Friday night Marshall and I took the night ferry "Knossos Princess" to Iraklio (ancient Heraklion), Crete, one day after the others had gone.
Some tips learned from experience:
1. If you can afford it, fly.
2. If you can't fly, reserve a cabin so you can get some sleep!
3. If all you can afford is "deck class," do the following:
a. Bring earplugs, a sheet or blanket, and a sleep mask or some such device. The AC is brutally strong ( I got "cold hives"!)
b. get on the boat as early as you can. This is KEY.
c. The seats are configured in sets of two and three. Immediately go to the economy deck chair section and stake out a block of three seats, the ones whose armrests go up (this is equally key). Put your luggage or, even better, a sheet or blanket across the seats.
d. Now you can wander throughout the ferry until it's time to sleep. Buy a beer (3 euros, but remember it's fairly reasonable for a place that can hold you hostage!) or better yet, defend your position against possible invaders.
e. Then go back, stretch out, and immediately feign sleep. Do not look up for anything (remember what happened to Orpheus and Lot's wife!).
It may seem selfish and cruel to take up three chairs, but you will get some sleep. We did not. We barely found two seats at all, and by some miracle together. Then began the long, long night...The chairs are (mirabile dictu) even more uncomfortable than airplane seats--in fact, they make an airplane seat seem like a SleepNumber bed!The lights stayed on all night. The TV played all night long, loud. But even louder were the "Young Turks" in back of us, who seemed to take some twisted delight in talking AS LOUD AS THEY COULD, and they had many visitors throughout the night, including one whose disregard for the "No smoking" sign was odorifically obvious, and one who decided that the top of my chair made a convenient armrest. The standard glare did not work, so I finally had to tell him to stop it, as he was now thumping it with his hand to illustrate key points in his long, loud conversation.
The chairs were exquisitely uncomfortable, which explains why many people simply stretched out on the floor, as far out of the area of traffic as possible. In fact, after several sleepless hours I finally curled up in the tiny space between our seats and the seats in front of us, with one of Marshall's extra shirts as a pathetic attempt at a blanket, and Marshall tried to drape his body across the two seats, although our armrests did not go up. In this way we managed to snag a few fitful hours of sleep...
Saturday, May 27
Friday, May 26
Trip to Knossos
The site of Knossos is like an ancient version of Disneyland--it probably tells us more about the man who excavated it than about the ancient civilization who lived there.
Sir Arthur Evans had some very definite ideas about these people--he named them the "Minoans" after the legendary King Minos who ruled the island and the surrounding sea. The story of the Minotaur--half-bull, half-man--was reflected for Evans in the bull-leaping frescoes and the objects Evans calls the "Horns of Consecration," which may or may not be stylized bull-horns.
Marshall next to the "Horns of Consecration"
Anyway, Evans gets lots of flak for his elaborate reconstruction and imaginative naming--for example, a room in which he found a fresco of dolphins gets labeled "The Queen's Megaron" (a megaron is a large room) because for him, dolphins evoked the feminine. The main problem besides the tenuous connection of dolphin = female is that the fresco apparently was originally located on the floor of the room above and fell into the "Queen's Megaron," where it was later discovered by Evans. Oh, well...
So we walked around the site for hours, me taking lots of photos and Marshall taking careful notes so that when we get back it won't just look like bunches of rocks. I was disappointed because the Queen's Megaron was off limits due to conservation, but by lying on the ground and contorting my body I was able to get a partial shot of the fresco. Here it is:
When you go to Knossos try to get there as early as possible (it opens at 8) and make sure you hit the "Throne Room" first, because later on when the huge buses crammed with tourists arrive, there is a long line waiting to enter--even though it's still fairly early in the scheme of things touristical, the site was packed by late morning.
Throne Room: the woman in the yellow shirt is calling out, "Keep moving! Keep moving!"
At first I was surprised because Marshall and I seemed to be the only tourists on the city bus from Irakleo to Knossos, but it's because virtually all of the visitors at Knossos had been delivered in said huge buses. They bus 'em in, give them a half-hour or so at the site, tightly regimented by the ubiquitous middle-aged female tour guide holding up the umbrella, then bus 'em out to the next site, pausing just long enough to purchase tacky souvenirs at the emporia across the street.
We had time to sit and eat our picnic lunch in the shade, playing my favorite game of "guess the nationality of the tourists." Then after some more roaming the site we returned to Irakleo to hit the Museum.
