Catch Up from EVERYONE Part 2: Acropolis

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The Acropolis and Stuff

Everyone met at the girls' room at 10:30 to begin the metro ride to the Acropolis. We purchased 24-hour metro tickets for 3 euro and hopped on the rails to the Acropolis stop. The line to get in to the Acropolis seemed pretty long, so we waited in it for a while before Aaron realized that the actual line to get in was about two people long and the other one was to buy tickets. Thanks to his quick detective work, we corrected an entire line. However, this line adventure paled in excitement to the Acropolis itself.

The Acropolis was built by the Greeks as a city of the Gods, and literally translates to "Air City." However, it's not a Grecian steampunk monument, but rather a collection of temples and theaters in honor of the Gods, most notably Athena (patron goddess of Athens). Everything is colossal and awe-inspiring. Unlike a lot of art that, when you see it up close, very nearly resembles a picture you have seen of it online, the Parthenon exceeds expectations. So do the caryatids and, maybe most of all, the view. You can see the city of Athens and it's incredible. It's built all over the landscape and hills and such, but it's a very industrialized and modern city. So it's a strange sensation to see these giant stretches of giant buildings rolling up and down on all sides of you. Randomly in the middle of these structures a huge barren green hill will crop up, only to recede into more civilization on the other side. We took a lot of pictures and got other people to take pictures of us, including a couple from Verbania (the place Europe Group 1 stayed with Paolo).

At one point, in front of the Erechtheion, several of us began singing "You are Beautiful" only to be approached by a protective tour guide who, politely but firmly, reminded us that this was a sacred place and we needed to respect it. He complimented our singing, but said Oasis was hardly an appropriate genre of song at an ancient temple. We felt that it was a good thing he was not giving a tour of popular music.

After the Acropolis, we descended into the Agora, the ancient center of town. There was a Byzantine church, some old temples, and a museum of pottery and sculpture from many of the periods we studied in art history. Nothing famous, just chronological. Also, there was an angry guard who really didn't want people standing on top of marble blocks pretending to be sculptures (people like Mark). He looked extremely frustrated, almost in tears when he asked if anyone ever listened. Then he went to sit down again...rough job.

A couple minutes from the Agora, the metro took us to the Triumphal Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Zeus. With the ancient pillars of the temple in the background, a little Greek man came up to us and, in a very high voice, did impressions of famous people whose names we couldn't quite hear (one was Michael Jackson, or at least the man grabbed his crotch and shrieked "sex machine, sex machine." To be fair, three of the impressions involved the phrase "sex machine." He just kind of kept saying "sex machine"). The man then asked us for money, which we gave him because at least he was kinda working for it.

By then it was time for lunch, so we used the guidebook to lead us to a restaurant in the Plaka. We ate kabob (which looked like sausage), chicken, salad, pita, seafood, and fried cheese. It was all very good, even if none of us came to a definitive conclusion about abstinence education in the public school system.

Our next stop was the National Archaeological Museum, about 10 minutes from our hotel. This had famous stuff in it, including many of the ancient Greek and Mycenean sculptures we looked at in art history (funerary mask of Agamemnon, Cycladic figure, Bronze Zeus/Poseidon, etc.). We took pictures of a lot of it, but for some reason we couldn't pose like any of the figures. If we tried to pose, even gesture towards a statue in a picture, a guard came up and told us "No pose!" When Michael asked why, they replied that it was against the rules and would say no more. It was a tough day in terms of rules/authority.

It was an interesting museum, but some people kind of staggered through it because they were so tired, so we walked back to the hotel and took some naps before getting dinner at a nearby cafe. Then, some people watched part of In Bruges (to Eleni and Sam's excitement; they had seen many of the landmarks) while others slept.

We were then up at 4:00 in the morning to catch an early flight to Lesbos, which is where we are now, so we are caught up! Geographically!

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