It hit me hard this past week that I only have a short time left in Greece. AND there will always be more left to see... So I decided that for this last week (besides the 7 hours per day of working), I will do my best to be a tourist. I started this past weekend, and here's how it went...

I spent Saturday morning, doing a food tour of Athens. Yes, I know that I have been living in Athens for about 2 1/2 months now, but I mostly eat in my apartment, rather than trying new things that are native to Greece. So this tour was an experience.

Here was our menu:
Loukoumades-- doughnuts with honey and walnuts

Amazing olive oil-- the smaller bottle on the right was lemon olive oil

Sheep feta cheese with cherry vinegar on top

After this, we went through the meat and fish market. I have a NASTY video of everything that I saw, if only the video could capture the smells too. :( I saw things that I've never EVER wanted to see-- cow brains, hooves, a whole rabbit, etc. I'll try to upload the video, but I think it's too big.

As if seeing raw, freshly killed beef wasn't good enough, we went into another butchers shop. Miran is a family owned restaurant over 100 years old. We tried Pastourma-- an air-dried salt-cured beef, topped with some garlic and other spices. The word "Pastourma," in Turkish, means 'to press' which refers to the process of pressing the meat before it is hung to dry.

So after that grotesque experience-- our guide calmed us down by walking through a fruit market. Although, I didn't realize that the zoning laws here aren't the same as they are in the States-- there was a pet store directly across the street from these exposed fruits... And i'm sure you guessed correctly, I didn't buy any of the fruit.

Our food tour ended after trying bougatsa and a frappe, then later with tsaziki and pitas-- both of which I have tried numerous times.

After the food tour, I decided to venture to incredible Benaki Museum! The neoclassical building imitates the classical qualities of the city-- a tetrastyle Doric columned portico made of white marble. The architect, Anastasios Metaxas, also lead the restoration of the Panatheniac Stadium. 

Inside the museum, I saw:

Gold leaf crown

Typical Greek outfits

AND LOTS OF POTTERY!!

On Sunday, I woke up early to climb Lykabettus Hill!! The hour and a half climb to the top was definitely worth it with the amazing view. However, I wish I would have known that there was a lift to the top, which was about 100 feet away from where I started climbing.

Creepy pathway

View from the top

After staying about 30 minutes on top of the mountain, I climbed down and wandered my way to Archaeological Museum. Next to this museum is the Athens Polytechnic School. The university if AMAZING, however, it has recently been destroyed by the graffiti from the elections and political tensions- such a shame...

My final tourist site that I visited was the Agora, seeing the Stoa of Attalos and the Temple of Hephaisteion. I got plenty of inspiration for my J. Neel Reid drawings! :)

Besides my touristy events, I've been planning my trip to Crete! I can't wait to climb the Samaria Gorge-- 16 km hike-- and see the Temple of Knossos. 

More later...

Working at the Acropolis has been by far my favorite thing about the summer. This is the most incredible experience that I have ever had, not only because I am working on a world famous monument but also because I get to interact with different cultures.

My office is set up with three drafting desks, a floor to ceiling set of drawers for drawings, and a couple bookshelves in one decent sized room. I share this space with Machi, a graphic designer in her 40s, and Angelos, an architect in his 40s. In the downstairs part of the building, there is a kitchenette, office next to the stairs, and two rooms, including the room that I'm in. In the other room on the bottom floor, there is Yiorgos, Elena, Lena, and Tina (so difficult to not mix their names up). Upstairs, there is Eleni, Zannis, Kosmas, Vasilia, Antigone, and Rozalia. So including me there are 13 people that share the office space, with the numerous marble sculptors or conservationists coming in daily to get lunch. 