Sir Arthur Evans had some very definite ideas about these people--he named them the "Minoans" after the legendary King Minos who ruled the island and the surrounding sea. The story of the Minotaur--half-bull, half-man--was reflected for Evans in the bull-leaping frescoes and the objects Evans calls the "Horns of Consecration," which may or may not be stylized bull-horns.
Marshall next to the "Horns of Consecration"Anyway, Evans gets lots of flak for his elaborate reconstruction and imaginative naming--for example, a room in which he found a fresco of dolphins gets labeled "The Queen's Megaron" (a megaron is a large room) because for him, dolphins evoked the feminine. The main problem besides the tenuous connection of dolphin = female is that the fresco apparently was originally located on the floor of the room above and fell into the "Queen's Megaron," where it was later discovered by Evans. Oh, well...
So we walked around the site for hours, me taking lots of photos and Marshall taking careful notes so that when we get back it won't just look like bunches of rocks. I was disappointed because the Queen's Megaron was off limits due to conservation, but by lying on the ground and contorting my body I was able to get a partial shot of the fresco. Here it is:
When you go to Knossos try to get there as early as possible (it opens at 8) and make sure you hit the "Throne Room" first, because later on when the huge buses crammed with tourists arrive, there is a long line waiting to enter--even though it's still fairly early in the scheme of things touristical, the site was packed by late morning.
Throne Room: the woman in the yellow shirt is calling out, "Keep moving! Keep moving!"At first I was surprised because Marshall and I seemed to be the only tourists on the city bus from Irakleo to Knossos, but it's because virtually all of the visitors at Knossos had been delivered in said huge buses. They bus 'em in, give them a half-hour or so at the site, tightly regimented by the ubiquitous middle-aged female tour guide holding up the umbrella, then bus 'em out to the next site, pausing just long enough to purchase tacky souvenirs at the emporia across the street.
We had time to sit and eat our picnic lunch in the shade, playing my favorite game of "guess the nationality of the tourists." Then after some more roaming the site we returned to Irakleo to hit the Museum.
Some Photos
Lykavittos hill, highest point in Athens.
A View from the hotel roof.
The main tourist office. Note the slogan!
Opa! Ouzo at a nearby cafe.This is a trial run for the photos. I'll post some from Crete on Sunday when we return!
Dogs in Athens
As many of you know, I am a big dog fan. So far, we have seen lots of dogs on Athens, but I have found two things surprising. First, I would swear they are all related: they seem to be the same vague German shepherd mix, only different colors.
(I have seen a couple of what I would term "rat dogs" on leash, but they are a definite minority. The second thing is that they all spend most of the day lying on the sidewalk, apprently exhausted by the heat. I would think that they are strays, but many of them have collars and ID tags.
There is one who hangs out just outside the main Tourist Office. Let's call him Zeus. He must spend the day there in a near comatose state. He was completely unmoved by my attempts at international diplomacy. Dogs in modern Greek are not referred to by their cynically-inspired ancient name, but by the word "o skilos." Zeus, however, did not answer to, "Hey, skilos!" While we were in the Tourist
office, I noticed that he suddenly got up and went around the corner. Where did he go? For a drink? (There was no water outside the Office.) The Call of Nature? An urgent telephone call? Or just on Walkabout?At about 5:30, when the Greeks return to work from their afternoon siesta, the Athenian police take to the streets to assist traffic. Evidently because traffic laws are merely mild suggestions that most feel free to disregard, chaos would otherwise ensue. Erm, I mean more chaos. Certainly traffic is chaotic enough! Dawn told us to remember that pedestrians do not have the right of way, and motorbikes especially have a way of zooming in out of nowhere. Also, none of these transitional blinking red "Don't Walk" signs--the signals go straight from green (="Walk If You Dare") to red ("You're a Dead Man if You Leave the Sidewalk, and even then, you May Be Taken out by a Rogue Motorbike.")
So a couple of days ago, as the police were directing traffic on the main drag of Stadiou, all of a sudden one of the dogs who had been lying soporifically on the sidewalk got up, went into the middle of the intersection, and just started barking furiously away at one of the police as if he had been gravely offended. The police just ignored him. As we walked on, I could hear him continuing his grievance with the police. Perhaps it was his whistle? I guess we could call this the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Afternoon.
This dog followed some of the female students from the hotel all the way to the school (about ten minutes) His name must be Prometheus, friend to humans. Here he is standing at the door of the school, forlornly waiting for Melissa to come back...
Friday, 26 May
Perhaps a rather pedestrian outline of events, but things will get very interesting tonight when we hop a ferry for the island of Crete.
