March 30

This morning I woke up and found out quickly that the hot water does not turn on until 7:00am. It wasn’t a huge deal this morning, but it is something to keep in mind for tomorrow. Breakfast was served at 7:30: eggs, cereal, and yogurt, again. We even were given bagged lunches to take with us to the site: salami and cheese sandwiches, a small salad, fruit juice, a pastry, and a bottle of water. Reed traded me his salad for my sandwich. We agreed to keep trading every day – big time Elementary school flashback.
It took us over two hours to drive to Paestum this morning, but I just studied on the bus and tried to be as productive as possible. There are a ton of tunnels in this region, however, and it gets a little annoying that the lights basically go out every few minutes or so for long stretches at a time. We arrived at Paestum, ancient Poseidonia, around 11:00 and spent the morning and afternoon checking out the three temples on site. First, we looked at the oldest temple, the Temple of Hera I, dated back to the mid 6th century BCE. Next, we checked out the Temple of Hera II, right next to Hera I. This temple is dated to the mid 5th century BCE. This temple is the largest and best preserved of the three here and is comparable to the Parthenon in its refinements, though it has no decorative sculpture. This temple still looks very top heavy and the columns are too squat to be considered as beautiful as the Parthenon.
We ate lunch right next to these two temples and Krentz had us spend a few minutes discussing why the Parthenon appeals so much more than this one. To me, the Pentilic marble used on the Parthenon is much more beautiful than the rough limestone here (though these columns would have been plastered in ancient times). I also agreed with him that the ratio of the superstructure to the column height is too small. The Parthenon’s extended width made for a narrower pediment, which looks so much better with its slimmer columns. The columns here are just too stocky.
Next, we looked at some of the Roman houses that have been excavated. They were nothing special, everyone is waiting for Pompeii tomorrow to get a good look at the typical Roman houses. There was not much here to see. After the houses we looked at the last temple, the Temple of Athena. This temple was constructed around 500 BCE and its biggest claim to fame is that it is the first building ever to combine Doric and Ionic styles.
After the temples, we went to the Paestum Museum to hear Jensen give his presentation on the Tomb of the Diver. He spoke about the painted travertine stone slabs of this tomb. The walls of the tomb are painted with scenes of a typical Greek symposium – a dinner for men only where they reclined on benches and had musical “performances” (naked women) as they ate – and the ceiling with an image of a man diving into the water. There are several theories on why this man is diving, but no one knows for sure. It probably was something to do with the afterlife as the image was found in a tomb.
After this museum, we drove back to the villa. I am in Discussion Group B and we met up as soon as we got back to talk about books 1-4 of the Aeneid. Krentz is having two people in each discussion group lead the discussions each day. I go on Wednesday with Trent and we will be leading discussions on Books 9-12. I was worried at first, because when Krentz told us our partners at dinner last night, Trent hadn’t started the book (I had already finished). But, he got through 6 books by the discussion time this afternoon, so I think we’ll be fine.
After the discussion, it was soon time for dinner. Tonight our pasta course was lasagna. Then we were served baked chicken and potatoes. Spiros brought his own olive oil tonight to share with us. I didn’t know this till tonight, but Spiros grows his own olives and makes his own olive oil. It was ridiculously good! There were even whole kalamata olives in the bowl and I munched on those as well. For dessert, we had some sort of apple cake.
After dinner, I hit the books for a few hours and then went to sleep. The trip today took much longer than I had hoped and I didn’t get all the studying done that I planned. Tomorrow will be a very long day as well – the Pompeii site is huge. I’m trying not to get worried about these tests, but everyone (well, the girls at least) is a little frantic right now, trying to get everything sorted out mentally. Krentz is also putting his foot down this time about the 1 hour time limit. That is not good news. He says he is shortening the test length, but I am doubtful they will be all that much shorter than pervious tests (one of the tests last time took me over 2 hours to finish). Well, I shouldn’t worry, that’s not helping anything. I am just making do with what time I have. That includes sleep, so goodnight.

March 29

Today was a free day and the villa was a perfect place to just chill out and relax all day. Breakfast was served until 9 (they can serve the breakfast at anytime, but we only going to have those of the female variety and Krentz at breakfast if we ate before 9am on a free day), so I slept in a little this morning. The beds are super soft. You actually sink in quite a bit when you sit down on the bed, almost to the point of tipping over backwards. It made for a very comfortable night’s sleep – normally, hotels have really hard beds and I end up with an achy neck, but not here! Louisa and I tried to go down to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee before breakfast was served, but she handed us two shot glasses’ worth of coffee and kindly (and in Italian) indicated that breakfast was at 9. We got the message and tried to be very gracious to her. Breakfast was fried eggs (probably from the chickens in the front yard, corn flakes, yogurt, and really good coffee.
After breakfast I finished The Aeneid – after travelling for so long the past couple of days, I only had 15 pages left. After that milestone, I went for a run. This run was much better than last time as I was able to find a sidewalk. After that, it was laundry time and then lunch. They served us homemade pizza, ricotta cheese balls (fried) salad and fruit. The pizza was awesome! The morning flew by pretty quickly. The rest of the day I devoted to studying. There is just so much to go over, that I need to be in the books all week if I am going to be ready by Friday to take these monstrosities. I got a lot done and there is plenty of nice places to study here. I picked the long table on the first floor.
A few more things about the villa: There are 3 floors. The first floor is the main hangout area with a tv, and lined with couches. There is also a library in this floor (all books devoted to Virgil and ancient Rome, of course) and a long dining room table, though we don’t eat here. We eat in the basement. It too has a long table and fits us all very nicely. The second floor has the bedrooms and shared bathrooms. Each room has its own balcony and mine overlooks the excavation of an amphitheater, right on their own property! You have to admit this is a pretty cool place, how many hotels can say that their property includes an archaeological excavation?
Dinner was at 7:30. Tonight we had pasta for our first course – penne and a tomato sauce with vegetables – beef, mashed potatoes, and eggplant. I dove into the eggplant like my life depended on it. It was fabulous. Then for dessert, we had tiramisu! This place will make you gain 20 pounds if you aren’t careful! After dinner, I studied some more and then went to bed.
All in all, it was a nice, productive day. I needed it!

March 28

This morning we left the ferry at 10:30. I had gotten up at my usual time to shower and eat my cereal. Yes, I did bring my cereal onto the ferry. I ate it in my room, not in the café. I then went out to the café to get some coffee. The coffee was pretty bad: this weird instant filter stuff. I spent the morning reading, packing my stuff, and waiting. The ferry service came and kicked us out of our rooms at 9:40. I guess they really wanted to make sure that everyone was awake. Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad idea, as the boys in our group were still asleep when the ferry guy came and banged on their door. He could have been a little nicer to those in my room – we were all perfectly awake and just waiting for the ferry to dock.
We got straight onto the Spiros bus and headed for the Villa Virgiliana. A ride that should have taken us under 4 hours took us over 5. We stopped for a bathroom break and a quick bite at a roadside stop, but another bus full of Greek high school students also made a stop there and the little shop was packed full. So with this stop, and the fact that Spiros doesn’t really know his way around Italy (and Krentz speaks even less Italian than he does Greek), it took us a while to find the right roads to the villa. So, at 3:30 we finally pulled up to the villa, tired and hungry. Lunch was ready and waiting for us. We get full board here, including packed lunches to take with us to the sites. For this late lunch, we dined on caprese salad, bread with some sort of egg and ham baked in (I passed on this one), fish, and fruit. It was delicious!
The Villa Vigiliana is part of a society dedicated to Virgil. You can only stay here if you are a member of this society – Krentz had to get us all temporary memberships for this trip. The library is full of Virgil’s works in several different copies, and general history about Rome and Greece. It is a pretty sweet place. I love the villa. Everything about it. They even have their own chickens out in the front yard.
After lunch we had 15 mins to settle into our rooms, before we headed out to see the Sybelline Cave just up the road. In The Aeneid, this is where Aeneas goes to enter the underworld, guided by Sybil. It is just a long cave, enlarged and carved out by man. This wasn’t all that fascinating of a place and I was still pretty travel weary at this point. Krentz even told us we didn’t need to bring our notebooks to this site, so that automatically means this place won’t be on the test.
We headed back to the villa for further unpacking. I went for a run to get my blood pumping and my limbs moving after having sat down all day. The road I picked ended up being a poor choice: the sidewalk ended and I got honked at a lot, but I was glad for the exercise. After the run and icing down my shins – I am getting shin splints again – I joined the girls in the bathroom for a singing/reminiscing about middle school songs fest. At the villa, the rooms don’t have their own bathrooms. It is dorm style with a girls bathroom that has 4 sinks 2 toilettes and 2 showers, and a similar setup for the guys downstairs. So, as I showered, I belted out the words to Britney Spears hits, the ones before she went a little crazy.
Dinner was at 7:30. Our first course was a pasta dish: penne pasta and tomato sauce. Then we were served cooked carrots, breaded chicken and French fries (I will never escape there stupid fries!). They also put 3 bottles of the house white wine on the table. For dessert, we ate some sort of cake with chocolate bits and cinnamon icing. It tasted like tiramisu, but in the form of a cake.
After dinner, I got a little work done and instant messaged mom. Tomorrow is a free day, but I will be devoting most of my time to studying. We have tests on Friday and I need to start hitting the books pretty hard.
One side note about today: daylight savings time. There is a one hour time difference between Greece and Italy, so we gained an hour coming to Italy. But, daylight savings time happens tonight, so we will lose that hour tonight. It has been a very confusing day time wise. I just figured I would keep my watch on Greece time, as Italy would be changing to that time tomorrow. But it has made trying to figure out tomorrow’s schedule – namely, when breakfast will be served – particularly difficult. I think Italians have a different concept of “spring forward, fall back” as the woman who works here kept confusing us. The solution ended up: when the gong rings (they sound the gong before every meal), breakfast is served (either 8 or 9 – I’m still not sure).

