[Previous entry: "rant about the euro"] [Next entry: "reflection on Crete...finally"]

I have yet to format and load my pictures from Crete, but I promise that will be my next entry before I leave for the Argolid this weekend.

my Monday and Wednesday mornings are free usually because I don't have class until 1:30 to 2:30, and I'm free thereafter. you'd think that with so much time off, I'd be taking advantage and going all over Athens, or even down to Piraeus to the beach in the morning. but alas, no, I have been lazy and only taken advantage of my mornings a couple of times. one of those mornings, i walked to Kerameikos down on Ermou behind the Acropolis and the Agora. yesterday morning, i made a postcard run at Plaka, and on the way back, decided to stop by the Temple of Olympian Zeus since it was right along the way back to Kallimarmaron and Pangrati. the picture you see here shows the toppled column from 1852, which I found to be pretty neat since I could finally see how the columns were pieced together. don't blame me for my dusty photograph, the smog was unbearable today in addition to the unusual humidity.

this is a better angle of the temple, especially with the people in the photograph for scale. note that it looks similar to the photograph on Wikipedia, but it's not. i hope my dusty little photograph gives you an idea of the grandeur of the temple. Hadrian had finished it during his reign (which was full of public works projects and thus he had the gate built in honor of him - see below), and of the 104 Corinthian columns, only 16 remained until 1852, when a storm caused one of them to topple over. the temple was kind of nice, and well, to be honest, with the fill of temples i have had so far, it didn't really appeal to me as much. especially after seeing the Temple of Aphaia on Aegina, this one didn't really seem as amazing. i guess it's also because i walk by the Temple of Olympian Zeus at least once a week, so it's become part of the background of Athens for me. it is beautifully lit at night though, so i hope to drop by and try out my camera for that one of these nights.



Hadrian's Gate was erected in honor of Hadrian for his godliness and contributions to public works. it's located right outside of the fenced off Temple of Olympian Zeus and around the corner across the street from the National Gardens. not much to say about the gate besides the fact that i always see tourists taking pictures in front of it and then proceeding to the opposite fence to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus and spending many minutes trying to figure out how to get into the site since the entrance is on the other side of the block across from the National Gardens. the gate is also funny because on the side of the gate facing the Acropolis, there is an inscription that reads: "THIS IS ATHENS, THE ANCIENT CITY OF THESEUS"; and on the other side it declares: "THIS IS THE CITY OF HADRIAN, NOT OF THESEUS." oh Hadrian, how proud you must have been.


wednesday before i went to Kalambaka, i randomly decided to trek all the way to Kerameikos to see the grave sites and the ancient fortifications of Athens. i didn't have a ton of time there because i left my apartment a bit late and wanted to hurry back to school for lunch before class. but i did spend a good amount of time walking through the site. it was sort of hard to identify everything even with the explanations spread out through the site. the most intriguing thing for me was the Endanos River that flowed through the site and the Sacred Way to Eleusis was paved right alongside it for the ritual/religious processions. it was amazing to see that the river has been preserved, despite the arid climate of Athens. the other strange thing about Kerameikos were the number of tortoises scattered about the site. the first time i encountered one in the cemetery, i was taken by surprise when i realized that the rock i was looking at was a moving tortoise! i thought it was an anomaly in the archaeological site, but turns out there were more of them hiding behind rocks or plants throughout the site. i wonder how they survive in Kerameikos, and i wonder if the museum keepers/site staff notice them.