Florence

Florence - Nov 9&10

I had been to Florence twice before, once in eight grade with my dad and sisters, and the summer of my senior year as part of my Eurotrip with five of my closest friends. Both times had been enjoyable, but more so because of the people I was with- even having gone to this city twice, I had yet to enter any of its art museums and most importantly I still had not seen Michaelangelo’s David.

We arrived early in the morning after a six hour bus ride (most enjoyable of course) and had our orientation tours. We were split into six our so groups of 15-20 people lead by a professor, and they showed us the main sights of Florence with their own collected knowledge.

After the trips we all met in front of the Uffizi. Since the past month of Art&Arch classes had been devoted to the Renaissance and to northern Italian artists, we had that awesome feeling we always get in class trips, recognizing pictures from the texts and slide shows in class. I spent a good two and a half hours in there, even going at a fast pace with just one friend. There was just so much to see, and the museum is built in a maze-like structure that kept us wandering from painting to sculpture to painting. Luckily we each had maps and names of specific art pieces to look for, or we could have spent even more time there.

After we left the museum we realized we had about four hours until dinner so we decided to wander through the streets and see where they would take us. Unfortunately, the streets would all lead us to the same piazza with the Baptistery and the Florence Cathedral. I suppose it cannot really be called unfortunately, since both those buildings are beautiful, but after a couple hours we gave up and walked to and through the leather market until it was dinner time.

The next day we started early with more tours. Everyone was once again split up with a different leader and this time I had Hans Tonkens, a Dutch art historian who took us around the Baptistery and Basilica and through the museum of the Basilica. He revealed the intricate facade of the Basilica and then thoroughly explained all the iconography on the outside the Baptistery of St. John, as well as its significance for the city: every “Florentinian” that is baptized must be baptized in this specific church, even if it’s for the second time and merely symbolical.

After this tour we had more hours to just walk around, so I decided to buy a kebab with two friends, and then go up the Florentine Duomo of Santa Maria dei Fiore. After climbing up the 463 steps, seeing the duomo at first from the inside with its depictions of Dante’s Divine Comedy... we were at the top of Florence, with a 360 view from the center, able to see the entire city at an amazing vantage point..

There were about 15 of us that met there at this time by chance, so we took plenty of pictures, and were able to hold good conversations, or just stare into the distance with each other. Definitely a highlight of Florence.

After some more hanging out we headed to the main attraction: The Accademia, home of David. I could talk about the lecture that Dr. Lisot gave just before we saw him, but truly I don’t remember too much of it because seeing the ginormous statue was so amazing.

I had seen a billion pictures of him of course, not just around the city but everywhere for years in textbooks and post cards, in different political cartoons and movies... but seriously nothing could compare. First of all, I had no idea it would be that big. Second of all, it was just overpoweringly perfect. From the muscles to the facial expression and the challenging brow, to the hands... it was the most exquisite statue I have ever seen (and trust me i've seen more than millions just this semester).

We all stared at it for at least five minutes, and then a lot of us stayed to linger even longer, for it was just an enchanting piece of stone.... captivating me as no other piece ever had. It's a timeless piece, a relatable, strong, humane piece.... representing of course David about to face Goliath, with so much evident emotion, passion and (perhaps I'm exaggerating) inner strength...

We left Florence the next day, off to beautiful Venice.

Northern Italy Trip

Florence, Venice, and Assisi.

I had been to these three places before. All three with different people.. and yet this time each place was immensely different from the other times.

This was the last trip. They warned us so many times that after Greece everything goes on fast motion, but I don’t think any of us were really prepared for it. Honestly, it seems like this whole semester has been a quick blur of amazing sights, new friendships, and magnificent experiences. It’s crazy to think that in just a month we will all be back in our homes, only being able to reminiscence, looking at pictures and whatever words we composed in the heat of the experiences.

Anyway... on to the trip.

Olympia

The last days of the Greece trip were spent in Olympia. It was crazy to think that we were already reaching the end, all we had left were a couple sites, one museum, and then a 24 hour trajectory to make our way back to campus....

Olympia was a very small, very clean little town. I had expected something more like Athens for some reason, and after Nafplion it seemed like a very dull place, nonetheless it held a treasure: the first Olympic stadium.

We made our way into the Olympian archeological site, extremely excited for the traditional races. Every single semester UD students, professors, and even accompanying priests, join together to run a race on the Olympic track. For some reason I got really nervous for it. I still don't understand why, but I was extremely jittery and felt as if I was about to undergo a serious athletic competition.

