OK, I might have fallen in love with Greece. Not the six million plus Athenian population, the clogged traffic, the graffitied rollup shop doors or the hustlers but the beauty that lies in the occasional ironwork balcony amidst the graffitie, the glass covered archeaological sights in the middle of a blocked off street or under a bank exposing a two thousand plus year old wall, or the thousand year old Byzantine churches nestled amongst the modern day buildings.
It was definitely the Greek soul that stirred in the sixty to seventy year old waiters who served us our dinner this evening at a rooftop resturant at the base of the Acropolis when we inquired about the fate of the two twenty something young men who climbed the Acropolis during the Nazi occupation to cut down the flying Nazi flag and replace it with the Greek flag.
We toured the ruins of the Ancient Greek public space or Agora this morning
and the National Archealogical Museum this afternoon. Jet lag and warm, crowded rooms caught up with me at the museum today when I nodded off on a bench outside the Santorini exhibit. Ha, you can't take me anywhere... :) I saw Greek treaure today in the mask of Agamemnon,
a bronze statue of Zeus, and five thousand year old Cycladic art.
Things I had only seen photos of before. I actually stood before some of the frescos taken off the walls of dwellings in the abandoned city of Akroteri on Santorini. (WISE Women, you know what frescos I speak of...)
So, after a lovely meal at a rooftop resturant beneath the Acropolis where we sat and watched the evening slip into nightfall and lights illuminate the structures up on the Acropolis wall and the Erectheon while we listened to musicians play Greek folk music,
we strolled home along the marbled pathway that winds around the base of the hill. As we passed by the Byzantine Church of the Metamorphosis and the fenced off Agora looking down at the illuminated Temple of Hephastos I was brought to tears.
I may not be fortunate enough to behold these sights again but am so grateful that I have had this opportunity.
Tomorrow we are taking a bus to the ruins of the Oracle of Delphi. Seekers in the past were not fortunate enough to be able to ride a bus and I am grateful that I do not have to walk.
Carrie
OK, I think I've developed a crush reading your description. Mike and I met Greek dancing so I'd love to do a syrto or two at a Greek taverna with musicians playing traditional music. Add some Greek wine, olives and cheese and I'd be beyond content. Well, to be honest, you could add to the contentment by throwing in one of those gold trinkets you have the photo of.
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