'Acropolis Souvlaki Now'/Stolen Greek Art/12 hours of Sleep
Its finally up, the last episode in the European adventure. Sorry for the belated response, i've been overwhelmed with....life really. So here it is, I wrote this blog quite a number of weeks ago but hadn't put it up.
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Well, I've finally reached home in sunny Sydney where its been fantastic weather and where all the signs are in english...I arrived at Sydney airport at around 6:20AM, which was actually 15 minutes later than my expected time of arrival. My parents arrived at around 6AM, and Kathryn arrrived before 6AM and I didn't get out of customs until 7:45AM...I felt pretty bad making them wait. But I was mega stoked to have a little welcome home party to greet me after my 24 hour flight from London.
So here goes the next installment to the serial blogs of the European tour...
Yep, I caved and I ate McDonalds at Rome Airport. There was nothing else to eat and I was really hungry. I did feel bad at the time but it was suprisingly good McDonalds.
I felt a bit sad to leave Rome, because it was such a beautiful city. But I was very excited about getting to Greece, and I was having very high expectations about Athens and the stuff I'd imagined it had to offer. However, I was disappointed...I'll try to explain...
I flew into Athens and caught a bus to my hostel which was in the middle of Syntagma. It was heaps close to all the cool sites I wanted to see. During the bus trip in, I got to soak in the city's buildings and landscape. The outskirts of the city looked cool, nice green pastures and mountain ranges. However, the city was pretty ordinary. The traffic was horrendous and the buildings weren't much to look at. Athens just seemed very modern and didn't have an 'old school' feel to it. Despite this, the people seemed pretty cool. There was a coffee shop I visited throughout my stay in Athens, where I religously bought my morning coffee there. The cool thing in Europe, particulary in Athens and Italy was that they remembered who I was if I visited more than once and would know exactly what to make me!
I got around to visiting the Acropolis, which was a 10 minute from the hostel. The view on the walk up to the Acropolis was amazing, as you got an awesome view of the rest of Athens. I met some old dude on the way up who tried to explain to me the directions to the entrance of the site. He also taught me how to say 'thank you very much' (efharisto pollo) in Greek...which was very nice of him...i think.
The Acropolis site was very cool. It was orginally the place where the Ancient Greeks use to live, but later became the area of worshipping gods. The main monument on the top was the Pantheon, which was the temple dedicated to Athena. There was another temple on the side for the worship of Posseidon. Apparently, these two gods were rivals and fought, and somehow Athena came on top. One interesting thing I learnt was that the Pantheon has no perfectly vertical or horizontal lines in its structure. So basically, nothing was perfectly flat, or perfectly straight. This apparently gives the building an 'optical illusion' to appear straight and bigger than what it is...I somehow couldn't figure it out so I guess it fooled me! The Greek philosiphy behind this design was that they wanted it to be 'alive' and to be different to any other building they had made, that it was something that was living and pulsating.
The view from the top was very awesome, it was pretty much a 360 degree view of Athens where it just seemed like a sea of buildings with cool mountains in the background. I could see the 'Theatre of Dionysis' from the top, but I didn't actually visit it because I exited the Acropolis and wasn't allowed to come back in...dumb.
After hanging around at the Acropolis for an hour, and headed towards the Roman and Ancient Agora, where there were more ancient ruins of living quarters, buildings, temples and structures. Ancient Agora was cool to walk around in and I tried to imagine what it would've been like to have been back there in the day. However, much of the ruins were just rocks, large slabs, and statue bases. So it became more difficult to imagine what the place would've looked liked. Plus, the lack of info provided next to the destroyed structure wasn't really provided so that didn't help....and the heat didn't neither. Roman Agora was a little better as it did have structures that were still preserved. There were some pillars left from a temple dedicated to Athena, and 'The Tower of the Four Winds' was pretty cool.
I munched on a Gyros, which was kinda like a kebab, took a quick nap because I was stuffed from travelling and I hopped down to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. In hindsight, the temple would've been huge, as the pillars were massive and 2 sets of these pillars ran around the sides of the temple. This was pretty much the only attraction at this site, because everything else was rubble...So again, there were some living quarters, shops and stuff, but they were reduced to rubble....how frustrating.
