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!

Dahab

Dahab was beautiful and relaxing. We slept, we ate (ice cream, smoothies, and koshary) and we swam (a little bit).

Once we went snorkeling! At the famous "Blue Hole," which is something like 100 meters deep. We didn't go that far down, though...

It was nice to relax after the long and arduous valley tour.

Return to Blogging...

Now that the Valley Tour is over, and I am relaxing on a Red Sea beach with banana juice and a pile of novels, I can also return to my blog. So I will try to fill in the gaps as I can, and for Europe, which begins soon and with Greece, I will be transitioning to a new style (courtesy of Isabel Anderson, for me) of attempting to post mainly pictures with minimal description. We'll see...

The Pyramids

Yes, on our last day of the program, we got to Giza, and saw the pyramids. AND the sphinx. It was pretty cool. Interesting, though, because we'd been seeing these elaborately decorated temples from later periods, and then even more elaborately decorated mosques and churches and synagogues from even later periods of history, and there's NOTHING decorated about the pyramids.

Still, they are big, and that makes them exciting.



That's the great pyramid.

And then, it was time to be irreverent...

Alexandria

The Mediterranean from the other side. The "Great Harbor," now an open bay.

Juice!

Egypt is full of juice shops - stores that are open to the street, where you buy cheap juice, drink it there in glass mugs, and leave happier.

Today, I tried sugar cane juice. It was interesting - thick and sweet and a little sticky-feeling. Not exactly refreshing, but still cold and good and extremely enjoyable.

Jessica had our favorite - strawberry juice. Christine wanted to be healthy, so she had carrot juice.



Jessica & strawberry juice.



Christine & carrot juice.



Callie & sugar cane juice.

Djoser's Step Pyramid

Everyone knows about Djoser, and his step pyramid, right? Or you've seen the picture? It was an early pyramid, built when Egyptian architects were still unsure how stone could be manipulated and used. They weren't sure how much weight it would support...

Here he is:



And here I am, with him!

Dendera

Dendera was my favorite site in all of Egypt, and not just because it was the topic of my 45 minute presentation. Mostly just because it's a beautifully preserved temple to a female goddess, and it's awesome. (Everyone agrees.)


Here are our favorite Hathor-headed columns, especially appropriate here because this entire temple is dedicated to Hathor. (Remember? Hathor of Dendera is the consort of Horus of Edfu.) It is intriguing, too, that the front row of columns from the hypostyle hall are actually part of the outer wall/pylon. I haven't seen this anywhere else.


Beautifully preserved and conserved Hathor-headed column - her hair would always have been blue!


This is a shocking example of how much of a difference conservation work can make. The left side of this picture shows what the paint looks like after conservators have cleaned it carefully, while the right side shows us how much dirt can accumulate in several thousand years. Isn't it crazy?


This is a replica of a famous zodiac ceiling for which Dendera is well known. Why, you ask, am I showing you a replica? Wasn't I allowed to photograph it just like everything else at Dendera? Oh yes, I was - it's just that the original is in the Louvre...


Dendera is also famous for its extensive crypts. This is a particularly famous relief from these secret rooms, one known because it looks so much like a light bulb. Really, it's an eggplant. With a snake inside? Okay, it's super weird. But it's probably not a light bulb.


Another weird relief from the crypts, near the light bulb image.


This is the sacred lake at Dendera. Clearly, it is no longer full of water. But it is still a pretty cool space - literally, quite the relief to walk down here (ground level is at the top of the wall), and stand in the shade of the palm trees.