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.