July 23rd - Day 43

Lysikrates Monument

Today was our last day of scheduled site visits. The end is truly upon me and I can hardly believe it! This morning we made our final trip to the Agora, where John Camp showed us around the south side of the Athenian Agora and then took us on a tour of the current excavations being carried out by the American School.

Next it was off to the Lysikrates Monument, which was erected by Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of the musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus. It was built to commemorate the award of first prize in 335/334 BC to one of the performances he had sponsored.

We then stopped for a little coffee break (there is always time for a coffee in Greece) courtesy of Bella. After that we had the remainder of the afternoon off. I spent the afternoon getting caught up on my blogging and picture tagging. At some point I am going to need to start tackling the mess that is my suitcase...that will probably be tomorrow's project. 

We have a whole day free tomorrow, with a farewell party being the only thing on the agenda. I am looking forward to being able to sleep in a little bit tomorrow and being able to relax before I make the long trip home, which involves a good 17 hours of travel time starting at 5:30 am...boo! I am excited to be coming home. Six weeks away from home in a foreign country is a long time!

July 22nd - Day 42

The Temple of Apollo @ Aigina

Today was the last day that I will have to rise and be ready to go by 7:30 am (!), as we made our way to the island of Aigina. We were picked up for the last time by our faithful bus driver, Spyros, who has been with us for 6 long weeks, and dropped off at the port. We had to say our goodbyes to Spyros there as he would not be accompanying us to the island or picking us up, because it would have gone over the 12 hour limit. There is a law in Greece that prevents drivers from working more than 12 hours a day.

The ferry took about an hour and a half and we landed in a quaint little port town. We made our way over to our first stop of the day, which was to see the ruins of the Temple of Apollo. The temple is also known as "Kolona," meaning column because only one column remains standing today. The temple dates from the 6th century BC and is constructed in the Doric architectural style. It was believed to have had 11 columns on the sides and 6 columns on each end. After we walked around the site and took in the amazing views of the surrounding water, we stopped in the on-site museum to look at the finds.

Sanctuary of Aphaia

Next we hopped on a local bus and made our way across the island to see the Sanctuary of Aphaia, which is a really cool site. The goddess Aphaia was almost exclusively worshiped on the island of Aigina and was a local deity associated with fertility and the agricultural cycle. According to myth, Aphaia, who is identified with Britomartis, daughter of Zeus and Karme, was loved by Minos. To escape his attention, she jumped into the sea and emerged in Aigina, where she became "invisible" in a grove. Later the goddess becomes associated with the Athenian hegemony and comes to be associated with Athena and Artemis.

The temple had a really cool inner structure and I wish that we had had an expert with us so that we could have gone inside the temple and learned more about the goddess and the architecture of the temple. After we finished at the temple we headed back to the port via the public bus and got back on the ferry. After we arrived on the mainland, we had to take the metro back to Loring Hall.

It turned out to be a long, hot day of travel and we didn't get back to Loring Hall until around 7 pm. By then most of us only had enough energy to find some dinner, shower, and head to bed. Tomorrow is our last day of scheduled site visits. We are heading to the Agora of the last time and then to the Lysikrates Monument.

July 21st - Day 41

Kerameikos

Today was a fairly easy day as we wind down our 6 weeks here in Greece. We visited the Kerameikos, an area located to the northwest of the Acropolis. The Kerameikos was the potters' quarter of the city and was also a site of an important cemetery and numerous funerary sculptures erected along the road out of the city towards Eleusis.

This is also the site where the Hiera Hodos (the Sacred Way) began, along which the procession moved for the Eleusinian Mysteries. We visited the destination of the procession, Eleusis, back on June 26th. After touring the site, we visited the small archaeological museum there to look at some of the finds.

We had the rest of the afternoon off and I spent it doing a little souvenir shopping before heading back to Loring Hall to relax and take a nap. Later that evening I met up with some group members and we went to a local restaurant called Avocado, which is an all vegetarian/vegan restaurant. The food was absolutely amazing. I had a juice drink and a margarita pizza - all made with fresh, local ingredients.

Tomorrow is another early day as we embark on our last day trip to the island of Aigina.

July 20th - Day 40

Hangover survival kit

Today was a dark and sad day...today was the day that I learned that I am no longer able to drink and party like I did in my early 20's without consequences. Mom, if you are reading this...sorry...not one of my best moments...

Last night we all went out for a big group dinner and copious amounts of wine were had by all, including myself. I will not go into all of the details, but let's just say that I woke up this morning not feeling so well and regretting the aforementioned amounts of wine that I consumed. Compounding my misery was the fact that today we spent most of the day on a hot bus as we traveled back to Athens.

Our first stop of the day was at the Volos Museum. I cannot honestly tell you what I saw in that museum as I was trying not to be sick on the antiquities (again...sorry Mom). I vaguely remember seeing some more grave stele and pottery. After the museum it was back on the bus for a few hours on our way to Mitrou. I slept most of the way and felt somewhat better when we arrived. We stopped for lunch at a small "mom and pop" restaurant. I think they were very overwhelmed with our group of 20.

On our way down to the beach, we stopped at the headquarters of the Mitrou dig currently going on and visited with the dig supervisor and got to talk with some of the excavators and see what they are currently working on. We spent the next few hours at the beach, before heading back to Athens. Only 4 more days left in Greece!