Machi, Tina, Lena, and Yiorgos all stick together. They come to work at the same time and leave together. Yiorgos and Machi are my two favorites because they talk to me a lot. Yiorgos comes into my office about 7 times a day, either to say 'good morning Emily' in a British accent or to put a frappe down on my desk, that I of course didn't even ask for. Yiorgos has most definitely made my experience at the Acropolis much better. He has worked here for 37 years and still pays attention to the young intern, joking with me and burning me Greek music. Machi, on the other hand, didn't seem too friendly at first. But everything changed when I told her that my sister was having a baby. I realized Machi's warm spot was for babies. So at the beginning of each day, I give her an update about Zoe and show her pictures. Today, she brought a gift bag with a present for Zoe inside too!! :) (I won't spoil it, because Kate and Brian will have to unwrap it later.)

Angelos, the man who I sit next to, always leaves me with an insightful comment, whether its about architecture or Greek traditions. Our first conversation was about how landscape and architecture should mesh together, but the priority should be maintaining the current landscape and adjusting the building to it. He also gives me travel ideas for my trip to Crete. He is mostly very dry, but occasionally you will catch him making a sarcastic comment or joke. For example, the other day, Lena brought in a big plastic bin covered with white cloth. Inside of the bin was a piece of wood that was in the joint of the column drums dating back 2,500 years. When Angelos went to look at it, he put on his rubber gloves and pinched his fingers around something. He slowly pulls his hand out and says, "look its an ancient piece of hair." I promise you it was funny; I have started to appreciate the little things. :) haha


Working at a place like this has been full of learning-- about history, architecture, culture, language, traditions, and food. Oh gosh, can Angelos talk about food!!! Every day about 10:30, he starts on his daily rant about some wonderful dish that he made…. then my stomach starts growling and my mouth starts watering. You'd think I haven't eaten in a week. 


Which puts me on the topic of food. Greek food is fantastic. It is a combination of meats, vegetables, and fruit. And no matter what the dish is, you pretty much know that there is some sort of olive oil in it. Some of their dishes include:
-Tyropita/ Spanikopita-- cheese pie/ spinach and cheese pie
-Souvlaki-- meat on a stick- either pork, chicken, beef, or lamb
-Gyros-- a pita wrapped around souvlaki, tomatoes, tsaziki sauce, onions, and french fries
-Greek salad- no lettuce here- only tomatoes, onions, olives, green peppers, cucumbers, and feta cheese. AND there's no such thing as 'greek dressing;' its just olive oil and salt.
-Kalamari- :) YUMMMM
-Saganaki- fried feta cheese
-Baklava- dessert made of nuts and honey in philo bread
-Loukomades- Greek doughnuts served with honey

The markets around town have the freshest fruits that I've ever tasted. The nectarines and apricots are my favorite!

Okay enough about food, otherwise I will have to go make dinner sooner than I thought.



Let me tell you about my weekend when Hannah, Brooke, Emily, and Victoria came to visit. 

They arrived on Thursday night, and the first thing early Friday morning we jumped on an eight hour boat to spend 24 hours in Santorini. This island is one of the most incredible places on Earth. The sunset at Oia is literally the best in the world!! Plus the contrast of the dark red and black cliffs and the white buildings makes the experience much more powerful. Any picture that you take turns out perfectly!  

On Saturday, I had the chance to see the new Akrotiri structure that opened a few months ago, after the old one collapsed. The combination of ancient and modern is one of the tensions of architecture that I love looking at.

 


Finally, on Sunday I gave them one of my best tours of the Acropolis, Acropolis Museum, Plaka, Monastiraki, Syntagma, the Zappeion Gardens, Temple of Zeus Olympeion, Hadrian's Gate, and the Panatheniac Stadium. Needless to say, once the tour was over, we were all exhausted and could barely stay on our feet!

I think that I have reached the point now that I stopped becoming a tourist and I became a local. That does not mean that I am by any means a Greek. In antiquity, a person was considered a Greek if they spoke the language, no matter where they lived or what they looked like. I still like to use those standards. I only know a few phrases in Greek and am good enough to order a meal or ask where to get onto the bus. I am no where close to being Greek, but I am still recognized in my neighborhood of Pagkrati. I go into Beneth bakery everyday on my way to work and they know my order. Even some of the store owners and street vendors in Plaka don't bother me with their sale pitches anymore, because they've seen me a number of times.