Dr. Lisot, Dr Osborn an Dr. Hatlie spent some time lecturing on site, but most of our minds were on the race. As we sat in what used to be the old locker rooms and walked through the gymnasium and saw the temples (or lack thereof, and saw the site where the column drums are laying) I don't think I can recall a moment when we were less focused on our professor's words. May have been because it was the 7th consecutive day of listening to lectures, may have been because all of our minds were elsewhere...

Drums of columns

I for one was busy picturing athletes from all over, stretching, worrying, being nervous about their competition. I was picturing visiting girls walking around giggling, as they made their way into the stadium to wait for the events, and the men as they flexed and focused... and waited to have glory added to their name.

So there we were, walking through the olympic arch and unto the track. For a bystander, I suppose the track really would not look like much. It is about 300 meters of dirt surrounded by grass that is not greatly kept... but to all of us it held history. It didn't hold only the old olympian athletes that ran there, it also held years of UD students running with the same thoughts, and similar experiences.

The guys ran first, and then the girls, and then a co-ed relay. Every single race contained energy, nerves, laughter, speed, slow runners, cheering... every race was just us.

Of course most of us ran just to say we had ran in the Olympic Track, but in the end I think it meant a lot more.

The Olympic Track

Since that was the last night of the trip, they gave us a special dinner followed by a presentation of traditional Greek dancers. That was a lot of fun, since after their dances they asked us all to go in the middle and dance with them. At least 70 of us were dancing on together in circles, repeating the same motion with our feet over and over again, laughing at the awkwardness and soaking in the music.

After this, most of us headed into town in search of a discoteca, and we found a place similar to the one that hosted us in Delphi. Another fun dance of UD dancing and running to get in time for curfew.

Traditional Greek Dancing

The very last day of the Greece trip (not including the second ferry which took 5 extra hours to "park" and the bus which hit traffic and was an extra two hours, added to the original 7... ) we visited the Olympian Archeological museum. It was great since there were so many pieces that we studied in Art and Arch.

Hermes and the Infant Dyonisus

I feel like I should write a conclusion to this trip, but I wont. I think I'll save the concluding remarks to next week. We're leaving for our Northern Italy trip tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be better about blogging about that.

Wish you were all coming with me!

Mycenae & Epidauros

The Lion's Gate

After studying the Lion's Gate in West Civ and in Art&Arch for two months, we finally got to see it in person. Mycenae was an archeological site, yet it had different architecture from the other Greek cities. There were amazing Tombs which look like giant honey combs raising from the ground, and have perfect acoustics: if you stand directly across from someone else and talk into the wall, they can hear you if they put an ear to their wall.

Entering a Tomb

We performed a scene from Agamemnon in the Tomb of Clytemenestra, and then a few groups and individuals took the spotlight for a bit as they sang and impressed us all with their talents. This was however not compared to what we would experience later that day in Epidauros.

Overall Mycenae is an ancient city in ruins, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, who unfortunately took many of the artifacts of his many site discoveries for his private collection, but who also opened up these ancient worlds for us.

In the afternoon we went to Epidauros. The most impressive theater I have ever seen.

The amphitheater was bigger than any I had seen, the bleachers were almost completely in tact, and there was a small circle in the middle of the stage. They told us that if you sang, spoke, yelled from this small circle, your voice would bounce into the stage and come back to you. And that is exactly what happened.

Our RA Joey went first and began to sing a piece from Les Miserables. It was the most beautiful sound I heard all trip. I climbed up all of the bleachers, and could hear Joey's voice as if he was standing right next to me. He captivated us all.

Joey Singing in the little white circle on stage

The best thing was that many people in our group then realized what a great experience this could be and took a chance at singing in front of everyone. I knew we had really talented singers, but I did not know we had that many. Over 20 UDers went to the circle and expelled their amazing voices for us to enjoy.

Beautiful Epidauros

The scenery surrounding the Epidauros Theater was also extremely beautiful, but I almost did not pay attention to the mountains for the first time, since I was so enchanted by the magic of that the place created with music.

Sitting on the bleachers

Both Mycenae and Epidauros were short visits and we headed back to Nafplion for the night, so it was another short and slow day in which we were all able to appreciate skills that some had been hiding, and enjoy our time in a different way.

