I am excited to report that today it was only about 98 degrees! In addition to the significantly cooler weather, there was a very nice wind that blew the entire day. With this refreshingly cool wind blowing, I set out walking through the city of Piraeus to the metro station. On the way, I stopped in at a fish market to view all of the local fish (and octopus, shrimp, mussels, clams, and so much more.) It was kind of disgusting when I saw the skinned lamb hanging upside down with its head still on and blood dripping. Then, when the butcher came over and asked if I wanted a picture with him (I had my camera out because I was taking pictures of the fish for my marine biology class) I think I cringed visibly. Anyway, I made it through the smelly fish/meat market unscathed and ended up at the metro. Then it was onto Athens!
The first stop in Athens today was the Acropolis. Just a little history on the Acropolis: Acropolis literally means “city on the extremity.” The Acropolis in Athens contains many buildings including they very historic Parthenon. In my history classes back in the states I have learned about how the Parthenon was dedicated to the goddess Athena (who the city Athens was named after), how it was created in 447 B.C., and is regarded as the enduring symbol of Ancient Greece. In addition, I have seen many pictures of the Parthenon and they looked incredible. But, in real life, the Parthenon is immense and breathtaking to behold. Its sheer size is just incredible and the columns seem to tower over everything and appear to reach all the way to the size.
(I will have to put pictures up the next time I have internet!)
One of the best parts about the Parthenon was that even though the sun was bearing down upon all those viewing this historic site, the winds were so strong that it was quite a pleasant temperature on the top. I stayed up there for awhile, looking out over all of Greece and simply observing the wonders of the Parthenon.
After the Parthenon I ventured to Ancient Agora. Agora was an ancient city that had private housing until the 6th century B.C. until the emperor at the time reorganized everything. From Ancient Agora I could see the temples of Zeus and Hephaestus. All of the temples are huge and very incredible to look at. After wandering through Agora, my friend and I ventured into downtown Athens into the shops and flea market and then to a very yummy restaurant where we had some excellent Greek salad. The next stop was the metro station which happened to be by Parliament so we got to see that too J Once we got into the metro we realized that one of the lines (conveniently the one that we needed to take back to Piraeus) was closed until 4 pm because they were on strike. It’s hard to get used to the fact that anything could be closed because of strikes and riots, but that is how Athens is right now.
Back to the ship and time for a shower and to do laundry in my sink!!
The night was… interesting to say the least. I went on a Semester at Sea sponsored field trip called the “Athens Theater Festival.” When I signed up for the field trip, I was under the impression that it was going to be a Grecian play at an outdoor theater. Well, needless to say, plans chanced apparently when I found myself in an old warehouse with a modern dance show going on in front of me.
I love trying new things and experiencing new experiences and sometimes there are experiences that I don’t really get and this was one of them. Here are a couple of highlights of the experience:
1. The first 15 minutes of the 45 minute play involved the 3 dancers (that was all there was in the entire dance) standing and walking forward, backwards, and sideways in complete and total silence.
2. The next 15 minutes involved each dancer taking the “spot light” to different “music.” Music is in quotations because the first dancer danced to this punk metal music that someone would listen to if they were in a terrible mood and needed a really hard work out to cheer themselves up. The man who was dancing to this music carried a box out the entire time (it reminded me so much of Scrooge’s Christmas Carol when Marley comes in caring a box of chains.) The second dancer danced to this “music” that had very odd trickling water sounds happening the entire time. She was holding a giant wooden spoon. The third dancer held a large oval and danced to the sound of coughing. I kid you not there was a good 5 full minutes of different men/women/children all coughing and she had this dance routine (most of it walking) that she preformed.
3. The third segment of this piece was quite possibly the most ridiculous. The two female artists ran in place (like when you’re at soccer camp and you coach makes you do “happy feet” and then hit the ground, except without the hitting the ground part) while the male who was in the show laid on the ground kicking his feet. I think that he was poorly pretending to swim (his mouth was in an “O” shape the entire time and his arms were slowly moving.) 15 minutes of fake swimming and running in place.
4. The end.
After the “dance” I went home. I think overall I found it vastly amusing because of how ridiculous it was. This is not a critique on the artist’ dancing abilities, just on how much I was not expecting what the night led to offer. But, overall, the day was quite fun and I had a great time writing this blog. J
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