The Politics of Traffic

In front of our apartment - yep, lots of construction!

U-turns, double parking, and pedestrians - oh yeah!

no, this is not a one-way street - but bikes use both lanes when clear as well as the center line when not...
also, there is a helmet law in Athens, however, only about 1/2 comply...

"If Americans drove as Athenians, there would be gridlock just from  the fender-benders alone. They do the most amazing dance of weaving cars, bikes, and even trucks and buses. Motorbikes use the center-lines as bike lanes and will pass at any given moment in the face of on-coming traffic with the expectation they can get back into the lane before they hit or get hit. One must be careful even at lighted cross-walks because some bikes almost disregard the  lights. People will even park with a portion of their vehicle still in the traffic lane. There is also little regard for actual speed limits in the main streets or in the residential areas. With all these hazards, I have not observed many accidents. I know minor ones must happen all the time, because the vast majority of vehicles have dents, scratches and obvious damage. Perhaps people tolerate incidents more because they know they are always pushing the envelope, too. I am so much more appreciative of traffic law enforcement now in America!"

The Wednesday Before Easter

from Chuck's sketchbook - St Spyridon Church, Pangrati

ADDENDUM

I had no intentions of attending another service. That was, however, prior to heading toward St Spyridon to spy the pillar saints (now that I knew where they were!). As we entered, I immediately knew we walked into something about to happen. The Royal Doors of the iconostasis were open, all the lights were lit, and people were actually filling up the seats. I turned to the man who is usually by candles, and he recognized me. I looked at my watch, and he said service was starting at half-past (in Greek, of course) – that was in five minutes, so Chuck and I took a seat among others who were not observing the tradition of separation of men and woman.

More and more people came in and filled up the seats. As we waited, I could feel anticipation in the air. There were people who had brought their own portable stools sitting along the banister in the front of the church, and one woman had positioned her young daughter as close as possible to where the priests were going to be conducting the service. Everyone was waiting patiently for the service to start. All stood as the church bells rang, and we joined them.

As service commenced, I looked around to see who was attending. Still more were arriving and moving about lighting candles and kissing icons as the priests came forward to a prepared table with candles and oil already in place. From my reckoning, about eighty percent attending were over the age of fifty, but mostly older. There were a few moms with their children, and I even saw a woman try to squeeze in a baby in a stroller. As I discretely took a look behind us, there was standing room only – the place was packed! I nudged Chuck to notice how full the church had become, and he suggested we give up our seats for those more elderly, and we moved to the back with those standing.

The three priests took turns with the liturgical duties, while another was adding his voice from the behind the iconostasis. More and more arrived, even as the service continued. No one left, and no one was distracted – all were very much attentive to what was happening at the front of the church. At the conclusion of the service, the priest gave what seemed to be directions to the congregation about whatever they were about to do. People who were seated got up and joined the ones standing as they all moved en masse towards the front of the church. I couldn’t see what was happening, and was feeling quite claustrophobic, so we made our way out the door (but not without a quick peek at the pillar saints on either side). Stepping out into the sunlight and still more people, I could see one of the priests filling bowls of oil to set on tables on either side of the entrance doors. In the crowd I suddenly recognized a friendly face– it was Iota from CYA! She smiled her warm, friendly smile as she saw me and immediately took a cotton swab from the table, dipped it in oil and anointed me with the blessed oil. Chuck was behind me, and he was anointed next. I thanked her profusely and she looked so very pleased – she literally beamed. I was very pleased, as well, to be able to participate in the service in that way.

In considering all the people coming for service, I wondered if I should reconsider my earlier thoughts about congregational participation. So many thought it a priority to attend this service, even though there was no Eucharist included in the service. It was not a long service, and throughout people stood, sat, and made the sign of the cross at specific times. I thought I heard a couple of men in the congregation saying some of the prayers under their breath, but I couldn’t be sure. (There was a funny man in front of us sitting with his wife who really didn’t want to take his hat off when he stood, but his dutiful wife would gently remove it every time he stood – it was quite comical.) I witnessed many repeatedly making the sign of the cross, and also a woman closing her eyes while deeply involved in the prayers being said by the priests. So, was this participation? I suppose some would say yes – perhaps this is a service where they feel they participate by being blessed (anointed) by a priest - but I still have to ask if they were allowed to do more, would they? I believe my answer came with my friend Iota. She was very eager to anoint us, to facilitate us sharing in the service in a small way. Would more of the ones who had come feel the same way? The picture in my mind will always be of those crowded against the banister as close to the altar as they could get, all of them as eager as that young girl in the front, all of them watching the priests pray. 