Nafplion

We were supposed to go to Mycenae the morning of the fifth of October, but the riots prevented us from doing so. So instead Dr. Hatlie announced that we would have an entire day in Nafplion to ourselves!

We all settled into the hotel and then made our way to the beaches. Most of all found a rocky beach side and we all sat by the rocks, as we started jumping in one by one. Although it was October the weather was still amazing. It was really hot, and the water was warm, so it felt amazing to be in there, especially after such busy days. I felt like I was experiencing Greece as I had originally imagined : the Santorini images from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, swimming in the warm ocean.

We spent most of the day by the water, talking and jumping in, taking pictures and watching people fear the jelly fish that the professors had warned us about. After that I left with a friend and we walked around the small streets of Nafplion.

The beach where we hung out

Although I had already fallen in love with the waters of Nafplion, the small plaza and the shop-filled streets made me love the city even more. We walked around looking at all the souvenirs and talked to the street vendor. One really interesting vendor in a nice small store opened up to us in his broken English and told us about his frustrations. He was really annoyed with the government, annoyed with all the riots that came from the people that want money and do not work. He told us how foreigners had come into Nafplion and had tried to make business more efficient for them, how they had changed his cash register for a computer, and made his life more technological and faster. He did not like this, he liked the slow rhythm of life that comes with hard work, patience and dedication. He enjoyed making the worry beads that they sell over Greece.

Trying on weird souvenirs

Walking by the dock.

I kept walking around with my friend until we hit the dock and there we sat down to talk. We ended up talking till the sun started to set, which was extremely nice. I had already enjoyed the conversations in the busy street of Athens, but sitting in front of the sea with boats and islands in the distance, after a slow day was also a great memory to treasure.

The next day was slightly more hectic. We finally went to Mycenae, and from there to Epidauros.

Athens

Athens

As our three large blue buses drove into Athens I was surprisingly reminded of Mexico City. After the beautiful natural landscapes of Meteora, and Delphi seeing so much gray was truly shocking and a little bit dissappointing. I almost felt cheated, as if in between so much beauty someone had decided to make a gray patch filled with cars, buildings and shops just for their own benefit. I suppose this is somewhat true, which is slightly sad but of course necesary since Athens holds a third of the population of Greece and is the main big metropolitan spot. Although after three days of seeing Greek on all the signs I was already a bit nostalgic for my own alphabet, it was actually really cool to see the grafitti in Greek on a lot of streets. I guess I never really thought of ‘alpha’ and ‘stigma’ as letters that one would use in street slang grafitti.
Fortunately though, the city was not all a huge patch of gray dissappointment. After settling into our hotel, we were told to meet in the center of the city for our first Athenian lectures. After following the hard street names (our own street was Karageorgi Servias Str. all in the Greek alphabet for example) and avoiding the Athenian drivers (which are very similar to Roman drivers) we all met up in the center and then made our way to the Pnyx.
As we settled unto the Pnyx, the reality of it settled in us as well. This was the very rocky stone where one of the world’s earliest democratic legislatures, the Athenian ekklesia met. The Ekklesia was the popular assembly composed of all the Athenian citizens and was one of the very factors of the Radical Democracy in the Archaic Age of Athens. So we sat on this huge stone, looking down on the Agora and we could see the Acropolis at a distance as we listend to some lectures as well as some students’ reading of Pericles’ Funeral Oration. It was powerful to say the least, to hear such a strong appeal for democracy, which would later inspire great leaders, like the American Founding Fathers, at the very spot where it was first exposed.
We then walked to the Areopagus hill, where the highest governmental council would meet, overlooking the entire city, but still with the daunting image of the Acropolis to the west. We were all getting very anxious to finally see the Parthenon.

Climbinb up the Areopagus

To climb the Areopagus, most of us decided to go up the slippery marble stone steps which St Paul once climbed on, which was just another small cool feat of the hill. Above the Areopagus we listened to more lectures and had another student performance of Aeschylus’ Eumenides. This was perhaps the most memorable performance since all seven actors were extremely committed to their role, especially the ‘furies’ who all kept writhing and making angry faces the entire time. This of course kept us entertained, as well as many other tourists who decided to stay to watch even if they probably did not understand anything.

The 'furies' performing -with our guide dog in front.

