Final Thoughts: Theresa

Coming back from Sparta and Nauplion, and even Santorini, I was sort of dreading coming back to Athens.  The smaller cities were so much quieter and cleaner and I could just really enjoy myself there.  There were more children out playing and more room for children, and people in general, to hang out without being harassed.  On the ride back to Athens, you could just tell when you were back in the city.  Cars honking and disregarding lanes, people yelling to each other, window washers coming up to cars - it was just like any big city in the U.S. (though maybe with a few more visible sex shops).  I had been so excited about the novelty of Athens in the first week, but I felt like it had worn off so easily.

When I walked around Athens, I got incredibly frustrated with everyone getting in my face.  I don't want to eat at your restaurant, I don't want to buy your fake handbags, and could you please stop playing that accordion in my face while I'm eating?!?  I went to th National Gardens, which are so peaceful and beautiful, but even that was a constant reminder that I was in Athens.  Men here have no problem with staring at your for hours or even following you when you try to avoid them.  I was getting so frustrated with the whole city.

I finally understood, when I visited the Kerameikos cemetery, that Athens would have been a huge city in antiquity just like it is now.  The cemetery, built outside the ancient city in order to bury the dead properly, was also built as a quiet sanctuary for those who just want to get out of the city for a little bit.  Knowing that ancient Athenians felt a little of what I was feeling made me appreciate how far Athens has come from antiquity to modernity.

The remains of the ancient city with columns placed amid a modern city and the acropolis above, coupled with modern neoclassical buildings and the few churches of the Byzantine era, make Athens so much more than just another big city.  Looking down on Athens from Mt. Lykabettos, I could see the acropolis, the National Gardens and the Parliament building, and on top of the mountain was a Greek Orthodox church.  The acropolis represents Athens' dawning in antiquity while the churches and the Orthodox faith are a result of the Byzantine era.  The National Gardens and the Parliament building show Greece's fight against Turkey and others that threatened their independence.  Athens has turned into a modern city with all the benefits and problems that come with a big city, but its long history can be seen in its buildings and its people so clearly that Athens is made into an incredibly unique city.

Final Thoughts: Ben

Being in Greece for the last few weeks has been an amazing experience for me.  I firmly believe that the best way to gain general knowledge and knowledge about one's self is through repeated experimentation with one's life.  Coming to another country is the perfect way to experience things you can not experience in the U.S.  Being in Greece was nothing less than a constant experiment in my life.  I tried to use this trip to learn and do as many new things as possible. 

This trip was full of both good experiences and bad experiences.  We all learned something here.  Whether it was a few vocab words in a new language, knowledge about Ancient Greece and its culture, or just finding out what local foods we like or dislike,  I can be sure no one will leave without a new set of knowledge about themselves and the world.  We were all pushed out of our comfort zone at some point on this trip and with that, we all became stronger and more cultured people.

The best experience I had on this trip just happened to be the last thing we did.  We went to a concert in an ancient theater that sat right underneath the Acropolis.  Before this concert I had trouble relating to the Greek people, but when the band started to play some of Greece's most popular traditional music, the crowd started to dance, clap and sing along as if we were at a rock concert.  It was here that I really felt I was apart of the culture and it made me realize how similar we all are.  It was just another classic example of how music can bring everyone together.

Aegina: Lexie

After getting off the ferry at the port in Aegina, we made our way through the curvy unpaved roads of little towns on our way to the temple of Aphaia.  Pistachios filled the fields around us and soon we passed a recently built church described as hideous by our tour guide Smaro.  To me, the church looked exquisite and beautiful – anything but an atrocious sight that our tour guide could barely look at.  Although it was not exquisite in the fact that it had been built hundreds of years ago or that it contained detailed artwork of the past but it had potential.  All churches were new at some point in time – maybe this new church could become as great as the others with age.  Smaro’s reaction to the church interested me more than the sight of the church itself.  Why would she dislike this church?  Her dislike for the church reminded me of the captain of the police force (Bezu Fache) in the DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.  Fache specifically expressed his dislike for the new glass pyramid in front of the Louvre museum.  He saw it as big, flashy, and unnecessary but the part the irritated him the most was that it did not fit with the historical and prestigious background that defined the Louvre.  Maybe Smaro sees the new church as flashy and the opposite of how she defines Greece and its culture.  However, I am not a part of the Greek culture so I cannot truly understand her perception of the new church and her feelings towards it.