The next day I managed to hit Ancient Corinth, which was around a one and half hour train trip from Athens, then around a 15 to 20 minute bus trip. Ancient Corinth is just outside of the modern city of Corinth. I bumped into a Japanese guy named Naoki, who was a really cool guy I got along with really well and made the day heaps fun! He was also trying to get to Ancient Corinth so we teamed up and spent the day together. We checked out the ancient ruins and there was some cool stuff to see. Some of the structures were exisiting in someway, however a lot of it was in rubble. The site itself wasn't very big and we basically did it in 2 hours. It was a little difficult to decipher what the structures were in some areas and how they would've looked. The main temple of Athena still had some of its pillars standing, however it was interesting to see several statue bases right next to the temple, where these statues were other gods that these people worshipped at the time.
After a good lunch and a good chat about how different Australia and Japan is, we decided to head up to Accrocorinth. It basically a hike up this massive hill and it was even harder to do because it was intensely uphill and there wasn't any shade on the way up (yeah, you apparently shouldn't do an intense walk like this in the mid afternoon heat...). So we made our journey with the help of a Greek dude in ute who gave us a lift up to the top from about halfway...very cool guy!
Accrocorinth was probably the best thing I saw in Greece. The views were breathtaking and it was just really refreshing to see something green and natural, instead of looking at concrete jungles and smelling pollution. The site was used a defence wall to protect the rest of the Penelopenese Island from invaders by the Greeks, but failed. Naoki and I spent a fair time wandering around the mountain and checking out the view from the top until we got kicked out around 3PM.
The last thing I went to in Athens was the National Archaelogical Museum with Canadian whom I met at my hostel. The museum was worth seeing and was a good opportunity to read up and learn about the artwork of Greece and to see Grecian statues and carvings. There was a large section dedicated to jewelery and another to pottery. The jewelery was interesting to look at, however the pottery wasn't that exciting for me.
Food was pretty cool at Greece though. I met a girl from Canberra who took me to a place to have some Souvlaki at a reasonable price. I ended up visiting the same place 2 more times and pretty much had the all types of souvlaki the had to offer (lamb, beef, chicken). I also go to have some greek salad in Corinth and that was great. Lots of olive oil and vegies...mmmm. Its also interesting to note that buying alcohol in Greek eateries and restaurants was the same price, if not cheaper than soft drinks.
The rest of the time in Greece was pretty cruisy for me as I got to hang out with a Canadian girl and 2 Aussie guys. We walked around Athens, sat at a coffee shop and I had some great Greek Coffee! It was also the only day in my trip where it decideded to dump down rain, so I guess it was kind of a relief to leave the place. I flew back to London and dumped my stuff back at Christina's place. She was very cool to let me stay at her place again for one more night! My last night was great as I got to see a show called 'Stomp' at the Vanderwall Theatre (I think thats what it was called). Very cool show, it was kinda a cross between a play and a gig. It was very energetic, rhythmic and clever in parts. It'd be too hard to explain what I liked the best so you're gonna have to imagine...or ask me in person when you see me next.
My last day in London was a bit mixed because it was sad to leave Europe, but I was more looking forward to heading home because I wanted to see some familiar faces. And also because I kinda got sick of living out of a backpack! I had a great time for my last day, I had the best breakfast for trip, which consisted on eggs, sausages, toast, and (surprisingly) a good cup of coffee. I didn't dare ask for a flat white to avoid any problems or disappointments.
After dumping my luggage at Victoria Station, I headed over to Camden Markets where I got to walk around and go shopping for a bit. I really enjoyed the vibe at Camden and it kinda reminded me of Newtown, because there were a lot of punks and goths walking around and there were dudes asking me to buy weed. I ravaged through all the record stores and bought some cool CD's and DVD's (the collection of Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham film clips and other works) and pretty much soaked up the vibe there. After, I checked out the British Museum and though I was only there for a little over an hour, I was stoked to make it there! The architecture outside and inside the museum was amazing and the collection was very extensive, after all, they are the English.
