Cards and Buses

Euchre – 6/1/07, Athens, 12:36 p.m.

I can’t believe it’s already June! WOW! The time sure does go fast these days. I can’t believe we’ve been in Athens 5 days already. It’s really crazy.

I meant to update yesterday for yesterday and the day before, but I didn’t anticipate how long our day would be yesterday. We’ll start with Wednesday.

On Wednesday, we went to the Agora for the first time. We walked around the Middle Stoa and took a look at some of the archaeological signs of later addendums by the Romans, etc. It was really great to have Professor Ammerman there, as she is an archaeologist by trade and really gave us some really cool ways to determine what was from the Bronze Age, the Archaic Period, the Classical Period, and then into Roman times. We walked up to the Temple of Hephaestus and got to see what is the best preserved temple from antiquity. I took some really nice pictures, which, after I am done updating, I will try to upload either now or before today is over. (I think we might be headed to the beach in a bit.) We had a really beautiful view of the Acropolis from the hill where the Temple of Hephaestus is located. Then we went down and looked at the Agora museum where they had tons of artifacts from the excavations there. I took lots of pictures of those too.

Then, we did probably one of the coolest things I will ever do. Professor Ammerman is friends with a woman (whose first name is Mariah) who is the leading archaeologist/specialist on the bones dug up from graves at the Agora. She was at the Agora working and so Professor Ammerman worked it out that we could go down to the work room and see the kinds of the things she does. So… we got to go under the Middle Stoa (not the same one we looked at before, but a reconstruction – where the museum is) and see the bones/fragments of the excavations at the agora. One of the most famous things ever excavated from the agora is the Rich Athenian Lady. She was cremated and was put into an urn which was then put into a grave. They found her many years later and it turns out that she was pregnant when she died. Mariah was the woman who discovered that there were fetus bones in the urn! So she passed around the shards and things that she had and we got to hold them and see them. She also had bones of people who had been buried and one of the men whose bones she had had arthritis. It was so cool to see what very severe arthritis does to the bones. She then came to lunch with us and we had a lovely discussion. She did some of her masters work at IU – Bloomington! Woot. Then we walked up the Phil….. something hill. I can’t remember the name right now. It had an amazing view of the acropolis and the port of Pireaus too! I have some cool pictures from that as well.

Then Brianne and I went to the port to wander around and see what it is like. We are also planning to go to Aegina, an island off the coast, on Sunday during our free day. So we wanted to check out some ferry tickets and things.

Then we came back and grabbed some dinner and both Brianne and I were EXHAUSTED so we went to bed early.

So that we could get up super, super early to go to Mycenae and Epidauros. We got on the bus at 8 in Syntagma Square, which was a feat in itself. So, we’re on the bus and I was bored so I decided to teach Brianne, Ryan and Megan how to play Euchre, which we did for the remainder of the bus ride. It was a lot of fun and they picked up the game really fast, which is always nice.

We arrived at Mycenae and walked up to the Citadel. We got to see the Lion’s Gate (the famous gate at the Citadel), grave circle A, and other parts. The coolest part about Mycenae was the cistern that we walked down into. It was about 99 steps to the bottom in a cave with only flashlights. In antiquity, it was used to get water without leaving the walls of the fort. Today, it’s just a cool touristy thing. We then had lunch at Heinrich Schliemann’s house. He was the man in the late 19^th century who was responsible for excavating Mycenae. He’s a very, very famous classicist and it was really cool to eat where he had lived. We then took a quick pit stop at Tirens, another fort city, and made our way to Epidauros.

And here, I find my Mecca. We arrived at Epidauros and started walking toward the theater. It was breathtaking. There are 55 rows of seats from the bottom to the top, carved into this majestic mountain. The sight was unreal. Whitney gave her presentation and then I gave one on the theater itself. Then Brianne and I walked down all 55 rows to the orchestra (circular part in the middle) and tested the acoustics. If I were talking slightly above a normal voice, you would be able to hear me all the way in row 55 with very little problem. The coolest part, however, was that people would want to test the acoustics themselves. There were these three men who sang songs. Two sang songs in Latin, and the last sang a song from an opera (he was AMAZING). And the coolest part was that it was all impromptu. When someone would start singing, everyone would become silent, which only increased the amazing acoustics and everyone would listen. After the performer finished, applause rang out. It was so phenomenal. We toured the rest of the site and got back on the bus.

After another 2 hour bus ride full of Euchre, we arrived back at the hotel. We all decided that we were craving some American food and decided to get some McDonald’s. Lame and American, I know. But you can only eat gyros and souvlaki so many days in a row before needing some other food. So about 6 of us went to the Mickey D’s down the street and took our food into the Square. We ate and decided that a card game was in order, so we went and grabbed a couple of drinks and headed up to the 8^th floor for some competition.

We played cards and chatted until about 1 a.m. before we called it quits. A very relaxing and easy evening for such a long day.

Well, now we’re trying to find a beach to go to, so I’d better go. My love to you all! I miss you dearly and wish you could be here with me!

Xoxo, Ally