March 27

Krentz gave us the morning off, all except a discussion at 10:45, because the only plan for the day was to travel to Italy by ferry. I woke up at my usual time and headed down to breakfast with my cereal. A few other girls joined me shortly and I spent longer than usual at the table, just because we had the time. I read some of The Aeneid for a while, packed my suitcase and an overnight bag for the ferry, made sure Caroline was packed, and then went for a run.
The discussion went as usual. We talked about a poem in honor of a champion from the Olympic Games and The Golden Ass. We broke for lunch and a few of the girls and I headed to the café next door to get some sun and read. I ate my sandwich on the bus as we drove to Paros, where the ferry was to depart. Maria, Spiros’ girlfriend, met us at the ferry and gave us all chocolate bars. We have been eagerly awaiting Maria’s arrival for weeks. She will be staying with us at the Villa Vergiliana.
We got on the ferry at 4:00 and I spent a few hours writing my journals, my blogs, and reading. I also went up to the deck to check out the view. The food on the ferry is way too expensive, so I dined on my groceries again. I think everyone pretty much brought food onto the ferry, at least everyone in my room did.
I came back to the room to do some work, but ended up chatting with Allie, Caroline, Louisa and Matt for a few hours in the room and then went to bed.
All in all, it has been a pretty uneventful day. Tomorrow will be the same. We get to Italy at 9:00am and should make it to the villa by lunch. We will be getting full board, including a packed lunch to take with us every day.

March 26

I woke up this morning, early as usual, and went down to breakfast. At this point, I just bring my own stuff down to breakfast, and drink the coffee or tea provided by the hotel. I found a really great cereal in Nafplio and it has lasted me a while. I’m just not a big fan of these hotel breakfasts. Sometimes they have fresh fruit, like in Pylos, but mainly it’s just white bread, meat, cheese, and hard boiled eggs. The coffee at this hotel was pretty good, much better than the gray water at Pylos. Getting up early left me time to make sure that Caroline was all situated for the day, and to read some more.
We left at 8:30 to head to the museum about the Olympic games. This was a new building and very interesting. There were displays on every event and different pieces of artwork showing athletes at the event described. There was little at Olympia that had to do with women, besides working in the brothels. Absolutely no women were allowed at the Olympic games, even though males of any class (even slaves) or nationality could attend. There was one event for women, a footrace for unmarried girls, but it occurred on different years than the actual Olympic games. The middle room was designed to match the dimensions of the Temple of Zeus in the grounds of the sanctuary. The exterior was also designed to match the temple – each corner of the roof was topped either with a tripod, eagle, griffin, or owl.
After this museum, we stopped by the little museum on the history of the excavations. The cool thing about Olympia is that all the finds have stayed here – nothing was taken back to the home country of the excavators – a very rare thing to happen, especially given that the excavations began in 1875. There were journal entries, pictures of the excavators, old tools, newspaper clippings, and sketches of the progress of the dig. Even though it was small, and only two rooms, the museum was sweet. There have been three different excavations here. The first one is called the “Old Excavation” (1875 – 1881), the second called the “New Excavation” (1936 – 1966), and the current excavation called the “Contemporary Excavation” (1973 – now). You’d think they would call the excavations by something other than time. The name only works while that excavation is in progress. What will they call the next one? The “New-Contemporary Excavation?”
After the museums, we hit the site itself. At this point, we have visited all four of the Panathaneic Games sites: Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and Corinth. Olympia was never a town, only a sanctuary for the games, which took place every four years. The games began in 776 BCE and lasted until 393 CE, when Theodosius banned all festivals to the pagan gods. 50,000 people would come to see the games, which increased in number over the years. Late in the Classical period (around the 2nd century CE) a hotel was added, but mostly people just brought tents. When we got to the stadium, Krentz told us the entrance for the athletes would have been flanked with large statues, paid for by the fines acquired from cheaters – just a reminder of the tough consequences of cheating. Allie, Louisa, and I jogged around the stadium to get a feel for the race. The track at Olympia is unusually long. The track is in a natural valley between two low hills. There is no evidence of stone seats, so spectators probably just brought their own seats and watched from either slope.
At noon, we broke for lunch. Krentz told us to meet up at the New Museum at 1:30 to hear Louisa’s presentation on the sculpture from the Temple of Zeus. Allie, Emily, Louisa, and I ate our packed lunch in a grassy area on the site. I had The Aeneid in my backpack, and read for the last 45 mins before we met back up. It was a nice, sunny day, and the time went very quickly.
By this point, I was a little worn out, especially since I had just eaten lunch, so I was glad that we didn’t spend that much time at this museum. Louisa’s presentation was good – again, the sculptures were not shipped off when the excavators found them – so she got to explain her presentation with the actual sculpture right behind her. She talked about the pediment sculpture and the frieze. The pediment sculpture has an overall design, but the style varies among the different pieces. One of the women is very rigid (the Severe Style) and the draping of her clothing is not revealing at all – indicators of an older style. A man, just two figures down from her, is lying on the ground, and is clearly older in years, with his sagging skin and balding hair – indicators of a newer style.
After this museum, we headed back to the hotel. I used Caroline’s computer (I left my charger on the bus, and of course we didn’t take the bus today) and spent some time online. Mom gave me her credit card number and said I could order some clothes from the online sale at Banana Republic! Yeah for new clothes. She is bringing them when she comes for Easter Break. I am getting very sick of the clothes in my suitcase. It’s funny – Kyle “found” (?) a shirt in his suitcase and wore it to dinner the other night. I noticed immediately and commented that he was wearing something new. We all have been wearing the same 4 or 5 outfits and it’s easy to tell when someone wears something new.
I ate some groceries for dinner – the tomatoes here are Excellent – and went to bed after reading a couple of books from The Aeneid.

March 25

Happy March 25th! Today is a national holiday in Greece, celebrating the Greek War of Independence, fought between 1821 and 1827. We celebrated the holiday by driving for hours and hours to Olympia. We did make two interesting stops on the way.
The first stop was a bathroom break at a kapheneion. Traditionally, these are the coffee houses where Greek men socialize over coffee and cards. Women never really go into them. They are not quite as popular as they used to be, but they are still pretty common in the small Greek towns. But, as usual, the girls all had to use the restroom, so Spiros pulled over and indicated that this place was where we should go. We looked in the window and saw that they place was full of men and that they were all staring right back at us. We asked again if this were the place Spiros had in mind. He indicated yes, again. So we all went into the little kapheneion and I ordered a small Greek coffee to go as we stood in line. The place was packed even though it was about 9:45 in the morning. I wonder how long the men stay here, or if they are retired. Not all of them looked older; some were probably around 45. One indication of the lack of gender differences here was that there were no signs on the bathroom doors indicating which one was for females. Both were just blank. There were packs of cards and stacks of chess boards along one of the walls. They continued staring, not gawking, but just a confused kind of look, as we all lined up and then left the building.
After getting back on the bus, we drove to the temple at Bassai, where Trent was to give his presentation. Again the girls had to use the restroom, but the WC was broken. Well, there was no one else visiting the site but us, given that the temperature was freezing cold and the wind was blowing hard, so we all just headed off into the surrounding woods…
The temple is actually covered by a huge tent to protect it from the acid rain, which is a problem in this area. It also blocked out the harsh wind, which made it much easier to pay attention to Trent’s report and to jot down notes. The temple is known for incorporating all three orders – Doric, Ionic, and Corinthians – into the design. As you go further into the temple (well, you can’t physically go further now, because it is roped off to the public), the orders progress as well. Because there is no where near the temple to have lunch, Krentz advised us to pack a lunch and we could eat it at the site. But, seeing as how it was freezing cold and very windy, we all just ran onto the bus to eat. Krentz, never one to pass up an opportunity to see some ancient remains, braved the weather and checked out the rest of the ruins, but we all wanted to get warm. I, personally, wasn’t expecting cold weather, so I just had on a long sleeve t-shirt and my fleece vest. I don’t think anyone else expected cold weather either.
Then we drove to Olympia. I am rooming with Caroline for the next two nights. As soon as we got settled in the room, the weather turned nasty. I looked out our balcony window and saw hail pouring from the sky. Each little ice chunk was a little bit bigger than a be be, but they were pouring hard. I also saw two guys from our group running around in the hail. I guess they were just a little stir-crazy from being on the bus all day. I didn’t get a ton of sleep last night, so after reading a bit of The Aeneid (the next assigned reading), I took a nap.
For dinner, a bunch of us went across the street to a little typical restaurant. The prices in Olympia are pretty high, mainly because it is a town that grew out of the tourist industry. After dinner I went to bed early – The Aeneid just puts me to sleep.