There was an extensive collection, including Italian, Egyptian, Middle Eastern and Greek art that I didn't get to see in Greece and Italy because it was all at this museum! I got to see some awesome statues and carvings from Greece and Italy, carvings from palace walls from Assyria and Israel, Rosetta Stone and bits of the Accropolis. The carvings taken from a palace wall during Hezekiah's reign in 701BC (2Kings 18) was really intersting as it depicted a battle/takeover of Lachish by the Assyrian King Sennacherib. Rosetta Stone was great as well, though it was hard to see the engravings on it because of the silly reflective glass that it was encased in. It was a shame not to be able to stay at the museum for longer because it had some awesome stuff in there, like paintings and stuff...and there was so much to learn!
After visiting the Bristish Museum, it was pretty much a mad rush to get my luggage at Victoria station then to Gatwick Airport to fly back to Sydney. The plane trip wasn't very eventful because I was pretty over plane food and my inflight entertainment broke. I met an older Englishman who was travelling home and we talked for ages about everything. We had a long debate about The Beatles and talked about music from the 50's to the 80's, very cool convo. I also got to watch the movie 'An Incovenient Truth', which was an intersting movie about Al Gore's quest to tell the world about global warming. It was a great watch and I recommend it. I also got to watch the live DVD by the Gorillaz, which had a live backing band and a orchestra. That was cool too. I was going to watch 'Thank you for Smoking', but my entertainment machine broke...dumb. The rest of the time was spent sleeping.
I was pretty exhausted when I arrived back to Sydney. I slept for 12 hours straight that night, which was something I had never ever done in my life. I struggle to sleep in more than 9-10 hours, but to perform 12 hours straight was an amazing feat for me!
Anyways, this episode needs to end here, as its rather long! Thanks again everyone who sent me emails, prayed for me, wondered how I was, and importantly for reading!!
Nuff' said
d
;)
PS: Feel free to comment and ask questions as I may have left out some stuff.
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Well, I've finally reached home in sunny Sydney where its been fantastic weather and where all the signs are in english...I arrived at Sydney airport at around 6:20AM, which was actually 15 minutes later than my expected time of arrival. My parents arrived at around 6AM, and Kathryn arrrived before 6AM and I didn't get out of customs until 7:45AM...I felt pretty bad making them wait. But I was mega stoked to have a little welcome home party to greet me after my 24 hour flight from London.
So here goes the next installment to the serial blogs of the European tour...
Yep, I caved and I ate McDonalds at Rome Airport. There was nothing else to eat and I was really hungry. I did feel bad at the time but it was suprisingly good McDonalds.
I felt a bit sad to leave Rome, because it was such a beautiful city. But I was very excited about getting to Greece, and I was having very high expectations about Athens and the stuff I'd imagined it had to offer. However, I was disappointed...I'll try to explain...
I flew into Athens and caught a bus to my hostel which was in the middle of Syntagma. It was heaps close to all the cool sites I wanted to see. During the bus trip in, I got to soak in the city's buildings and landscape. The outskirts of the city looked cool, nice green pastures and mountain ranges. However, the city was pretty ordinary. The traffic was horrendous and the buildings weren't much to look at. Athens just seemed very modern and didn't have an 'old school' feel to it. Despite this, the people seemed pretty cool. There was a coffee shop I visited throughout my stay in Athens, where I religously bought my morning coffee there. The cool thing in Europe, particulary in Athens and Italy was that they remembered who I was if I visited more than once and would know exactly what to make me!
I got around to visiting the Acropolis, which was a 10 minute from the hostel. The view on the walk up to the Acropolis was amazing, as you got an awesome view of the rest of Athens. I met some old dude on the way up who tried to explain to me the directions to the entrance of the site. He also taught me how to say 'thank you very much' (efharisto pollo) in Greek...which was very nice of him...i think.