Although I am enjoying my time being a local here, I sure do miss America. I'm bummed that I won't be there for the fireworks and when I wear red, white, and blue, it means nothing to the people around me. I will still do my best to celebrate while I'm here. Tonight, I am going to treat myself to some KFC and eat watermelon on my rooftop. If things get exciting, I might have a watermelon seed spitting contest with… myself. haha only kidding. There are a couple of American families staying in the apartments upstairs. I will see if I can intrude on their family and convince them to celebrate with me tonight.

Going back to the Greeks vs. Americans, here are the top ten things I can think of at the moment that are different here than at home:
1. The Metro!! I'm not going to say anything else about this because I could get going for days about how crappy MARTA is in Atlanta compared to the places i've been in Europe.
2. Food. The majority of food that you can find at a local taverna will either be meat or fish. Obviously, tourist attractions will have the famous gyro or souvlaki-- a pita wrapped around grilled lamb, pork, or chicken with tsaziki sauce and french fries. The food that I have been eating at home is a bit different than this, consisting of a picture of Russian, Romanian, Moldovan, Greek, Italian, and American food. No matter where the dish is from though, it will always consist of vegetables, meat, and some type of grain-- pasta or rice.

3. Work schedule. I work from 9 until 3:30 everyday and I am always one of the last people at the office.
4. Work ethic. I have seen people painting their nails, surfing their eBay page, drinking a frappe/ socializing for 30 minutes, and all sorts of procrastination. Although they have their ways of avoiding work, when they do get down to business, they don't like to be interrupted. The man, Angelo, that I work next to always puts on his classical music when he wants to be avoided. It's like a mutual agreement that I will take a break from asking him the numerous questions that I ask him daily, which I completely respect.
5. The coffee. Here, they have a thing called a frappe. No, it's not a frapaeccino like from Starbucks. It is an extreme amount of caffeine mixed with a miniature blender until it starts to foam. Then the Greeks put a few spoonfuls of sugar and ice in the drink. I have had my fair share of frappes, and when I do, I always end up with my leg bouncing and the words coming out of my mouth a mile a minute.
6. Frappe cafes. These places, designed for the luxury of drinking a frappe with friends, are located on every street corner. I have heard of Greeks spending 4 hours with their friends at a frappe cafe. And every day from 4-10 pm you can find the frappe cafes packed full of people, with some sort of sports game playing on TV.

7. Olive oil. Instead of using butter on everything at home, the Greeks use olive oil. They use it for frying, salad dressing, to dip bread into... you name it.

8. Toilets… I already mentioned before in my blog that Greeks don't flush toilet paper down the toilet. But luckily there are trash cans in every bathroom. 

9. Greek names. I have noticed that the majority of the Greek men that I have met or heard about are either called Nikos or Costas. Trust me, there is always a Costas around.

10. The policemen and the guards. I'm not sure if consciously pick them this way, but all of the workers are gorgeous and they sure don't eat doughnuts on their lunch breaks.

Anyways, Joseph came to visit this past weekend!! We had a wonderful time catching up and exploring Athens together. We went to Piraeus on Saturday for lunch to eat some of the best seafood I've had since I've been in Greece. We ate calamari and grilled octopus, something that is new to both of our diets.
I even had the opportunity of taking him on top of the Parthenon. Something that two American students have never done before!!! In fact, we were the ONLY two people in the temple at the time. :) I'm glad I got to share that wonderful moment with him and I'm glad he appreciated it.






It's hard to believe that things are slowly coming to an end.
-12 more days of work
-22 more days until I leave Greece
-26 more days until I am home

But between now and then, I have exciting things planned:
-Weekend in Santorini with Hannah, Brooke, Emily and Victoria
-4 days in Crete, exploring the island alone
-4 days in Oxford/ Bath/ London to see Joseph

I can't wait to be home though. For those of you who don't know, I became an aunt a couple of days ago!!! I will meet baby Zoe Jane in person in 26 days. :) I'm sure the pictures don't do that precious baby justice.

All for now, I will blog later about my trip to Santorini with my girl friends!! :)

Emily
ps. Fun fact-- I am the youngest American to ever work on the Parthenon. And the only American to do work there that people at work have heard of!! 