March 24

I woke earlier than Sarabeth this morning, hoping that the hot water would be working for a shower (it hasn’t worked for the past two days, so my hopes weren’t high). It wasn’t. I ended up just washing my hair in the sink. I’ll just use someone else’s shower next time. I have had some terrible luck with showers this trip. I went down to breakfast, surprised to be the first one down, though I came down about 20 mins later than normal. The coffee at this hotel is terrible. I actually don’t think it is coffee, just hot, gray water. I’m not kidding, I could tell there was no caffeine in the beverage because I was getting sleepy again by 8:00. I ran into Allie, Louisa and Emily, who were also in need of caffeine, on their way to the café for a go cup of coffee. I eagerly joined them.
The site today was only 20 mins from the hotel, so we had a short day today. In The Illiad, Pylos is the home to King Nestor, and the excavators of this site have dubbed the large complex “Nestor’s Palace.” It’s funny to go to places that trained archaeologists have named after characters in a story. I guess people just want Homer’s story to be as real as possible. That and it makes their site much more significant to tie to a well-known character from a pseudo-history. All that remains of the 13th century BCE palace is the mud brick foundation. It’s similar to other Mycenaean palaces we have visited so far, so we really didn’t spend much time there. The most distinguishing feature of this place is the sheer number of clay cups that were found here – over 6,000. The archaeologists even found a room that contained only broken cups. The theory behind their number is that they were the ancient version of Solo cups. This site also had a wine magazine and the thinking is that huge celebrations and feasts were held here and these cups were for a one-time use.
After the site, we visited the museum. There were lots of cups on display (I was surprised that these would be considered one-time use cups, as they seemed nicer than the cups we use at my house. They were plain, but they still had a nice shape.), as were fresco remains, one of which depicts a singing poet that the archaeologists jokingly named “Homer.”
After the museum, Krentz took us inside the Venetian fort. He told us earlier in the day that he would be telling us stories about two different naval battle fought in this harbor and would take us to the outside of the walls where we would see the harbor. I asked why weren’t going inside and he said he figured everyone who was interested in the fort would have gone on the free day. When I told him that the fort was closed on Monday (as are most sites – that’s why our free days usually fall on Mondays), he bought us all tickets to the fort and told us the stories from the path along the inside of the walls, in a spot where we all could see the harbor. The first story was about a battle fought here in 1927 between the British naval and the Turkish navy. Apparently, Britain, Russia and France had forced an armistice between Greece and Turkey (this battle came at the end of the War for Greek Independence) and the British general had received vague orders to keep pressure on Turkey to keep them in line with the armistice. Both fleets were uncomfortably close in this harbor and after a fire was shot, the battle broke out. The British, though outnumbered, had the better ships and decisively won the battle. The Britsh general, though a hero to the Greeks, was ordered back to England and court marshaled. They weren’t happy that this general, given the responsibility to prevent two nations from fighting, ended up in the fight himself. The second story was about Athens and Sparta in the 5th century BCE. This battle (well, lack of battle) is noteworthy for being one of the only times that Spartan soldiers surrendered. About 300 soldiers were basically stranded on the island opposite Pylos and surrendered to Athens without a fight.
It was lunch by this time and Krentz called an end to the morning’s outings, but we were to meet back up at 6:45 for a discussion, and then out for a group dinner (paid for by the trip) at 8:00. Most people went straight to lunch, but Matt, Jensen, Emily, and I wanted to explore the fort a bit more. This fort was constructed in 1573 by the Turks after losing a naval battle two years earlier. There was a ledge that ran around most of the exterior walls, and there were cut outs at the top where the cannons were shot. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so there was no way I was going back inside anytime soon. I explored with this group for about an hour, and then stayed to see the citadel a little further up the hill. I had my sandwich in my backpack and a copy of The Golden Ass, the assigned reading for tonight. We had been the only people visiting the fort, and now, I was the only person left. So I picked a nice, sunny, spot on the citadel and munched on my sandwich as I read. The sun was nice wand warm while I read, but when the dark clouds started to roll in, the wind got too chilly for comfort and I headed back to the hotel.
I finished The Golden Ass in the room and took a 30 min nap to recharge my batteries.
I joined up with the group for our discussion at 6:45. The discussion was helpful – we talked about Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata. After the discussion we all went out to dinner at Gregorio’s. Krentz had worked it out ahead of time and had them bring us several dishes, which we passed around the table. We feasted on Greek salad, saganaki (fried cheese), giant beans in tomato sauce, chicken, pork, bread, wine and almond dessert. It was a very nice dinner, and lasted about 2 hours.
I came back to the room and showered in Emily’s shower. Hers gets hot water and I took advantage of that luxury.
Tomorrow we have a lot of driving to do to get to Olympia, so it will be another long bus day.

March 23

I woke up early this morning, well early for a free day, not wanting to waste time in bed. I didn’t have any particular plans for the day, but I just didn’t feel like sleeping in. When I got down to breakfast at 8, I saw four other girls from the trip already enjoying their meal. It’s funny how all of the girls seem to operate under the same timeframe and the boys, except 2 or 3, operate on almost an opposite one.
After breakfast, Mary, Louisa and I went to the supermarket for groceries and produce. This was a decent supermarket, but it didn’t have a produce section. Just down the street, however, there was an entire shop full of fresh fruit and vegetables, so there must be some sort of partnership between the two. I found what I needed at the supermarket and loaded up on fruit and salad fixings at the produce shop. I came back to the room and started chopping away. I made sure to get a variety of colors for my salad and it turned out quite beautiful, but now the room smells like onions.
I spent the rest of the morning getting ahead in my reading so that I can start studying for the tests coming up, just a week and a half till the next round, and I’d like to get a jump start. We won’t have two free days before the tests like last time. Sarabeth also spent the morning doing work, but she set up a reward system for herself: for every certain number of pages she read, she watched an Office episode on my computer. I finished the work I had planned to do and enjoyed a pb and banana sandwich.
After lunch, I went for a walk around the town. I borrowed Allie’s camera because the day was so beautiful and I knew that there were pictures just waiting to be taken. There is another Venetian fort here, so I headed out to try and get inside. It was closed on Mondays, so I just kept walking. I passed another (better) grocery store, and made a mental note to tell the rest of the girls that there was a very nice selection of peanut butter here. I wandered around the town, passing a Greek Orthodox church with an unusual (to me, at least) silver dome. I walked along a dirt road and passed farm animals. The streets around the town are windy, but not like Santorini. The land is not as steep here, so though I walked for a while, I didn’t increase my elevation that much. I made my way back to the shore and stopped by the fishing boats on the harbor.
After walking for about two hours, I went back to the room. Different people came in and out to chat as Sarabeth and I just hung out. I read some more of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and had the salad that I chopped up in the morning. It was very good.
I went to bed early, full and happy with my day off.

March 22

Allie and I got Caroline all packed and out of the room this morning before breakfast and then loaded her onto the bus at 8:30. She is going to be out of commission for the next two weeks, unfortunately, so she and the bus are going to be seeing a lot of each other.
The best part about today was definitely Mystras. This morning was overcast, but the landscape was still beautiful. This Byzantine town is on the acropolis of the Mt. Taygetos and Spiros drove us up as far as the road would go. We still had to climb up a little ways to make it to the castle, but it was worth the early morning effort. The castle is in ruins (as is the rest of the town lower down the mountain), but it looks just like the setting for the duel between Inigo Montoya and Wesley in Princess Bride. I even looked over the edge of one of the fortification walls and shouted “As you wish!” Looking over the other side of the walls you could see the rest of the town. The churches have maintained their condition fairly well, I’m sure there has been more effort out into their upkeep, but the palace and the houses are in pretty bad shape. It is a little eerie there. This was the home to the Spartans until the early 19th century, when they moved to the modern day location after the war for Greek independence. Given the time frame that I have been operating under, that really isn’t that long ago. But there were wildflowers everywhere and the whole place is lush and green.
We started at the castle at the top of the mountain and made our way down through the city to meet Spiros at the exit to the city. We were supposed to have 2 hours to check out the place, but the rain really started to pour after an hour and a half, so we cut the trip short. The road through the mountains, which was the shortest way to the next site, was closed, so we took the longer road around the mountain. I am glad we took this road and not the one through the mountain because this one was bad enough, I don’t even want to think about how the one through the mountains would have been. We stopped for lunch on the way, and Mary and I kept Caroline company as we ate our lunch on the bus. I would have preferred to eat outside in the covered areas, but it is difficult for Caroline to get around, at least for now, so we thought it would be easier to just stay on the bus.
After that, today was a pretty boring day. The weather is just really bad all over Greece. Because of the blocked off route through the mountain, we didn’t make it to Messene to see the ancient site. We spent about 15 mins at the fortification walls. These ones were particularly good for climbing on and getting a sense for how they were built, but of course, it started to rain and we all ran back to the bus. After the failed trip to Messene, it was another 2 hours to Pylos, where we are staying for the next three nights.
I got settled in the room and tried to go out to the supermarket with Mary, but the rain started to pour really hard and we actually ran into Wheat, who informed us that nothing was open. We weren’t that surprised – little is ever open on Sundays in Greece. I did some work in the room and then went to dinner with Sarabeth and Emily. The meal wasn’t very good. They both got grilled chicken that was weirdly soft and mushy, but not undercooked, and my salad was pretty blah.
Tomorrow is a free day, so I really hope the weather gets better and I can check out Pylos. It looks like a cute town. We are right on the water and you could tell it is gorgeous here when the sun is shining.