The Acropolis site was very cool. It was orginally the place where the Ancient Greeks use to live, but later became the area of worshipping gods. The main monument on the top was the Pantheon, which was the temple dedicated to Athena. There was another temple on the side for the worship of Posseidon. Apparently, these two gods were rivals and fought, and somehow Athena came on top. One interesting thing I learnt was that the Pantheon has no perfectly vertical or horizontal lines in its structure. So basically, nothing was perfectly flat, or perfectly straight. This apparently gives the building an 'optical illusion' to appear straight and bigger than what it is...I somehow couldn't figure it out so I guess it fooled me! The Greek philosiphy behind this design was that they wanted it to be 'alive' and to be different to any other building they had made, that it was something that was living and pulsating.
The view from the top was very awesome, it was pretty much a 360 degree view of Athens where it just seemed like a sea of buildings with cool mountains in the background. I could see the 'Theatre of Dionysis' from the top, but I didn't actually visit it because I exited the Acropolis and wasn't allowed to come back in...dumb.
After hanging around at the Acropolis for an hour, and headed towards the Roman and Ancient Agora, where there were more ancient ruins of living quarters, buildings, temples and structures. Ancient Agora was cool to walk around in and I tried to imagine what it would've been like to have been back there in the day. However, much of the ruins were just rocks, large slabs, and statue bases. So it became more difficult to imagine what the place would've looked liked. Plus, the lack of info provided next to the destroyed structure wasn't really provided so that didn't help....and the heat didn't neither. Roman Agora was a little better as it did have structures that were still preserved. There were some pillars left from a temple dedicated to Athena, and 'The Tower of the Four Winds' was pretty cool.
I munched on a Gyros, which was kinda like a kebab, took a quick nap because I was stuffed from travelling and I hopped down to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. In hindsight, the temple would've been huge, as the pillars were massive and 2 sets of these pillars ran around the sides of the temple. This was pretty much the only attraction at this site, because everything else was rubble...So again, there were some living quarters, shops and stuff, but they were reduced to rubble....how frustrating.
The next day I managed to hit Ancient Corinth, which was around a one and half hour train trip from Athens, then around a 15 to 20 minute bus trip. Ancient Corinth is just outside of the modern city of Corinth. I bumped into a Japanese guy named Naoki, who was a really cool guy I got along with really well and made the day heaps fun! He was also trying to get to Ancient Corinth so we teamed up and spent the day together. We checked out the ancient ruins and there was some cool stuff to see. Some of the structures were exisiting in someway, however a lot of it was in rubble. The site itself wasn't very big and we basically did it in 2 hours. It was a little difficult to decipher what the structures were in some areas and how they would've looked. The main temple of Athena still had some of its pillars standing, however it was interesting to see several statue bases right next to the temple, where these statues were other gods that these people worshipped at the time.
After a good lunch and a good chat about how different Australia and Japan is, we decided to head up to Accrocorinth. It basically a hike up this massive hill and it was even harder to do because it was intensely uphill and there wasn't any shade on the way up (yeah, you apparently shouldn't do an intense walk like this in the mid afternoon heat...). So we made our journey with the help of a Greek dude in ute who gave us a lift up to the top from about halfway...very cool guy!
Accrocorinth was probably the best thing I saw in Greece. The views were breathtaking and it was just really refreshing to see something green and natural, instead of looking at concrete jungles and smelling pollution. The site was used a defence wall to protect the rest of the Penelopenese Island from invaders by the Greeks, but failed. Naoki and I spent a fair time wandering around the mountain and checking out the view from the top until we got kicked out around 3PM.
The last thing I went to in Athens was the National Archaelogical Museum with Canadian whom I met at my hostel. The museum was worth seeing and was a good opportunity to read up and learn about the artwork of Greece and to see Grecian statues and carvings. There was a large section dedicated to jewelery and another to pottery. The jewelery was interesting to look at, however the pottery wasn't that exciting for me.
