I set out and walked along the flurry of fish, meat and vegetable markets on my way to the Acropolis. Greek people selling fish is something different than Seattle's Pike Place Market. The fish merchants are much louder, much more passionate, competitive and a litte testy. I didn't dare linger too long in this warehouse, people were serious about their purchases and I didn't want to end up smelling like fish for the rest of the day.
The Acropolis so far has been the highlight of my trip-- It's set so high up above the city and the tall, beveled pillars seem to reach to the heavens and proclaim strength and dominance. I'm sure the goddess Athena was pleased with this structure. The Parthenon, was majestic and trully amazing to have survived 2500 years with wars and earthquakes.
(the Parthenon and it's amazing marble columns)
(The arch by the Olympic Park with the Acropolis in the background)
I walked all around to various monuments around the Acropolis and visited Socrates cave (where he died). There were two other men who were philosophers like me, and we commented how we always had wanted to visit Socrates cave and here we were! We took pictures to commemorate our dream coming true.
I relished every archeological site I saw-- the Odeum (300 b.c.), this large theatre where Renee Fleming is performing in July! I'm tempted to come back for that, believe me-- but I think I'll just have to imagine it. It's the most amazing venue for Opera you could imagine-- I think 3500 -5000 people can sit and it's outdoors (it used to a roof originally-- imagine that.)
The other highlight of my day at the Acropolis was running into a woman on my way home to my hotel who was an archeologist.
Hello Friends,
I've been gone a week and feels like a month of living and traveling. I'm in Los, Greece which is a place I had never heard of until a few days ago while having a late-night talk with an archeologist I met in Athens. We both met while listening and watching some very bad kareoke performed at a Festival not far from my hotel. I had spent the day wondering around the Acropolis and Parthenon, my mouth open in astonishment at the amazing feats of architecture the Greeks had accomplished 2500 years ago. 500 BC, Marble towers with intricate carvings and somehow roofs on top-- one temple still had it's roof! (I took a nap there-- much to the astonishment of my archeologist friend).
The weight and height of the marble blocks and and the expansive design put the Roman ruins I've seen before in a much lower class. The other amazing thing is how these giant structures survived all the wars and earthquakes for millenia. In Kos, where I am now, there were amazing buildings here as well, but there were numerous severe earthquakes that leveled them so the reconstruction wasn't possible. There are still part of the ruins left that still leave me with Awe-- especially Hippocrates Asklepion (the first healing center where they had baths, herbal medicine and some kind of healers who consulting with snakes while dreaming...)
Sorry for the blip here--- i figured how to recover a little of the text I lost... yippee.
Anyway, I've got to close here and get to the hotsprings before too late.
Love to you all-- especially J.F. -- did you find yourself in this? I hope you write me, my friend-- you are my muse for writing in this trip as well as a whole bunch of you who I will mention from time to time... A.W.- thanks for the healing remedies, they are wonderful. And much love to J.T. and N.D. for everything, give Miss P a squeeze from me.
Annie Thoe is an Assistant Feldenkrais Trainer and Practitioner in the Feldenkrais Method with 22 years of experience in bodywork. She has taught numerous modalities of massage therapy, supervised students and practitioners, and teaches locally and nationally. She is on the Board of Directors for the Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, Washington. In addition to her outdoor naturalist study, Annie has an extensive background in martial arts, sports, and music.
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April, 2007
