That night I made salmon and potatoes for dinner and worked on some homework.
Sunday, 28 October 2018
Gillian - Acropolis Museum
Today was a poor mental health day. I was meant to go to the national observatory but didn't I stayed at the airbnb and watched videos on my phone until it was time to meet Barbara at the museum. It was decided that since we were not going to pay on outrageous sum for an acropolis tour guide we would go to the museum first. Twas a good museum and I learned much about the Parthenon. Only draw back is they said no pictures so I don't have any. Well I took pictures of not the artifacts. Like this model of the crane used to lift the big stones.
Gillian - All the marble
Thursday October 25
Today is our first day in Athens. Our airbnb is very nice and well situated to all the history we want to see. Our first stop was the temple of Zeus . It was nice there. It was the first change to marvel at how massive the columns of ancient Athens.
Whilst in the temple grounds we found Hadrians Arch. Build obviously during his reign as Roman emperor. It was nice too. Little did we know it would become a helpful land mark.
Next up was the Roman agora. Agora means market, but no one was selling anything. We actually got to touch the marble at this place. There is also a wind tower thing. Besides being covered with nice carvings and telling the wind direction it also had a water clock inside. The mechanism is long since gone but you can see channels carved in the floor and walls.
Walking down the people streets with no cars is fun. All the shops sell basically the samethings but I keep enjoying looking at the trinkets. There is plenty of olive oils and soaps, olive wood kitchen stuffs, shirts and hats, chess sets, marble and bronze statues, jewelty, sponges and so much pottery.
Also met Minerva McGonagall.
Today is our first day in Athens. Our airbnb is very nice and well situated to all the history we want to see. Our first stop was the temple of Zeus . It was nice there. It was the first change to marvel at how massive the columns of ancient Athens.
Whilst in the temple grounds we found Hadrians Arch. Build obviously during his reign as Roman emperor. It was nice too. Little did we know it would become a helpful land mark.
Next up was the Roman agora. Agora means market, but no one was selling anything. We actually got to touch the marble at this place. There is also a wind tower thing. Besides being covered with nice carvings and telling the wind direction it also had a water clock inside. The mechanism is long since gone but you can see channels carved in the floor and walls.
Walking down the people streets with no cars is fun. All the shops sell basically the samethings but I keep enjoying looking at the trinkets. There is plenty of olive oils and soaps, olive wood kitchen stuffs, shirts and hats, chess sets, marble and bronze statues, jewelty, sponges and so much pottery.
Barbara - Home or bust... (Oct 28)
finally a few minutes where I’m not either looking at something old and/or beautiful or walking up and down stone streets ... we’re at the airport. The last couple of days in Athens were crazy full. We saved the Parthenon for last, and by the time we walked up, I could barely wait to be there. It’s the city center - “acropolis” - and for the area we were in, it’s the centering presence. I didn’t get over the thought / feeling, “oh my god, that’s the Parthenon!” Every time it came into view. We’d learned a lot before getting there about its history, the multiple devastations from nature (earthquakes), human folly (the Turks used it to store ammunition and it blew up, doing the biggest structural damage), and human greed (you can google Sir Elgin, Brit who stole huge amount of artifacts). I found myself angry at these human-induced losses. Also awed by the magnitude of the work to create it, and done with such beauty and precision.
On the more ridiculous side, we thought it was open until 10 pm so were resting quietly under an olive tree, waiting for dark to come so I could take some upclose night photos, when we were whistled at, rather loudly, by a worker thinking we were trying to sneak an overnight stay. Turns out it closed at 6 pm! Oops...
Earlier we’d gone separate ways and I went to the Cycladic Art Museum. It was definitely one of my trip’s highlights. I really loved the art style, their honoring of female diety(s), and the lack of any representations of war. The differential with the later Greek (and Roman influences) shows the move from more peaceful and matriarchal society to patriarchy and its root in philosophies of competition and conflict, both internal and external.
