We went to Marathon today. The Battle of Marathon is the famous battle where the Greeks, outnumbered 3:1, beat the Persians with their brilliant military tactics. Plataea was one of the city states helping the Athenians in battle. At the site, there is an excavated tumulus for the Plataean soldiers who died in the battle. The skeletons have been left where they were found and we were able to go in and look in each grave. When I was looking at one of the skeletons I saw a huge rat pop its head out of the eye socket of the skull. Then it popped all the way out and ran into a crack in the wall. It was so disgusting!!
I've also resorted to doing just about whatever it takes to upload pictures. I have really bad luck doing it. Tonight we went to McDonald's to use the free AthensWiFi. Then when that wasn't working so well, I put my raincoat over my computer and ran to a bus stop to work. Then when that got too cold we moved again with the raincoat to the "work watering hole for the upwardly mobile" in Syntagma Square. It's sad but it's getting the job done!
Friday, February 16, 2007
“Okay, we have a pervert in here.” 2-16-07
We’ve been in Athens for 8 days now. I’ve been pretty busy trying to experience all the souvlaki Athens has to offer, which is a lot!, so I haven’t blogged in a while.
1. I really like Athens and I wasn’t expecting too. It’s a pretty smoggy city (which we found out when we left our clothes outside to dry, and they came in smelling worse than before they were washed) but the weather has been really nice. I don’t think I would like it as much in the summer when it’s really hot. It might be a lot grosser then.
2. We went to the National Archaeological Museum this week. It is a huge and very important museum. I was very excited to see a lot of the works. Toumazou told us a story about when the old Chair of the Classics department was working on a paper on the progression of sculpted pubic hair. He asked Toumazou to take pictures for him at the museum but he had a wide angle lens so he couldn’t zoom in and pretend to be taking a picture of the whole statue. He had to get up close and the room was packed. He just imagined everyone thinking “Okay, we have a pervert in here.”
3. Athens Polytechnic Institute is not too far from our hotel. The students are known for their political activism so I’ve seen three pretty large protests since we’ve been here. One was because they are unhappy with the way their school government is run. It is an issue that they are apparently very enthusiastic about. The most recent protest we saw involved people being tied together, and someone in a mask pretending to whip them and lots of chanting and yelling. I’m just waiting to start walking down the road as see a Bush protest. Yesterday Syntagma Square where our hotel is located was closed down for demonstrations and so was the metro system. As a result we’ve also seen a lot of Greek military police. They line the streets at every intersection during demonstrations.
4. I can see the Parthenon and Erectheion from the porch in my hotel room. It’s a pretty spectacular sight when it’s lit up at night. A few days ago we spent the day on the Akropolis. It did pour rain that day, and I’m pretty sure it was acid rain. One entire side of the Parthenon was covered in scaffolding and it has a crane in the middle but it was amazing. I first studied the Parthenon in my sixth grade architecture week project at Village School. I think I’m going to take a seminar next semester only on the Parthenon. So it was a pretty exciting day.
5. In our efforts to find the best souvlaki in Athens, we’ve gone several times to Toumazou’s favorite place. I think it’s high on everyone’s list because I think at any given time when we’re not at sites there is someone from CSA07 at this restaurant. They may have other things on the menu but we’re not really into exploring them. When you go in, you order however many skewers of pork souvlaki you want, and if you want tzatziki or French fries (tzatziki and French fries is my new favorite combination). Then you walk to the grill to pick up your skewers and then next counter for the tzatziki and fries. There is unlimited bread in a big bin in the middle. My favorite is to combine them all in one bite. AnnaMarie has a significant amount of video just of us eating there. It’s a little devastating for all of us to think about leaving it in a few days.
6. AnnaMarie got “euro-ed” a few days ago. She, Brad and I were walking around a Kolonaki, a neighborhood in Athens with lots of little shops, and she decided that it was the day to go all out with a Euro style haircut. The man who cut her hair was referred to as “the master” by everyone else in the shop and she left it entirely in his hands. It turned out well. I considered getting euro-ed as well but I think I had all the dramatic haircuts in September I can take for a while.
