Ya su! So yesterday the group had a very exciting day because we visited this lil thing called the Acropolis.  We started off the day by going to the New Acropolis Museum where Sophia (“wisdom” in Greek), our lovely guide, led us through ancient pieces and sculptures that had been excavated from the Acropolis. She was very knowledgeable and explained that she wanted us to go to the museum first so that we would have an idea of what the Acropolis might have looked like in its prime by looking at various models of it and the real pieces that had been there (parts of the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis are composed of plaster copies of the real pieces). Also, fun fact, it is a myth (no pun intended) that Athena is the goddess of war.  She is the goddess of WISDOM. After our tour, we got some lunch and began our hike up to the Acropolis equipped with a lot of water and sunscreen. We started by sitting in the Theatre of Dionysus where many of the ancient Greek plays we have read by Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Aeschylus were first performed!! We continued our hike and passed by the theatre of Herodticus Atticus (I may have just made up that name) where we saw the italian opera a few nights ago.  The H.A. theatre holds 5,000 and that seemed very big but…wait for it…the Dionysus theatre held 15,000 people!! Yes, 3 times the size! Soon enough we made it to the gates of the Acropolis and the view was incredible. We could see the entire city, the sea and Salamis beyond. Sophia told us more stuff and then we walked through the gates and checked out the many doric and ionic columns.  Once we walked through the gate we admired the Parthenon (scaffolding and all) and got a group pic in front of it (after Juliet retrieved her hat which flew away). Then we admired the view of the city from the northern slope where we spotted our school, the Marathon track, the remains of the Temple of Zeus, the Parliament Buliding, the Fro Yo place that Tim loves in Monastaraki (very close to the actual name I think), and finally the Delice! (The items of this list obviously vary in importance…) Then we let our hair blow in the wind (see video below) before passing through a temple with Caryatids (giant female statues; the real ones we saw in the museum) and a cool porch.  We then hiked back down towards the Mona… area where we saw a lot of graffitit/street art, the Roman Agora (marketplace) and an ancient sundial. And, I think that’s about it! An unforgettable and special day.

Stayed tuned for a blog post about our day today at Salamis and Piraeus!

Ya su,

Caroline