This weekend, Nadia and I went to Korinthos-- where we saw a castle at the top of a mountain and the archaeological site. I originally didn't know that this castle existed, let alone planned on visiting it. But on the train ride over, I heard the most innocent American voice from behind me. I turned around and started talking to these two old ladies that were from Indiana. After about 5 minutes of talking, we decided that we would share a cab to go see the Archaeological site of Corinth, including the Temple of Apollo. 

The four of us climbed in a taxi, with Nadia as our translator. Nadia, not knowing a thing about Corinth or what we were trying to see, said take us to ancient Corinth. The driver said something back and Nadia was sure that he was taking us in the right direction. After 12 euros worth of driving and the car stalling out twice, we ended up at the base of a mountain with no Temple of Apollo in site. But who am I to complain about a new adventure to a place I haven't seen.

So there we were, right in front of the gates to the fortification of this castle that I never knew existed. I stood there, staring up at this mountainside in disbelief. There was something bigger than me in the picture, and it wasn't only the fortification of the walls nor the mountain peak that we were going to ascend up to. 

After about 30 minutes of climbing up rough trails, we made it to the top. I did my best not to look at the view on the way up because I didn't want to spoil the surprise. When I finally turned my head to peak, the view was absolutely breathtaking. You could see the rolling hills full of vegetation being interrupted my a sharp rocky mountain. The land directly below us was patchwork, art done by God's left hand, showing all sorts of colors and combinations of geometries. Further in the distance is where I could see the harsh Greek Mountains. 

After we reached at the top, we carefully trickled across the mountain to see some of the architectural ruins, including the baths and the wall fortification. Everywhere around me was magnificent-- not only the views, but the creepy flowers, the building materials and quality-- all of which could only have been created by something bigger than humans. 

Looking up the site now, I realized that we were 575 m high walking through the oldest and most 
imposing castle in the Peloponnese. 


After seeing the castle, I didn't know how our day could get any better-- but we hiked down the mountain and 30 minutes later, we reached the ancient site of Korinth. 

This site was full of so many fun artifacts and I can't help but share them!!! Check out the captions below the pictures...

Temple pediment with original paint

Roman fountain

Engaged Caryatid columns

An ivory comb

I love going to places like this where I can unravel the strands the many layers of history. It's amazing the things that people left behind for us to discover.

When I went to work today, I decided to make it an interesting day, full of excitement, and work hard to finish my project. It was not a problem to get a lot done on my AutoCAD drawing, since my co-worker, Yiorgos, burned me a CD. I turned on the music, got in the zone and buckled down on my work. But what I didn't see coming was how in one instant my day could become so interesting.

Around 2 pm, I was interrupted by a few people from the office running outside after some Greek words were exchanged. I followed the crowd to see what all of the fuss was about.

At the east end of the Acropolis, a man was standing on top of the wall shouting at the top of his lungs. It took me a minute to realize what was going on, but with the help of my friend translating, I understood. The grown Greek man was about to commit suicide. He was going to jump off of the Acropolis and crash down hundreds of feet below on the rocks of the wall.

I don't know why I watched the whole episode, but I couldn't take my eyes off of him for what felt like 20 minutes. I was so nervous, but curious at the same time. I prayed for him and stood from afar  watching intensely as my coworkers pulled him down and did their best to settle him down. 

What on earth could be going wrong in his life for him to act in such a way? Could it possibly be the Greek crisis or the outcome of the elections this past Sunday? 

Needless to say, I saw God work in strange ways today. Not only with helping me be productive with work and making the day interesting, but he also overcame this man's willingness to end his life. 

Right near the Greek flag was where this man was standing... The height of the Acropolis ranges from 60-100 m above the ground.

A conversation in struggling Greece is, often as not, about the superlatives of doom: The country is on the edge, the people are headed toward catastrophe, and the state, drained of cash and lasting political consensus, has effectively ceased to function. Yet in Athens, home to nearly half the population, the garbage trucks make the rounds at night, traffic police in smart blue uniforms pull over motorists and tourists stroll around the ancient sites or lug suitcases on wheels through the heat-soaked side-streets.

