Sunday, October 17, 2004
getting ready to leave greece
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 05:01:19 -0700 (PDT)
the ruins at mycenae were wonderful, really amazing! the lion gate was under
restoration or something so we couldnt get good pics through all the
scafolding, but we could see it and that was awesome. But I think just the
sheer size of the blocks used to build the walls was more impressive, it is
obvious why the ancient greeks thought the city must have been built by
giants or cyclops. The tomb of klytemenstra was really impressive too,
shaped kind of like the drum of a giant speaker, you could walk inside the
large dome, and the acoustics were incredible. just the whole scale of the
thing, along with the fact that they didnt use mortar and the building was
made thousands of years ago, was mindblowing.
The next day we made our way back to athens on a very slow, bumpy and shaky
train with a mean ticket agent and conductor. Once in athens we took the
metro which proved easier than expected, and found our hotel with no
problem. again we are in a room the size of a closet with a shared bathroom,
but it is clean, cheap and this time we have our own sink! So I see it as a
good choice of hotel.
The afternoon after we arrived all the sites were already closed (everything
closes here around 2:30) so we walked around a little, had dinner and went o
bed. The next day we got up "early" and went to the acropolis. We had a
little trouble finding the road up there. Greece in general seems to be very
lacking in signage. But once we did, we found the tourists too! My gosh it
was unbelievable the number of people, and this is the off-season! I would
not want to be here in august. Once we got through the entrance and the main
old city gate where everyone was congregating, it wasnt so bad though. The
parthenon was pretty much what I expeceted, impressive in its grandeur and
beautiful. But we couldnt get close to it, and I guess becuase we have seen
so many pictures of it, it was sort of familiar, and so it wasnt as
impressive as I expected it to be. Pretty much it looked like the pictures.
The other building on the acropolis with the porch of the karytids (the
pillars shaped like women
supporting the roof with their heads) was more interesting to me. We then
moved on to the theater which was also pretty impressive becuase we could
walk up the rows and look down on the mosaic floor and the marble thrones of
the nobility. Then we moved on to the Templle of Olympian Zeus which was the
largest temple in ancient greece. The pillars were truly huge, but other
than that there wasnt really much to see there. Then we wandered the streets
again and took a nap before dinner becuase, again, everything closed at like
2.
This morning we went to the national archeological museum and spent several
hours there. I was really impressed by the mycenaen exhibits, all the gold
and jewelry found in the tombs was astonishing. the musuem was truly huge
though and by the end we were pretty much exhausted. Now we are wondering
what to do this afternoon before we leave greece.
Frankly, I am happy to be leaving. The island was nice, but for the most
part Greece seems to be plagued by traffic, pollution, and a lack of good
public transportation. The whole country is dirty (except the ocean which
has crystal clear water in contrast to the trash and dirt on the shore.)
Athens is really dirty, the traffic is horrendous and people just honk their
horns constantly. This one guy was stuck in traffic and just laid on his
horn for like 5 minutes, for no real reason.
Oh and we are really sick of greek food. It all seems to be the same. every
restaurant has the same menu and we have had our fill of Gyros, souvlaki and
greek salads. I am sure there are some chinese restaurants or something, but
we havent been able to find a single thing other than 'traditional greek'.
So tommorrow we leave for Berlin.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Megan and Seth
the ruins at mycenae were wonderful, really amazing! the lion gate was under
restoration or something so we couldnt get good pics through all the
scafolding, but we could see it and that was awesome. But I think just the
sheer size of the blocks used to build the walls was more impressive, it is
obvious why the ancient greeks thought the city must have been built by
giants or cyclops. The tomb of klytemenstra was really impressive too,
shaped kind of like the drum of a giant speaker, you could walk inside the
large dome, and the acoustics were incredible. just the whole scale of the
thing, along with the fact that they didnt use mortar and the building was
made thousands of years ago, was mindblowing.
The next day we made our way back to athens on a very slow, bumpy and shaky
train with a mean ticket agent and conductor. Once in athens we took the
metro which proved easier than expected, and found our hotel with no
problem. again we are in a room the size of a closet with a shared bathroom,
but it is clean, cheap and this time we have our own sink! So I see it as a
good choice of hotel.
The afternoon after we arrived all the sites were already closed (everything
closes here around 2:30) so we walked around a little, had dinner and went o
bed. The next day we got up "early" and went to the acropolis. We had a
little trouble finding the road up there. Greece in general seems to be very
lacking in signage. But once we did, we found the tourists too! My gosh it
was unbelievable the number of people, and this is the off-season! I would
not want to be here in august. Once we got through the entrance and the main
old city gate where everyone was congregating, it wasnt so bad though. The
parthenon was pretty much what I expeceted, impressive in its grandeur and
beautiful. But we couldnt get close to it, and I guess becuase we have seen
so many pictures of it, it was sort of familiar, and so it wasnt as
impressive as I expected it to be. Pretty much it looked like the pictures.
The other building on the acropolis with the porch of the karytids (the
pillars shaped like women
supporting the roof with their heads) was more interesting to me. We then
moved on to the theater which was also pretty impressive becuase we could
walk up the rows and look down on the mosaic floor and the marble thrones of
the nobility. Then we moved on to the Templle of Olympian Zeus which was the
largest temple in ancient greece. The pillars were truly huge, but other
than that there wasnt really much to see there. Then we wandered the streets
again and took a nap before dinner becuase, again, everything closed at like
2.
This morning we went to the national archeological museum and spent several
hours there. I was really impressed by the mycenaen exhibits, all the gold
and jewelry found in the tombs was astonishing. the musuem was truly huge
though and by the end we were pretty much exhausted. Now we are wondering
what to do this afternoon before we leave greece.
Frankly, I am happy to be leaving. The island was nice, but for the most
part Greece seems to be plagued by traffic, pollution, and a lack of good
public transportation. The whole country is dirty (except the ocean which
has crystal clear water in contrast to the trash and dirt on the shore.)
Athens is really dirty, the traffic is horrendous and people just honk their
horns constantly. This one guy was stuck in traffic and just laid on his
horn for like 5 minutes, for no real reason.
Oh and we are really sick of greek food. It all seems to be the same. every
restaurant has the same menu and we have had our fill of Gyros, souvlaki and
greek salads. I am sure there are some chinese restaurants or something, but
we havent been able to find a single thing other than 'traditional greek'.
So tommorrow we leave for Berlin.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Megan and Seth
