Athens and Attica, Week 1

Tonight we leave for the island of Crete, so I thought I should try to unload my camera's and my own memory banks of my first week in Athens and Attica. First, my environs: the American School is located in the Evangalismos area of Athens, next door to the British Academy. The neighborhood is a bit ritzy, but not touristy, so prices are reasonable and cafes are plentiful. I'll have pictures of my room, the buildings, and the gardens, but take my word for it, this is no less than an all-inclusive resort crawling with really smart people. My group is a mix of teachers, grad students, and undergrads, with varying knowledge of Greek and Greece, and so far has a great synergy; again, more on people as they come up.

Arrival day was reasonably relaxed, and after everyone had arrived, we took a walk/hike up Mt. Lykavettos to get a topographical intro to the city. One of the pictures attached is a view of the harbor of Piraeus from the top of the hill (with World Cup Sailing going on), and another is the Acropolis.

Tuesday was orientation to all of the facilities of the American School, including two amazing libraries, archives, and an archaeological science lab. The afternoon was a long walk punctuated with many sites, including the Pnyx (where the Athenian assembly met), a temple of Meilichian Zeus, and the Philopappos monument.

Wednesday we were lead to the Agora, and the director of the excavations there, John Camp, gave us an amazingly detailed and informative introduction to Greek architecture by way of the Hephaesteion. We also toured the excavation offices, including the archives and bone lab, all of which are housing in the Stoa of Attalos, an ancient building that was something between a strip mall and a park pavilion. In the afternoon Glen Bugh, a member of the School, gave us a lecture about Greece in the Middle Ages, which filled in probably the biggest gap in my knowledge of the Greek people and state.

Our first trip out of the city was yesterday, when we were lead by Bob Bridges, Secretary of the School, to the SE part of Attica. Brauron was the first site, with beautiful ruins of a temple to Artemis, but a frustrating site because it has never been, and will likely never be, published. After Brauron, we continued on the bus to Thorikos and investigated some Mycenean (approximately 4,000 year old) grave sites, the earliest stone theater in Greece (which was rectilinear, not curved!), and part of the mining site of the Laurion silver mines, the financial lifeline of Athens. In the afternoon we went to the tip of the Attic peninsula to Sounion, which I had been to last summer, and toured the grounds of the temple of Poseidon and a temple to Athena. By far, though, the most memorable parts of the day were the swimming at Sounion, which was not just lovely, but practically necessary, and the intense North winds we encountered everywhere.

Today was a lighter load, but nevertheless eventful. We had our first trip to the Acropolis, and John Younger lectured us on the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. Seeing the Parthenon is the goal of every tourist in Athens, but we (for a short time) were IN the Parthenon -- that is, before the Greek officials got very upset and kicked us out, and gave our director, Gerry Lalonde, a real scolding. We also managed to pick up a dog into our group, who we later named Cecrops (his "tomb" is in the Erechtheion), and who found us again at a souvlaketeria in Plaka! Of course, I also learned a phenomenal amount about the two mammoth buildings, but it would be impossible and/or tedious to relate it all here. But two fun facts: the Parthenon was a treasury, not a temple; and the Erechtheion housed sacred snakes in its basement, along with a huge golden palm tree that came through the roof of the temple itself.

Overall, I can't even imagine all of the stuff I will have seen in 5 more weeks. Even the first day seemed like enough to fill a whole semester-long course, but yet it never seems to end. What makes it even better is that I'm with people who are just as or even more excited than I am about this, whose interests overlap and complement mine in so many ways, and who are simply laugh-out-loud funny and so easy to get along with.

It seems I should try to update these more often, so as not to be so long winded, but we'll see how I do. The pictures go along day by day, and I'll have many more tales and photos when I'm home. Tonight we leave for 6 days in Crete, and hopefully I'll be able to update once or twice while I'm there, since I'm sure I'll have more pictures of blue-monkeys and bull-jumpers than is healthy.