Greece: Day 11

Day 11 wasn't very eventful. After the drama and craziness of Nafplion, we decided to take a day off and just hang out in Athens. I know, some of you might think boring, but we were okay with it. We decided to figure out which bus to take for our trip to Delphi for the next day, and then go to the National Archaeological museum. I'm so glad we did! I loved it. All of my classes from college come to life! So if museums bore you, then you might want to skip this post.

Like I said, the first thing we did was try and find the right bus station. Now, here is what you need to know about Athens. It looks sketchy. Even the good parts of town look sketchy. I was a little nervous walking around, but it was morning, so I figured we were okay. We found the bus station listed in my book, so we headed over to the ticket booth and asked when the bus left for Delphi. This guy looks at us and was like "Delphi? There is no Delphi!" I was like dude, it's one of the top 10 tourist attractions in your country, there is too a Delphi. So I showed him the book, and Delphi written in Greek. He still didn't know. Another guy came over and told us that we needed to go to another bus station. We found a travel agency that told us to take a taxi. We were like, why can't we walk. They kept telling us to take a taxi. Well, the next morning we decided to follow their advice and took a taxi. It was a good thing we did. We would never have found it. Anyways on to the museum!

After all that drama, we found the museum. It was very stereotypical Greek. Statues on the roof, ect;

The first few rooms were filled with Kouros/Kouri? Anyways, they were used as offerings to the gods in the temples. I was so excited to see these because I have taken years of Greek and Roman history classes.

This guy was huge. Here is Dawn standing next to him, so that you can get some perspective on how huge he was. He was awesome.

I can't remember where these Kouros were found, but the details on them were amazing. The woman is holding a strawberry, and you can see all the designs on her dress. They were really cool.

This is the Poseidon of Cape Artemision. Some archaeologists say that this is Zeus. They don't know if this statue was holding a trident or a lightning bolt. I am on Poseidon's side. I just think it fits more. Isn't it amazing what these old and ancient people could do with bronze? Amazing.

This was my favorite piece in the whole museum. It's the Jockey of Artemision. Just look at the emotions on the little boy's face! You can even see what the horse was feeling. I loved it. I went back and looked at it several times.

This was one of the galleries. The museum is insane. It's really overwhelming, all the marble and bronze everywhere! The big guy at the end is a Zeus statue, I think...

These are busts of all the Roman Emperors. I was being artsy...

The Mask of Agamemnon! I can't even tell you how excited I was to see this guy. Check off one thing on my bucket list!

It looks so huge up close and in pictures you see in textbooks, but it's really so small! This was in the Mycenaean wing. Cool stuff.

The jewelry was amazing! I would wear some of it now! These Mycenaean women were pretty loaded!

This was in the Cyclades exhibit. This fresco was actually from Santorini. The colors are beautiful.

After the museum, we went to Parliment to see the changing of the guard. We missed it, but still got pictures of the guards. If you have been watching the news lately, this is where there was a huge demonstration and protests that killed 3 people in Athens.

Wider view.... After this we found the Hard Rock Cafe. Angela collects the pins, so we had to stop by. It was in a very interesting part of Athens. It was really sketchy. We then went and finally found the Plaka. It was cute, touristy, but cute. On our way back to the subway, we finally found the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch. We could never find them, but we turned a corner and there they were! Alas, it was night, so my pictures suck.

Above is the Temple of Zeus....below is Hadrian's Arch...

One more day in Greece after this! So sad!


ps...This was a pre-scheduled post. I'm actually in the Virgin Islands right now. Hopefully, I'm having a fabulous time!