Alright so today was our first full day in Athens, we did great things. We first woke up, ate greek breakfast and then met our tour guide/translator Elsa and headed out to the 2004 Athens Olympic Park. When we walked up we heard music and found ourselves walking into the athletes entrance for the Special Olympic Games that were being held at the main stadium. It was pretty cool and we most definetly were into the games and music-the piano interlude was fantastic and we learned some valuable information from Elsa via the stadium tour guide. The stadium holds 75,00 seats and was used as the main stadium for the 2004 games and the roof covers 70% of the spectators.
After the stadium we headed out to see the basketball and tennis facilities and the aquatic center. We also saw the market place center where restuarants, shops and whatnot where held during the games. We also saw a giant white board that Elsa told us projected the games. The board showed what was going on in the stadium and displayed the athletes in over-life size. After a quick loop around the park in our van we headed back to the hotel and split for lunch/mid day break. The girls went to some of the shops and some of us ended up eating at a greek all you can eat buffet for cheap- definetly took advantage of that.
After lunch we met back up with Robert and headed out to the new Acropolis museum. It housed many of the artificats that were from the original Acropolis and Robert told us about many things, especially from the Parthenon, but since we were "British archeaology students" we actually knew most of it...false we did not. We were british students in order to get in and Robert told us all about the original intent of the Acropolis and explained what each building was used for. After the museum Robert took us up to climb to the top of the Acropolis. After the trek up we saw and learned about the Parthenon, the Erechteum and the Acropolis in general. It was a great experience and truly amazing to see. Its one thing to read about the Parthenon and how tall the Acropolis is above the city but to experience it is a totally different thing.
We were then free for dinner and 5 of us headed to the infamous gyro place in the corner of the square. We made a couple of friends at the restuaruant who provided us with entertainment and we enjoyed some amazing gyros. We then got up to leave but the waiter told us to sit and he brought us some free greek desserts. It was a great place and I highly highly recommend it. All in all, a great day.
-Kelsey
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Greece
As your journey comes to an end, we are all hoping you will carry with you memories that will last a lifetime. Friends and family of professor Ryan certainly enjoyed the video - he has many hidden talents.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A Greek Translator Is A Man's Best Friend
OK everyone, I'm back with another fun filled update of our arduous journey through the heart of Europe!!! Maybe this one can be a little longer since im not tied down to an internet cafe timeline.
Anyways, I digress.
Let me talk a bit about a little place called Olympia. The birthing grounds of the Olympics. Sacred grounds tread upon by gods and mortals alike, with ranges of people from commoners to emperors. This place is located on the western coast of the Peloponese basically in the middle of nowhere, which in Greece is everywhere. To get there is a challenge, but not so for our courageous bus driver dubiously dubbed Hercules... Hercules decided to let us join him on his thirteenth labor, which consisted of navigating the one lane mountain road in a coach bus. Im not sure how everyone was sleeping besides me, Eric, Robert (our awesome translator) and P Ryan, but for us that were awake during this event, sweating and near panic ensued. However, we survived, if barely and made it to Olympia.
In the morning we woke up bright and early to tackle a couple museums, and in the afternoon visit the ancient site at Olympia. Buuuuuut, thanks to prime planning on the part of P Ryan, both museums were closed and we joined the hundreds of fanny-packing tourists on our walk through ancient Olympia. I, of course, was no less than euphoric at finally being in the presence of athletic holy lands. Soooo we toured the site. We saw the temple of Hera and Zeus, the palestra and the copius amounts of fallen pillars and statue bases. All of this leading up to the main event, running barefoot in the Stadium. Side note: over the course of thousands of years a lot of rock has turned up on the track. Razor sharp rocks aside, we wouldnt be derterred from our barefooted glory... Well just me. I was the only one stupid enough to go on a full-out sprint down the track in bare feet. In the end brandon and I tied, and i was left disappointed by the fact i wasnt injured in the feet. For what honor would it be to have my blood stain the ground at Olympia!!! But when i looked down... A PART OF MY TOE WAS GONE... VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!! As weird as this sounds, i was estatic that my foot was now crippled. Dont worry im fine ;)
After some bandages and tape, it was time to mosey on down to the pool for a little tome to refresh. As you may have seen from nicoles post below, P Ryan wowed us with some crazy acrobatics that defied gravity and human limits.
Dinner time rolled around and it was time well spent with our beloved translator Robert, dearest Eric and a good amount of wine. We had some good laughs and the night definately did not stop there. I will name no names, but basically every man on our little trip had an exceptionally fun/adventurous/maybe even regretable... night (all in moderation mind you)
A final word to the wise... when observing the stars in a less than normal state, take care to reduce spinning in admiration of the celestial bodies and also make sure you're not on hill, for extreme staggering and dizziness may occur. Thank you.
-Joseph
P.S. Just as an added sidenote... This trip would be far from great without the guidance and hard work of Prof. Ryan (P Ryan) and any added embellishment in my blogging can be taken as a friendly tease to a man that can handle it. Thanks bud!!
Anyways, I digress.
Let me talk a bit about a little place called Olympia. The birthing grounds of the Olympics. Sacred grounds tread upon by gods and mortals alike, with ranges of people from commoners to emperors. This place is located on the western coast of the Peloponese basically in the middle of nowhere, which in Greece is everywhere. To get there is a challenge, but not so for our courageous bus driver dubiously dubbed Hercules... Hercules decided to let us join him on his thirteenth labor, which consisted of navigating the one lane mountain road in a coach bus. Im not sure how everyone was sleeping besides me, Eric, Robert (our awesome translator) and P Ryan, but for us that were awake during this event, sweating and near panic ensued. However, we survived, if barely and made it to Olympia.
In the morning we woke up bright and early to tackle a couple museums, and in the afternoon visit the ancient site at Olympia. Buuuuuut, thanks to prime planning on the part of P Ryan, both museums were closed and we joined the hundreds of fanny-packing tourists on our walk through ancient Olympia. I, of course, was no less than euphoric at finally being in the presence of athletic holy lands. Soooo we toured the site. We saw the temple of Hera and Zeus, the palestra and the copius amounts of fallen pillars and statue bases. All of this leading up to the main event, running barefoot in the Stadium. Side note: over the course of thousands of years a lot of rock has turned up on the track. Razor sharp rocks aside, we wouldnt be derterred from our barefooted glory... Well just me. I was the only one stupid enough to go on a full-out sprint down the track in bare feet. In the end brandon and I tied, and i was left disappointed by the fact i wasnt injured in the feet. For what honor would it be to have my blood stain the ground at Olympia!!! But when i looked down... A PART OF MY TOE WAS GONE... VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!! As weird as this sounds, i was estatic that my foot was now crippled. Dont worry im fine ;)
After some bandages and tape, it was time to mosey on down to the pool for a little tome to refresh. As you may have seen from nicoles post below, P Ryan wowed us with some crazy acrobatics that defied gravity and human limits.
Dinner time rolled around and it was time well spent with our beloved translator Robert, dearest Eric and a good amount of wine. We had some good laughs and the night definately did not stop there. I will name no names, but basically every man on our little trip had an exceptionally fun/adventurous/maybe even regretable... night (all in moderation mind you)
A final word to the wise... when observing the stars in a less than normal state, take care to reduce spinning in admiration of the celestial bodies and also make sure you're not on hill, for extreme staggering and dizziness may occur. Thank you.
-Joseph
P.S. Just as an added sidenote... This trip would be far from great without the guidance and hard work of Prof. Ryan (P Ryan) and any added embellishment in my blogging can be taken as a friendly tease to a man that can handle it. Thanks bud!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