Random Pics...and a few favorities

Chuck at his desk enjoying a lax schedule during Spring Break

a fun pic from one of our walk-abouts...this is somewhere in Kolonaki

Mmmm...Greek coffee

in the briki...Chuck is practicing making the
perfect Greek coffee for us

another fun sketch from the resident artist, Mr. Foltz - this was a little Mini sitting in front of the CYA buildings

love to see this on a test!

Just a few more weeks to go...

at our favorite taverna - Maiandros!

and our favorite band!

cats everywhere!

Yummies over at Kekko's...damn, we will miss those friends there!
(and, I am not talking about the sweets!)

these are so yummy...I can't even describe it!

A Few Sketches

Today, while I rode the train to the nearby neighborhood of Petralona to meet with a fellow student, Chuck took in the sights of Athens.

He has had a fascination with all the local pigeons, so I am not surprised one came and volunteered to be a sketch model for him as he sat at the cafe.

I am not sure this gentleman knew he was being sketched, but I am not sure he would have really minded. He seems very much interested in his phone to notice much of anything.

This one is of the statue that is nearby where we like to walk on our way to the Thissio neighborhood. It is a place that could be very nice if it weren't for a lack of care and graffiti sprayed on every flat surface.

Chuck also snapped this great shot of his subject

I love these sketches, and I wish Chuck would, once again, pick up his sketching hobby. Perhaps he will have more time as we continue here in Athens.

Grand Olympia

"Speaking of scale, it was eye-opening to walk the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. This was the place where often warring city-states came together in treaty to worship Zeus, train and compete with each other in 'games.' This was where the ancient Olympic Games occurred. It was more for war training and competing for honorable recognition. The place also acted like Switzerland in our day with stored treasures at the foot of Mt. Olympus where they were protected by the sanctuary of Zeus, but also as a status symbol of success in conquests.

The students of CYA had fun running the 'stade,' one length of the stadium field under the instruction for the 'correct' way to use the grooved starting blocks and running form of the ancients. Olympia is mostly a large field of fallen stones, but the mind can easily reconstruct a bit of how it might have looked. We know from books that the Temple of Zeus housed one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the massive statue of Zeus himself. Only by a few standing columns can we imagine the awesomeness the ancients must have experienced upon seeing his majesty. The museum pieces at the various stops along this (field) trip help us to appreciate the true magnificence of their ability to articulate stone and marble to create images of their gods (and heroes) and belief stories.." ~from Chuck's journal

artist reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia was an ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the god Zeus. The temple, built between 472 and 456 BC, was the very model of the fully developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order...It housed the renowned statue of Zeus, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Chryselephantine statue was approximately 13 m (43 ft) high and was made by the sculptor Phidias in his workshop on the site at Olympia. He took about twelve years to complete it. On his head was a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand he held a figure of Nike, the goddess of victory, also made from ivory and gold, and in his left hand, a scepter made with many kinds of metal, with an eagle perched on the top. His sandals were made of gold and so was his robe. His garments were carved with animals and with lilies. The throne was decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory.

The statue was the most famous artistic work in Greece. The Roman general Mummius dedicated twenty-one gilded shields after he sacked Corinth in 146 BCE; they were fixed at the metopes of the eastern front side and the eastern half of the south side. In 426 CE, Theodosius II ordered the destruction of the sanctuary, and earthquakes in 522 and 551 devastated the ruins and left the Temple of Zeus partially buried. The site of the ancient sanctuary, long forgotten under landslips and flood siltation, was identified in 1766. In 1829 a French team partially excavated the Temple of Zeus, taking several fragments of the pediments to the Musée du Louvre. Systematic excavation began in 1875, under the direction the German Archaeological Institute, and has continued, with some interruptions, to the present time.

Olympia (Greek: Ὀλυμπία); a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times. The Olympic Games were held every four years throughout Classical Antiquity, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. The first Olympic Games were in honor of Zeus. ~wiki

A Nice Stroll About Nafplio

Nafplio (Modern Greek: Ναύπλιο, Nafplio) is a seaport town in the Peloponnese in Greece that has expanded up the hillsides near the north end of the Argolic Gulf. The town was an important seaport held under a succession of royal houses in the Middle Ages as part of the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, held initially by the de la Roche following the Fourth Crusade and then by Aragonese nobility, before coming under the Republic of Venice and, lastly, the Ottoman Empire. The town was the capital of the First Hellenic Republic and of the Kingdom of Greece, from the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821 until 1834. Nafplio is now the capital of the regional unit of Argolis. ~wiki

What a sweet little town. The historic part of Nafplio is exactly what you would expect a coastal European town to look like: quaint coffee shops, small boutiques featuring jewelry, souvenirs, and clothing, and large, open squares. Narrow streets lined with trees and apartments, complete with clothing hanging out to dry. It was lovely! We met some really nice people there, as well, including the sweet soul who told us all about komboloi.

