Athens: National Archeological Museum ~ Athens
David and I ate at the Oscar Motel buffet and watched an incredibly mature and well manner girls team of soccer players eat. They were polite and quiet as they ate. They were actually better mannered than many of the adults in the room. We were very impressed. The buffet had a huge range of food (cereal, yogurt, cheese, breads, fruit, coffee, tea, milk, muffins....) and we left feeling full and ready for our day.
The Oscar Motel is directly across the street from the train station and metro station. We ducked into the stairwell that ran under the street and found the metro line that would take us to the National Archeological Museum. We were very excited to go again as the last visit was very hurried and unsatisfactory.
When we got to the Museum there was a small line. We bought our tickets and went in. We started to the left and toured for about 3 hours. We took pictures and tried to learn and remember as much as we could. David really liked the bronze age things.... I love the old pottery and wall paintings. We loved that we were seeing artifacts from places we had been and were going... We knew we were going to visit Santorini and Mykonos ... but we didn't know where else as we hadn't planned that far in advance... (that's how we traveled this time.... :) Finally, in the early afternoon we took a break in the basement cafeteria. It was nice to sit for an hour and chat about the wonders we had been looking at.
We went to the second floor. One of the larger doors was closed. It was the room of vases.... We were told by the guard that it would be open later but not this week. I always hate missing anything! Especially pottery!! One of my favorite things is the black figure vases. They were locked behind the doors... Oh well, next time!
I loved the Sanotirini / thira Frescos. the boys boxing and the fisherboys. Also the Minoan wall frescos were wonderful. I was fascinated to see the high position women had in the society. They were part of the religious ceremonies and processionals. The entire museum has 56 rooms.... A full day. We spent the entire day until they shushed us out at 5. We called Stratos as we stood on the steps outside. We were finally going to meet him!!!
MEET UP WITH STRATEGOS!!!
HOORAY! David and I had a mini-meetup with Stratis. We called and agreed to meet at 7 PM..... We met at the Monestraki metro station on Athena Street. David and I got there at 6:30:..... David stood while I paced up and down hoping to spot Stratis before he saw me.... About 10 before 7: David and I looked up at the street signs and realized although it was a street that started with an "A" we didn't have Athena street. Yikes: David could see another metro exit across a construction area. We hurried over and got there just around 7: I walked to the corner and missed the moment when Stratis arrived.
We went to a nice area and sat to have coffee. It was too early for Stratis and Kanaris to eat. We were starving from being at the Archeological museum all day..... We had a little food with beer and they had coffee.
While we were talking the "sunshine express" went by.... david and I started laughing and told Kararis and Stratis how funny and embarassing it was to ride it.....
It was so fun to sit and talk about our travels and experiences. It was a really rich time for us. We travel different but the bottom line is we enjoy traveling and learning about different places and cultures.. Stratis has met quite a few travbuddies.... He's my second to meet. We both agreed it's easy to meet one on one.... A group meet is a little intimidating.... .
We laughed and talked for a couple of hours. Stratis had to leave as he had a 1.5 hour ride to get home.... It was really nice of him to come to meet us. This has been the highlight of our trip ..... :) :) ...........
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National Archeological Museum
One thing that really impressed me was the Grave markers for women who died. They were often pictured with servents holding their box of jewelry. Some featured the deceased shaking hands with someone .... (500 BC) Several featured a newborn baby held by a servent reaching for the mother (Phylonoe 4th century BC) They mentioned grieving husbands and parents (Polyxene 4th century BC). It was sad even after thousands of years...
We have hundreds of pictures to load.... No way to do it so far..... I have notes on many so I have managed to take a time consuming thing and make it even more time consuming..... That's an art if you ask me!!!
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