March 21

Well, it did rain today. And thunder. And lightning. It was not a good day to do much of anything besides visit museums. I actually woke up to the thunder and realized that all my laundry hanging out on the balcony was getting soaked. So I groggily got up and secured my sopping wet clothing. It was about 20 mins before my alarm was set to go off, so I just stayed awake. The breakfast here is pretty decent actually, and I ventured downstairs at 7:00 to read and eat. My roommates weren’t up yet and I didn’t want to wake them by turning on the lights.
Everyone gathered in the lobby to head out to the Sparta Museum at 8:30. It took all of 2 mins to walk across the street to the museum, but the rain was still pouring down hard and the thunder was still loud and angry. The Spartans were not known for their artistic abilities. They mostly focused on battle training from a very early age, having conquered the neighboring peoples and forced them to farm the lands and take up the metalworking and crafts fields. Therefore, the museum was very small and had little on display. We only spent about 45 mins there before heading to the Olive Oil Museum. This second museum doesn’t open until 10:00am, so we met back up in the lobby at 10:00 to head there together. Allie, Louisa, Emily, and I spent the 30 mins drinking coffee at the café next to the hotel.
I have already been to an olive oil museum on this trip. I went on the free day in Assos to a cute little place that makes there own olive oil and soap using traditional methods. You may remember my post describing my trip. So, I mainly wanted to go to this museum (which was optional) for its gift shop. I really wanted to buy some more olive oil soap and check out the jewelry. Krentz has been telling us that bought his most successful purchase, an olive tree necklace, here for his wife. I was very disappointed by the items for sale. The soap was not scented and though it may be nice soap, I don’t really want to smell like an olive. The necklaces weren’t to my taste either. So, I walked back to the hotel and had the entire day to myself. At this point, it was only 10:45 in the morning.
I read for my classes and some of Captain Corelli, ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich and was planning to exercise a little at 3. Caroline, who had gone for a run with Allie, Louisa, and Sarabeth at 2:30, sprained her ankle during the first 5 mins of the run. By the time she got back to the room, there was a nice sized egg on her upper ankle. Sarabeth the injury expert knew exactly what to do, but, when Krentz got to the room, we all decided that it was better to make sure the ankle wasn’t broken and Krentz took Caroline to the hospital. Spiros drove them (in his car, not the bus!) and they were actually back in no time at all, under an hour. Spiros has connections in Sparta. We all call him “Captain Spiros.” Her ligaments are strained, but nothing is snapped or broken, thank goodness. Allie and I have been making sure she ices her foot for 10 mins at a time. She’ll have to stay off it for the next 2 weeks, but the hospital was able to provide her with crutches. People have been in and out of our room all day to say hi and check up on Caroline, so I am glad I already finished my work before this whole ordeal happened.
The same group as yesterday met for another discussion at 7. This time we went over Plutarch’s Lycurgus, which details Lycurgus’ laws for Sparta, and the inscriptions found at the Asklepion sanctuary we visited the other day. I had the rest of my salad in the room and hung out with Caroline. With her crutches and her bandaged foot, I was reminded of The Office episode where Michael uses crutches all day because he burned his foot on his George Foreman grill. I just had to show her the episode and we laughed the whole time.
I spent the rest of the night packing and reading. We have a few hours on the bus tomorrow as we drive to Pylos. If the weather is good, we will go to a town called Mystras, a ghost town known for its 12th century to 18th century churches. This place has nothing to do with Classics, but Krentz thinks it is a cool place, and it is nice to go enjoy sites without having to worry that you are catching and remembering every detail. Also, something visually and historically different with be a little break.

March 20

We left the hotel with bags packed at 8:30 and hopped on the bus to drive to Nemea. After an hour long drive, we made it to the site. Here was one of the four main sites of the Pan-Hellenic games, the others being at Delphi, Olympia, and Corinth. In ancient times, this site was only used for the games. There was no settlement here until the early Christians inhabited the area in the 5th century. Taking us around the site was the former director of the archaeological program here, and the former director of the American School of Archaeology (he was the director when Krentz attended in the 80s). He did a great job showing us around and explaining what they know about how the games worked. He was a funny character. He had a protruding stomach with grape juice stains, large, thick glasses, and has been married three times (this last bit of information came from Krentz). His latest book is actually a children’s book about the Olympics.
When Steve was showing us around the site, he filled us in on the current reconstruction projects. He took us to the Temple of Zeus and had us each stand where all the columns once stood so that we could understand the interior layout. When Rob asked him what his opinions were regarding the permitting of tourists to walk on the temple, he replied that these temples were built to be walked on and he wants that function to carry on into the present. Steve wants people to appreciate the temple as it once stood, to get a feel for the size of the building by walking on it, and a feel for the interior space by experiencing it with the reconstructed columns. Steve’s goal seems to be to restore the temple to the original design so as to pay homage to the building’s original look. The restored building will no longer serve the same religious purpose, but through the restoration project, it will get its old look back.
I particularly enjoyed learning about how the temple was being reconstructed and the pains they were taking to make the restorations as close to the original as possible. They quarried the same limestone and used the same techniques, but with some advances (titanium pegs instead of wood – though Steve, not surprisingly, wanted the wood). Through mimicking the designs, they are learning more about the purpose behind the temple’s designs. It amazes me that the temple was able to withstand earthquakes because the engineers designed the columns to be flexible. What makes me sad is learning that temples were destroyed purposefully, even if for religious purposes. I’d almost rather have the temple fall though a natural disaster than to have it taken apart purposefully.
Next, we went to the shrine to Helen and Menelaus at Menelaion (I wonder why his name is the one used for the shrine, and not both). This shrine is just 2 km outside of Sparta. The mountains here are unreal. They are beautifully capped in snow like confectioner’s sugar, but looking up at them from the valley they seem to be angrily thrusting from the ground. Wildflowers decorated the hillside where the shrine is now in ruins. It was one of those times where all you wanted to do was frolic and take pictures. We did pay a little attention to Krentz, but there really isn’t much known about the shrine here, and the archaic inscription which attributed the structure to Helen and Menelaus comes about 800 years after its construction in the 15th century BCE. There is also a house a little ways away which may be a predecessor to the palaces at Tyrns and Mycenae as this one also dates to the 15th century BCE.
We are spending tonight and tomorrow night in Sparta, which is Spiros’ hometown! The hotel is nice and I scoped out where the closest super market was on the drive in. Once I had settled into the room and determined that the internet worked and was free (this is one feature separates the good hotels from the excellent ones – I’d rather have no shower curtain than have to pay for internet or have it not even be an option), I trekked out to buy some produce. At 6:30 we had a discussion on the play Agamemnon. This time only half of us met so that we could fit better in one area and hear each other much easier. It thought it was a good discussion, particularly since I had already studied this play in Humanities last year and, therefore, I knew what I was talking about. The discussion lasted till 7:30 when Krentz had to leave us to go have dinner with Spiros at his home. Krentz said he was a little nervous because he had already used up all questions he knew how to ask in Greek when they had dinner together last night.
I spent the evening doing laundry, eating a delicious salad that I chopped up with my pocket knife, and watching The Office. The episodes download automatically to my iTunes every Friday so I am still current on all the goings on in Scranton, PA. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, so we will be visiting the museums in town. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but hopefully the olive oil museum will be interesting.

March 19

This morning we left the hotel at 8:30 and took off for Lerna. This is the site of an ancient house, The House of Tiles, and it dates back to the mid 5th millennium BCE. This place actually has signs of activity that date back to 6000 BCE. We got to the site and there was no one at the gate to take our money, but the site is covered by a protective structure that Krentz said always stays locked, so we were still getting the same view of the house. But, when the guard did show up about 40 mins later, he unlocked the door for us and let us in to see it up close. That was pretty cool, and unusual. This house is pretty much like the other ancient houses we have seen. I think I am getting a little jaded. A 6000 year old house just doesn’t seem so unusual to me anymore. But, if I really think about it. It’s pretty amazing that people so long ago could construct such a large house, and have it be two stories!
After Lerna, we visited the religious site of the ancient city of Epidaurus. Here was the sanctuary to Asklepios, the god of healing. There are ancient inscriptions all over this one building where the sick would come to sleep in hopes of being healed while they slept. Krentz had us read the English translations of the best preserved inscriptions and they involve all sorts of ailing people (worms, blind, deaf, barren, and wounded) who come to this specific building in the sanctuary to sleep, they would receive some sort of vision or dream in which they were healed (often in bizarre ways using animals like snakes or dogs) and woke up completely recovered. The healed would then leave their story on the wall. The cult to Asklepion was extremely popular in the 5th century and in the 4th century, an expensive building campaign began and added to the sanctuary: dining areas for the sick and those who brought them, an actual temple to Asklepios, a theater (the best preserved theater in all of Greece, actually), and enhanced the building already present.
Wheat’s presentation was on the theater at Epidaurus and once we finished with the various buildings (none of which have been restored to any great extent), we gathered in the theater to hear him present. While waiting for everyone to join (Krentz gave us 30 mins in case anyone wanted to go back and look at anything in particular), we watched as tourist groups and their leaders tested the remarkable acoustics in the theater by dropping coins in the very center of the orchestra (which we did hear at the very top of the theater) and then listening to the more daring (but not always talented) members of the groups volunteer to sing. Once we all gathered, Wheat began his talk, but he had to stop every few minutes because the whole theater would grow quiet as different tourists began to sing. It got pretty funny actually, especially when one young guy sang a very long song. When Wheat was finished, Kyle, who had brought his guitar along, went down to the middle of the orchestra and played for us. Of course, we ended our trip to the theater with the guys’ singing BackStreet Boys “I Want It That Way.” I am beginning to develop a bad taste in my mouth when I hear that song.
After Epidarus, we stopped for a few minutes at the Nafplio Museum, which just opened on Tuesday. Krentz had a few items he wanted to point out to us before he let us free for the day. We finished much earlier than I expected, and I had already eaten my lunch on the bus, so I was pumped that it was only 2:00 and the sun was warm and shining brightly. I quickly got back to the hotel room to change and scurried on up to the acropolis to catch some rays, listen to music, read, and take pictures. It was a fabulous way to spend the afternoon. After my sun exposure, I went to the grocery store to grab some more fruit and soy milk and headed back to the room for schoolwork.
Krentz called off the discussion group planned for that night because it is supposed to rain in Sparta and he expects us to be stuck in the hotel for a bit over the next couple of days. I went out to dinner with all the girls and Bryce and we went to Sarabeth’s favorite restaurant. This place only charges you for the first liter of wine you order and then keeps on giving free refills. That was something we all wanted to take advantage of. : )
After a nice meal, and a little bit of wine, I headed back to the room to pack up my bags. For the next week we will be hopping from hotel to hotel after just a couple of days, so I will be doing a lot of packing. My suitcase it so heavy! I can’t wait to lighten my load when Mom comes in just two weeks. I keep waiting for Spiros to just laugh at me when he tries to lift my suitcase onto the bus. I wish he would just let us load our stuff, I would feel so much better knowing that I was the one suffering for carrying along so much stuff.

