Jack, Merry & The Trumanator: April 2016

Monday, April 4, 2016

Thirty-Seventh Post From Türkiye: Christmas Break Part Two

We were so excited to finally get to see Athens! And it was even better to get to spend time there with Scott and Josette! Seriously, so glad we have been able to become friends with them here in Ankara and we can't wait for another Rowe/Knapp adventure!

First of all we had to find a place to park the van so the rental company could pick it up. This caused much frustration and anger for Jack and Scott. Jack ended up boxed into this little courtyard. We decided to leave it there and let the rental company deal with it. I assume they got it out, as we never heard anything to the contrary.

Scott and Josette had spent a few days in Athens before we arrived and this was their last night so they went to see the Acropolis, then we all went to climb Areopagus or Mars Hill. It is a bare marble hill next to the Acropolis where the Apostle Paul gave his famous speech about the identity of "the Unknown God." (Acts 17).

Plaque of the speech.

Note about this "bare marble" hill. It really is marble and has been polished by millions of feet. It is soooo slippery and crawling with tourists. I was in fear for my life the entire time we were up there. Even in the picture below, I am thinking, "Don't fall. Don't fall!" Fun!!

We headed down the hill to explore the Plaka. An old historical neighborhood of Athens, clustered around the Acropolis.

Greece has the most and best graffiti!

Getting a snack before dinner.

The next morning we headed out to see more of the city.

View from our balcony. Some friends of ours stayed in this same apartment and they said the church bells woke them up so early. We didn't hear anything, so either we are heathens or the priests were on vaction.

We wanted to go to the Acropolis first thing in the morning to beat the crowds. It had the added benefit of getting to view it in the gorgeous morning light!

Temple of Athena Nike

Entrance to the Propylaea.

View of Mars Hill and the city.

The Parthenon

Erechtheion

Over looking some of the other sites.

After we had explored as much of the Acropolis as we could we headed over to the National Archaeological Museum. It holds some of the most important artifacts from archaeological sites around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity.

Excited to do some "larnin"!

Octopus dish!

You can follow the evolution of Greek Art through the changes in sculptural styles. So fabulous!


	Statue of a Kouros (naked youth),	. 600 BC.


	Bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon, found at the bottom of the sea off cape Artemision,	ca. 460 BC.


	Bronze statue of a horse and a young jockey, found in the sea off Cape Artemision,	ca. 140 BC.

We saw so many terrific collections! It is a wonderful museum! But we were WORN out after our tour. Even Jack was tired. Why do museums make you more tired than walking through the city? It's a mystery.

Tired.

The next day we headed out to see the Ancient Agora.

While trying to find a way over this train track to the entrance we stumbled into this flea market. Which of course we needed to spend some time browsing through.

Panathenaic Way

We finally made it inside and started wandering through the Ancient Agora of Classical Athens. It is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora. An Agora was a central space or square in ancient Greek city-states.

Jack thinks deep philosophical thoughts inside the The reconstructed Stoa of Attalos. Just like Plato.

Temple of Hephaestus

Later we did a bit more wandering through the Plaka. Where Jack did not buy this bouzouki. Although he could have if he had wanted to.

Trum in a little church.

We headed over to Syntagma Square. It was bustling and full of fun ways to add to the economy of Greece.

Girl's posing with their huge selections of balloons for sale.

Street musicians sharing some holiday music, looking for a donation or two.

Various, non-legitimate Disney characters to get your picture with. Oh and Santa as well!

At the top of the square is the Parliament building and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Where you can see the changing of the guard.

From Parliament we walked through the The National Garden on our way to the Panathenaic Stadium. The Stadium was reconstructed from the remains of an ancient Greek stadium, And is built entirely of marble. The Stadium hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and in the 2004 Olympic Games, it held the archery competition and the finish of the Marathon. Cool! Right?

Outside the stadium we decided to have ourselves a bit of a break.

On our way back to the apartment we saw...

The Temple of Olympian Zeus,

Another awesome street musician,

and the Arch of Hadrian.

We stopped for some dinner and as it was our last night we had to finish with a walk through the streets of Athens while eating some more gelato. A great way to end our Christmas Vacation!!

Oh, Greece! Even when you go on strike and refuse to bring us our rented van, you are always charming and well worth the visit!!

Thirty-Sixth Post From Türkiye: Christmas Break Part One

Christmas 2015 started out at home here in Ankara.