7. Jeanna, AnnaMarie and I (2 Classics majors and a Theater major) had a dramatic reading of Aristophanes’ Birds last night. The reading gets a little tedious sometimes so we decided to mix it up. It was only a problem when one of us had to play two characters in the same scene and we were answering our own questions. We went out for tomato salad to celebrate at the end.
8. One Valentine’s Day we all went out to dinner together and we got to meet Toumazou’s sister who lives in Athens. Afterwards a few of us went to an AEK -Athletiki Enosis Konstantinoupoleos (Athletic Union of Konstantinople, the Athenian Pro team) soccer game at the 2004 Olympic stadium. It was pretty hilarious- the Greeks and French are very into soccer. AEK lost 2-0 to the Paris team and with every bad call we learned how to give the finger in Greece. There were three young brothers sitting below us. They were fighting and pulling on each other’s mullets. I think the youngest one lost a bet and he had to move up and try to talk to the Americans behind them. After the game, we packed into the metro with every other AEK fan that had been at the game. I never need to get that close with a bunch of people again. It was really unpleasant!
1. I really like Athens and I wasn’t expecting too. It’s a pretty smoggy city (which we found out when we left our clothes outside to dry, and they came in smelling worse than before they were washed) but the weather has been really nice. I don’t think I would like it as much in the summer when it’s really hot. It might be a lot grosser then.
2. We went to the National Archaeological Museum this week. It is a huge and very important museum. I was very excited to see a lot of the works. Toumazou told us a story about when the old Chair of the Classics department was working on a paper on the progression of sculpted pubic hair. He asked Toumazou to take pictures for him at the museum but he had a wide angle lens so he couldn’t zoom in and pretend to be taking a picture of the whole statue. He had to get up close and the room was packed. He just imagined everyone thinking “Okay, we have a pervert in here.”
3. Athens Polytechnic Institute is not too far from our hotel. The students are known for their political activism so I’ve seen three pretty large protests since we’ve been here. One was because they are unhappy with the way their school government is run. It is an issue that they are apparently very enthusiastic about. The most recent protest we saw involved people being tied together, and someone in a mask pretending to whip them and lots of chanting and yelling. I’m just waiting to start walking down the road as see a Bush protest. Yesterday Syntagma Square where our hotel is located was closed down for demonstrations and so was the metro system. As a result we’ve also seen a lot of Greek military police. They line the streets at every intersection during demonstrations.
4. I can see the Parthenon and Erectheion from the porch in my hotel room. It’s a pretty spectacular sight when it’s lit up at night. A few days ago we spent the day on the Akropolis. It did pour rain that day, and I’m pretty sure it was acid rain. One entire side of the Parthenon was covered in scaffolding and it has a crane in the middle but it was amazing. I first studied the Parthenon in my sixth grade architecture week project at Village School. I think I’m going to take a seminar next semester only on the Parthenon. So it was a pretty exciting day.
5. In our efforts to find the best souvlaki in Athens, we’ve gone several times to Toumazou’s favorite place. I think it’s high on everyone’s list because I think at any given time when we’re not at sites there is someone from CSA07 at this restaurant. They may have other things on the menu but we’re not really into exploring them. When you go in, you order however many skewers of pork souvlaki you want, and if you want tzatziki or French fries (tzatziki and French fries is my new favorite combination). Then you walk to the grill to pick up your skewers and then next counter for the tzatziki and fries. There is unlimited bread in a big bin in the middle. My favorite is to combine them all in one bite. AnnaMarie has a significant amount of video just of us eating there. It’s a little devastating for all of us to think about leaving it in a few days.