March 18

I had a similar morning as yesterday – cereal in the room and then coffee downstairs before we got on the bus at 8:30. Tyrns was open, so we were able to check out the Mycenaen fortifications on the acropolis, as well as those at Mycenae. This site wasn’t particularly amazing. The interesting thing about this site is that these are the people who were probably responsible for the destruction of the Minoan civilization and palaces on Crete two hundred years before this fort was constructed. Krentz wanted us to compare the palace here to the ones on Crete. It seems that the Mycenaens were more concerned with building extremely strong fortification walls, rather than the interior rooms. There is evidence for some sort of throne room with a large hearth in the middle (at both Tyrns and Mycenae), with a courtyard and doors to create an entranceway. I was better at figuring out the layout of the room, by looking at the ruins, than I was when we were in Crete. That was cool. I could tell that the stone wall that ran down the middle of the room was a later addition and were erased it from our minds as we analyzed how the rooms originally were set up and functioned.
At Mycenae, Krentz wanted us to go down this set of stairs to an underground well that was a source of water for the ancient palace. No one except Krentz brought a flashlight, so people were using cell phones and camera flashes for light. It was so dark that I could not see the hand in front of my face. I walked next to Matt who had a camera and he made sure to flash where both of us could see. We all were joking that we were going to come out suffering from epileptic seizures. Of course the well was closed off when we got to the bottom of the stairs and there was no way to see the water. It was a thrilling experience, but it was kind of pointless in the end.
The museum at Mycenae was surprisingly nice, one of the most informative and best laid out museum we have visited so far. I’m sure the details of the different exhibits would bore you, but I will say that they took obvious pains to present their material well, even producing replicas of the more valuable items that were transferred to the National Museum in Athens. This museum also had a particularly nice display on Linear B, and ancient language that is considered to be the predecessor to Greek.
After the museum, we visited a particularly nice tholos tomb – which is just a massive circular grave that was covered with dirt after the person was buried there.
We got back to the hotel in time to have lunch in town, though I opted for my pb and banana. Then I took the entire afternoon off since I had finished my school reading on the bus. The sun was stuck behind some clouds all day today, so the air never warmed up enough to get some sun. So, I read my personal book, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and napped. It was wonderful. Sometimes I feel guilty about taking naps because I could be out enjoying the town, but I think I needed this break. I ended up sleeping for almost 2 hours.
We had another discussion tonight, this time on the Greek tragedy Medea. It was a good discussion by the end of it, but I think some people are confused with the difference between a rational decision and a moral decision. To me, the former is a result of being fully aware of the consequences, and making an informed decision. The later deals with whether that decision was right or wrong. Medea is a woman who decides to kill her children to punish her husband’s decision to leave her for another (richer) woman. She knows the killing of her own children will be extremely painful and goes over the different choices she could make, buy decides that the only way to inflict the same pain to her husband that he caused her is to kill their two sons. Therefore, I believe she made a rational decision, but it was a morally wrong one. I don’t think her maternal instincts are all that strong, but she was completely sane when she decided to kill her kids.
Some people were trying to argue that no rational person would kill their own kids, but I think Medea decided that the consequences that come as a result of killing her children, were lesspainful to endure than the shame that would result by being cast aside by her husband. Again, I don’t agree with her decision, but I believe she was sane when she made it. (Ok. So this was just a chance for me to vent and get my thoughts out clearly.)
After the meeting I ate the other half of that salad I made last night and made some more plans for my Easter Break trip with Mom. Krentz told us to buy any train tickets ahead of time because there will be a billion people in Rome (and Italy in general) during the weeks that surround Easter. I did find some tickets for me and mom, so we are officially able to leave Rome for Naples, and then return a week later. Yeah!
Hopefully, I will be able to go to bed at my normal time, even though I had a long nap. I still like to get up early and read about the sites are to visit that day.

March 17

I woke up this morning and enjoyed a delicious bowl of muesli and soy milk on the balcony of our room. The air was a bit chilly, but it helped me wake up as I read about Corinth, the site we would be visiting this morning. After my cereal, I had a few cups of coffee in the breakfast area downstairs, just for good measure and we all got on the bus at 8:30. Spiros had to drive a group of school children this morning, so he had one of his other drivers and smaller bus take us to Corinth this morning. Though he considered it a smaller bus, everyone still got two seats to themselves and I was very comfortable.
It took about an hour to get to Corinth and we met Guy Sanders a little before 10:00. Guy is the director of the archaeological site at Corinth and boy did he know his stuff! He told us all about the geology, geography, and history of the site. Did you know that the Peloponnesian land mass is actually moving away from Europe at a rate of 1 cm per year? He described this as a rapid rate of movement and that geologists flock here to study the changes. He also told us all about the city’s strategic location right next to the isthmus and how Corinth used to charge for permission to transport ships across the narrow isthmus, instead of sailing around the Peloponnese, which has treacherous winds in certain areas. He also knew all about mythology, focusing on the stories that didn’t have a pro-Athenian viewpoint. The Corinth, obviously, was not Athens, nor was it under Athenian power. It fought against Athens at various points, and so it’s mythology would have been very different than the stories that Athens adhered to. There were still the same characters, but different instigators of the turmoil. He was a bit long-winded a points - he was no John Camp – but he was passionate and let us into areas that are restricted to the average tourist. He also got pretty excited when he told us about the bodies they dug up from the graves and all the different, and gruesome, ways they died. Some had horrible infections, others died from awful battle wounds, and some had disgusting diseases that just destroyed the body. It wasn’t particularly relevant to the time period our trip is studying, but it was interesting to find out how much information can be gathered nowadays with the help of forensic science. We can know so much more about how people lived at various time, just from their bones.
After Guy said good-by, Krentz had us spend a little time in the museum, and then visit the other places that Guy didn’t take us to. We stopped at the building where Paul was possibly taken before Gallio in Acts, and stopped by the ancient market area. This ancient city has been inhabited for thousands of years, and has many layers of construction to prove it. At one point, because of the excavation, we were standing on the 500 BCE ground level and looked up 2 and a half meters to where the Roman period’s level began.
It was 12:30 by this point and everyone had lunch on his/her mind, so Krentz decided we would visit the acropolis – acrocorinth – after lunch. More people are finding the idea of a packed lunch much more appealing, so 4 of us (Allie, Mary, Emily and I) sat on a park bench and ate our sandwiches and fruit. I had another delicious pb and banana. Though, I did a dumb thing this morning. I accidentally knocked over my peanut butter jar, which is glass, and it smashed to many pieces on the tile floor. There went 5 bucks out the window, or well, smeared onto the floor. But, I was able to make my lunch before the damage.
After lunch we took the bus up to the acropolis and spent an hour taking pictures and enjoying the incredible view. There is a Venetian fort here, very similar to the one in Nafplio. The hills are covered in wildflowers and flowering trees – a nice juxtaposition to the gloomy stone fortification walls.
We got back to the hotel around 4:15, but we were to meet up again at 6:30 for a discussion group. I spent the time making my dinner (I chopped up a nice, big salad with my pocket knife) and went back to the grocery store for more fruit and peanut butter. I am going to be very careful with this jar. This 4 euro is going to count!
We met for discussion and got off to a rocky start with the controversies about journals: how many we are expected to write, and when we should be writing them. People are stressing a bit too much about nit-picky details and Krentz was obviously getting frustrated. I guess since I have had a class with him, I know that he grades the students by reflecting back over the semester as a whole and looking for how the student performed and improved. So some people are kind of shooting themselves in the foot by irritating him about the little stuff, but hopefully everything will turn out alright. After that tense conversation, we got to the readings and had a productive hour and 15 minutes.
I had my salad for dinner and got some more work done. We go to Tyrns and Mycenae tomorrow, though Tyrns might be closed. Krentz says tomorrow will be a lighter day and hopefully we’ll be back in Nafplio for lunch. I am itching to go back to the acropolis here and get some more sun. I am getting a lovely farmer’s tan on my face and neck and I would enjoy a chance to even out my skin color.

March 16

This morning I woke up at a very reasonable 9:00. I took my time getting ready for the day and finally made it down to breakfast at 10:00. I am sad to say that the breakfast here is pretty dismal, just basically some sort of breakfast meat and cheese. The coffee is actually pretty good – not Nescafe! – and I had a few cups of that, before finding the super market and getting some fruit for breakfast. I also found some of my other favorites: natural peanut butter (though it is twice as expensive for half the amount as in America), soy milk, muesli, bread, and salad fixings. For some reason they hate to make change here, at least change in the form of coins. If you don’t have the right combination of bills and coins, so that all you need back are bills, the person behind the counter sighs and reluctantly hands over a couple of (precious ?) coins. I’ve even been denied a coffee when I only had a 10 euro bill and the price of the coffee was 2.50. It’s very strange.
After my shopping trip I headed back to the room. I put away my groceries in places where the maid wouldn’t easily find them as I don’t think they would be too happy to find out that I have about 3 grocery bags worth of food in one of their rooms. But, there is a fridge to store the perishable items, so I know it isn’t all that big of a deal. I had the inspiration to pack a lunch and eat it on the acropolis of the hill that flanks one side of the town. There is a medieval fort up there and I heard from others who had already climbed up there that the view is amazing. I thought bringing a lunch, a book, and a blanket would be the perfect way to spend the afternoon, and I was right. It cost 2 euro to enter the fort itself, and I didn’t bring any money with me, but I found a little place to sit and read just off to the side and spend 2 hours enjoying my lunch (peanut butter and banana sandwich and an orange), gazing out over the city and the sea, reading (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), and getting some sun. When the clouds started to roll in around 3 o’ clock, I headed back to the hotel. Oh and, another reason I wanted to visit the acropolis’ fort was because Krentz made a comment that he’s heard that there are exactly 999 steps up to the top, but he’s lost count every time he’s tried to verify this number. Of course, I tried to count as well, but going up I lost count around 400 steps. On the way back down, however, I was determined to come up with a number and focused very hard. I may have slipped up by a number or two, but I came up with 888 steps. When I told Krentz the number I reached, he said he wasn’t surprised that it was less than 1000, and thought it would be even lower than 888.
The rest of the afternoon went quickly, but I didn’t do much besides read and relax, which hey, is a pretty great way to spend the afternoon. I went out to dinner (yes, I actually went out) with Allie, Caroline, Emily, and Louisa at this little tavern close to the water. This town is full of restaurants and cute little shops. There are plenty of places to walk and I am looking forward to the outings I will have while here.
I’m back in the hotel now, and taking advantage of the free internet in the lobby. Several other people are in the lobby as well, so the internet is slow, but the most important thing is that it’s free, so I will wait without complaint. It’s bed time soon. We leave tomorrow at 8:30, but this time it will be cereal for breakfast in the room, instead of oatmeal in the kitchen. I’ll still go down around 8:00 and down a few cups of coffee as fuel for the morning. Bus rides always make me tired, and I need to combat the drowsiness as best I can.

