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Published: February 2nd 2009
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early sunset
Just as the sun begins to set- view from the academic center as we did our homework! Well! I have certainly had a busy last few days! Friday was a study day which was nice and relaxing. A few of us went to the academic center for a few hours after to do homework. We were there as the sunset. This really was to our benefit because the view from the academic center is phenomenal! (see pictures) Prior to studying, we checked out the weekly open air market in our neighborhood. I have never seen so many fresh fruits and vegetables! It was seriously a good three or four blocks long and every stand was overflowing with delicious looking produce! We purchased whole artichokes, some peppers, and what looked like a zucchini but turned out to be a very long very thin cucumber! These served as our vegetables for dinner on Saturday and Sunday nights. We meant to cook on Friday, but after hours of studying we were too hungry and too tired to bother, so we walked around the corner and bought delicious (and cheap!) gyros instead!
Saturday was a bit of a later start, but once we got going it was a lot of fun! We went to the Benaki Museum. This is a collection
sunset
Sunset behind Acropolis- view from academic center of all sorts of things that Benaki gathered over his lifetime and the museum itself is housed in Benaki's former home (which was huge!). We were a bit giggly for a museum, but it just made it all the more fun! We all enjoyed looking through the museum: Cycladic and Mycenaean artwork, archaic and classical artifacts, art from the Middle Ages (not my personal favorite), lots of jewelry, traditional Greek outfits, and more! It was a very eclectic combination and ended with the Oscar that was awarded for the direction of Zorba the Greek (which I saw last week). The group favorite in the museum was probably the ship earrings and necklace. They were incredibly intricate and beautiful! The picture doesn't quite do it justice...
After the museum we went to a cafe to sit and enjoy each others' company (and to stay out of the rainy and gloomy weather). Then four of us met up again after dinner to go out! We went to a cafe across the square from my apartment and it turned out there was a live band playing there that night! The lead singer made multiple efforts to talk to us (which was very
me "running" with a 2004 Olympic torch
This Olympic torch was donated to my school here after the 2004 Olympics! difficult given the language barrier) but it was fun nonetheless! And he bought us all a round of drinks! (We assumed it was him because he seemed the most interested in us. We also gathered that he works at the cafe which could have been how he got us the free drinks.) The band was fun, but we were exhausted and had to leave after only a few songs (it WAS already 2am).
Sunday we made our first trip to the Acropolis! Getting there was a bit of an adventure. It really isn't a far walk from where we live, but we had figured that it would be cost effective to purchase student priced monthly public transportation tickets, so we went out of our way to get to a metro station to buy tickets. On our first attempt of buying the tickets, we were told that only Greek University students are allowed the discount, a frustration in and of itself. So we reassessed and decided it was still worthwhile to purchase monthly passes. So we tried again. This time we were told we weren't allowed to pay with credit or debit, so the ticket-seller directed us to the nearest
ATM. We made our way over there and retrieved enough cash. On to try number three. This time we were asked for a photo, so we handed the ticket-seller a photo id only to be told that we need to provide a small (passport sized) photograph of ourselves if we wanted to get a monthly pass. Completely aggravated with the way tickets must be purchased, we finally gave up and headed to the Acropolis. So we hopped on the metro and soon we were just below the Acropolis! It took us a little while to figure out which road we were supposed to walk up to actually get to the top, but eventually we figured it out.
Once at the top, well, there really are no adequate words to describe the Acropolis. It was definitely amazing, and surreal. We took lots of pictures and wandered around for quite a while, enjoying the views of the temples as well as the spectacular views of Athens and the city's other ruins that can be seen easily from the Acropolis. It was a disappointment that there is currently reconstructive work being done on the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena Nike because
it meant that both these temples were covered (at least in part) in scaffolding. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun.
Then this morning I went back to the Acropolis (on foot this time- its only about a fifteen minute walk from my apartment) for my first class of the day. Yes, I had class on the Acropolis. We talked about early Mycenaean uses of the Acropolis and walked through the Theater of Dionysus, around the Acropolis, and finally up to the top. It was really neat to be there and be talking about things other than the giant marble temples. Not everyone knows much about the uses of the Acropolis before Archaic times!
I really am enjoying all of my classes, but I won't discuss them too much right now...
Then this evening we went out to a taverna for dinner in order to celebrate my roommate's 21st birthday (and to belatedly celebrate another one of my roommate's 21st birthdays). We were there a good two hours, were given free wine and free dessert and had an overall splendid meal and fabulous time! And it was very reasonably priced, too! Definitely a good start to the
week!
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