July 19th - Day 39

Sanctuary of Isis @ Dion

This morning we traveled to another one of my favorite sites, Dion. Dion was an important religious and cultural center of Macedonia and is known for its many sanctuaries. It took us almost 2 hours to get there and it took about 1.5 hours to tour the site, as it is very big. We saw a few sanctuaries, my favorite being the Sanctuary of Isis. This sanctuary was cool because it is being reclaimed by nature. It is now surrounded by a marsh, which gave it a really cool, sunken appearance. Plus we got to see frogs, turtles, and fish swimming around the temple, which was cool. Other highlights on the site included a Roman theatre, a few bath houses, and the Temple to Zeus Olympios, who the site is dedicated to. The site has a nice view of Mount Olympus and they also held athletic games and music competitions in honor of Zeus. After spending time at the site, we jumped on the bus for a quick ride over to the museum where we got to see some of the finds from the site.

Dimini

After a short lunch break, it was on to Dimini, which contains remains of both a Mycenaean and Neolithic settlement. The city was built up on a small hill and you can still see the foundation remains there. We also got to see a well preserved tholos tomb. We didn't spend too much time there as we got there shortly before the site closed for the day.

Then it was back on the bus and onto Makrynitsa where we will spend the night before we start making our way back to Athens tomorrow. The hotel we are staying in is much nicer than the hotel in Thessaloniki. It is located in the mountains and we had to walk a ways to get to it because our bus could not get there. They were nice enough to come pick up our luggage, so at least we didn't have to lug that along with us. Although, if they have a luggage shuttle, shouldn't they have one for people too? I'm just asking...Anyway, the hotel has a nice rustic feel to it and feels like the Four Seasons compared to our last hotel.

Tonight is our big official group dinner. We are eating at a restaurant which apparently has excellent views of the surrounding mountains and valleys below. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow! Less than a week left in Greece - can't believe it!

July 18th - Day 38

Pella

This morning we headed off to Pella, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia. It was the birthplace of Philip II and Alexander the Great. We spent the entire morning touring the site and museum there. The site is still be excavated and they are working on turning it into a park for tourists, which means they are undertaking some serious restoration and conservation projects in the area. The new visitor center on the site is scheduled to open in 2014 and should be quite a draw for tourists as there is quite a lot to see on site. The museum contains the finds from the site and is laid out well. It contains a lot of interesting artifacts, including mosaics, terracotta figurines and pottery, as well as some really cool coins. 


After we finished up at Pella, we drove another 2 hours to Vergina, which is my favorite site of this trip North and definitely a top 5 for the whole trip. Vergina is the reported burial site for Philip II and Alexander the Great (and a few other members of the royal family). There is quite a lot of debate among scholars as to whether or not this is really the burial site. The problem is that the site is largely unpublished and politics plays a big part in this site. Many believe that much of the site has not been published so that there cannot be any doubt cast on who is buried in the site. The site itself is really cool. The tombs are underground and the museum has been set up around the tombs. So you go down to see the excavated tomb and then you can walk around the different cases and see the artifacts that were found in the different tombs. No pictures were allowed. My favorite was a suit of armor and shield that supposedly belonged to Philip II. Some scholars argue that it actually belonged to Alexander. The amount of wealth that was buried in these tombs was staggering. Tons of gold, benches with ivory decorations, weapons, silver, etc. It was amazing! There were even grave stele found with their original paintings still visible - this is largely unheard of anywhere else. It was a truly remarkable site.


We got back to Thessaloniki just before dinner time. We headed out to the same restaurant again, being too tired to look for anything else. I ordered my Greek salad and mushrooms again and had another Mythos to wash it down. After that I trudged back to my horrid hotel room (late night!!) took a shower and sat down to write this blog post. I am going to hit the sack very shortly as we have an early wake up call tomorrow - 7:30 am...BOO!! Good night, y'all! 

July 17th - Day 37

Olynthos

This morning was a pleasant surprise weather-wise. It was actually overcast and somewhat cool, which was a nice change from the blazing hot sun we have been experiencing. It even started to sprinkle for about a minute. The cool weather didn't last long, but it was still cloudy which kept the temperature from getting too hot.

We started the day with another road trip - the bus is starting to feel like a second home we spend so much time on it - to the ancient city of Olynthos. Olynthos was an important cultural center for the Bottiaians during the Classical period. It was destroyed by the Persians in 479 BC, when it passed into the hands of the Chalkideans. It was later destroyed by Philip II (Alexander the Great's father) in 348 BC. It is often studied today for its domestic architecture as there are several well preserved houses on the site.

After Olynthos, it was a 2 hour bus ride back to Thessaloniki where we had a short lunch break and then took a short walking tour of the city on our way to the Archaeological Museum. On our walking tour we stopped at the Rotunda of Galerius (Galerius was a Roman emperor), which has been both a Christian church and Muslim mosque throughout its history, and the Arch of Galerius. We then walked down to see the Palace of Galerius, which is one of the most important monuments of late antiquity in Thessaloniki (according to the sign). The palace is located in the heart of a busy downtown area and is currently being excavated. We were allowed to go down into the site and look around, which was cool.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the museum, which had a lot of really cool gold jewelry that was found in burial tombs, as well as some Roman statues which were neat. After that we spent the few hours before dinner relaxing. We went back to the same restaurant from the night before. This time I had a Greek salad and sauteed mushrooms - so good!

Tomorrow should be an exciting day as we are going to visit Vergina, the burial site of Philip II and Alexander the Great!