Athens
The boat landed at Athens around 7 am. We got off the boat and onto a bus, which took us around to pick up other tourists for a tour of Athens. Our guide is pictured above. Her name was Theodora, and when she spoke she trilled her "r"s. She was a staunch Greek nationalist, though Sophia informed us that the woman was not even a native Greek- for example, a sentence she said "Socrrrates was the MOST brrrilliant, MOST cleverrr, MOST incrrrredible perrrrson everrr to live on the entirrrre planet Earrrrth." Yikes. Too funny for words.
Our first stop was the Temple of Zeus. Everything in Athens is currently under construction, so you'll see lots of scaffolding everywhere. This temple is pretty beat up, but its still cool.
That's Kara. This thing is huge. Trust me.
Another shot of the Temple of Zeus. Also, our first view of the Acropolis- bottom left corner. Sweet.
Once we realized we saw the Acropolis, we took pictures. Not a very impressive first shot, if you ask me. But still super cool. Just not what we expected.
Back row- Jason, Amanda, Dana, Laura, Jaime, Marcie. First row- me, Rachel, Jenn, Mandy, Kara.
We got Sophia and Iro in the picture. Brendan and the kids didn't come on this trip, and Sarah was with her parents, flying to Athens because they visited. I don't think we ever got a shot of the whole whole group.
We drove by the 1896 Olympic Stadium and took pictures through the bus windows. Lame.
As you saw, the Acropolis is up high. We had to climb up. On the way we passed this -- the Theater of Haroditus Agrippus. It's a big ol' thing, still functioning for concerts and stuff.
On the climb up, we saw this lil temple- its a Roman built one, probably for Hephasteous. We couldn't go to it though, its closed to the public. Sad.
THEN we got to the Parthenon!! It is, of course, kick-ass. It was hella crowded the day we visited, with tours in hundreds of languages surrounding us. Very cool. Theodorrra decided to lecture for about 45 minutes here- Kara Laura Dana and I got bored and walked off to take pictures and see stuff.
Me and the Parthenon. Sweet.
Last one of the Parthenon. It was very cool though.
The Erecthion is another temple on top of the Acropolis. There were three total, but they've taken one apart to fix it and reconstruct it before the Olympics. Crazy. The ladies are called the Caryatids.
Aren't we cute avoiding the crazy Romanian lady? awwww. This is the backside of the Erecthion. Its cool.
Here's the Greek flag, flying high at the Acropolis.
Me, sitting on top of the Acropolis, with Athens behind me. This lil neighborhood is Plaka and Monastiraki. There is amazing shopping here!! Good food too.
On the walk down, we found statues of Lions.
Paul, as in the dude who wrote more than half of the New Testament, came to Athens on some of his numerous travels. He stood up on this here rock at the Acropolis and delivered a message to the Athenians. The words of his speech are recorded on this plaque. They're in Greek though, so I couldn't read them. Very cool.
And, for the curious-
This is how they make columns on temples. Its not one big-ass piece of marble, its a bunch of little disks of marble, put together on a stick to make a big on. Sweet how well they line up, isn't it? Hoorah.
Lots of freaking pigeons in Athens. Actually, all over Europe. Dirty-ass birds. I will never complain about a big ol' flock of seagulls again, the pidge is so much worse!
The Athens Institute of Art. Sweet. Statues are Athena and Apollo up top, Plato and Socrates sitting. Cool.
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