Also at the museum was a temporary exhibit of Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Muhammed Muheisen. If you don’t know his work, check him out. I cried. It was beautiful and painful and honest. Exactly my kind of thing. It was an amazing antidote to the feeling of, “one more old rock / column, clay pot” that was settling in.
I’m also please to announce both Gillian and I won our heats at the oldest Olympic stadium. I made an amazing finish in 3:37:06 (ie. 3 minutes for 182 m = 1 stadia). They ran. I walked. The crowds went wild! We didn’t honor the Olympian tradition of running naked, however. In case you were wondering.
The amount of marble in this city - in general, and in these ancient temples - is intimidating. The day before when I’d tried to go to the National Museum of Contemprary Art and found it closed, I ended up in the first cemetery of Athens. Essentially a huge marble park with massive mausoleums and small underground chapels in them for prayers for your departed. There were markers back to mid 1800’s that I saw, and one particular statue, bronze, of a mother’s agony at her impending death (age 41), with her young child at her side. I wish I could include a photo here.
The streets were bustling Saturday with street artists, vendors and people. Today is Greece’s national holiday, which meant throngs of Greeks converging on the streets around the old city for a parade (which hadn’t yet started). It also meant the train station to the airport near our house was closed, which we only discovered after pushing our way through said throngs with suitcase and backpack. More than one Greek profanity sent our way. Can’t blame them. Darn tourists! Although I’ll admit to sharing one of my own with the lady who brutally elbowed me in her disgust at us.
Default plan... Taxi’d here, and now our plane is late. That’s me. Soon I will be on my own home, in my own bed, with Louis and Omi, and happy to be there. Equally happy to have been here.
On the more ridiculous side, we thought it was open until 10 pm so were resting quietly under an olive tree, waiting for dark to come so I could take some upclose night photos, when we were whistled at, rather loudly, by a worker thinking we were trying to sneak an overnight stay. Turns out it closed at 6 pm! Oops...
Earlier we’d gone separate ways and I went to the Cycladic Art Museum. It was definitely one of my trip’s highlights. I really loved the art style, their honoring of female diety(s), and the lack of any representations of war. The differential with the later Greek (and Roman influences) shows the move from more peaceful and matriarchal society to patriarchy and its root in philosophies of competition and conflict, both internal and external.
Also at the museum was a temporary exhibit of Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Muhammed Muheisen. If you don’t know his work, check him out. I cried. It was beautiful and painful and honest. Exactly my kind of thing. It was an amazing antidote to the feeling of, “one more old rock / column, clay pot” that was settling in.
I’m also please to announce both Gillian and I won our heats at the oldest Olympic stadium. I made an amazing finish in 3:37:06 (ie. 3 minutes for 182 m = 1 stadia). They ran. I walked. The crowds went wild! We didn’t honor the Olympian tradition of running naked, however. In case you were wondering.
The amount of marble in this city - in general, and in these ancient temples - is intimidating. The day before when I’d tried to go to the National Museum of Contemprary Art and found it closed, I ended up in the first cemetery of Athens. Essentially a huge marble park with massive mausoleums and small underground chapels in them for prayers for your departed. There were markers back to mid 1800’s that I saw, and one particular statue, bronze, of a mother’s agony at her impending death (age 41), with her young child at her side. I wish I could include a photo here.
Default plan... Taxi’d here, and now our plane is late. That’s me. Soon I will be on my own home, in my own bed, with Louis and Omi, and happy to be there. Equally happy to have been here.
Thursday, 25 October 2018
Barbara - Ruins, Shopping (Oct 25)
Athens. It embodies so many images in my mind about what Greece is. We are a 10 minute walk to the Acropolis. Less to the Olympian Temple of Zeus. Even less to the first Olympic stadium. Today we walked up and down marble and stone streets of the old Athens city market, marveled at ruins thousands of years old, and read a lot of plaques. We also got some gift shopping done. 👍Then we came back for a break and watched videos about Doric, Ionic and Corinthians columns / designs, and a quick recap on the Greek mythology family tree. I like traveling with Gillian! I also got in an icing of my rather puffy knee. I unfortunately broke Gillian’s and my rule for the trip - no injuries. But I’m walking up to the Acropolis one of these days!