(It was actually really weird. At many times, one or two dogs would cling on to us and just follow us and bark at anyone who was not part of our group. How they knew who wasn't part of our group, we had no idea. Why they were so protective of us? No idea. But they really followed us around the Pnyx, and the Areopagus, and when a group went at dawn to the Areopagus the next morning, a new set of protective dogs followed them and barked at the 'strangers'. Truly remarkable.. )

There is something really nice about writing all these memories down: (even weeks late, which I apologize for) the more I write the more I remember, and the more I can make eternal. Fortunately I kept a journal throughout the trip, but I can’t help but wonder at all the moments which are lost or hiding in memory, and when they will come out.

Anyway believe it or not, that was only our first day in Athens. It concluded with a nice group dinner and an early night for most of us since we had not slept much the previous night in Delphi and had to wake up early again for the Acropolis!

The second day in Athens was probably one of my favorite days of the whole trip (though it might be beaten by Nafplion, which I’ll write about hopefully soon). It was filled with everything the Greece Trip is supposed to be. First we visited the entrance to the Agora, and the Agora Museum, and then we made our way around the Agora, seeing each site as something special. One of the coolest places was the Prison. The very prison in which Socrates spent his very last days! Of course as a good UD Greek Trip experience, out came Plato’s Apology, and some students read it aloud. Although every time we read something ‘on site’ I got a very cool almost transcendental feeling, as if we could bend through time, listening to “Socrates’ last words” was possibly the one time I really appreciated the power of reading, teaching, learning and traveling all together.

The prison

After that amazing experience, we made our way (finally) up the Acropolis steps. We sat before the Parthenon as Dr. Lisot explained all the artwork in it and around it (all of which would then land on the midterm...), and Dr. Hatlie explained its main purposes. We then looked at the Erechtheum next and then we were free to go about Athens.

On the west side of the Parthenon

This next bit of the day is also the reason I loved this day so much. My friends and I decided we would visit the Acropolis Museum, which held so many artifacts bits of stones, pediments for about four floors. We then made our way into the center of the city in search of “gyros”. There is apparently a UD tradition between the guys to see who can eat the most gyros during the greece trip (which are very similar to the Turkish Kebabs but with pita bread), so they went at it. My friends and I found a cheap store and sat on the street across from it to enjoy our gyros and a shared baklava. We were all very happy and quite carefree, knowing we had hours before the next lecture or appointed site, just enjoying Greek food purchased for the first time by our account, sharing our thoughts and laughing with each other. It may seem like a very typical thing, especially next to having seen the Parthenon in person, but truly this is something I know I’ll always hold dear to me. Just sharing gyros, baklava and laughter with my friends in some unpronounceable street in Athens.
We continued through the street after our most enjoyable lunch, going into every souvenieur shop trying on things and looking at small artifacts, really just hanging out with our free time. There was an optional hike up the tallest hill in Athens, Mt. Lykabbetos, and so I decided that wasn’t something I wanted to miss out on. Halfway up this huge betraying hill, which did not look that tall from the hotel, I decided maybe it was something I did want to miss out on... but after an hour of hiking up, it was all worth it. The view was incredible. Although you could see the patch of gray I had initially disliked, you could also see the great ancient structures from a new perspective, as well as mountains and the ocean far away. We stayed there for a really long time, taking pictures and talking, and I took the time to write a little on my journal, wondering what it was that made this sight, as well as all the previous ones that week, so beautiful and so enchanting to all of us.

The view from Mt. Lykabbetos

Dinner that night was once again “on UD”, which was appreciated after our wallets had had to come out for lunch and were not really that eager to stay out in exchange for food for a while. It was as always perfectly coordinated, and after that we all set out to explore Athens at night. Or to go to sleep early again jaja.

The next morning we unfortunately had to leave Athens. We didn’t get the chance to see the Archeological Museum of Athens, which truly saddened Dr. Hatlie, and he told us we had to come back to Greece even if only to visit this museum. The reason was that there were major riot threats and we had to leave the city. Looking at the newspapers later that day we saw pictures of one of the most violent riots in Greece on the very plaza where we had loaded everything on our buses just hours before. So it was good that we got out of the city, even if a little earlier than unexpected. An on we made our way, in hopes of reaching Mycenae if it was not closed, before arriving at Nafplion.

Delphi

On our third day of traveling, after the quick stop at Thermopylae, we arrived at Delphi.

Although I still had the marvelous mountains of Meteora on my mind and I was sure those would be the most amazing thing I would be seeing, Delphi really left me aghast.

