommate Brian and some other people, we went to a crepe restaurant where I got a calzone, but should have gotten a crepe. After dinner we walked over to a hill in the city called the hill of the muses and hiked up it. It is pretty close to the Acropolis, and gave us a beautiful view of the city. It was such a pretty night, it was great sitting up there and looking over at the Acropolis and out over the rest of the city.
Now is a good time to note one of the really strange things that I’ve noticed in almost every city we’ve been to, in both Turkey and Greece. There are stray dogs everywhere. In the places where there aren’t stray dogs, there are stray cats. And we have a tendency to pick of the dogs as members of our groups. They just follow us along, herd the people at the back, and bark at cars or motorcycles that drive by.
I don’t know if it is us or the dogs, but even tonight, when six of us hiked up to the hill of the muses, we picked up two dogs that followed us up, down and almost all the way back to the hotel, about a two hour walk. They even chased off some other strays that got close to us, it was pretty cool.
Well I had better go; tomorrow we’re driving down to Corinth and then back to Athens for the night. Then Tuesday morning we fly to Rome. As always, thanks for reading and until tomorrow…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