We have many more things we’d like to see than time. Today we got to Zeus’ temple, Hadrian’s Arch, and the Roman Agora, as well as the spectacular Athens Cathedral, The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. Our theme was ruins, shopping, ruins, shopping...also eating.
Chili chocolate drink with lunch. Roasted sesame seed-peanuts and corn from a street vendor. Some very frightening looking chocolate bar Gillian picked which actually tasted half decent.
The feral cats here and on Crete are plentiful. As are the crazy drivers, unpredictable sidewalks, meandering streets, and a fair degree of chaos. Chaos was, if you recall, the origins of Gaia and the other primordial gods. The entrance to the ferries in Crete and Athens were essentially unregulated. We wandered around freely with the guys tying the huge ferries to port and avoided calamity as fueling trucks pulled in beside us. Cars drive in, dropped off passengers and leave as they so chose. Buses randomly pushed their way in.
The ferry ride - 9 hours overnight - was my first berth trip..with a porthole! 😃
Doors here fascinate me. Such intricate work in metal and wood. And alleyways. And steps.
I’m not attaching photos due to the ongoing technical hassles with syncing my phone. But Gillian will have some, no doubt.
Wednesday, 24 October 2018
Gillian - Last day in Crete, Barbara left something behind
Good morning. It is currently 06:30 and I am on a ferry boat close to docking in Athens. Yesterday we left our cretan airbnb and drove for our final day in heraklion. It was raining in the morning so we putzed around instead of going to the beach or something. We did however do a quick shopping trip in spili and I ate a tomatoe.
In heraklion we had italian food for lunch. It was a welcome change from all the greek food we've consumed thus far. I paid for lunch which means I bought Barbara the best pasta she has ever had.
After that we visited the natural history museum. Twas relaxed and fun. We saw many dioramas of taxidermied animals. Barbara got to see all the birds we'd heard calling but wouldn't come out of the trees to be seen. I was not ready for the size of wild boar. They had cool science experiments and some non-stuffed animals too. In the basement they had some animatronic dinosaurs and an earthquake simulator .
Barbara ruined one of our ferry boats escalators by falling into the steps and bleeding all over it. She has 4 holes in her knee where it met the edge of the moving stair. She is patched up and drugged up and in time will recover but the escalator may never be the same.
In heraklion we had italian food for lunch. It was a welcome change from all the greek food we've consumed thus far. I paid for lunch which means I bought Barbara the best pasta she has ever had.
After that we visited the natural history museum. Twas relaxed and fun. We saw many dioramas of taxidermied animals. Barbara got to see all the birds we'd heard calling but wouldn't come out of the trees to be seen. I was not ready for the size of wild boar. They had cool science experiments and some non-stuffed animals too. In the basement they had some animatronic dinosaurs and an earthquake simulator .
Barbara ruined one of our ferry boats escalators by falling into the steps and bleeding all over it. She has 4 holes in her knee where it met the edge of the moving stair. She is patched up and drugged up and in time will recover but the escalator may never be the same.
Gillian - Archaeological Museum
Happy Belated Birthday Brynn. I spent all day thinking how much you would have loved the museum. There are artifacts so numerous they got boring. It was odd to think "oh just another clay pot bigger than me."
I was very interested in the metal work. It was neat to see the bronze artifacts grow in detail and technique. As we learned previously at knossos the minoans were peaceful traders so the weapons I saw at the museum were purely ornamental. There were some sword with tiny 1 inch tangs that I chuckled at. Ooo I also laughed out loud at an eagle statue. I'll make sure to put the picture so you too can find humour in it's expression.
