The PARTHENON (and the Temple of Zeus...)

(Yes! It is the Parthenon! And it needs no introduction. BUT. Here we come! We are making a pilgrimage to see Barnard's favorite goddess.)

A good view:

(Look who's arrived! Christine!! Hooray!)


The temple of Zeus is cool too:

Also has good views of the Acropolis:

P.S. Today I became a hipster - it was an accident (I was cold, and Christine leant me her flannel.) BUT we went with it, so here I am:

National Archaeological Museum

One thing they do not let you do in Greece: pose in museums with statues. One other thing they do not let you do in Greece: pose next to archaeological monuments. No pointing. No silly faces. Just stand next to it, please, and stop there. Why is this?? No one knows...

You are SO famous, Mr. Grave Amphora! Why couldn't Hillary point at you?



This room didn't have a guard in it, so Christine and Hillary got to look at the kore in a slightly pose-ish manner. (How lucky!)



Some other tourists tried to imitate this guy's [famous!] pose in front of him; they got a talking to. So my picture is just this Zeus all by himself, in all his majestic but lonely glory.

Nafplio (Happy April Fool's Day!)

Greece played several April Fool's Day jokes on us today. We wanted to go to ancient Mycenae, on the Pelopponese, so we got up early to get on a 9:30 bus. But we were a little late, and the bus was already full, so we had to wait for the 10:30. So we got to Nafplio, which is the town near ancient Mycenae, at around 1:00pm. And the next bus for Mycenae left at 2. We bought tickets before we asked how long the bus took, and when the last bus from Mycenae to Nafplio was. The answers? One hour, and 3pm. So we didn't go to ancient Mycenae. Sad.

Instead, we found this castle on a hilltop! Cool! We decided to climb up to it. But it was already 2 by then, and we noticed a sign at the bottom of the stairs that said the castle was closing at 2:30pm. So we practically RAN up about 1000 stairs in 20 minutes. But we made it! Pretty view, isn't it?

Meteora

Today we climbed and climbed and climbed to get to some AMAZING cliff top monasteries. It was worth it, but our legs are tired...

We climbed as high as you can see in this photo, and higher!



We're starting to gain some height...



There is a whole monastery up there, I promise!



See? That's what it looks like from far away!



And from further away...

Another one!


Another one.

Delphi Day Two

Today we went to the Museum, which was closed on Sunday, and to the Temple of Athena Pallas, which is below the temple of Apollo.

The museum is beautifully designed and displayed.



The above frieze is from a temple facade. Isn't it crazy? And look at this cool sphinx!



And then, as we were about to leave the museum, we rounded a corner, and there was... The CHARIOTEER! Can you believe it?? He was just right there, in his own room, looking just like he does in every single art history textbook ever! Wow...



(You've seen better pictures of him, but that's not the point - I took this one! I'm really excited about the Charioteer...)

The temple of Athena was small but pretty, and fun to look at in relation to the temple of Apollo that you can just make out/imagine you make out on the hillside above and behind it. I also love that the columns look spotted like cows. (Yes, it's because the whiter parts are a reconstruction, but still, it's wonderful.)

Delphi

Greece is beautiful and cool, and everyone is so nice! It is incredible to be here! Today we went to the site of ancient Delphi (you know - the oracle, Apollo... it's famous...) - and since it was Sunday, we got in for free! Thank you, Sunday!

We walked there from our hotel, which was in modern Delphi, on a hillside about 500m from the ancient site. On our way, flags:



We were so excited! This was about to be an ancient site that WASN'T in Egypt! So, not exactly new, since we've been seeing tons of Greco-Roman period things, but still. Different in an important way. Also, Hillary is helping me learn how to read modern Greek. See? It says "EISODOS" as well as "ENTRANCE."



Greece is just too green and beautiful!





This is IT: this is where it all happened! There is clearly not much left, but still, how exciting to think about all the prophecies from all the old plays happening RIGHT HERE:






You understand why everyone would travel so far to get there. And how incredible it must have been to travel here for days across this shockingly beautiful area - of course you would believe there could be an oracle living here. Any god would want to live here!

GREECE

I am in Athens! It is a beautiful feeling.

Just watching the Mediterranean go by under our plane, and then descending onto beautiful green hills, was so exciting I could barely contain myself. It is so great to be out of a desert, and away from a country in which you could expect constant verbal harassment.

I love Greece!