We walked off of the bus into the deathly hot heat and made our way to the temple of Aphaia – the best preserved temple that we have seen on this trip.  Like most of the sites we had already visited, we could not walk through the temple.  Although, instead of the bleach white pillars and decorations of the temple that can describe most of the ruins in Athens, this site actually had some remnants of paint.  Our class has continuously discussed how different it would be if we could see the sites in the ancient times.  Since the sites would be painted, they would contrast greatly to our ideals of a white, clean, and rundown temple.  We actually saw painted parts of temple in the museum next to the temple and got a better idea of what the temple would have looked like originally.  Smaro also showed us some pictures in a magazine of how different statues and structures might have looked like originally.  Scientists estimated the look of the designs and colors from traces of paint that were found.  All in all, the preserved pieces of painted temple and the magazine pictures gave us a better idea of what the ancient ruins looked like in the past.

We finished our day trying grilled octopus (which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be), swimming, and laying out in the sun – a perfect end to our day at Aegina : )

Delphi: Katie

Before traveling to Delphi, I really did not know what to expect. I knew a little about the oracle, but I didn't know what the site was really used for. Upon arrival to Delphi the first thing that really stood out to me was the scenery. We were surrounded by mountains all around us. It was very hot that day, and it made me think about how dedicated the people must have been to travel by foot on days that were just as hot or even hotter than it was that day.

I was also impressed by all of the treasuries, such as the Treasury of Athens, that were found at the site. The treasuries were not only used to hold wealth and offerings, they were also used as a symbol of power. In addition to the treasuries there was also a theatre and a stadium. The most impressive thing about the theatre was the fact that there were no special seats in front reserved for the priests. This was so interesting to me because the front row seats in every other theatre we visited had high backs and were reserved for priests. I also found the stadium to be interesting because it showed that more went on at Delphi than just meetings with the oracle. The stadium was used for various games and, until recently, was open to visitors but due to its deterioration we were not allowed to go inside.

In the museum we were also able to see statues and other artifacts that were found during excavation. The most striking thing, in my opinion, was the amount of gold that was found. Normally during excavations, little to no gold will be found because it is one of the first things to be looted. At Delphi, however, a significant amount of gold was found on three statues. In addition to the gold, I was surprised by the number of bronze statues at the site. One of the most famous of these statues is called the charioteer. When thinking about Delphi as a whole, I really enjoyed the site visit because of the quality of the remains and the quantity of artifacts recovered.

Aegina: Miranda

The main site we went to saw on the island of Aegina was the Temple of Aphaia. Now that we’ve been studying the styles of architecture at all the sites the past few weeks, I’m starting to be able to identify the differences. The Temple of Aphaia has elements that are precursors to the Parthenon in Athens. All of the columns have the same slight taper and the columns at the four corners are slightly wider to create the optical illusion that they are all the same width when the sunlight shines on the temple.

Another thing I found interesting is that Aphaia was a goddess only worshipped on that island, so when Aegina lost its prestige and was under the influence of more powerful city-states, the temple became centered on Athena. I had no idea until this visit that temples could be transferred from one god or goddess to another. I had assumed that old temples would be destroyed to make way for a new temple with no previous associations.

Our tour guide Smaro told us about some conspiracy theorists or extraterrestrial believers who think there is a secret meaning behind the Temple of Aphaia, the Temple of Poseidon, and the Parthenon. They say the three sites form an equilateral triangle, which apparently means something weird or important. Some of us were curious about it, so we looked up the locations online, and the sites in fact do not form a triangle with equal sides. So we dispelled what could have been an interesting fun fact…

Because all of us went to Santorini on our free weekend, we had already experienced an island before heading to Aegina. I’m going to speak for all of us and say our time in Santorini was amazing, so we were looking forward to going to another island while on this trip. The island lifestyle is different than the bustling city of Athens – the atmosphere is more relaxing and the weather is a little cooler (a welcome change). The people on the islands are even a little friendlier than Athenians, who can be a little intrusive and pushy in the touristy areas. While on Aegina, we got some free time to enjoy lunch and go to the beach, which was the perfect way to cool off in the mini heat wave. It was a great last site visit.