Remains of the Temple to Hera

We got to the Archeological Site of Delphi a little later than we had planned for, but it only gave us an even nicer weather with the sun starting to set. Starting at the middle of Mount Parnassus we saw the remains of the Temple to Hera, where both Dr. Hatlie and Dr. Lisot gave us lectures on its function and architecture, respectively. Then we made our way to the Temple of Apollo, which we could see in the distance.

On our way up the mountain next to Mount Parnassus we stopped for a while so a second group of performers could read a passage from Aeschylus' Eumenides. Every time we had a group perform, our whole class was involved. We had all read this passage before, we had the background and knew what would happen afterwards, we had all sat in Dr. Osborn's class as he explained its significance and now 5 or seven people were making it come alive at a place where it would have taken life before. (If not by the ancient Greeks, at least by some previous UD students jaja). We all saw as people from different groups of friends joined to make up a scene from a Greek Tragedy, and we all became the audience together.

Hiking/walking around the Sanctuary of Apollo.

After a short hike we stopped again for a lecture on everything we would be seeing once we got to the top. Dr. Lisot talked to us about the importance Siphnian Treasury, the Oracle of Delphi and how it worked (I really need to study this, especially because it's on my Midterm this Friday!), the way that Heracles tried to cheat his way into having the Oracle before all the others in line, talked about the Pythian games (a Panhellenic precursor to the Olympics) which happened at this site and its gymnasium, the sanctuary to Apollo.... and more that we later hiked up a bit to see.

Looking down on the Symphian treasury, with the Temple of Hera in the far left.

Once again we had an amazing vantage point, this time both over the Temple to Hera and to the right over the city of Delphi. The sight was incredible, took my breath away. Seeing the buildings (which were pretty well restored for their age) was also pretty cool, but I couldn't take my eyes away from the mountains. Even when we got up to the theater and listened to our philosophy and literature professors lecture us.

Beautiful, eye stealing mountains

Dr. Nelson talked about Socrates, and although he had told us this before, talked about the oracle of Delphi which had said he was the wisest man alive. Because of this Socrates, made it his goal in life to prove this, and to talk to anyone that thought himself wise in order to do so. Of course, anyone that knows about Socrates knows that this got him in trouble with the politicians and others in power who thought they knew when they did not and were shown so by Socrates.... and so he was eventually convicted to death for this "crime".

Dr. Osborn then talked about Dantes Paradiso, which is part of the trilogy of the Divine Comedy which we all read last year. Cool fact for anyone that has read it: Mount Parnassus is Mount Purgatory! The very mountain I was looking at is the one that Dante imagined himself going up with Virgil as he made his way up to Paradise.

All the (lucky) people (that got this hotel) staring out their balconies at the amazing sight.

After a couple more lectures, we headed to the hotels in Delphi. Since we were about 120+ people with our group and Delphi is not the biggest of cities, we had to split up. Luckily, I was in the fortunate group, that got the hotel with THE most amazing view out our windows and porches, aand we had hot water. Honestly though, I do not think I have ever stared out a window and seen anything close to what I could see in my hotel room in Delphi. It was paradisal. I imagine that if Eden could be compared to anything, it would have been this sight. I could have stayed out in the porch and stared for weeks, especially knowing that as the sun started to set and the stars and moon became more visible, the beauty before me only morphed into different sets of art. There was nowhere that the sun could move to make this sight less marvelous.

The view from our hotel window/porch.

However I had to peel my eyes off from the mountains and water to go to dinner, and then we all went to a Discoteca. While paying five euros to go into a small Greek "club", which looked more like a small rented party room with a bar, with the same 100+ students that you are with all day long may not sound like much... it was actually one of the highlights of the trip.

We completely took over this place for almost three hours. We all danced in our own UD way, very clean and very sober, and everyone went around dancing (or jumping with flailing arms) with people they perhaps didn't talk to as much. Some Greek guys arrived at the club at one point (probably knowing that some American College girls had arrived at their city once more) and tried to dance with us, but it was very sweet to see that all of our guys (though not many) made somewhat of a circle around all the girls, and were on the look out for creepy guys all night. All in all it was an extremely fun night, and to top it off Dr. Osborn was there dancing all three hours with us! When it was almost time for the club to empty, as we all had to go back for curfew, we put Dr. Osborn up on the small stage and he crowd surfed over all of us.

Indubitably, one of the funnest nights of the trip.

Dancing in the Discoteca. Dr. Osborn is the third from the left on stage.