6. AnnaMarie got “euro-ed” a few days ago. She, Brad and I were walking around a Kolonaki, a neighborhood in Athens with lots of little shops, and she decided that it was the day to go all out with a Euro style haircut. The man who cut her hair was referred to as “the master” by everyone else in the shop and she left it entirely in his hands. It turned out well. I considered getting euro-ed as well but I think I had all the dramatic haircuts in September I can take for a while.
7. Jeanna, AnnaMarie and I (2 Classics majors and a Theater major) had a dramatic reading of Aristophanes’ Birds last night. The reading gets a little tedious sometimes so we decided to mix it up. It was only a problem when one of us had to play two characters in the same scene and we were answering our own questions. We went out for tomato salad to celebrate at the end.
8. One Valentine’s Day we all went out to dinner together and we got to meet Toumazou’s sister who lives in Athens. Afterwards a few of us went to an AEK -Athletiki Enosis Konstantinoupoleos (Athletic Union of Konstantinople, the Athenian Pro team) soccer game at the 2004 Olympic stadium. It was pretty hilarious- the Greeks and French are very into soccer. AEK lost 2-0 to the Paris team and with every bad call we learned how to give the finger in Greece. There were three young brothers sitting below us. They were fighting and pulling on each other’s mullets. I think the youngest one lost a bet and he had to move up and try to talk to the Americans behind them. After the game, we packed into the metro with every other AEK fan that had been at the game. I never need to get that close with a bunch of people again. It was really unpleasant!
Friday, February 9, 2007
Grapevine culture under cover. 2-6-07
Tonight we’re staying in our ninth hotel in 22 days. We had three sites today deep in the mountains of Crete. We spent about an hour and a half traveling 37 km of very tight switchbacks on a very large bus to get to the Diktaion Cave on Mt. Dikte (supposedly the birthplace of Zeus). It was my first time seeing snow this year but turns out Classics majors aren’t that good at snowball fights, big surprise there! We had to spend an hour going down the mountain the same way. When we finally get to the bottom to a very small town on a very small road, we were told that that road which is the only way to get off the mountain on that side was closed for construction. I thought we had accidentally driven back to Egypt (Road is closed!). The bus driver had to reverse the bus out of the town, then turn around and go back down the other side of the mountain. It was 2pm by the time we got to our second site.
Anna Marie has developed the syllabus for a “CID” (pronounced “kid”)- Common Interest Date.- for us to get to know each other. It is appropriate to schedule having a CID with someone in advance and have it over a meal. The rules are pretty strict. She says that it is just business and once you find a common interest it is time to move on to the next category. It is just the time to reveal common interests, you can go back and talk more about them later.
Anna Marie has developed the syllabus for a “CID” (pronounced “kid”)- Common Interest Date.- for us to get to know each other. It is appropriate to schedule having a CID with someone in advance and have it over a meal. The rules are pretty strict. She says that it is just business and once you find a common interest it is time to move on to the next category. It is just the time to reveal common interests, you can go back and talk more about them later.
Rows and rows of big dark clouds 2-6-07
Today is our last day in Heraklion. We’ve spent four nights here which is the longest time we’ve spent in one hotel yet. Heraklion is a great town. There is an open air market on the street next to our hotel. We’ve had great fruit the last few days- tangerines, pears, pomegranates. Our first night here we went to a little gyro restaurant, Pinokio. I had an awesome pita gyro with tomato, lamb, yogurt sauce and chips (French fries) on it. After we went to a bakery that had an overwhelming amount of incredible desserts. I got a kok which was awesome and has provided the group with endless amounts of jokes (but they all expected that from the health advisor).
