Today is our first day with sub-optimal weather. Rain started around 9am and the forecast says it'll last through the evening. The thunder and lightning reminds me of all the statues and pictures we've seen of angry Zeus wielding heavy thunderbolts. Luckily it wasn't raining too hard in the morning, so Rachel and I were still able to walk about a fair bit, dodging rain drops like pros.
Started off the day with a morning stroll to get our greek yogurt for breakfast. Since it's Sunday, we decided to attend a Greek Orthodox service. The first church we tried had just ended it's Mass, so we moved on to a different one somewhere at the base of the Acropolis. Inside, we were confronted with the strong smell of incense and the sounds of the priest chanting (in Greek, I assume?). The priest wore a big white cape embroidered with silver thread. Every bit of wall space in the church was adorned with murals or hung paintings, all in the typical 2D Byzantine-style. The church-goers continually crossed themselves, and everyone who entered kissed a painting that was placed at the entrance of the church. I think it was a painting of a saint... After the mass, all the churchgoers went to the front to take communion. Instead of crackers, they all received a big chunk of bread. Then they went outside to mingle and socialize.
After the church service, Rachel and I ventured over to the New Acropolis museum. Lots of street vendors tried to sell us umbrellas (amazing how quickly they can switch from the tourist tchotchkes to practical necessities).
Rick Steves had suggested that the New Acropolis museum had been built to demonstrate to the world in general and the British Museum in particular that Greece was ready and deserved to get its Elgin marble statues back (most are currently housed in the British Museum but some are in the Louvre, Germany, other places). Our visit today convinced me that this was a primary motivation for the construction of this museum! Throughout the museum we were reminded by placards and gaping holes that many of the ancient Greek treasures are housed thousands of miles away from the Parthenon. Don't doubt the power of ancient artifacts to stir heated political controversy...
First of all, the architecture of the New Acropolis museum is pretty cool. The floor is made of glass so you can look down and see what looks like an archaeological dig site. The top floor of the museum is positioned slightly askew from the other floors -- the top floor (which provides a life-size model of the Parthenon) is actually positioned to parallel the Parthenon. The glass walls and windows allow visitors to constantly look back and forth between the actual Parthenon and the remnants of statues, friezes and artifacts that once adorned the structure. Rachel and I agreed the museum designers had definitely done an impressive job.
On the ground floor we saw mostly pottery, lamps and votives. Since the first temple was built on the Acropolis, Greeks brought offerings to the Goddess both to please her and to thank the gods for granting them a wish. Apparently a lot of ancient Greeks got married along the slopes of the Acropolis. Mid-January to mid-February was the month of marriage, and the preparations and ceremonies were a big deal. On the first floor we saw the remains of one of the oldest pediments from the acropolis: The earliest Parthenon was called the Hekatompedon, and its pediment shows 2 lionesses tearing up Taurus. It was built around 570 BC and its name means "100 feet long."
Then we went up to the Parthenon gallery, which was definitely my favorite part. It showed the life-size layout of the marble pediments, frieze and metope panels. The frieze reliefs depict the summer procession (the Great Panathenaia) honoring the goddess Athena, which took place every 4 years and lasted 12 days. It depicts lots of important Athenians, animals and horses, and on the east side (would have been above the entrance to the temple) it also depicts the Athenian people presenting the "peplos" gift to the cult statue of Athena. Of the 160 original meters of frieze, the Acropolis has 50, the British Museum has 80, 1 is in Paris and fragments of the others are scattered around Europe. The New Acropolis museum noted under each panel whether it was rear or original and, if the real one was not present, where that panel currently exists. Rachel and I also laughed because the plaster replica panels were so crude and ugly -- they hadn't even bothered to smooth out the lines of plaster -- probably because the Greek museum curators hope those plaster proxies will only need to be used for a very short period of time before the British deliver the Parthenon treasures to their "home". I wonder if the British will ever let go though...
While the frieze decorated the outside of the Parthenon, the inner wall was covered with metopes -- 92 panels depicting self-contained scenes of struggle. Most of the subjects were scenes from legendary battles (especially Greek victories over the Persians). While the metopes are also relief art, each relief is so substantial (if that's the right adjective...) sometimes up to 6inches deep, that these reliefs could almost be considered sculptures.
Probably the most impressive part of this exhibit were the pediments -- the triangular spaces at the roof at each end of the temple, which were the last parts of the building to be decorated in sculpture (437-432 BC). Again, the museum detailed exactly which parts of the sculpture were original and which fragments were replicas based on originals housed in foreign museums. The east pediment (above the temple entrance) depicts the birth of the Athena from the head of her father, Zeus, in the presence of the Olympic gods like Apollo, Iris (the other messenger) and Artemis. The west pediment illustrates the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the claim of the land of Attica (which, of course, Athena won). Athena and Poseidon are both flanked by their respective chariots, though sometimes only the hooves of the horses remain.