March 15

This morning I woke up my usual time and had toast with banana for breakfast. My roommates appreciate my morning routine – I pack up everything I’ll need for the day and set out my outfits the night before so that I make as little noise as possible in the mornings. This was our last morning at the Athens Style, however, and I am sad to leave the kitchen and all its little luxuries. Today marks the “turn the page day.” One of the many handouts we received at the beginning of this trip was a double sided syllabus. Today is the first day on the backside of the page. It was a big deal for everyone to flip their page (well, for those of us who still have their syllabus).
With bags all packed, we left the hostel at 9:00 and had a wonderful reunion with Spiros and the glorious double-decker bus. Allie literally shrieked for joy when we rounded the corner and spotted the bus. I now have my old row of seats back and so much more leg room. There is a new addition to the bus, however. Spiros installed a video camera for the second floor and there is now a monitor screen downstairs, right where Krentz sits. I wonder how that will affect the upstairs’ routine…
We drove to Eleusis, which was actually pretty boring. Dr. Toumazu tagged along and it is funny to see him and Dr. Krentz interact, they act (and dress) very similarly, and it’s cute to see how well they work together. I’m sure Krentz is enjoying his companionship. At Eleusis, there is little left standing. There are plenty of foundations left, so we know the size and location of the original structures, but after a few hundred years, this city fails to impress like it used to. It has an interesting history as the site of the mysterious cult of Demeter, arguably the most popular cult of the ancient world, and functioned as a popular religious site for well over 1000 years, right until paganism was outlawed in the 500s.
I ate my packed lunch – left over pasta and read while everyone split up to find restaurants. I had just enough left for a lunch serving and I didn’t want to waste it. It was also a fabulous sauce, if I do say so myself, and probably tasted just as good, if not better, than anything else I would have bought for lunch.
We stopped on the way to the next site at the canal that cuts through the isthmus between the Peloponnese and the rest of Greece. Apparently, there have been many failed attempts to cut through the rock, including those by Alexander the great and Nero, but the success finally came at the end of the 19th century. We walked across the brige over the isthmus and it is easy to see why shovels just wouldn’t get the job done. They had to blast this canal with dynamite to cut all the way down for water to flow though.
Our next site was the location of the Isthmian games – one of the Panhelenic games from ancient Greece, but the museum and site were closed for renovations. We did peep over the fence, but there is even less to see here than at Eleusis, so I was not particularly upset to skip over this one. The next site we will visit, which will be on Tuesday, is Corinth and we even have an archaeologist to meet us there. I am pumped about that. Not feeling it so much at this place.
The hotel where we are staying for the next 5 nights is in a cute little seaside town called Nafplio. The hotel is nice and the rooms a little above average. I am in a double (yeah) with Allie (yeah!). We haven’t roomed together in a double since Crete, when she got so sick, so we are excited for this week’s arrangement. The only bad thing about our room is the lack of a shower curtain. I don’t understand why hotels in Greece don’t think this little piece of plastic is always necessary. It’s annoying when you are showering and you have to focus less on cleanliness and more on making sure the toilet paper stays dry.
Night came pretty quickly yesterday, and I called it quits after eating the last of my leftovers from my cooking in Athens. Tomorrow is a free day, so I will sleep in tomorrow morning!

March 14

I got up early, yet again to make it to the kitchen first and this morning went just like yesterday. Just as I was finishing up my cooking, Emily came in and began her breakfast. After my oatmeal, I finished my reading and drank some coffee. I am getting very tired of Nescafe. I miss the Starbucks in Istanbul, though this is free, so that automatically bumps it appeal.
Today we were to visit the ancient temple on the island of Aegina, which required a train ride, a ferry ride, and a bus ride. We left the hotel at 7:45 in hopes of catching all the right rides. We rode the train just fine and were heading to the ferry, but some very odd man on the sidewalk kept pointing that the ticket office Krentz and Toumazu (also joining us for today) were in search of was across the street and back a block. No one really believed him, but just in case he was right, Krentz and Toumazu followed this man’s directions and went to that office. This was not the ticket office we needed, so we continued on the course we had been taking and found the right place. Of course, we missed the ferry ride by 4 minutes. If only we had kept walking! The next ride to Aegina was in an hour, so we just went to various shops and met back up at the docks at 10:00. I went with the group going to McDonalds. The Greek menu here is very strange. There is no breakfast menu, except muffins and a variety of different coffee drinks. You can order a burger (a Mc Tastey) in the morning. Yuck. There was also a Mcveggie burger and some sort of shrimp burger. I ordered a tea and stopped looking at the menu – too early in the morning to think about a fried shrimp burger from McDonalds.
We made it onto the ferry with a hoard of other people. The ride was pleasant. Sarabeth and I found two seats outside and we did some reading. After the ferry we hopped on the bus to take us to the other side of the island. This little hole in the wall island is beautiful! I wish I had gone here for Spring break. I don’t know if the week between my spring break and now would increase the activity on the island all that much, but this place was full of people and everything was open and welcoming. The bus ride was another issue. I’m pretty sure our driver hates his job because he didn’t want anyone on the bus to enjoy the ride. I got motion sickness after just a few minutes. We did make it to the site eventually, but because we had lost an hour waiting for that second ferry ride, we only got to spend 1 hour there.
This temple is the best preserved Doric temple in all of Greece. It is one of the few temples that was not coverted into a church, so much of its original interior structures are intact, including the two-storied colonnade in the interior of the temple. It was a gorgeous day and I wish we could have spent more time here. We did our usual scoping out of the temple, trying to figure out the plan, before we discussed the typical Doric features and the irregularities. Dr. Toumazu is more knowledgeable about temples than Dr. Krentz, so he spearheaded the discussion today. I like his style of teaching. He gets much more excited about the material than Krentz does, and I actually found myself speaking up more so than I have been on this trip. I think I have also gotten better about observing certain aspects – like today I noticed that all the exterior columns are made out of a single block of stone, and that there are two columns in antis on both the eastern and western ends of the temple.
We caught the 1:05 bus back to the port, but just as we were boarding, a group of 5 or 6 college aged guys asked us to take their picture. It turned out that they were Duke students! So even though I don’t like Duke now that I go to Davidson, it was still neat to meet other students from back home.
We had the option to either skip lunch and rush to the 1:45 ferry (which means we would get back to Athens around 3:30), or eat lunch in town and take the 3:00 ferry. Everyone thought it would be better to wait for the 3:00 ferry. Most of us ended up at this little fish restaurant behind a fish market. It was obvious that the fish was fresh, but the lingering smell didn’t do much to increase my appetite. I deliberated about the fish, but decided just to get a salad. I’d already had really good fish on Santorini and I needed to eat up the rest of the food waiting for me at the hostel. We leave Athens tomorrow, and I want to eat or save as much of my food as possible. Toumazu informed us that Aegina is the only place in Greece that grows it own pistachios and insisted that we buy some and munch on them during the ferry ride. I am so glad I did because they were the best pistachios I have ever had! I want to find some more and bring them home. Delicious!
So, after the ferry ride and the train ride, we made it back to the hostel a little before 5pm. It certainly an adventure day, travel-wise, but after sitting so much on the rides I wanted to burn off some energy. I got Christian to open up the top floor deck for me so I could jump rope rope and work out a little. Then I got some work done and had my dinner. We leave for Nafpoli tomorrow and I had to pack up my suitcase, but this time I wanted to free up one of my bags to carry my food – the beans will keep for another meal, and I still have enough pasta left for lunch.
I am a little torn – I cooked the last of my oatmeal this morning, which means that I didn’t buy too much and waste the money at the store, but I can’t have my favorite breakfast. I’ll just have to settle for toast. I have a little left of the loaf I bought. But, oh, I wish I had more oatmeal!

March 13

This morning I did wake up early and beat the rush to the kitchen. Just as I was sitting down to my prepared oatmeal, Emily walked into the kitchen. I was already out of the way of her cooking space, so we each easily got our breakfasts made. The kitchen at the hostel isn’t too small, but it is difficult for two people to cook different meals at the same time. I spent the 45 mins after breakfast going over our art book, paying particular attention to the items that are housed in the Athens National Archaeological Museum, the first place we were going to today. That was a cool time: studying up on these famous works in our art books because I was about to go see them personally.
We left the hostel at 7:45 to beat the crowds at the museum, especially the school groups (they tend to be huge, noisy groups that cluster all around the best pieces – at least we aren’t loud). Our guide for the museum was Jennifer Niles. She did a great job explaining the best objects on display, and we ended up spending well over three hours there. Dr. Toumazu, another Davidson professor in the Classics department, is in Greece for a few days, and met us at the museum. Krentz had him show us the Mycenaean exhibit after Jennifer’s tour. Everything was very interesting and I took down lots of great notes, but the day would have been so much better had we had a break after this museum. But because we had another guide to show us around the Epigraphical Museum, we headed there next.
This museum houses the largest collection of ancient inscriptions in the world. I think Molly, our guide, said there were over 100,000 inscriptions in this museum. She showed us some of the more interesting ones, but all of them were relevant to everything we are studying, especially our readings in Herodotus. It is a requirement for a Classics major to get to the intermediary level in at least one of the two languages, Latin and Greek, and at least the beginner level in the other.( I have reached the intermediary level in Latin and will be taking Greek 101 in the fall, fyi.) So she had us try our best at the best preserved inscriptions, though she knows we have been taught only one dialect of ancient Greek (Ionian). I only got to put my skills to the test once, when she showed a newer (relatively) inscription that dates to the Roman period.
By 1:30pm we were finished with the day’s outings and we were free to spend the rest of the day as we pleased. I stopped by the produce market to see what looked good and picked up a head of cauliflower and a tomato. I reheated some of my pasta and sauce for lunch and cooked up a nice big bowl of cauliflower. After lunch I used this extra time to take a nap. Oh the joys of napping. I always took naps at Davidson, but they are nearly impossible to take on this trip. Sarabeth and Mary were thinking the same thing and they napped as well. It felt like The Napping House (a great book my mom used to read to me).
After some much needed sleep I got back to my reading. Getting my reading done proved to be a bit harder than normal. I guess since we had so much more time today than we normally do, I didn’t feel the pressure to get it finished all that quickly. Also, there isn’t all that much assigned for tomorrow, so I knew when I eventually got around to reading it, I wouldn’t be spending that much time. So I flipped through a German celebrity magazine, hung out in the kitchen and chatted some more with Christian, made myself some dinner, but prepared and ate each part individually: salad, then rice, then bananas on toast, and then talked with Allie as she made and then ate her dinner. After 4 hours, my 30 page reading was finished, but I had spent the afternoon and evening talking and cooking, so I consider it a successful and productive time.
Tomorrow is another 7:45 morning, so I will try and get up early again.