Wednesday was Harrison's birthday. A few of the korai (I will use this word from now on to mean "the female students" went down to the Plaka (touristy shopping area) late Tuesday night and bought him a soccer ball. They welcomed in his birthday at 12:30 am by knocking on his door and presenting it.
We continued the orientation on Wednesday with a great session by Professor Dawn Stevens on things to do in Athens. She is a font of all knowledge, having lived in Greece for about 10 years.
Then Professor Michael Barbas continued his unique lecture on Greek culture with a look at Globalization in Greece.
We had the afternoon free, so Marshall, Audrey and I went to the huge bookstore named Eleutheroudakis, on Venizelou Street not far from City University. They have an impressive selection of English language books. I bought a pocket Oxford Modern Greek-English dictionary, a book on Greek Art and Architecture from which I plan to crib many of my lectures ;-) and for Harrison, a Loeb edition of Plato which has some of the best dialogues, including one we are reading for the class, the Phraedus.
We all signed the book for Harrison and presented it to himn at an impromptu party on the hotel roof that night. Of course, in the States, they would lock the roof, or if not, put up dire warnings about falling off. But I guess they expect people to have more common sense here! It's very pleasant up there in the evenings, cool, and great views of the Acropolis, Lykkavittos Hill (tallest in Athens, and outlying hills.
Yesterday was our first day of classes. Marshall started us out with an overview of the class and some thoughts on Greek history. I showed some slides of Greek pottery and talked about dating conventions in pre-history, ending with some slides of Minoan art in honor of the trip to Crete. In the afternoon Audrey began her class on Paul with an impressive overview, including an invaluable chronology of the entire Bible, showing where each book falls in place. We peppered her with questions along the way. It should prove to be an incredibly interesting class.
Harrison, Melissa, Karin, Joy, Jon and David are now on Crete! They took the overnight ferry last night and will stay overnight on Crete and then go to Santorini. Marshall came down with a bad cold that kept him from sleeping well the past couple of nights, so we decided to stay here in Athens last night (Thursday) and try to get some real sleep. It seems to have worked out, and we will take the ferry tonight from the Piraeus (still the main port of Athens!) to Crete. Knossus is about 5 km south of the biggest city on Crete, Irakelo (ancient Heracleon). Dawn said that the archy site at Akrotiri is closed, so we are opting for extra time on Crete in lieu of the jaunt to Santorini. With the museum in Irakleo (second only to the Nat'l Archy museum in Athens) and Knossus, this should fill up the whole day and a half. Our guidebook says that there is not much signage at Knossus, so we will see how much we remember from teaching Minoan civ all these years!
Richard, Audrey, Brian, April and Brad are going on another set of island-hopping trips, which Audrey will detail in her blog, I'm sure (Check it out at http://audreyinathens.blogspot.com/)
Today Marshall and I slept in (finally), ate a leisurely breakfast, and bought our tickets for Crete. After I post this we are going on a walking tour of Athens. The, back to the hotel, pack, and set out for the Piraeus. I plan on taking thousands of photos.
Wednesday was Harrison's birthday. A few of the korai (I will use this word from now on to mean "the female students" went down to the Plaka (touristy shopping area) late Tuesday night and bought him a soccer ball. They welcomed in his birthday at 12:30 am by knocking on his door and presenting it.
We continued the orientation on Wednesday with a great session by Professor Dawn Stevens on things to do in Athens. She is a font of all knowledge, having lived in Greece for about 10 years.
Then Professor Michael Barbas continued his unique lecture on Greek culture with a look at Globalization in Greece.
We had the afternoon free, so Marshall, Audrey and I went to the huge bookstore named Eleutheroudakis, on Venizelou Street not far from City University. They have an impressive selection of English language books. I bought a pocket Oxford Modern Greek-English dictionary, a book on Greek Art and Architecture from which I plan to crib many of my lectures ;-) and for Harrison, a Loeb edition of Plato which has some of the best dialogues, including one we are reading for the class, the Phraedus.
We all signed the book for Harrison and presented it to himn at an impromptu party on the hotel roof that night. Of course, in the States, they would lock the roof, or if not, put up dire warnings about falling off. But I guess they expect people to have more common sense here! It's very pleasant up there in the evenings, cool, and great views of the Acropolis, Lykkavittos Hill (tallest in Athens, and outlying hills.
Yesterday was our first day of classes. Marshall started us out with an overview of the class and some thoughts on Greek history. I showed some slides of Greek pottery and talked about dating conventions in pre-history, ending with some slides of Minoan art in honor of the trip to Crete. In the afternoon Audrey began her class on Paul with an impressive overview, including an invaluable chronology of the entire Bible, showing where each book falls in place. We peppered her with questions along the way. It should prove to be an incredibly interesting class.