Food was pretty cool at Greece though. I met a girl from Canberra who took me to a place to have some Souvlaki at a reasonable price. I ended up visiting the same place 2 more times and pretty much had the all types of souvlaki the had to offer (lamb, beef, chicken). I also go to have some greek salad in Corinth and that was great. Lots of olive oil and vegies...mmmm. Its also interesting to note that buying alcohol in Greek eateries and restaurants was the same price, if not cheaper than soft drinks.
The rest of the time in Greece was pretty cruisy for me as I got to hang out with a Canadian girl and 2 Aussie guys. We walked around Athens, sat at a coffee shop and I had some great Greek Coffee! It was also the only day in my trip where it decideded to dump down rain, so I guess it was kind of a relief to leave the place. I flew back to London and dumped my stuff back at Christina's place. She was very cool to let me stay at her place again for one more night! My last night was great as I got to see a show called 'Stomp' at the Vanderwall Theatre (I think thats what it was called). Very cool show, it was kinda a cross between a play and a gig. It was very energetic, rhythmic and clever in parts. It'd be too hard to explain what I liked the best so you're gonna have to imagine...or ask me in person when you see me next.
My last day in London was a bit mixed because it was sad to leave Europe, but I was more looking forward to heading home because I wanted to see some familiar faces. And also because I kinda got sick of living out of a backpack! I had a great time for my last day, I had the best breakfast for trip, which consisted on eggs, sausages, toast, and (surprisingly) a good cup of coffee. I didn't dare ask for a flat white to avoid any problems or disappointments.
After dumping my luggage at Victoria Station, I headed over to Camden Markets where I got to walk around and go shopping for a bit. I really enjoyed the vibe at Camden and it kinda reminded me of Newtown, because there were a lot of punks and goths walking around and there were dudes asking me to buy weed. I ravaged through all the record stores and bought some cool CD's and DVD's (the collection of Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham film clips and other works) and pretty much soaked up the vibe there. After, I checked out the British Museum and though I was only there for a little over an hour, I was stoked to make it there! The architecture outside and inside the museum was amazing and the collection was very extensive, after all, they are the English.
There was an extensive collection, including Italian, Egyptian, Middle Eastern and Greek art that I didn't get to see in Greece and Italy because it was all at this museum! I got to see some awesome statues and carvings from Greece and Italy, carvings from palace walls from Assyria and Israel, Rosetta Stone and bits of the Accropolis. The carvings taken from a palace wall during Hezekiah's reign in 701BC (2Kings 18) was really intersting as it depicted a battle/takeover of Lachish by the Assyrian King Sennacherib. Rosetta Stone was great as well, though it was hard to see the engravings on it because of the silly reflective glass that it was encased in. It was a shame not to be able to stay at the museum for longer because it had some awesome stuff in there, like paintings and stuff...and there was so much to learn!
After visiting the Bristish Museum, it was pretty much a mad rush to get my luggage at Victoria station then to Gatwick Airport to fly back to Sydney. The plane trip wasn't very eventful because I was pretty over plane food and my inflight entertainment broke. I met an older Englishman who was travelling home and we talked for ages about everything. We had a long debate about The Beatles and talked about music from the 50's to the 80's, very cool convo. I also got to watch the movie 'An Incovenient Truth', which was an intersting movie about Al Gore's quest to tell the world about global warming. It was a great watch and I recommend it. I also got to watch the live DVD by the Gorillaz, which had a live backing band and a orchestra. That was cool too. I was going to watch 'Thank you for Smoking', but my entertainment machine broke...dumb. The rest of the time was spent sleeping.
I was pretty exhausted when I arrived back to Sydney. I slept for 12 hours straight that night, which was something I had never ever done in my life. I struggle to sleep in more than 9-10 hours, but to perform 12 hours straight was an amazing feat for me!
Anyways, this episode needs to end here, as its rather long! Thanks again everyone who sent me emails, prayed for me, wondered how I was, and importantly for reading!!
Nuff' said
d
;)
PS: Feel free to comment and ask questions as I may have left out some stuff.
posted by Dave Luis at 8:55 am
3 comments