"Komboloi with beads made of real-genuine amber of Baltic Sea"

"The Greeks are the only nation in the world who do not use the komboloi for religious purposes. We adopted it from the Turks and changed its philosophy and purpose. It has become an aid for tranquility and meditation. The number beads is not definite but analogous to the size and length of the beads of the komboloi, thus providing the owner with the utmost comfort for playing with it. It always needs to have an odd number of beads. The color, the sense of touch, and the sound produced by the beads are qualities of great importance." ~The Komboloi Museum, Nafplio, Greece

They are traditionally made of amber, which happens to be a favorite of Chuck's. So, we indulged on some special komboloi of our own - his are a luscious butterscotch color, while mine are more translucent burgundy/brown.

Here are some more pics we snapped of Nafplio. We stayed here for two nights and even though most of the town was closed due to the season (and it was damn cold!), we still enjoyed our walk-abouts, and some of the best gelato outside of Italy.

"I wanted to add something about the little port town on the southern tip of the Peloponnese where we spent a couple of nights, Nafplio. From there we traveled out to Epidaurus (the healing temple of Asclepios and a large theater), Lerna (very ancient House of Tiles and place of the mythical monster Hydra), and Tiryns (massive walled fortress in the plains). But  the town itself has an amazing history of trade-off domination by the Greeks, the Venetians, and the Turks. They all left their marks on the architecture, arts, crafts, and politics of the city. High on a bluff directly above the city is a massive brick and stone fortress that the Venetians built in just four years. By the end of its construction, the unpaid  and starving Venetian soldiers abandoned the fort when they saw the Turkish army approaching. If one wanted to they could walk up the 900 stone steps from Nafplio (or drive up the zig-zaggy road) and see how easily anyone could conquer the town simply by lobbing shots down from the heights until they surrendered. Fortunately for us the day we were there, due to winds, the steps were closed and the bus remained on-site to get us back down the hill.

Nafplio itself has pleasant walkways and shops. We strolled all the way around the cliffs to find an abandoned resort. The cliff top was another fortress that was the first protection of the city. Back among the shops, we stopped into one shop that is also a museum of komboloi (commonly called worry beads). The clerk and curator explained the history and meaning of these hand distractions. So Liz and I purchased our own sets made of amber (ancient tree sap) both as a souvenir and contemplation aid, which  we now carry wherever we go. Another site that we didn't visit is a small fort on a tiny island out in the middle of the harbor from which the Venetians would run chains to block the entry to any threatening fleet. Nafplio is truly a stroller's town rich in complex history." ~from Chuck's journal

The Acropolis - It Really IS A Big Deal

The Acropolis of Athens (Ancient Greek: Ἀκρόπολις; Modern Greek: Ακρόπολη Αθηνών) is an ancient citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον (akron, "edge, extremity") and πόλις (polis, "city"). Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as "The Acropolis" without qualification. 

While there is evidence that the hill was inhabited as far back as the fourth millennium BC, it was Pericles (c. 495 – 429 BC) in the fifth century BC who coordinated the construction of the site's most important buildings including the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the temple of Athena Nike. The Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians in the Morean War when the Parthenon was being used for gunpowder storage and was hit by a cannonball.

The Acropolis was formally proclaimed as the preeminent monument on the European Cultural Heritage list of monuments on 26 March 2007. ~wiki

"Weather was moving in from the southwest and looked like it might rain, but stayed off while we walked the temple sites. What a commanding view of the city of Athens, even with a haze coming in with the clouds! It is obvious why the archaic tribes chose this spot both as a defense and as sacred..."

"We took a lot of pics while trying to stay on our feet from the strong wind gusts. I had to fold up my broad-brimmed hat for fear of it blowing away, which it definitely would have. No one can appreciate the size and grandeur of this place from photos or videos. I even got reprimanded for touching the marble columns as we came through the main gateway. That's all I needed to tune to this place and its distance in time!" ~excerpts from Chuck's Journal

Something that no one mentioned about visiting the Acropolis was that there will be people hanging around the entry gates offering guided tours of the site. That's fine, if you need it...but the woman who approached us was not too kind in her offer. For 15 euros per person she was offering her services. When we politely refused, she insisted, saying she already had 5 folks lined up for her next tour. Again, we politely refused, and she was irritated. Under her breath (not really), she said, "Amazing..." like we were idiots for not taking her up on her 'amazing' offer. Sheesh - she is making a killing telling folks about the site (which has interpretive signs, btw). Truly, how is she to know what people know about the site, anyway? I could have been a Ph.D., for all she knew. I find this frequently: because we are obviously from the US, it is assumed that we are stupid tourists. Irksome, to state it bluntly. Hmph. We may be rather long-term tourists, but we are not stupid, thank you very much. Nor are we rich. I just needed to say that somewhere.

