Today was our first look at some of the wonderful sights in Greece. Due to the fact that our hotel is in close proximity to nearly all of the historical and cultural things we wanted to see in Greece today, we rented mopeds to get around the city. It took about an hour for everybody to get used to riding them through the crowded streets of Athens. It was really fun once we had gotten the hang of it though. It was exhilirating to be weaving in and out of normal traffic on a motorized scooter.
Our first event of the day was a visit to many of the major temples in Athens. The ancient Greeks made excellent architecture, and some of their amazing tributes to the gods are still standing today. We went to the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the Temple of Zeus, the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Poseidon, and even the Temple of Hephaestus. All of them were exquisite. The Acropolis and the Parthenon were impressive, even overwhelming. They are both very well maintained. My personal favorite was the Temple of Poseidon. It is built right on next to the beach so that you can see and hear the Mediterranean sea from inside the temple. The Temple of Hephaestus was shocking because of how much of it was standing. Apparently the god of the forge makes a fine building. The Temple of Apollo was also quite the sight to see. Even in the cold weather the sun hit the building with amazing warmth. The Temple of Zeus was quite the curiosity. It was the least complete out of all of the temples, but the columns that were still standing were amazing. They towered taller than any of the columns we had seen yet, hinting at the wonderous structure that must have once stood there.
After our tremendous tour of the towering temples it was time to hit the museums. Greece is famous for its culture, and there is nothing quite like a good museum to display cultural history.
We visited three of the most famous and well known museums.
The first museum we visited is the Greek National Archaeological Museum. This is truly an impressive museum. It houses material from before 5000 B.C. all the way up to the Roman Conquest. The museum possesses a rich photographic archive and a library with many rare publications, the latter of which is constantly enriched to meet the needs of the research staff. There are also modern conservation laboratories for metal, pottery, stone and organic materials, a cast workshop, a photographic laboratory and a chemistry laboratory. Not all of these were accesible to us, but most were. The museum has temporary exhibition spaces, a lecture hall for archaeological lectures and one of the largest shops of the Archaeological Receipts Fund. There was even a speaker in the auditorium giving a lecture on the importance of archaeology in the fundamental understanding of ancient soceities, or so the guide told us. The entire speech was in Greek, so we didn't get much of it. Here we saw so many different things that truly portrayed the culture and history of Greece. The only mar on this otherwise perfect museum trip was that we I may have accidentally disobeyed the law. Apparently there are no video-games allowed in public in Greece. No one informed me of this. I was quite abruptly asked to put my handheld game away. Apparently this is a recurring problem with tourists.
The next museum we went to was a bit more artistically inclined. The Museum of Cycladic Art is a museum that displays the workings and masterpieces of ancient Greek artists. All sorts art were displayed here, but the primary medium of expression was sculpture. This museum... was not as exciting as the others. It was interesting to see all the different forms and expressions of Greek culture, but after seeing something as compelling as the archaeological museum, this one didn't meet the same standards. Also, Lauren and Sarah kept calling it the "Psychadelic" museum. So, this was not one of our better choices as a museum trip.
Finally, at T.J.'s request, we went to the War Museum. This was a surprising gem of an exhibit. There were several different rooms, each divided based upon the period of history they covered. Within each room the Greek wars of that era were depicted. Due to Greece's longstanding history it covers wars all the way back from the stone age. Brian and I were more interested in the wars of the distant past. The depiction of the crude and primitive weapons used, as well as very different military tactics during ancient times was enthralling. Lauren, Sarah, and T.J. were more appreciative of the more recent war exhibits. They were each very interested to see how Greece was involved in some of the wars that they had learned about for some time, but never expected Greece to have such a role in. Due to the more textual nature of the museum we had a tour guide for this exhibit. Damon was an excellent tour guide. He spoke with excellent English and very dramatically throughout all of the exhibits. We thanked him at the end of our tour, paid him, and went on our way.
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