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| Waffles for Breakfast! |
There wasn't much to talk about on the way to the Parthenon. I was staring in awe at the weird streets while Hailey was chatting with Jordan about all the facts she'd Googled about the Parthenon. Abby and Olivia were snap-chatting weird things like lamp posts. I don't understand phones.
Parthenon (History)
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| The Parthenon |
The walk to Fresko Yogurt Bar was amazing. The highlight of it being the fact that Jordan nearly got run over by a car. She let out a long string of curse words a some young Greek couple who looked like they had just come back from their honeymoon. It was quite amusing. Never knew that Jordan knew so many curse words.
Abby was the only one who got a yogurt that both looked and tasted nice. Olivia just added a few strawberries, Jordan had tried to be creative and had been handed something that looked like a Dumpster while Hailey's was somewhere in between Jordan's and Olivia's.
The walk to the Acropolis was uneventful except for the fact that it was rather quick. We didn't have to get stopped at any red lights and we were all very happy about that.
Acropolis of Athens (History)
The Acropolis is just an amazing thing overall! Even though, yes it consists of a lot of old building, it still looks beautiful. The towering columns surrounding each side of the buildings were so cool as well as the other styles of architecture presented throughout the Acropolis.. After walking around for some time just looking at it I got bored though. I walked up to Hailey and Jay and asked them to enlighten me on some facts. The Acropolis of Athens was an ancient citadel located on an outcrop above Atheens. It wasn't a huge building, as it was a collection of buildings instead. It consisted of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion (a temple to the gods Attica, Athena, and Poseidon-Erectheus), and the Temple of Athena Nike. We didn't visit any of the major landmarks, we just found a spot so we could see most of the sites we had visited and were going to visit in the next day or so. I took in all the building in front of me and thought about the next couple days. Yes, they were going to be tiring, but they were going to be fun. Visiting all the historical buildings would really broaden me and my groups sense of the world.
Acropolis Museum (History):
When we went inside, we found that there was food! Well, I found that there was food and managed to convince Jordan that I was a growing child and needed french fries two hours after I'd had lunch. Then we went exploring, except for the fact that some of the exhibits prohibited food and I had to finish a large set of fries by myself. The rest of them weren't hungry. I wonder why. The exhibits were cool, except for the fact that most of the statues were cracked. Everyone was sorta hungry on the way to the National Garden, except for me. We stopped at a stall on the way there and got some ice creams at a shop. The lady there was nice and she was patient with us as we tried to pronounce all the different flavors of ice cream. Except for the food, I didn't pay much attention. All the artifacts didn't really matter much to me. The only things I can remember are that the museums foundations were laid on 30 December 1865. The new Acropolis Museum has a total area of 25,000 square meters, about 10 times more space than the first Acropolis. The first level of the building contains artifacts from the settlement and sanctuaries on the slopes of the Acropolis. The second level contains the archiaic finds. The last level, the third level are artifacts from the building on the Acropolis excluding the Parthenon. After that it's also just kind of a blur.
National Garden
It was refreshing seeing green. After a whole day of staring at limestone buildings, we finally got something else! But it got pretty boring pretty quick. They were all hungry and we decided to have dinner. The garden was located behind the tomb of the unknown soldiers at the top of Syntagma (Constitution) Square. It opened in the 1920's and has many attractions. I was just really hungry, so not much mattered to me. I was jusy happy to leave when we did.
GB Roof Garden
Greek food is weird, but it's nice too. Olivia got a chicken salad while Hailey got some lamb. Jordan got a plate of shrimp. Abby ate just a plate of ravioli while the other three had what seemed to be a whole truckload of food. I was the weirdo on the side sipping on Coke and nibbling on bread, obviously I wasn't very hungry. Looked over to the view of the Parthenon in the distance I thought about North Carolina. Yes I was going to love to see my family, but Greece was just so beautiful. I really hoped I would get to come back someday. After paying the bill, we all shuffled out of the restaurant.
The four of us took a nice stroll to the Hadrian Arch.
Hadrian Arch (History)
But it was already pretty dark when we got there and the only pictures we got we couldn't see anything. Who knew the sky was that dark in Athens? It was the fourth day and we didn't check when the sun set. So it ended up being where Hailey and Jordan, ever so cheerful, took a few pictures while Olivia was comforting a moaning Abby who insisted that Greek portion sizes were too large. The arch, erected in honor of the Roman emperor Hadrian, wasn't looking too effective in the darkness. It was built in the 2nd AD, a little before 131 AD, when he visited Athens. The inscription "IG II2 5185" on the west states "This is Athens, the ancient (or former) city of Theseus". On the east, it said, "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus".
