Up bright and early (aka, 8:00ish) we ate and then headed to the airport to pick up our car for our day down the coast to visit Poseidon's Temple and the sea! We spent the afternoon sun bathing, eating baklava, reading, and writing and then headed to the hill where the Temple stood.
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Our last official day touring Athens, we finished visiting the ruins by heading to Kermaikos and it's attached museum. We meandered around, picked up a kebab for lunch, and then found the post office so Lynette could send some post cards. Then we headed to the last site of ruins: Zesus' Temple. Lynette had more shopping to do, but before we went back to the main district we decided to climb up Philopappos Hill.
The Eurovision Song Contest is pretty much the biggest even in all of Europe. Every year each country in Europe (all 37) selects a group or solo performer to compete in the contest. The final, which is what we watched on the 10th, consists of the top 26 countries. Each country's contestant performs (it started at 9 and that part ended around 11:30 I think), then the voting begins. It's an interesting system, each country tallies up all their citizen's votes and then ranks the top choices, dishing out points 1-8, 10, 12 to their favorites. The country with the most of those points wins, and will get to host next years finale. (The whole event ended around 12:40)
This year France's representatives "Twin Twin" sang, in French, a song about how badly they wanted mustaches. It was silly and fun, but sadly, they ended up getting the lowest score in history: 2. This year's Austrian representative happened to be gay, and rather vocal about it because she (who is really a he) looked awesome in a dress, but drew a beard on. It added an interesting dynamic to whether or not we should cheer her on, but when we heard her song, "Rising like a Phoenix", we knew she had a chance of winning. And then sure enough she grabbed the victory with a total of 290 something points. I told Elvira that just meant I would have to come back so she could take me to the contest live, since it's her homeland;) After our usual wake up, wander down to breakfast, and then figure out what we're going to do routine we headed out to conquer the Acropolis! Next we headed to Mars Hill, which is where the Apostle Paul spent a lot of his time preaching. We continued our tour of Ancient ruins by heading to the Roman Agora, and then to Hadrian's Library. There aren't many pictures of the Roman Agora, so I'm just going to jump to the Library.
Today marks the beginning of the Chez Vous program, so from now on Jessie and I will have other college students to keep us company! The first two (and only two students for the first few weeks), Kaitlyn and Jonathon arrived today. They're super nice and I really look foward to getting to know them more in the weeks to come. On the way back from the Paris airport we got the wonderful privilege to stop in Giverny and see Claude Monet's magnificent garden. Pictures do not do it justice, but I have nothing more to say about it's beauty, so enjoy the pictures! The funny thing was that since it's spring all the toads were on the pond singing their love songs very loudly. It reminded me of the few toads we get every year on our little garden pond so I recorded a bit of it here.
Woke up to a rainy day so after breakfast around 10:00 we chilled in the hotel for a bit before heading to the Culture Music Museum. When we left it wasn't raining anymore, so we headed to the southern slopes of the Acropolis. After lunch we headed to the Acropolis Museum because it was looking like rain again.
Did you know that Rick Steves has audio tours that you can use? Well, they're fantastic, and we used them several times during our trips out--including this first tour of the capital. I have a video of the guards changing here: Changing of the Guards On this tour we also looked at Hadrian's Library, Zeus' Temple, Hadrian's Arch, and the Roman Agora. However, later in the week we actually entered all these sites, so I will wait to show you pictures of them later.
After we finished the city tour we napped a bit back at the hotel, and then went to explore the ruins of the Greek Agora with the aid of Rick's lovely commentary. This area was basically the city's center of commerce and social gatherings back in the day. It's here that the philosophers would have their discussions, voting would occur, and the market thrived. I LOVE flying. White. Pure white. It's all I see out the tiny plane window. If I could angle myself correctly, so that the plane's wing disappeared and I didn't see any of my window, I would get completely lost in bright, piercing white. I've been in pitch black before, but this complete whiteness is new, wonderful, but overwhelming.
Then we break through and there's blue. Brilliant light blue. Under me are pillow clouds, the kind I could jump on in a dream. They merge with the sky's blue so that it gets increasingly blue the farther above the clouds my eyes travel. It's a landscape all of it's own; with hills, canyons, rivers, and forests of fluffy beauty. It stretches on, and on--farther than the ocean, and yet my vision makes it look like it ends at the last cloudy slope. The sun is bright behind me, even the clouds are hard to look at because of it's bright glory. Layers upon layers of clouds. Some look scattered and flimsy, but others apear so dense it's like a snowy landscape, and I wish I could explore it more. If I didn't know I was soaring above clouds, I could almost make myself believe I was flying low over an arctic land. It barely looks like we're moving, like if I was walking on the cloud ice I could keep up with the plane. Perception is a beautiful, amazing concept. This morning instead of going to church, I stayed at the house because there's a group here who held their own service.
I believe they're from the Middle East and were Muslim at one point, but boy oh boy do they know how to worship our Living God. They joy they have in His love and salvation is palpable. With a guitar, two drums, and two shaker-eggs (one of which I used) we sang in a free, Middle-Eastern style praises and thanks to our King. There were a few songs I recognized, many I didn't, but with the egg and a grin I was able to join in the worship. In between songs one of them would read a verse or say something that was on their heart. The whole thing was only loosely structured. After a good hour two of the men shared several things, and a few others talked about their life, then we partook of communion together, and ended it all out with a few more energetic songs. Again and again I find myself thanking God for music. Again and again I am amazed at the connection that all Christians have, even when we come from different cultures and speak different languages. I hope you all get to experience that one day. I promise pictures are coming, but I have to organize all 500 (ish) of them, so it may be a little bit....
I plan on doing a day by day account of the trip, but I wanted to just give an overview of it all here:) I traveled all day April 25, stayed in Athens the 26- 30, traveled to Delphi on May 1, returned to Athens May 2, and then traveled most of the day today. Lynette and I saw lots of awesome views, ruins, cats, ate good food, and rested in the sun. She is a wonderful traveling companion, and made my week the most relaxing vacation I've ever had. (Thanks Lynette!) I look forward to sharing my adventures with you! |
AuthorSalut! Je suis etudiante de francais. Well, I'm doing my best to learn French at any rate:) Je suis Son (I am His) is the documentation of my semester in Normandy with the Chez Vous Institute and the Universite de Caen. Categories
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