Day 3 - Ancient Athens

Got up early this morning! Such a change to go from such a chill schedule to getting up at 7 am. But I don't mind too much, as long as I get to bed early enough so I don't die. Anyway, we headed to the Acropolis first. Part of some ancient theater.
One of the many stray dogs in Athens.
Looking up towards the 'gate' to the Acropolis.
Temple of Athena Nike :( I dislike scaffolding a lot.
The Parthenon! (imagine this picture without construction or people)


Erektheous Temple (not sure on the spelling...)
Caryatid Porch.
Athens.
Temple of Zeus. Yes, Hercules is incorrect. The Temple of Zeus is not on a mountain. But in all other ways, that movie is completely correct ;)
The Olive Tree. So a long, long time ago, the people of Greece needed to name their capital city. So Poseiden and Athena had a little competition. They had to create a gift for the people. Poseiden struck his trident in the ground and made a well. It was a good well, but because he was the god of the ocean, the water was salty. Athena created the first olive tree. The people liked this much better so they named the city Athens. This is that olive tree.
Ali, Shamra, Me, Tabitha.
This isn't actually where they think Poseidon's well is, but I want it to be.


Akropolis Museum.

Mars Hill. We went there next. This is where Paul preached "the Sermon of the Unknown God" to the Athenians.
On Mars Hill.
The Agora, or Ancient Marketplace, which is where we went next.
Two roads diverged...
During the lecture we had down here, a bee was pollinating on Rachel's hat.
A Byzantine church, je pense.
The parts where the bricks jut out is called a dog-tooth frieze.






Temple of Hephaestus.


Stoa (meeting place) of the Agora.



After that, we went to the marketplace where I got some produce. I got bananas and peas and apricots (well they were dried, so they weren't fresh). I haven't had produce like this for a while. Quite tasty. Then a few of us chilled by the cathedral which is down the street from our hotel.

Little church by the cathedral. We relaxed there for a while, then we explored some more.
We wandered around for a while, found some food, sat down, etc. At 7:30, we met with a little more than half of the group and then we hiked up a huge hill.
It was quite strenuous, but so worth it.

Bell tower and chapel at the top
You can kind of see the Parthenon lit up clear over there. Pretty incredible, right?

Then we walked leisurely back to the hotel. Now it is time to crash!

Comments

Christopher said…
pretty much that last pic of the parthenon is amazing!

Popular posts from this blog

Baby Benji

Day 55 - Home

I'm engaged!