Yesterday was Jarrett’s birthday and our Heraklion free day. I after I finished my Cyprus test I went for a run. The first half was the best run I’ve ever been on. I ran through the city then down along the water. There is a Venetian fortress in the harbor so I decided to check that out. As it turns out, the fortress stretches 2.2 km straight into the sea. The water was pretty rough because it had been raining for the last few days and I got splashed a few times but it was pretty nice. The water was beautiful green. At the end of the fortress, I climbed up some steps to the top of the wall. The sun was perfectly hitting a rocky island farther out into the sea, the harbor was full of sailboats and fishing boats and I could see the entire city of Heraklion. Then I realized that the wind was bringing some huge rain clouds. I ran back a lot harder than I had been planning on. First it started hailing and the entire front of my pants was covered in ice. Then the rain started. The wall protected me from most of the rain but not from the waves splashing over it. I got drenched in salt water. The sun came out as soon as I stepped off the fortress and I looked really cool walking back through town with my ipod and headphones in my shirt and dripping with water.
Yesterday was Jarrett’s birthday and our Heraklion free day. I after I finished my Cyprus test I went for a run. The first half was the best run I’ve ever been on. I ran through the city then down along the water. There is a Venetian fortress in the harbor so I decided to check that out. As it turns out, the fortress stretches 2.2 km straight into the sea. The water was pretty rough because it had been raining for the last few days and I got splashed a few times but it was pretty nice. The water was beautiful green. At the end of the fortress, I climbed up some steps to the top of the wall. The sun was perfectly hitting a rocky island farther out into the sea, the harbor was full of sailboats and fishing boats and I could see the entire city of Heraklion. Then I realized that the wind was bringing some huge rain clouds. I ran back a lot harder than I had been planning on. First it started hailing and the entire front of my pants was covered in ice. Then the rain started. The wall protected me from most of the rain but not from the waves splashing over it. I got drenched in salt water. The sun came out as soon as I stepped off the fortress and I looked really cool walking back through town with my ipod and headphones in my shirt and dripping with water.
2-1-07
Yesterday we went to Athienou, a small town inland of Larnaca where Toumazou’s dig is. We spent a few hours looking around his site. Everytime we stop anywhere in Cyprus, Toumazou has gotten us a bag of tangerines or is climbing a tree to pick some for us. We also a tour of the new Athienou town hall and Toumazou’s new museum for his site. He is pretty much a celebrity there. The town hall and museum is a 2 million Cypriot pound project ($5 million US). They mayor organized a dinner for us at a local restaurant. We met the new mayor and his wife who were pilots for CyprusAir. He called ahead for our flight to Heraklion to ask them to be lenient with us on the 20 kg weight limit for our bags (not many of us made the cut!). Dinner was incredible! It was the traditional Cypriot meze meal. We had about 11 courses. Once I had barely gotten started on one, they were already bringing out the next. We had tahini and bread, lamb, beef, chicken, bulgar wheat and yogurt sauce, potatoes with tomato sauce, fresh tomato and feta salad, sheftalia, halloumi ravioli, halloumi and lountza, eggs with spinach, fruit and Cyprus coffee and lots of wine. It was great and I’m pretty sure no one was hungry for breakfast the next morning.
This morning we woke up early to return to Nicosia for the day. Toumazou’s friend arranged for us to meet the Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus.
This morning we woke up early to return to Nicosia for the day. Toumazou’s friend arranged for us to meet the Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus.
“Is it too early for ouzo?” 1-29-07
Today we crossed into Turkish occupied Cyprus. We went to Famagusta, Toumazou’s hometown. He was not allowed to come with us though because he fought in the Turkish- Cypriot war in 1974 and there is still so much hostility. The old hotels and beach resorts from before the war are fenced off and no one is allowed to take pictures of them. When we walked onto the beach, there was a guard on top of one of the hotels making sure that we were only taking pictures of the beach and water. The beach was beautiful but it was a pretty sad sight.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
1-28-07
Today we went to the Monastery of St. Neophitos, a Cypriot Greek Orthodox saint. Hs skull is in a gold box to the side of the icons and the rest of his body is glass casket beside his head. The priest of the church served us juice boxes. In Egypt we were served a lot of juice boxes too- orange juice, lemon, guava, mango, et al. It is pretty hilarious though to see grown Greek men walking around after church drinking out of a juice box.
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