Harrison, Melissa, Karin, Joy, Jon and David are now on Crete! They took the overnight ferry last night and will stay overnight on Crete and then go to Santorini. Marshall came down with a bad cold that kept him from sleeping well the past couple of nights, so we decided to stay here in Athens last night (Thursday) and try to get some real sleep. It seems to have worked out, and we will take the ferry tonight from the Piraeus (still the main port of Athens!) to Crete. Knossus is about 5 km south of the biggest city on Crete, Irakelo (ancient Heracleon). Dawn said that the archy site at Akrotiri is closed, so we are opting for extra time on Crete in lieu of the jaunt to Santorini. With the museum in Irakleo (second only to the Nat'l Archy museum in Athens) and Knossus, this should fill up the whole day and a half. Our guidebook says that there is not much signage at Knossus, so we will see how much we remember from teaching Minoan civ all these years!
Richard, Audrey, Brian, April and Brad are going on another set of island-hopping trips, which Audrey will detail in her blog, I'm sure (Check it out at http://audreyinathens.blogspot.com/)
Today Marshall and I slept in (finally), ate a leisurely breakfast, and bought our tickets for Crete. After I post this we are going on a walking tour of Athens. The, back to the hotel, pack, and set out for the Piraeus. I plan on taking thousands of photos.
Tuesday, May 23
Tuesday, May 23
We have just finished a full day of orientation here at City University and have our first access to free Internet! Yea! Yesterday we hiked over to the campus here at Syntagma Square where Athina (yas, that's her name) answered lots of questions for us. Then to an Internet cafe not far from the hotel to post the first entry in the blog. It was not that bad, 1.50 Euros from a half-hour, but it's a lot nicer to sit here in the relative quiet (no thumping techno-rock) and compose in peace. A couple of us went to a cafe and sat outside for hours, drinking cappucino freddo (yes, I know it's Italian, but that is what the menu said!, reading, chatting, and people-watching. The cafe was in a pedestrian area on Satovriandou Street just off of 3 of September Street--so what happened on that date to warrant the name?--and a lovely breeze was blowing. We could have spent all day there, and no one would have minded. The Greeks definitely have a different idea of time, and we have been warned to take opening and closing times as merely suggestions.
We will be taking breakfast and dinner at our hotel, the Athens Acropol right off Omonia Square. Dinner last night was a group event with almost all of the students here--Melissa and Jonathon arrived late last night. (We were kind of worried about Melissa and David, as we thought they would show up a day earlier!) The big heroes of the evening were Brad and Brian, who made the trip down to the airport to make sure that the last travelers made it safely to the hotel, and that Melissa was indeed on the flight. While they were trekking there, we professors were relaxing in an outdoor cafe sipping a very pleasant ouzo and discussing how to make the students' lives more miserable. Well, no, but isn't that what you think we do?? They did not make it back until about 1:30 in the morning, and several of us did not get to sleep before 2. I waited up to make sure that everyone arrived safely, as Marshall had to do much of the late-night work the previous night.
The students are all very adventurous and have already started roaming the city. A couple have already made the trek up to the Acropolis. I hope they will post their own exploits here as well--I noticed several sunburned faces at dinner.
We've all been piling up some serious sleep deficit, so I found it hard to stay awake towards the end of the last part of the orientation, although it was a fascinating look at modern Greek politics by the very articulate Dr. Karaougounis Athanasios.
The previous lecture was thought-provoking, to say the least. The charming Dr. Michael Barbas provided us with several intriguing theories about the origins of the Greeks and their language--including the possibility that the Greeks originated in Finland and that Greek was derived from German!! Well, there was a lot more to the talk, but it was definitely OTT!
I caught my first glimpse of the Parthenon at night (2 am) from the roof of our hotel. It was lit up; simply magnificent. I can't wait to see it up close--we have a free afternoon tomorrow, so that might be on the agenda. Although I still have grades to post...
I will load some pictures onto my thumbnail drive and post them tomorrow, but for now, I think I will head on back to the hotel, take a siesta. Dinner is at eight! Almost my bedtime back home, but here the streets do not come alive until at least 7, and things really start rolling at about 9.
