So, here's another of those posts that has been sitting on my computer for awhile. WAAAYYY back in January Kyle and I embarked on our biggest adventure yet. We really wanted to do several sites in the Mediterranean and I was going crazy with trying to figure out the timetables when I came across a brilliant idea: a cruise! Perfect, no worrying about booking hotels every night, finding places to sleep etc. Plus cruising in the latter half of January turns out to be a super cheap option. It was Kyle's first cruise (odd, given his obsession with water and water sports) so he was a bit nervous. I love cruises for the above mentioned reasons (i.e. ease of transportation/accommodations/food).
Our first stop was:
That's Olympia, Greece (for those of you whose Greek is a little rusty)
We actually took this picture to send to our little niece Olympia.
She's 3 and apparently wasn't too impressed with the photo. (Not surprising really since it doesn't look like her name spelled in English)
Olympia is where the original olympic games were held - here's Kyle in one of the gymnasiums (looks like it was much nicer than most gymnasiums I've ever been in). The olympic games also were a form of worship so in order to ensure one stop-shopping there was also a MASSIVE temple to Zeus on the site - it contained a huge statue of Zeus - one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the world.
Kyle demonstrating the width of one of the original columns of this massive temple
The stadium where the races took places
Lovely archeological dig sites
After trotting through lots of ruins - it's very nice to have an orange, fresh off the tree. (Random orange trees in city park)
We did enjoy Olympia and also continued to enjoy the cruise...(yummy food). The next day took us to the lovely city of Athens, Greece. (Ok, it truth, Athens is not really a lovely city - no offense intended to my Greek friends - they are lovely, it's just that Athens, well, isn't. I haven't seen so many stray animals since my mission in Madagascar and there seemed to be a lot of trash just floating around. So sad) Fortunately for us, Athens boasts a lot of something that Kyle and I apparently love: RUINS!!! And other really old stuff, Hurray!!!
Me in front of some lovely ruins and reconstruction - can you find the dog in the background?
Kyle showing off the first (of his many) discoveries of nifty mosaic floors on an ancient market place floor. This really is cool, can you imagine modern tile floors lasting 2500 years? Hah. Not a chance.
Sitting on Mars Hill (Acropolis Hill behind me) - click for Biblical reference
Below the Temple to Athena Nike, part of the entrance way up to the Acropolis
Ok, so this doesn't look quite as cool in the picture as in real life, this is actually the roof of the huge entrance way, being reconstructed with both the old marble stones and new laser custom cut marble. My camera is apparently not good enough to show the spot where there is some original paint. (Keep in mind that people believe all this was painted bright fancy colours)
For me, this is actually the cool part, all these little pieces laid out like a puzzle, trying to fit everything back together again.
And of course, the Parthenon itself. We are thinking of planning a trip back in 20 years to see how the reconstruction is going.
