Today we started the day with breakfast on the top floor of our
hotel that had a spectacular view of the Acropolis. It constantly amazes
me how we are surrounded by such rich history. We met up with our tour
guide, Helen, who had a refreshing sense of urgency about her. Being in a
hurry is not something that is found in Greece, unless you are a
pedestrian in the way of a driver for a max of two seconds.
We walked around town and she told us the history behind many of the churches and temples. One thing that I am consistently surprised by is how much World War II affected Greece. I had no idea that they were so involved and affected by the war. We then headed towards the Acropolis. At the bottom of the Acropolis is the world’s first theater, followed by a hospital, and small temple. Almost to the top of the Acropolis is the Odeon, which is a massive concert hall that has been almost completely restored and still used to host current performances from all over the world.
The first temple we saw was in honor of the goddess Nike. Nike was the goddess of victory, and the Greeks built this temple while they were losing the war to show that they are confident that they will be victorious, they also cut off her wings so that she would stay in Athens, however they still lost the war. We then made our way through the gates to the Parthenon.
The Parthenon is way more massive than it looks in photographs. This was where Poseidon and Athena had their battle over who the city would be named after. The Parthenon was also the first bank where people would keep their gold while being bombarded during war. There was also many offerings to the gods here. Also our tour guide told us to turn all the other tourists into statues as that would be a good representation of how many were actually there in ancient times. We then saw the smaller temple to Poseidon which was held up by ladies instead of pillars.
We made our way down and stopped for lunch. After lunch we went to the museum. The museum is so unique in the way that anywhere you dig in Greece you’ll find ancient ruins, so to preserve that the museum is built on pillars so that you can see through the floor to the ruins underneath. Our tour guide took us through all the artifacts and explained them in more detail. I loved getting a closer look at all the Greek history.
After the museum we headed to our hotel for a long siesta, as it was blazing hot outside. After our siesta, we went to a great Mexican restaurant and ate our weight in chips and salsa to celebrate a birthday. We then went to several other bars, and actually made it until 3 am this night. It was kind of a bummer though, because the night life in Thessaloniki was much more happening, and pretty much everywhere was closed after 1 am, but we made the most of it.
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We walked around town and she told us the history behind many of the churches and temples. One thing that I am consistently surprised by is how much World War II affected Greece. I had no idea that they were so involved and affected by the war. We then headed towards the Acropolis. At the bottom of the Acropolis is the world’s first theater, followed by a hospital, and small temple. Almost to the top of the Acropolis is the Odeon, which is a massive concert hall that has been almost completely restored and still used to host current performances from all over the world.
The first temple we saw was in honor of the goddess Nike. Nike was the goddess of victory, and the Greeks built this temple while they were losing the war to show that they are confident that they will be victorious, they also cut off her wings so that she would stay in Athens, however they still lost the war. We then made our way through the gates to the Parthenon.
The Parthenon is way more massive than it looks in photographs. This was where Poseidon and Athena had their battle over who the city would be named after. The Parthenon was also the first bank where people would keep their gold while being bombarded during war. There was also many offerings to the gods here. Also our tour guide told us to turn all the other tourists into statues as that would be a good representation of how many were actually there in ancient times. We then saw the smaller temple to Poseidon which was held up by ladies instead of pillars.
We made our way down and stopped for lunch. After lunch we went to the museum. The museum is so unique in the way that anywhere you dig in Greece you’ll find ancient ruins, so to preserve that the museum is built on pillars so that you can see through the floor to the ruins underneath. Our tour guide took us through all the artifacts and explained them in more detail. I loved getting a closer look at all the Greek history.
After the museum we headed to our hotel for a long siesta, as it was blazing hot outside. After our siesta, we went to a great Mexican restaurant and ate our weight in chips and salsa to celebrate a birthday. We then went to several other bars, and actually made it until 3 am this night. It was kind of a bummer though, because the night life in Thessaloniki was much more happening, and pretty much everywhere was closed after 1 am, but we made the most of it.
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Read more from Kyre at https://kyredeniceingreece.wordpress.com/blog/
Find our more about the U of A Faculty-Led: Food, Agriculture and Sustainability in Greece program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/aggreece