It sort of confused me because they seemed like they were talking about two different things. Scholars seemed to have debated about that too. Maybe he wanted to place himself as Athens' hero, instead of Theseus?
Omiros Hotel
We headed back to our hotel because of Abby's upset stomach and the fact that it was dark outside. We still had a few hours to kill before the Candle Ceremony. The TV was on while we played Uno. But with an hour left, we all ditched the game. Jordan took a nap while I watched Greek news. Hailey was researching about the sites we would be visiting tomorrow while Olivia decided to watch Netflix with Abby.
It was really dark outside when we headed back out, but there were still people on the streets. There were people singing about Easter in front of the church. There voices were much better than any of ours, so we gave them a few euros.We were early by half an hour, so there were plenty of seats left. We managed to find ones up in the front.
The Resurrection or Anastasis/The Candle Lighting Ceremony (Culture and Ceremony)
Upon arriving to the church we were participating with in the ceremony, I knew this was going to be new to me. Stepping inside the door, I found it quite interesting because the whole place was dark. Not know much about the ceremony, I queered Jay about it. The candle lighting ceremony actually happened a couple minutes before midnight, and not understanding what she meant, I asked her to elaborate. This ceremony was used to celebrate the resection of Christ. Basically, the priest would start lighting everyone's candles a little bit before midnight with the Holy Light. I asked her what she meant by the Holy Light and she told me it represented the light in the tomb of Christ. Basically, the head of the church would give this light to everyone, and then a couple minutes before midnight everyone would leave the church after the priest said, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life," and all of this represented the resurrection of Jesus. Getting what she said I grew antsy waiting for the light to be passed around. We got to watch the candles get lit up one by one. Time passed quickly, and when I was out of the daze I found that none of us were sleeping. I got my candle and tried to touch the fire, only to be stopped by Jordan who used her mother voice. Still, it was late, and I was getting bored just sitting there. Finally, the clock struck 11:55 and the priest called out the words and we all started to make our way home. Another part of the tradition was trying to get home without your candle burning out, and if you could accomplish that you were going to be lucky for a year. Sadly, I tripped on some stairs on the way home and my flame died. Everyone else made it back though, but at that point I didn't care because Hailey said we were going to be partaking in the traditional Easter soup. It was an overall good food. We still had some leftovers, so Jordan got some and put it in the fridge for tomorrow's breakfast. (I managed to finish it off when her back was turned).
Everyone was tired when we finally settled down for the night, so I had no problems falling asleep. I dreamed of lighted streets and good food.
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| Abby's Lunch- Yogurt |
Fresko Yogurt Bar
None of us actually knew what to get, so we all just randomly chose dishes. We got to add weird random things to our yogurt and mine looked like a skyscraper by the time I was done listing off the toppings to the bartender. Oats and oranges and bananas and strawberries and all that fun stuff. Sadly, it didn't taste as nice as it looked and I had to scrape off all of the topping just for it to taste decent.Abby was the only one who got a yogurt that both looked and tasted nice. Olivia just added a few strawberries, Jordan had tried to be creative and had been handed something that looked like a Dumpster while Hailey's was somewhere in between Jordan's and Olivia's.
The walk to the Acropolis was uneventful except for the fact that it was rather quick. We didn't have to get stopped at any red lights and we were all very happy about that.
Acropolis of Athens (History)
The Acropolis is just an amazing thing overall! Even though, yes it consists of a lot of old building, it still looks beautiful. The towering columns surrounding each side of the buildings were so cool as well as the other styles of architecture presented throughout the Acropolis.. After walking around for some time just looking at it I got bored though. I walked up to Hailey and Jay and asked them to enlighten me on some facts. The Acropolis of Athens was an ancient citadel located on an outcrop above Atheens. It wasn't a huge building, as it was a collection of buildings instead. It consisted of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion (a temple to the gods Attica, Athena, and Poseidon-Erectheus), and the Temple of Athena Nike. We didn't visit any of the major landmarks, we just found a spot so we could see most of the sites we had visited and were going to visit in the next day or so. I took in all the building in front of me and thought about the next couple days. Yes, they were going to be tiring, but they were going to be fun. Visiting all the historical buildings would really broaden me and my groups sense of the world.
