Day 2 - Athens

Today we continued exploring Athens, and we visited some of the most famous sites and museums.  As we go through the trip, we will have two students blog each day.  Joe Domo and Will Walker have volunteered to narrate the events of the day for us.

Joe Domo

Hi this is Joe, I am going to describe pictures of some of the sites seen during our time in Athens.

Here we are on the Akropolis in front of the Parthenon. We learned of its colorful history including its sacking by the Persians and later rebuilding. It also provided a fantastic view over Athens and the Saronic Gulf.








This is the view I described before on top of the Akropolis. It is an amazing view over the city of Athens and farther out, the Saronic Gulf. One can see the intricate design of the city as well as its various landmarks.

Here are the Ostraca. These were made whenever someone was being voted to be ostracized from the city for 10 years. The voters would cast their vote on these shards.

This is the strafing of spitfire bullets on the Temple of Hephesteion from the British fighter planes. These were made during the civil war between the Winston Churchill who supported monarchists over anti-monarchists, who were occupying this part of Athens after WWII. 

Here is another view from atop the Akropolis. We are looking down on the Temple of Hephesteion from the previous picture. It was once a Christian church so it was preserved better than most buildings.

Will Walker

Today was an exhilarating, albeit, pretty exhausting journey through the downtown and ruins of Athens. Even though we saw a lot, and did a lot, my personal favorite experience has to be the National Athenian Archaeological Museum (due, in no small part, that it involved little walking and lots of benches). The Museum, a treasure-trove of Pre-Historic, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic sculpture, was exciting not only because of the air-coniditioning, but also, (and maybe more importantly) because of the tremendous collection of artistic works. The famous "Mask of Agamemnon" was a personal favorite, as was the enormous "Dipylon Vase," a work that epitomized the vase-painting of the Geometric period pretty completely. Supposedly the agenda for tomorrow involves a bus-ride to another part of the mainland, as well as the exploration of some other ruins, and even though I'm excited, I can't imagine it can top today!