Anyway, I'll try to recreate the magic even though I'd rather just give up. Dang. It really was a lengthy entry.
Anyway, back in Athens, we went to the Acropolis Museum where we saw some amazing artifacts found in Athens and around the Parthenon. This museum, for a change in Greece, was well done. It was even air conditioned!
That night, we saw the latest Harry Potter at an open-air cinema. In the summer, they project movies outside after the sun goes down. The movie was awesome (obviously), we ate popcorn, and we saw REAL Greek life (as opposed to the other 75% of what we've seen, which has seemed set up for tourists).
The next day, we visited the Archealogical Museum where I saw the gold mask of Aggamemmnon! It was amazing. They had so much there! This country is dripping in history and artifacts and legend and myth. Mom and I enjoyed looking at the possessions of the women, Luke their jewelry. Things have changed so much since 1200 B.C. and, yet, so little.
The next day, we relaxed a bit and shopped at a few last stores in Monastiraki. We also visited a former Turkish bath house. It was interesting; Greece is such a mixture of East and West. And the bath house reminded me of the time I bathed in a haman in a village Morocco. Good times....
Today, we were package tourists! We hopped on a bus for Epidaurus and Ancient Mycenae. Epidauarus is home to the sites of the first cult worshippers of Dionysus, and still has an amazing ancient theater. The theater was so epic. They still do shows there, but sadly our timing didn't work out for any performances :( I still can't believe I was standing on the very stage where people first performed the rituals to honor Dionysus that would slowly but surely lead to theater as we know it today.
Ancient Mycenae was amazing, too. We saw the sites where so much was discovered about the great Myceneans, previously believed to have been merely the fiction of Homer's tales. The famous Lion's Gate and the Treasury of Atreus (also know as the Tomb of Aggamemmnon), the oldest structures in Europe, lie in Mycenae. They both yield blocks so large it is reasoned that only Cyclops could have built them! It's crazy to think of how many ancient things I have seen in the last few weeks. To see things that so many people have seen and touched, like these spaces in Greece and also places I have been, like the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Hollywood sign and the Statue of Liberty, is... Well it helps you place yourself, I guess. It helps me understand my place in the world and in time, even.
Anyway, I guess this is the end. We'll be home soon and who knows when I'll be able to come back. I should offer some conclusions then, yes?
No comments:
Post a Comment