Acropolis Museum (History):When we went inside, we found that there was food! Well, I found that there was food and managed to convince Jordan that I was a growing child and needed french fries two hours after I'd had lunch. Then we went exploring, except for the fact that some of the exhibits prohibited food and I had to finish a large set of fries by myself. The rest of them weren't hungry. I wonder why. The exhibits were cool, except for the fact that most of the statues were cracked. Everyone was sorta hungry on the way to the National Garden, except for me. We stopped at a stall on the way there and got some ice creams at a shop. The lady there was nice and she was patient with us as we tried to pronounce all the different flavors of ice cream. Except for the food, I didn't pay much attention. All the artifacts didn't really matter much to me. The only things I can remember are that the museums foundations were laid on 30 December 1865. The new Acropolis Museum has a total area of 25,000 square meters, about 10 times more space than the first Acropolis. The first level of the building contains artifacts from the settlement and sanctuaries on the slopes of the Acropolis. The second level contains the archiaic finds. The last level, the third level are artifacts from the building on the Acropolis excluding the Parthenon. After that it's also just kind of a blur.
National Garden
It was refreshing seeing green. After a whole day of staring at limestone buildings, we finally got something else! But it got pretty boring pretty quick. They were all hungry and we decided to have dinner. The garden was located behind the tomb of the unknown soldiers at the top of Syntagma (Constitution) Square. It opened in the 1920's and has many attractions. I was just really hungry, so not much mattered to me. I was jusy happy to leave when we did.
GB Roof Garden
Greek food is weird, but it's nice too. Olivia got a chicken salad while Hailey got some lamb. Jordan got a plate of shrimp. Abby ate just a plate of ravioli while the other three had what seemed to be a whole truckload of food. I was the weirdo on the side sipping on Coke and nibbling on bread, obviously I wasn't very hungry. Looked over to the view of the Parthenon in the distance I thought about North Carolina. Yes I was going to love to see my family, but Greece was just so beautiful. I really hoped I would get to come back someday. After paying the bill, we all shuffled out of the restaurant.The four of us took a nice stroll to the Hadrian Arch.
Hadrian Arch (History)But it was already pretty dark when we got there and the only pictures we got we couldn't see anything. Who knew the sky was that dark in Athens? It was the fourth day and we didn't check when the sun set. So it ended up being where Hailey and Jordan, ever so cheerful, took a few pictures while Olivia was comforting a moaning Abby who insisted that Greek portion sizes were too large. The arch, erected in honor of the Roman emperor Hadrian, wasn't looking too effective in the darkness. It was built in the 2nd AD, a little before 131 AD, when he visited Athens. The inscription "IG II2 5185" on the west states "This is Athens, the ancient (or former) city of Theseus". On the east, it said, "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus".
It sort of confused me because they seemed like they were talking about two different things. Scholars seemed to have debated about that too. Maybe he wanted to place himself as Athens' hero, instead of Theseus?
Omiros Hotel
We headed back to our hotel because of Abby's upset stomach and the fact that it was dark outside. We still had a few hours to kill before the Candle Ceremony. The TV was on while we played Uno. But with an hour left, we all ditched the game. Jordan took a nap while I watched Greek news. Hailey was researching about the sites we would be visiting tomorrow while Olivia decided to watch Netflix with Abby.
It was really dark outside when we headed back out, but there were still people on the streets. There were people singing about Easter in front of the church. There voices were much better than any of ours, so we gave them a few euros.We were early by half an hour, so there were plenty of seats left. We managed to find ones up in the front.
The Resurrection or Anastasis/The Candle Lighting Ceremony (Culture and Ceremony)Upon arriving to the church we were participating with in the ceremony, I knew this was going to be new to me. Stepping inside the door, I found it quite interesting because the whole place was dark. Not know much about the ceremony, I queered Jay about it. The candle lighting ceremony actually happened a couple minutes before midnight, and not understanding what she meant, I asked her to elaborate. This ceremony was used to celebrate the resection of Christ. Basically, the priest would start lighting everyone's candles a little bit before midnight with the Holy Light. I asked her what she meant by the Holy Light and she told me it represented the light in the tomb of Christ. Basically, the head of the church would give this light to everyone, and then a couple minutes before midnight everyone would leave the church after the priest said, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life," and all of this represented the resurrection of Jesus. Getting what she said I grew antsy waiting for the light to be passed around. We got to watch the candles get lit up one by one. Time passed quickly, and when I was out of the daze I found that none of us were sleeping. I got my candle and tried to touch the fire, only to be stopped by Jordan who used her mother voice. Still, it was late, and I was getting bored just sitting there. Finally, the clock struck 11:55 and the priest called out the words and we all started to make our way home. Another part of the tradition was trying to get home without your candle burning out, and if you could accomplish that you were going to be lucky for a year. Sadly, I tripped on some stairs on the way home and my flame died. Everyone else made it back though, but at that point I didn't care because Hailey said we were going to be partaking in the traditional Easter soup. It was an overall good food. We still had some leftovers, so Jordan got some and put it in the fridge for tomorrow's breakfast. (I managed to finish it off when her back was turned).
Everyone was tired when we finally settled down for the night, so I had no problems falling asleep. I dreamed of lighted streets and good food.
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