Olympia and the End of an Era
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2010
1
18
21
Trip End
Aug 30, 2010
Where I stayed
Back in my Apartment
Athens, Attica, Greece
Saturday, February 27, 2010
My trip around the Peloponnese is all over.
And Attica welcomed me warmly. After being off the bus for 30 seconds, I got some pollution in my eye. Ah, Athens, I love you, too!
It's really nice to be back, but I'll definitely miss the beauty and serenity that the Peloponnese had to offer. I've come back from a land of beautiful green foliage and polychromic flowers to a land of cold hard steel and concrete... Both have their peculiar charms, and I'm beyond excited to get some Grill and Pita tonight, but... still... It's the Peloponnese. You've got to miss it.
I apologize for not truly updating the last two evenings. The internet at my hotel in Pylos and my hotel in Olympia was something to shake a stick at, to use a cliche inversely. It would cut out more regularly than it would provide internet, so I didn't bother getting on the internet for long. In the time that I did have, I uploaded pictures to Facebook. Shortly thereafter each night, the internet became wholly unusable, so my travel blog suffered. But I'm back in beautiful Athens, now, which means I have something like internet again, although my apartment is perhaps the only one without its own router now... But we'll just forget about that fact, right?
Today's journey led me to the Olympia museum and the site of ancient Olympia, perhaps the most utilized pan-hellenic sanctuary in all of Greece. Every Greek citizen, likely, would have gone to Olympia at least once in their life, so it was a big deal.
To start things off with a bang, my group enjoyed the statues and other artifacts found at the site of Olympia. The museum is renowned for holding the two best examples of ancient Greek sculpture, both of which were pediments for the Temple of Zeus. Many of the pictures I took of sculpture are found on these pediments. The museum also holds two other famous statues: the Nike that Athens erected after beating Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, and the statue of Hermes holding a baby Dionysus. Perhaps my favorite part of the museum, however, was the well-preserved architecture of the temples and treasuries themselves. In many of the pictures, you can see that the buildings were covered with highly ornate painting and decorations. That's what I like to see. Most people think that ancient temples and statues were white like the marble they're sculpted out of, but they were actually painted quite profusely. The temples were covered from top to bottom in paint, and statues had their clothing and hair painted. Some of the pictures also show places where metal and weapons were placed. This is awesome to me. The statues would be carved out of marble, but then the sculptor would add in actual swords, armor, etc. For instance, the Apollo sculpture looks like it was probably holding a large bow; and the close-up of the centaur shows were a piece of sword would be placed. Awesome. Also, the sculptures have many holes in them all over where armor plates and helmets would be attached. I love how the Greeks did everything they could to make their sculpture realistic. Baller.
After staring in wonder at the sculptures, we went out into the actual ancient site. It was as you'd expect any ancient Greek site to be. Since only the bases of the walls were made of stone, all you see today are the foundations of each building and the stone columns (if it had any) that surround it. Most buildings had walls made of wood or mud brick, though, so that doesn't survive; and most of the columns in ancient sites were made of wood. Needless to say, a lot of imagination is key to enjoying the sites. I definitely love them, but they're not for everyone... As evident in many of the complaints of the group members. Heh.
Seeing the ancient site was super awesome, though. And, as everyone does when they see the ancient stadium, I sprinted a stade (roughly 200 meters) like the ancient Olympians did... It was tough. Supposedly it's the longest distance a human can run at full sprint... Two other guys and two girls and I sprinted against each other in a little footrace. It was pretty awesome just to take in the experience of running in the footsteps of so many ancients. It kicked my butt, too... I won't lie. I felt like balls after I was done.
But I won.
So it's okay.
After we ran the stade, we all headed to grab some lunch and took the bus ride home for about 5 hours. It was great.
And now I'm back, horribly exhausted but so darn happy. During this trip, on each and every bus ride and at each and every stop, I realized just how inextricably linked to Greece I want to be for the rest of my life... If I'm lucky enough to have my dream of owning an ancient theatre company actually come to fruition, I won't stop at anything until each and every Aegean theater is found, excavated, and restored. And I want to show so many other Americans the beauty that they, and the rest of Greece, have to offer... I love Greece, and I want it to be my home-away-from-home for the remainder of my life, one way or another...
I love it here...
Look what studying abroad can do to you.
Don't do it. It messes you up.
In the best way possible.
Do it. Study abroad.
Signing off, once again in my familiar apartment in busy, bustling, befuddling Athens,
Shadow "THIS ISN'T SPARTA" Zimmerman
Comments
once again, I am just going to tell you how jealous I am for all the beauty and intenseness that you are experiencing right now!!!!
looks like you had another great time exploring wish i could have been there with you. Things are going pretty good here, fully on my own at work now and learning a little each day and getting more comfortable with everything. Not getting the hours i was promised though so im going to go to unimployment today to see about helping out. Andi went to Tylers house on sunday for his birthday and meet his family. She said it went well and felt welcome so thats great. Cant believe its almost spring break and dads birthday. this year is going by so fast. Your enrollment checks are due by the 15th so i sent them off today. Got to find out about your fafsa and how your going to sign it. Not much else going on here spring is hopefully right around the corner, Its beenabout 30 here for a few days and going to be all week. There goes all the snow and here comes the mud!!!!! sure miss going to the eatery everyday and its hard to see it sit empty but i gues there is no one looking at paying the money he needs to pay it off. Hope that some day it will be a restrauant again. Going to read the rest of your emails so maybe there will be some more to write about later. all my love mom