Trum and I spent one afternoon making ginger bread houses with friends. And as per tradition, Trum's house is mostly candy.

We didn't have any snow but for several weeks we were covered in a fog that coated everything in a thick frost. It was really beautiful and made for a fun, white Christmas.

Christmas Eve Feast

Christmas Day Madness

The day after Christmas we flew to Greece to meet up with our friends, the Knapps, for a little holiday vacation.

This is us waiting in the airport for the car rental company to decide they were in the mood to bring us the van we had reserved. It took them a good long time to decide they could make room in their schedule to actually provide the service they purportedly make their living from. Ahh, Mediterranean countries, you have your own way of doing things.

When the van was finally delivered it was enormous! Plenty of room for Trum to relax.

We headed right out to see some sights and our first stop was at Marathon, the site of the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The name of the athletic long-distance endurance race, the "marathon", comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek soldier and runner who was sent from Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon.

Striking a pose with Miltiades (the general of the Greek forces).

Quick stop at Thermopylae. The location of the Battle of Thermopylae.

Part of the Greco-Persian Wars.

Oh, the joy that I feel from a strange sign. Is the English translated poorly or is the Greek portion also weird? I don't know. But why is the brown open? It's a little off putting to have snacks and toilets so closely linked. And unfortunately no "space" museum was actually there to be visited. Also, what does mm mean in relation to time? Minutes?

We stayed our first night in Galaxidi. A beautiful little harbor town on the Gulf of Corinth. We had a fabulous dinner at one of the restaurants that line the harbor and the next morning we woke up to gorgeous views from our hotel.

Trum in the empty pool. No swimming in December.

I "borrowed" a lemon from this tree.

We started our day with a drive along the gulf with views of the water, white washed towns and Mount Parnassus.

On the way up Mt. Parnassus we stopped for pictures overlooking this valley, filled with olive groves.

We could hear the bells from this little herd of sheep coming down the mountain.

Our plans were to tour Delphi (the site of Delphi was believed to be determined by Zeus when he sought to find the center of his "Grandmother Earth" (Gaia). He sent two eagles flying from the eastern and western extremities, and the path of the eagles crossed over Delphi where the Omphalos, or navel of Gaia was found. Now you know). But the national park workers of Greece decided that would be a good day to go on strike (aka have a day off) so everything was locked up.

I took this picture through the bars of a fence. Sad.

Josette poses as the men head off to be manly.

Luckily, Tholos, Sanctuary of Athena Pronoia wasn't closed off so we got to tour around it for a while.

From Delphi we headed down to the coast but first we drove through Arachova. A beautiful mountain resort. Kind of like the Sun Valley of Greece. Full of rich and famous people on vacation. And it was packed! Even though there was no snow it was full of people for the Holidays. Jack had to battle a crazy traffic jam to get through the town.

Wooden handy crafts for sale.

This doesn't truly convey the madness of all the people/cars trying to maneuver through the narrow streets. This guy on a bike had the right idea.

Looking back on the town. Jack's joy is low after his epic van battle.

We stopped for lunch and a bit of cake.

We headed to Nafplio and drove through all of these awesome orange groves, with fruit ripe and ready to be picked. We had Trum jump out and "borrow" one for us. It was DELICIOUS!

We had to stop in this tiny village to get a picture of this church. Meanwhile across the street a sweet little γιαγιά was out with her cat.

For our second night we stayed in Nafplio, on the Argolic Gulf in the northeast Peloponnese.

A wonderful port town with fun little streets, shopping and castles.

Jack gave us a Rick Steves walking tour and along the route is this gelato shop. The owner saw us with the book and came out and said, "Yes, that is me! I am in that book! Best Gelato! Come in!". How can you say no to that? And you know what? He was right! Best Gelato!

Many different people have ruled this town including the Ottomans. Thus there is an old Mosque near Constitution Square.

Steps.

Traditional instruments, traditional music.

The castle of Palamidi

St. George Church

Evening promenade through the narrow streets decorated with Christmas lights.

The next morning we headed out to tour Mycenae (luckily the strike was over). In Greek mythology the city was founded by Perseus, who gave the site its name either after his sword scabbard (mykes) fell to the ground and was regarded as a good omen or as he found a water spring near a mushroom (mykes). In Homer’s account of the Trojan War in the Iliad, Mycenae (or Mykene) is described as a ‘well-founded citadel’, as ‘wide-wayed’ and as ‘golden Mycenae’.