After admiring the Parthenon gallery, Rachel and I descended to see the Caryatid maidens from the Erechtheion. These statues are undergoing laser renovation, which is actually taking place in the museum so as not to have to move the very fragile statues. They were very beautiful, although unfortunately their faces were mostly rough and eroded. Apparently, the pollution and grime to which the statues were exposed during 20th century caused more destruction to the statues than all the other centuries preceding. Makes me wonder what the pollution is doing to my own face every time I walk into the street ... ew. There was another cool goddess statue head made of marble with a dark stain down the face -- looked like the goddess was crying. The statue had holes in the eyes too -- probably for inlay of some sort.
After the New Acropolis museum, Rachel and I walked over to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was the biggest temple, has huge Corinthian columns (one of which toppled very dramatically in a gust of wind), and took almost 700 years to complete. It was finally completed by Emperor Hadrian (a "philhellene"), who took the liberty of commissioning an enormous statue of himself, exactly the same size as the giant ivory-gold statue of Zeus -- they were to be worshipped as co-equals! Temple construction began in the 6th century BCE and was completed in the 2nd century CE.
Then we continued on to the Panathenaic stadium, the marble stadium which we'd walked past at night on New Year's eve. This is where the 2004 Olympic marathon finished. Many more umbrella salesmen...
Then we found a street of chocolate shops -- all still mostly selling Christmas chocolates. Then we went to a "no-frills" restaurant for lunch. Even though it was probably 1:30pm when we sat down, we were clearly very early. Waited for 30 minutes for our waitress to write in the prices on the menu (based on the stacks of vegetables and fish she could find in the kitchen). We ended up having our favorite fava bean dip, bread and eggplant-tomato-garlic-onion dip all for 12 euros. When we asked for hot water to drink, our waitress confirmed, "so, almost boiling?" The food was very good, but too bad the service was so lackadaisical. Oh well, not many places are open on Sunday so it was a good find overall. After lunch we headed back to the hostel for tea and the dessert we purchased in a bakery yesterday: almond-honey cookie and a shredded-wheat-honey-walnut-pistachio thing. Quite tasty, and it was nice to have something sweet with our tea as we gazed out at the rain.
After our siesta, went out in search of bananas (luckily the rain had stopped) but no success in finding an open grocery store. Returned to the hostel to look up restaurants in Psirri, the student neighborhood. Ventured over to Iroon square to eat at a place filled with young Greek-looking people and red-and-white checked table cloths. Felt like a tavern of sorts -- I guess it was a "taberna." Had our greek salad, eggplant-tomato-garlic-potato casserole, bread, graviera cheese and white house wine from a red pitcher. Meals extend forever! When our waiter brought a 2nd pitcher of complimentary wine against our wishes, we asked for the check. We find amusement in the fact that the Greeks who are sitting in the restaurant when we arrive are still eating and drinking by the time we leave 2 hours later.
On our way walking back to the hostel, we started coming up with lists of things that are randomly sold on the streets of Athens: huge balloons (often 100+ are being touted by a stooped little old lady in traditional dress. Balloons include giant inflated Dora the Explorer and other cartoon characters), umbrellas on rainy days, artificially colored roses in the evenings, plastic "splat" toys, mass-produced kitcschy paintings, chestnuts, corn on the cob, oranges picked straight from the trees that line the sidewalk....
Back at the hostel, we met up with "Moo" and his Egyptian hostel roommate. Moo, a year younger than us, has lived in Athens for 2 years (is originally from Indianapolis), but Rachel and I knew the streets and neighborhoods better than he did. Moseyed through Psirri (Greeks apparently pronounce the P every so slightly) and then over to Gazi. The Egyptian guy, touting his high-tech camera, bought Swiss iced tea from a kiosk. He informed us that the city of Philadelphia is in Pennsylvania and that he has "loads" of American friends. Moo said that Greek people don't work -- they just go out and eat all the time and pass the night away in bars and nightclubs. He doesn't seem to like living in Athens. We learned en route that the loudpseakers blaring political propaganda are in fact an effort to inspire social consciousness among passersby. We were disturbed that some of the speakers in the recordings included Stalin, Hitler and Moussolini... When we ended up at Soho again, Rachel and I decided to duck out and return to the hostel to sleep instead.
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