March 12

I think today I will describe my morning before we left the hostel. So, I woke up around 6:30 and took a shower. I like to get up first so that I can have the bathroom to myself, but since we have a kitchen at the hostel – and the only breakfast they provide is bread, butter, and jam – I like to make myself some oatmeal and add banana. Again, I like to get there first so I can use all the right pots and have access to both eyes of the stove: one for the oatmeal, the other for my tea. It’s nice. I just listen to some music as I cook (via ipod) and I get just a little time for myself. This morning, however, two other girls decided to do the same, and joined me in the kitchen. This was really cramping my style. Not that I don’t enjoy their company, but I get weird about wanting to follow through with the plans I have set out for myself and how I have envisioned them. I will get up a bit earlier tomorrow.
So, after breakfast, coffee, and some reading, we left the hostel at 8:45 and met the director of the archaeological site at the Agora. His name is John Camp and he is from the American School of Archaeology, the school in charge of the excavations, and he showed us around. He even let us into the places restricted to the average tourist, like the newest places where they are digging, and the storerooms underneath one of the restored buildings (which is now a museum as well). One of the coolest things he showed us was a skull they found on the site. It has to predate 700 BCE (or come after 400 CE), because burials within the city walls were not allowed beginning at this time. It actually dates back to 1300 BCE. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an actual skull up close like that.
This site is also pretty cool, just from the excavation troubles. The entire agora was underneath modern houses in the 1950s, when the excavation began. They had to raise the money to move all the people to another location and then bulldoze the entire area. They only uncovered the area that was known to have been the agora (they knew it was here because of the many ancient sources and could pretty much be certain about where to dig). The surrounding city of modern Athens covers up the residential part of ancient Athens. This area will probably never be uncovered as it would be extremely expensive to pay for the moving of the current people and businesses, and the same information garnered from these ancient homes can probably be learned from other ancient cities where it is much cheaper to dig.
Krentz had to go to the hospital with one of the girls on this trip, Mary, because she needed to get the lab results from her previous trip. She is finally starting to feel like her normal self, but they still wanted to know if it was salmonella, or something like it, that had made her sick. So Krentz sent us off to the Kerameikos museum, which was closed yesterday, with assignment to figure out how the grave gifts changed over time. Though this was not a bad assignment, I don’t like being left to ourselves, because I usually end up writing down way more information than is necessary. Oh, well. From what I could gather, vases were pretty much standard, but the decoration on them became much more elaborate. The gifts got poorer as the exterior decorations got richer.
After this museum trip, we broke off to have lunch. I ate at the hostel again and got some of my reading for tomorrow finished. About 20 mins before we were supposed to leave for the Agora trip (part II – John Camp only showed us stuff that we wouldn’t be able to see without him), Krentz showed up with Mary. His backup plan was for us to show ourselves around the agora with a guidebook. Mary’s test results were fine. She just has been suffering from some combination of bacterial and viral infection. So, we headed back to the agora. It was lightly raining, so we made it a short trip. Because this whole area had been covered by houses, there really weren’t any remains over waist high. It’s not a visually interesting site for the most part, but there is a lot of history here and many of the places we stopped at are historically important, such as the building where Socrates was indicted.
After the agora trip we were done for the site-seeing part of the day. On the way back to the hostel, Sarabeth and I stopped at this famous sandal shop that sells cheap, but good quality leather sandals. Apparently, previous customers include Sophia Lauren, Jeremy Irons, and Jackie O. I bought a pair (30 bucks!) of sandals and I absolutely love them. The owner’s son now runs the shop and he adjusted the straps to my feet and then nailed in the straps to make the adjustments hold.
At 6 we all met to discuss Perikles’ Funeral Oration during the Peloponnesian War. For some reason, Krentz opened up a tab at the hostel’s bar and bought everyone a drink. I got a glass of red wine since it was the same price as the half liter beers that the guys all purchased. (I’d rather have the antioxidants than the carbs.) It was a good discussion. This speech has been used as inspiration or even material for modern speeches on freedom and democracy, but I wrote my journal on why this speech might not be a great one to quote, as Perikles’ true reason for inspiring the Athenians to fight is Athens’ great power. Here it is you want to read it:
“While this speech has been used as inspiration or material for many more speeches on Democracy and freedom, of all the reasons Perikles gives to urge his fellow citizens to fight, he lists Athenian power as the predominant one. Therefore, everything he says about the wonderful like in Athens and the freedom and equality enjoyed by its citizens is marred by how the Athenians were able to enjoy them. A comparison between the life enjoyed by the Athenians and that of another Greek in a less powerful city-state would reveal much more about the true values of Athens.
If the Athenians truly valued democracy and freedom, then they would want all peoples, not just Athenian citizens, to enjoy these values as well. But, as we know, Athens was at the head of a veritable empire at the time, as the most powerful of all the cities in the Delian League, controlling the treasury and the fleet. Sparta goes to war with Athens to free the other Greeks from Athenian rule.
Perikles speaks to other Athenians in his oration, so yes, there is much to be lost if Sparta defeats Athens. They would lose their way of life, which comes not because of democracy, but because of the choke-hold they maintain on the Greek city-states. Perikles, for the most part, emulates good values, but I believe that the Athenians would only be able to prove their true devotion to democracy and freedom by not preventing other peoples from achieving them as well.”
After the discussion, it was dinner time. Tonight I had a nice big salad and fried up the rest of my eggplant on the stove. Again, the eggplant was delicious. Now, I am in the room trying to finish my reading before I fall asleep. I am getting up early in the morning, so I need to go to sleep early!

March 11

This morning we were to meet the guide at the archaeological site of Kerameikos at 11:00am, so we didn’t have to leave the hostel until 10:40. I still got up at my usual time, but – surprise, surprise – I still had more reading to finish, so the extra time was much needed. I made myself some oatmeal, added a sliced banana, and boiled some water for tea. I like to get up and use the kitchen before everyone else is up, just to have a little time to myself.
We left as planned at 10:40 and met the German guide (this site belongs to the German Archaeological Scool), Dr. Stroszeck. She showed us around this site that is really just a chuck out of the middle of the city. A few meters below the normal city ground level is this section of the ancient city. In it are parts of the city’s fortification walls, dating back to 478 BCE, the lavish tombs that flanked the roads leading into the city, the remains of a gymnasium, and roadside sanctuaries. This site is most known for the tombs. These higly decorated monuments to the deceased date to the time between 440 BCE (when the practice is first known to have started) and 317 BCE (when legal actions were taken because the tombs were getting so ridiculous).
The museum on this site was closed because of some strike. We tried to go to the Theater of Dionysis on the south side of the acropolis, but apparently the strike includes the guards to the ancient site. We were assured that the theater would be open tomorrow, so we will try again tomorrow afternoon, if we have time.
We changed the schedule around a bit and went to the tomb of Heinrich Schliemann, the excavator of many of the sites we have visited, the most famous of which is Troy. This guy decided he wanted to be buried in monument that is decorated like a sarcophagus and depicted one of his excavations on one of the sides. The other sides were images of battle scenes. Only really cool people get to be buried in sarcophagi. I wish I were that cool. : )
Next, he hiked up to the monument of Philopappos, a Roman high up Roman official, who went exceptionally far in the government without being an Athenian citizen. Krentz admitted next that we mostly went to this hilltop monument because of its beautiful view of the acropolis. We stopped next Pnyx, the meeting place of the Athenian assembly. Not much is left of this meeting place, but hey, I can say that I’ve been there.
We finally got back to the hostel after what seemed like a particularly long day. Of course, the hours since have gone by extremely fast and I am getting very sleepy. I made myself some dinner – fried eggplant. I bought an eggplant at one of the outdoor markets, but wanted to do something else with it besides sautéing it with onions and garlic and throwing it in a pasta sauce. So I looked up “How to Cook Eggplant” online and learned how to to easily fry it up in a pan on the stove with just a little bit of olive oil. It was delicious and I gave so to Christos, the Italian guy who works here. He asked me as I was walking back from the day’s outings what I was going to cook tonight and said he wanted a taste of whatever I made because my meals always smell so good. That was another reason why I looked up the recipe online. Now that I had someone to impress, I wanted to do more than just wing it. I gave him a few slices, which he then put on a sandwich (weird, but alright). He said it was delicious and then I didn’t care how he had decided to consume it – all that matters is that he still thinks I can cook.
After dinner it is the usual time to get some work done and go to bed. Tomorrow is a normal morning – leaving around 8:45am. I hope this means that we won’t be out as late in the afternoon. I like getting more done in the mornings and having the afternoons and evening to do as I please.

