Hey fam! I promised a new blog post soon, so here we go…
I believe I caught y’all up on the trip through Delphi. At Delphi, we saw the site of the ancient oracle, then liked it so much, we decided to stay another day (actually, our reservations in Litochoro got wonky). So, we drove straight from Delphi to Thessaloniki (with a short stop in Dion. No really, we had one hour to see a huge site. Dr. Neumann nearly had to run behind us with a whip to get us to move fast enough).
Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, and I for one was unprepared for being back in a big city after staying in places like Delphi. Oh yeah, Thessaloniki is also just about as far north as you can get. Remember, we were in Sparta in the far south not five days earlier. We’ve covered a lot of ground (and it doesn’t stop there). We spent four days in Thessaloniki, saw the Macedonian tombs (including that of Philip II, Alexander’s father) at Vergina, saw a museum at Pella (former capital of Macedon; the site was closed due to no money for guards), the archaeological museum at Thessaloniki, and we had a free day. We listened to two lectures from professors at the university in town. One was on Greek theater, and the other on an overview of Greek history in Macedon. From Thessaloniki, we drove all day, stopping in Thermopylae on the way to reenact the movie “300” (Ultimate Frisbee style; no one was too badly hurt), ultimately getting to our hotel in the quiet mountain town of Makrinitsa. This town put all other quaint Greek towns to shame; we couldn’t even drive out bus into town, so we grabbed our backpacks and trekked through town to our hotel. Gotta say, it was worth the effort. We walked around town after nightfall, when a cool mist settled over the town, which was absolutely deserted. It made one feel like the only people in existence, with the clouds obscuring the valley below…very peaceful (and maybe a little frightening, not knowing if the Greek counterpart of Jack the Ripper was gonna jump out of the fog).
The next day we got going early and made it back to Athens. So to recount, we drove from the farthest north Greece to the southern end of Attika in two days. It felt like all we did was drive. Drive. And Drive. Our double-decker bus certainly felt like home, but after that trip down to Athens, we were glad to say goodbye to that bus. For a little over a week now, we’ve hit the high points in Athens: the Acropolis, the Areopagus, the Pnyx, the Agropolis Museum, the agora (with special tour of places no tourist is allowed, given by the director of the excavations), the keraimikos, the island of Aegina, the Piraeus, the Roman agora, the Olympeion and Arch of Hadrian, the Plaka (shopping district)…tired yet? I’m not.
There have been times when I have felt so overwhelmed that it seems I will never be able to remember any singular detail or place. But then there are moments…for instance, at the Acropolis Museum. We were walking through a collection of marble statues, when I saw it. Kritios Boy. Open any art history textbook and this little three foot tall marble statue will attract more attention than you might think any piece of art deserves. Does it sound weird for me to say that I stood there speechless for a full minute, then proceeded to grin and (yes, I’ll admit it) giggle like a little kid for the next 10-15 minutes straight. Ok, yeah, that’s weird. But let me put it this way. Kritios Boy represents one of the most monumental shifts in the history of art, a shift of a few inches of the hips. Here’s what I mean: before Kritios Boy, marble figures of humans show the body in strict vertical frontal stance, or in awkward stances that force a real human being to throw a hip out of joint to replicate. In Kritios Boy, the artist has FOR THE FIRST TIME represented accurate transfer of weight onto one leg, indicated in the tilting hips. Ok, I’ll stop now…
I’ll mercifully spend some time not talking about Classics or art history, and describe how our time in Athens has been. Athens is great. The people are very friendly, especially if you throw in a thank you (efcharisto) or a cheerful hello (yassas) every so often. We’re in a busy tourist district (at least it’ll be busy in the summer), so there are lots of good restaurants and shops. The city is spread out very wide across the plain of Attika, stretching from the water up and onto the mountains, a fact that was easy to appreciate from the Acropolis. There is always something to do, but if you want to be truly Greek, you’ll spend much of your afternoon just hangin’ out in the nearest café. Really. For hours. Just talking. There’s just not the same sense of urgency that is so prevalent in the United States (debt crisis?), which makes living in the city a very nice experience. Athens was the perfect culmination of our time in Greece, both for the subject matter (nice to have the Parthenon be the memory we're left with...by the way, we can see the Parthenon from our hotel...every morning...breakfast on the roof), and for the more relaxed, settled period that transitions into Spring Break.
Having said that, I’m ready for Italy, which for me will be tomorrow, the beginning of Spring Break. Mom, Dad, love y'all, see y’all soon, have a safe flight and don’t forget the peanut butter J. Be ready to do some walking!
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