For a country where crisis has become an intimate state of mind, there is plenty of benign normalcy around, lots of reminders of the rules and infrastructure and hygiene standards that define what it is to be a Western European country, imperfections notwithstanding.

Many of you have been asking about the crisis in Greece and whether or not I have experienced anything unusual. The answer is-- no. Every morning, I wake up at 8 am to make the 45 minute walk to the Acropolis. I stop by the local bakery, Beneth, and wait in line for a good 10 minutes to pick something up for lunch, most likely a Koulouri. Then, I continue walking down the busy streets, dodging the countless number of scooters and cars into the Plaka neighborhood. In Plaka, millions of tourists come per week to experience Athenian life and to climb to the top of the most sacred hill, the Acropolis. The city seems bustling, with money flowing.


However, I am an English-speaking student doing my best to avoid all dangerous situations. I have heard about a lot of incidents that have been going on in Greece.


Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi6TbLmeFoQ
I have plenty to say about that, but I'm sure you are all thinking the same thing..




Besides all of the politics and crisis talk, I have been busy working!! I have been working at the Parthenon for a little bit over 2 weeks now. My current project is taking a hand drawing of one of the cornice blocks and redrawing it in 2D and 3D AutoCAD. After I am finished with my drawing, I will take Orlandos' dimensions done from the 1940's and compare them to the material that is left in the cornice block today. From those calculations, the restoration team can determine the percentage of new material they will need in order to restore the cornice block.

According to Aristotle, "All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind." So far, that has been the most true statement.

Working on the Parthenon has been a dream come true. The first week of work was full of surprises and firsts. Every time that I go into the temple, I discover something new.

The only lion's head that still exists

The medieval staircase in the opisthodomos of the Parthenon

Original paint from the Parthenon

Original metopes from the southwest corner

When i'm not off exploring the Parthenon, I am working at my desk doing AutoCAD drawings. So far I have done two projects-- drawing 3d blocks of the north cella wall and making a 2D drawing of a cornice piece on the west end of the temple. I also have the chance to do read some of their books that they have, which helps me a lot on my temple research.
The desk work gets very boring after a while, so whenever i'm feeling unmotivated, I just swivel my chair around and look at the massive temple behind me. :)

My office

All of this excitement definitely makes up for the fact that I have to walk 30 minutes to work every morning in the 90+ heat, NOT including the hike up the mountain to the top of the Acropolis!!! I can't wait until they turn the air conditioning on in the office!



Yesterday, Nadia and I went to the island of Aegina to see the Temple of Aphaia. This is probably the most beautiful temples that I have seen, because the majority of it still stands including the interior colonnade.

After seeing the temple, we took the bus back down to the water to get some fresh seafood!!! The kalamari was incredible!

Yes, thats exactly what you think it is!!

Once Nadia and I were so full we could barely move, we strolled along the water and found pistachios since Aegina is known for them! :) The entire boat ride back to Athens, our thumbs got sore from opening up the nuts.

We had to be back to Athens pretty early because we had an Opera to go to at the Odeon of Herod Atticus. Nadia, Carole, and I put on our best dresses and strolled over to the Acropolis to see Il Travetore. We stayed until intermission because the concert didn't start until 9 pm Greek Time (aka 9:45) and all of the words were in Italian with Greek subtitles. I did my best to understand the singer's emotions and enjoy the view of the ancient architecture.

That's all for now... I'll post more later!!

Random fact:

Greeks are always late for appointments and this also is known as being on 'Greek Time'. They say that the reason is because nobody wants to be the first one to arrive and have to wait for the other people because then he is a fool. So everyone comes late and  the people who come first, even if they are late, may leave again and come back when someone else is there, which means that unless 2 people show up at the same time the meeting will never happen. So if you are meeting someone and they are not there yet, sit down and wait for them and they will show up, most of the time. Aggravated Greek Time is when you are at a concert or performance and they delay it because some Government minister is late.