We will be taking breakfast and dinner at our hotel, the Athens Acropol right off Omonia Square. Dinner last night was a group event with almost all of the students here--Melissa and Jonathon arrived late last night. (We were kind of worried about Melissa and David, as we thought they would show up a day earlier!) The big heroes of the evening were Brad and Brian, who made the trip down to the airport to make sure that the last travelers made it safely to the hotel, and that Melissa was indeed on the flight. While they were trekking there, we professors were relaxing in an outdoor cafe sipping a very pleasant ouzo and discussing how to make the students' lives more miserable. Well, no, but isn't that what you think we do?? They did not make it back until about 1:30 in the morning, and several of us did not get to sleep before 2. I waited up to make sure that everyone arrived safely, as Marshall had to do much of the late-night work the previous night.
The students are all very adventurous and have already started roaming the city. A couple have already made the trek up to the Acropolis. I hope they will post their own exploits here as well--I noticed several sunburned faces at dinner.
We've all been piling up some serious sleep deficit, so I found it hard to stay awake towards the end of the last part of the orientation, although it was a fascinating look at modern Greek politics by the very articulate Dr. Karaougounis Athanasios.
The previous lecture was thought-provoking, to say the least. The charming Dr. Michael Barbas provided us with several intriguing theories about the origins of the Greeks and their language--including the possibility that the Greeks originated in Finland and that Greek was derived from German!! Well, there was a lot more to the talk, but it was definitely OTT!
I caught my first glimpse of the Parthenon at night (2 am) from the roof of our hotel. It was lit up; simply magnificent. I can't wait to see it up close--we have a free afternoon tomorrow, so that might be on the agenda. Although I still have grades to post...
I will load some pictures onto my thumbnail drive and post them tomorrow, but for now, I think I will head on back to the hotel, take a siesta. Dinner is at eight! Almost my bedtime back home, but here the streets do not come alive until at least 7, and things really start rolling at about 9.
Monday, May 22
Arrival in Athens!
Monday 10:30 (1:30 a.m. in Fresno) We arrrived in our hotel in Athens last night at about 9:00 pm after a (yes, you knew it was coming) virtual Odyssey lasting nearly two days, four plane flights, and an exciting taxi ride.
First impressions of the city: the Ikea next to the airport, the new tourist motto: "Athens has a new myth: Yours," tiny automobiles showing numerous scars of internecine strife, and what struck me particularly was how mountainous the region is. I had in my mind always pictured Athesn for some reason as rather flat, ewith the Acropolis sticking out like, well, an acropolis. It appears that much of the polis is acro!
It certainly shows why the ancient Greek city states were so isolated and chauvinistic. It's all about geography, sin't it?
We had decided to take a taxi if it was not too expensive. Twenty-five Euros seemed a very reasonable price to pay for three of us. Zipping along the highway as the sun set, I was struck by how very little modern Greek I actually knew. My jet-lagged mind could barely even recall the few phrases I had attempted to drill into it inthe hectic days before we left. The three of us, Marshall, Brad and I, for the most part rode in silence until we reached the city center, when our curiosity and excitement got the best of us.
Culture shock has for the most part been rather mild so far, as the hotel is large and everyone speaks English. One of the most important things for me has always been to try as much as possible to respect the culture of the countries I have traveled to, but sometimes this reticence can keep one from some truly memorable experiences from fear of attracting attention, so as always the Greek idea of "meden agon"--"nothing to excess" is the key. Orientation is tomorrow, where we will learn some valuable information on Greek culture and an overview of the political history of the nation--something about which I know virtually nothing after about 400 BC!!
First impressions of the city: the Ikea next to the airport, the new tourist motto: "Athens has a new myth: Yours," tiny automobiles showing numerous scars of internecine strife, and what struck me particularly was how mountainous the region is. I had in my mind always pictured Athesn for some reason as rather flat, ewith the Acropolis sticking out like, well, an acropolis. It appears that much of the polis is acro!
It certainly shows why the ancient Greek city states were so isolated and chauvinistic. It's all about geography, sin't it?
We had decided to take a taxi if it was not too expensive. Twenty-five Euros seemed a very reasonable price to pay for three of us. Zipping along the highway as the sun set, I was struck by how very little modern Greek I actually knew. My jet-lagged mind could barely even recall the few phrases I had attempted to drill into it inthe hectic days before we left. The three of us, Marshall, Brad and I, for the most part rode in silence until we reached the city center, when our curiosity and excitement got the best of us.
Culture shock has for the most part been rather mild so far, as the hotel is large and everyone speaks English. One of the most important things for me has always been to try as much as possible to respect the culture of the countries I have traveled to, but sometimes this reticence can keep one from some truly memorable experiences from fear of attracting attention, so as always the Greek idea of "meden agon"--"nothing to excess" is the key. Orientation is tomorrow, where we will learn some valuable information on Greek culture and an overview of the political history of the nation--something about which I know virtually nothing after about 400 BC!!
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