There was an exceptionally good bit of the museum about coins. Unfortunately that bit was new and hadn't been published so we couldn't take pictures. It was a map with coins found on crete and they put the coins where they came from. It was a good visual to see the expansive territory the minoans had a trade monopoly over. Also now I want a replica coin from athens with athena's owl.
The last 2 rooms in the museum were of sculptures. There were loads of human forms and all the lady ones were labeled aphrodite. I took a picture of pan because he was the most notably different. Although it could have been any satyr with pipes.
Then we walked aimlessly through shops and barbara bought pottery and soaps. All of the soaps are olive oil and something else. Like donkey milk or pomegranate. Also we saw a man selling sponges just fished from the sea.
I was very interested in the metal work. It was neat to see the bronze artifacts grow in detail and technique. As we learned previously at knossos the minoans were peaceful traders so the weapons I saw at the museum were purely ornamental. There were some sword with tiny 1 inch tangs that I chuckled at. Ooo I also laughed out loud at an eagle statue. I'll make sure to put the picture so you too can find humour in it's expression.
There was an exceptionally good bit of the museum about coins. Unfortunately that bit was new and hadn't been published so we couldn't take pictures. It was a map with coins found on crete and they put the coins where they came from. It was a good visual to see the expansive territory the minoans had a trade monopoly over. Also now I want a replica coin from athens with athena's owl.
The last 2 rooms in the museum were of sculptures. There were loads of human forms and all the lady ones were labeled aphrodite. I took a picture of pan because he was the most notably different. Although it could have been any satyr with pipes.
Then we walked aimlessly through shops and barbara bought pottery and soaps. All of the soaps are olive oil and something else. Like donkey milk or pomegranate. Also we saw a man selling sponges just fished from the sea.
Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Barbara - Zeus’ fury tonight (Oct 22)
Super full and fascinating day, particularly given my nieph’s fount of Greek mythology knowledge. Here are my cheat sheets ..
Spinalonga evoked a lot of questions for me about what life might have been like for those living there, particularly the leper colony. I was fascinated to learn there was an uprising fighting for better conditions. It closed in 1957, with many people reintegrating into Cretan life after the introduction of effective antibiotics. I loved the iron work (door handles) and was impressed by the perseverance of the builders, making 2-3 story stone houses into a village with terraces and agricultural areas. The leftover bastions from war made for amazing views of the turquoise sea. Plus the plastererfrom 1901 inscribed their initials.
Here’s a brief Venetian-Turks war timeline...
Gillian had a brief lesson of ceramic making on the wheel. They’re very proud. As am I.
Zeus’ maybe-birthplace caves at Psychro were spectacular. We walked through twice just to stay longer. Zeus’ lightning accompanied us home after a fabulous seaside dinner of freshly caught Sea Bream. The rain on the roof of our traditional Cretan house makes it feel like we’re in a tent.
Here are some follow up photos from yesterday at Knossos ..
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Spinalonga evoked a lot of questions for me about what life might have been like for those living there, particularly the leper colony. I was fascinated to learn there was an uprising fighting for better conditions. It closed in 1957, with many people reintegrating into Cretan life after the introduction of effective antibiotics. I loved the iron work (door handles) and was impressed by the perseverance of the builders, making 2-3 story stone houses into a village with terraces and agricultural areas. The leftover bastions from war made for amazing views of the turquoise sea. Plus the plastererfrom 1901 inscribed their initials.
Here’s a brief Venetian-Turks war timeline...
Gillian had a brief lesson of ceramic making on the wheel. They’re very proud. As am I.
Zeus’ maybe-birthplace caves at Psychro were spectacular. We walked through twice just to stay longer. Zeus’ lightning accompanied us home after a fabulous seaside dinner of freshly caught Sea Bream. The rain on the roof of our traditional Cretan house makes it feel like we’re in a tent.
Here are some follow up photos from yesterday at Knossos ..
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