Greece

Medical instruments

Morgan Cole

Olympia

April 1, 2007

Kalimera! Since most of the group went to watch Greek dancing last night, which did not start until later in the evening. Everyone got to sleep-in a whole extra 30 minutes today. A breakfast of Greek coffee (complete with a sand filled crock-pot), oranges, yogurt, eggs, and bread were served before we all loaded up into the bus for the shorquiz bus ride of the trip, five minutes to the archaeological site and museum of Olympia.

The Olympic games were started around 1500 BC and dedicated to the god Zeus. This temple is the biggest ever built in Peloponnesus. The Statue of Zeus, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was sculpted here and placed in the temple. The sculptor also formed the statue of Athena which resided at the Parthenon in Athens. Only one pillar of the temple is erect today and all the other pillars are lying on the ground. They are not upright because a German University thought that decay was part of history and should not be rebuilt. On the other hand, the Italians believed that it should have been completely reassembled. In the end the Germans over ruled.

Some of us did a jog to and fro on the ancient track where many glorified athletes had raced.

The grounds were in full springtime bloom. Natural flowers and plants were growing up around everything. A cloudless sky and mustard sun shone down on us as we entered the museum.

The marble sculpture of Hermes and Dionysus which was carved by Praxiteles was this museum’s crowning glory. Hermes had an interesting detail about his face. On the right side profile, he looked quite focused, but on the other side, his mouth was curved up very slightly, giving him a small expression of a smile. After seeing all the sculptures on this trip, it has inspired me to want to try and sculpt. But whether or not I actually fulfill that desire could be another story.

The museum housed artifacts such as mosaics, sculptures, helmets, cups, olive oil jars and so on. Costas explained that the wrestlers wrestled in the nude and would coat themselves with olive oil so that they would be slippery and hard to grip. The part I found repulsive was that after having the match, they would scrape off the dirty, sweaty, bloody oil and put it back into the jar and re-use it for next time! Yuck! Well, I guess they would be exemplary poster-children for recycling.

By the time we completed walking through the museum, it was lunch time. A small group of us ventured into town while the rest stayed behind at the restaurant near the museum. We ate a delicious lunch of gyros at an authentic local restaurant and then, since some of the guys in the group were still hungry, (them being my brother Hudson and Zach O’Brien) they headed out to find some more cheap, sidewalk gyros and were successful at finding some for two euros each! Meghan O’Brien and I decided to get another gyro too, and by the time I was ordering mine, the second group of ETSians had found this little shop and made a line that went out the door and onto the sidewalk.

Because we had some extra time to kill before going on the bus for the six hour trip back to Athens, we got to do some shopping. Then at about 13:30 pm we all joined back up and got on the bus for the journey.

An interesting landmark we saw on the drive was the Rio-Antirio suspension cable bridge which is currently the largest in the world at 3.5 kilometers in length. It connects the Corinthian gulf and Patras and was finalized so that the Olympic torch could be carried across it for the Olympic Games in August of 2004.

We had two short gas station stops every hour and a half, or so, for the W.C. (water closet), snacks, and stretching.

While we were on the bus people spent the time playing cards, reading, looking out the window, talking, singing, playing mafia, and napping. I can tell you for a fact that all seven things during the five hour bus ride were done at the same time during one point or another! I like to think of it as multi-tasking. J

The buses pulled up to the hotel a few minutes before dinner and we all filed out and bee-lined straight for the hotel. As dessert was being served, Costas began sharing his emotive quizimony with us. His quizimony was amazing and moved people to tears. We don’t realize how fortunate we are to live in the good ole U.S.A. When we think we are persecuted, we have nothing to complain about that would remotely comes close to the way born again believers are persecuted in the country of Greece. God Bless the Greek Christians!

A post bed workout of walking up the stairs to the eighth floor was well worth it because the view of the Parthenon was stunning! At about 22: oo P.M. everyone moseyed to their rooms to catch some sleep before the phone rang a wake-up call at 6:30 A.M.

Thus ended another fascinating day in beautiful, historic Greece!

Love,