March 10

I woke up extra early this morning so that I could have enough time to shower, read, and make some oatmeal. All the staff knows me as the girl who really likes to cook – I have cooked every meal so far. Also, the mornings give me a little time to be by myself and get out of our teeny, tiny room.
We left the hostel at 8:30 and trekked up to the Acropolis. It was a beautiful day today, but the wind on the Acropolis was very strong. I get the whole fortification necessity for ancient towns, but it seems like every time we go up to cities that are on the acropolis, the wind is brutal. Perhaps the weather has changed over the past few thousand years, but if it is anything like what we experienced today, it seems like outdoor life would be a little difficult.
The acropolis was very cool, especially the Parthenon. This massive building is actually smaller than some of those we’ve seen in Turkey, but the perfection of the proportions makes it seem much larger. Everything looks like it meets at perfect right angels, but Dr. Krentz says there is not a single straight line in the entire structure. None of the columns are perfectly straight, swelling out in the middle and tapering off at the tops. The steps aren’t perfectly flat either. Lengthwise, the bugle upwards is so significant that if you were to place a ball cap at one end of the step and then walk to the other end, you wouldn’t be able to see it. The measurements and proportions throughout the structure are so perfect that these subtle variations must have been planned and not just the result of mistakes. The most widely accepted theory for these variations is to counter optical illusions, but this theory doesn’t explain why the column spacing is not uniform. There are slight variation here as well, but the difference between the smallest gap and the widest gap is only 2 inches. Some believe that the structure’s slight variation provide a dynamic environment that appeals to our subconscious. Our eye’s inability to perceive perfect uniformity is the appealing part. It captures our gaze and keeps us searching for the perfect harmony, therefore creating a fascinating space. This argument seems a little far-fetched to me, but it sounds cool.
After the visit to the Acropolis we headed back to the hostel for lunch. Allie and I dined on our grocery purchases. We met back up at 1:00 to visit the Roman remains in the city. We stopped by the Library of Hadrian, which is really a large courtyard, with only a small part set aside for a library. We walked all over for a couple hours, hitting the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s gate and finishing up at the stadium, which was recently renovated for the 2004 Olympics. It was closed, so we couldn’t go inside, but the entire structure is made of marble. No surprise, since marble is so much cheaper here given that the marble quarries are in the mountains that flank the city.
Krentz bought us metro tickets so we could see the frieze reproductions that adorn the walls below. These friezes are copies of those that decorated the Parthenon. We only went to see these reproductions because the Acropolis Museum is closed. I went with Krentz afterwards to check out this church that is supposed to have reused a marble block which depicts Athena, but we couldn’t find the block anywhere on the exterior walls. As a thanks for being the only one to accompany him, he bought me a coffee at the closet café. We sat for a while, talking about Davidson and the effect that the economy is having, and what might be the next steps to cut costs further. Though it was not a light and cheery discussion, it was an interesting one, and I got a better understanding of what the school is facing (hiring freezes for now, but Krentz didn’t know for sure what the next steps will be – hopefully not firing faculty).
After this outing, I went back to the hotel to prep for the discussion we were to have at 6:30. Krentz had a little bit more to say about the Parthenon, and then we discussed whether or not the Parthenon marbles, that were taken by Lord Elgin in 1801, should be returned to Greece. They are currently in the British Museum. It seems that most of the group thought they should stay where they are. I am always in favor of works being returned to their country of origin, but the legal justification for their remaining in England is pretty strong. Arguing a moral justification is much harder. I did my best to support my case, but it seems that I was the only one arguing for their return. Krentz agrees with me, but he stayed out of the discussion, only providing food for thought after we had finished.
I wrote in my journal why I thought the marbles should be returned, organizing my thoughts as a rebuttal to an article we read by Merryman. If you want to read my opinions here they are:
“I have a few issues with Merryman’s argument for the marbles’ remaining in England. I do believe the marbles should be moved back to Greece, despite the legal justification for England’s possession of them. I do agree that the legality of the issue, at least from what we’ve been presented with my Merryman, sides pretty heavily in Britain’s favor. The morality of the issue, I feel, is Merryman’s weakest argument and supports Greece’s case, not England’s.
Just because the world’s greatest museums are in possession of works that are not of that country’s origin, does not justify their remainder in that spot. The removal of works from the country that produced and used them has little justification, in my opinion. Just because the fixing of past errors has its own consequences does not nullify the past errors.
If the safety of the works is the issue, then the temporary removal of the objects can be considered necessary. I don’t believe that Elgin simply had the safety of the objects in mind when he removed the marbles from the Parthenon. If he were alive today and saw that Athens had a safe place to keep them now, I’m sure he would still desire their removal. His motivations were not simply for the integrity of the objects, but were probably financial ones. Also, the people who allowed the marbles to be removed were not the Greeks, but were the Ottoman, who had little regard for Greek culture and history and were poor judges of what should be removed.
Yes, I agree that if the British had removed the marbles, then someone else would have does not mean that it becomes allowable to remove them. This sounds very similar to the argument “would you jump off the bridge just because everyone else is?” There was a threat to the safety of the objects, yes. The British were qualified to remove objects from the threat, yes. But, because the potential for danger is gone, the marbles should be returned. The Greeks shouldn’t have to do anymore than say “thank you” and acknowledge how the British have cared for them (except the cover up of the disastrous cleaning years ago).
One of the most important considerations is that the building is not whole without all its parts. As it stands, it is incomplete. Its part should come as close to the structure (without being exposed to potential harm – like pollution) as possible. The Greeks created the museum to house the marbles to support their case for the return of the marbles. The Parthenon and all its elements were created in Greece, by the Greeks, for Greek purposes. The marbles should be in Greece. Just because Greece has much to show for its flourishing artistic period, does not mean they should be punished by having their art removed without their consent. The argument that there is enough art in Greece already is irrelevant. Greece should be able to determine what of its art goes where. The British and other cultures can still admire the artistic skill of Greek antiquity from Greece. I would even argue that they would gain a better appreciation for the marbles by the sheer proximity to the Parthenon. The Greeks should be the ones to display their country’s works and let others admire the work, wherever the Greeks decide the works should be.”
After the discussion, I had dinner: pasta and salad, and went up to check in with mom via skype testing and got some reading done. We don’t have to leave tomorrow until 10:40, so I will most likely go to bed early and finish the reading in the morning.

March 9

This morning we packed up our bags so we could move into the room assigned to us as part of the Davidson group. Unfortunately, this new room pales in comparison to how we’ve been living the past 3 days. This is a single, square room with 2 bunk beds. Gone are the kitchenette, the balcony with the view of the acropolis, the free towels, the flat screen television (not that we watched it, but it was nice to have), my own spacious bed, and the mini fridge. Now it is four girls, packed like sardines in this tiny room. There isn’t even enough floor space for all of us to put our suitcases out. We had to transfer our stuff to the locker-style closets and put the suitcases in corners or under beds. It really is the smallest room yet.
But, this morning I did some reading, went to the grocery store, again, and tried on some very tight jeans at the H and M. I guess the matchstick look is very in here, but it is not so appropriate for the trip.
Everyone met up at 3 this afternoon to visit this museum Krentz wanted to see and then head up to this hill where we would get and excellent view of Athens. The museum was home to a private collection of Cycladic art. The pieces were interesting – incredible, actually, for having been created around the 4th or 5th millennia BCE. But, while I heartily agree with the pursuit of one’s interest in history and the arts, this type of collection can often have very negative consequences.
First of all, since the collectors are willing to pay high prices for the items, it is these kinds of private collections that lead to illegal excavations and the smuggling gout of the finds. Important artifacts go missing, and the integrity of the site is compromised. New technologies that can tell us more about the soil compositions and give us better insight into how the ancient peoples lived are not able to be used when smugglers have dug with the sole purpose of finding artifacts that will fetch a high price.
Another issue that comes when the sources of these artifacts aren’t clear is that fakes and copies can more easily come into the mainstream. When dealing with illegally obtained goods, it is very unlikely for there to be any assurance of authenticity. Only certified and legal archaeological digs which can study and document the provide the assurance that the finds are authentic.
A third issue I have with private collections is their very description: private. I seems wrong to me that there are some collections which aren’t available for public viewing because they are the personal property of someone. What about the idea of a single “cultural heritage?” Shouldn’t we all have the right view what has been determined to be art (especially if it part of ancient history)? But, then again, shouldn’t we have the right to pursue, and purchase if it is for sale, great works of art?
I like what the Goulandris Museum has done. That is a private collection, but it is now on display as a museum and available for public viewing. Still, as I have already said, such private collections can have pretty negative consequences. Though these collections come as a result of a passionate interest in art, because of these illegal excavations and fakes, I think private collections only do damage to the art they seek to acquire.
After the museum, we went to the top of the Lykavittos hill, where we got a wonderful view of the city of Athens. Krentz pointed out all the major sites we would be visiting, and we got the see the layout of the newer section of the city, verses the old. The newer streets are much more orderly, being set out on a grid. The older sections (where it is very easy to get turned around) are laid out without much order, meeting at irregular angles.
After the hike, we headed back to the hotel for the night. I made my delicious beans and rice dish (to which I add fresh vegetables when I prepare individual servings), spending several hours in the kitchen. This time I decided to try buying dried beans and soaking them myself. There is really only one type of bean that they offer canned here, kidney beans, and I am getting tired of them. There is a little more variety with dried beans. Towards the end of my kitchen time, I had a nice chat with Christian, the guy who runs the night shift at the hostel. He is from Sweden and decided on a whim last November to work at a hostel in Athens and will be spending a full year here. We wanted to know my opinions on Obama as well and how I thought America would respond to his ability (or inability) to meet his campaigns promises. It was a good discussion and really made me think. I’ve had a hard time keeping up with the news at home, so he was the one filling me in on what was going on back home.
After my chat, I headed up to the room to finish my reading and get some sleep. The day really went by quickly and next thing I knew it was time to get some shut eye.