Today, we walked just under 15,000 steps. Yes, that is quite a bit, and our older bones are feeling it. We started the day going to the street market to pick up a few of our favorite things (raisins, apples, pears, tangerines, and fresh eggs). The market is amazing - not like our little farmer's markets that are rather faddish and focused mostly on organic-type-hippy vendors, but real farmers who charge excellent prices for incredible, fresh, amazingly good-tasting food. Truly.

Next, we headed for the Acropolis. Not just to the Acropolis, but up to the Acropolis. We zig-zagged our way up to the high-point, were told we were 'amazing,' and proceeded to walk the rather substantial site, all the while fighting (what I suspect was) 20-30 mph gusts of wind. I felt pretty beat-up by the time we were heading out. We needed to re-fuel, so we headed to 'taverna row' overlooking the Ancient Agora and with a view of the Acropolis. Under the canopy and with the heaters going, it was cozy while we enjoyed our salad. But, by the time our souvlaki arrived, it was pouring buckets! I had to hand it to a local who walks around selling things to tourists - he quickly switched from whatever he normally sold to umbrellas (and people were taking him up on it, too!) By the time we finished our meal, complete with a very yummy gratis "sweet" dessert (I called it a cake, but was corrected - it is a sweet. I think it is still like a soaked cake, and must find the recipe!), the rain had stopped gushing. We enjoyed the fresh air as we made our way towards the Acropolis Museum. 

It was fantastic except no cameras were allowed past the main lobby. Boo! We made it through about half of it, and I gave out. I couldn't do one more old thing! (Except check out the gift shop!) I think the coolest thing about the Acropolis Museum, other than all the COOL stuff on display (and the fun stuff we bought), is the fact that the whole museum sits on top of the excavation of ancient Athens! You walk over the top of it and can look down through the glass underfoot to see all the excavation work on the ancient homes, mosaic floors, shops, and streets - it is very interesting, indeed!

We came out of the museum and immediately found a cute little cafe for some refreshment. After a bit of a sit-down, debrief, and a delicious cappuccino, we started back for the apartment. What a day. Glad tomorrow is a down day- my walking feet need a break!

Local Ruins

In  the last walk-about post, I shared a pic of some ruins that are in the heart of one of shopping districts. They are very similar to me to the ruins in Israel - foundations/outlines of homes and narrow streets. Here are some more fascinating ruins we saw just in passing. Hopefully, we will have more opportunity to investigate fully.

the Acropolis, of course - you can see it from almost everywhere in Athens;
can't wait to get up there in person!

I apologize for the small type, but this is the explanation
of some of the ruins at the foot of the Acropolis nearby
the mosaic floor of the remnants of a Roman home

a Roman home

the amazing mosaic floor

Hadrian's Gate (Arch)

The Arch of Hadrian (Greek: Αψίδα του Αδριανού Apsida tou Adrianou), most commonly known in Greek as Hadrian's Gate (Πύλη του Αδριανού Pyli tou Adrianou), is a monumental gateway resembling – in some respects – a Roman triumphal arch. It spanned an ancient road from the center of Athens, Greece, to the complex of structures on the eastern side of the city that included the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It has been proposed that the arch was built to celebrate the adventus (arrival) of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and to honor him for his many benefactions to the city, on the occasion of the dedication of the nearby temple complex in 131 or 132 AD.[1] It is not certain who commissioned the arch, although it is probable that the citizens of Athens or another Greek group were responsible for its construction and design. There were two inscriptions on the arch, facing in opposite directions, naming both Theseus and Hadrian as founders of Athens. While it is clear that the inscriptions honor Hadrian, it is uncertain whether they refer to the city as a whole or to the city in two parts: one old and one new. The early idea, however, that the arch marked the line of the ancient city wall, and thus the division between the old and the new regions of the city, has been shown to be false by further excavation. The arch is located 325m southeast of the Acropolis. ~wiki

I wish I knew more about these amazing things we are seeing - but, when I know more, you will read more! This columns were gated off (since it was getting dark when we were there), but they demand a closer look. In the daylight, and when we can get closer, you will get more of the story, I promise!

I love the sky in the above photo. The weather here has been rather extreme from what I'm accustomed - bright, intense sunshine with vivid blue skies, then quickly blowing in big puffy clouds which turn to threatening dark, rain clouds in such a short time. What starts out as a sunny morning can be very loud thunder and amazing lightning by a wet mid-afternoon. The locals take it in stride and continue on with their daily tasks, but us foreigners are amazed at the intensity.

"It sounds like the Olympian gods are bowling tonite! Massive lightning and thunder and rain has just started to fall. Glad we are close to the school! The thunder claps are amazing!"
~excerpt from Chuck's journal