Poseidon's Temple at Sounion

Everyone knows about the Parthenon in Athens - the big temple to the Goddess Athena that's on the Acropolis.  What I didn't know until I got here (and Joe the CLO told me), was that there are three temples that form an equilateral triangle.  There's the Parthenon, and the Temple of the Goddess Aphaia on Aegina, and the Temple of God Poseidon at Sounion.  Since I'd be visiting both the Parthenon and the temple on Aegina, I knew I needed to go to Poseidon's Temple as well.












The temple is set up on a hill overlooking the ocean.  It's the southern most point from Athens and was a great lookout point for ships approaching by sea.














It's beautiful to see the way it's constructed - all the blocks put together just so.

I always find it interesting what changes and what doesn't  - whether it's across cultures or over time.  At Sounion, you can see all the graffiti people from long ago left.  They carved their names into the marble in order to make their mark.

Cruising the Greek Islands

On the first weekend my dad was here visiting we took a cruise to the Greek Islands.  There's a great One Day Cruise that gets you out to 3 different islands.  It's nice because it gives you a little taste of different places - all in one day.  A great thing for us - although it was quite a long day.  We left the apartment at 6 AM and weren't back until 9 PM.  But we saw a lot!

We caught the boat down at the harbor and from there you could see all the buildings of Athens on the hills.  The ship had people from all over the world on it - Americans, Russians, Chinese, and - Brazilians!  Hearing the portuguese was a little slice of home.  And of course when there was dancing on the boat - the Brazilians were the first to join in - and then got everyone doing the samba!

The requisite "coming on board" picture.

















The ship took us to three islands - Hydra, Poros and Aegina.

First stop was Hydra.
















It's a beautiful island and one of the few that doesn't have cars.  There are just little winding paths throughout town and up the hillside.

Lot's of little shops and wonderful tavernas where you can sit and enjoy the sea and have some Greek beer.
















Next stop was the island of Poros.  It's a tiny island with the town spread on either side of a waterway.













The last island we visited was Aegina.  It's quite close to Athens - in fact many people live there and commute to Athens by ferry.  The island is fairly big and is know for it's pistachio groves.  We got some and they were wonderful.

It's also known for its Temple of the Goddess Aphaia.  This temple forms the third point in an equilateral triangle with the Parthenon and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion.  We took a tour up to see it - great views and you can see the temples in Athens and Sounion from there.

And then we visited the church of St. Nectarios which is also on the island.

Markets in Athens

One of my favorite ways to get to know a place is to visit their food markets - especially the farmer's markets and the central markets.  I love visiting the Mercado Sao Jose in Recife and wanted to see wat the market in Athens is like.  So - one of the days my dad was here, we checked out the markets.





On the way to the central market, we came across the farmer's market that sets up in front of the neighborhood church.  It was about 2 blocks long with lots of vendors.









The produce was amazing!  Mainly fruits and vegetables,

but there was also a nut and honey stall and some plant / herb stalls.















Then we headed to the Athens Central Market.  It's located near the Monastiraki Flea Market and surrounding it has lots of other stores selling various things.

We passed a store selling bridles and bells for goats.  And a store with lots of containers - glass bottles for olive oil and olives and wine - a huge variety - tin, glass, etc.

At the entrance to the meat section are shops selling dried fruits and candies.






The market is set up in a big hall that's open at the ends.  One long line is meats, and then there's a cross part with chickens and then another section for fish.

Warning - some of the photos below may be too much reality for some.

At the beginning of the meat section, they had baby chickens for sale.















And then the meat section began.  There were many, many stalls with skinned lambs (it's the Greek Easter weekend) to take home.

The folks there would butcher it for you - they did amazing things with their big butcher's cleavers.

Then there was the poultry and variety meat section. 

You could get a variety of offal (organs, etc.)

And there were also intestines for making sausage.

Then we checked out the fish section.  

The fish were just beautiful - so fresh and a huge variety.  

And of course there were the octopus that Greek cooking is so famous for.

The Oracle at Delphi

For my first Saturday in Athens, I took a tour to the Temple at Delphi.  It was an amazing experience.

The bus picked me up at 7:45 and after we picked up the other passengers, we headed north out of town towards Delphi.  It's a 3 hour drive with 2 hours being on the highway and the last hour winding through villages on our way into the mountains to Delphi.

On the way, our guide spoke almost continuously explaining all that we were seeing.  It was fascinating.  I loved getting out of the city and seeing what the countryside looks like.  Along the roads, occasionally you'd see what looked like little dollhouse churches up on posts like mailboxes.  I found out that they are shrines that people put up - either to honor people who've died on that particular stretch of road (similar to people using crosses and flowers along roadsides in the US), or to commemorate special occasions or places.

Delphi's up in the mountains and on the way you can see Mount Parnassus.  It's so high, that the top was obscured in the clouds, but you could see the snow. The towns around it are set up for people to go skiing.





We passed through some Greek villages - a few main streets and houses surrounding.  In the mountains, the buildings hugged the mountain - it's just beautiful.  In the villages, they make beautiful cotton rugs.










Eventually we arrived at Delphi.  It's set on a hillside and has amazing views of the valley below.

The  was supposedly a spring between the two mountains / rockface and that's where the oracle resided.

Our guide was very informative and gave us lots of great information.  For example - notice the way the rocks are put together on this wall. They all fit just so - with no mortar and have stayed that way for hundreds of years - even in earthquake country.

She also pointed out the writing that was carved into the rocks that you can still read today.  A lot of it had to do with who donated what - somethings don't change.

Originally it was all a huge complex, with sports places and then along the path up to the temple itself there were lots of places for offerings.  People would purchase items to be left (like candles, etc.) and also rich people would donate buildings and statues.  This is a temple in honor of the Goddess Athena

This was considered to be the center of the earth - like a giant umbilical cord.  It's not placed where it originally was.  I wonder if it originally was closer to where the spring was.

This is what's left of the temple.  Sadly, as new religions and peoples took over, they insisted on destroying what had come before.  A lot of the damage was done by the Christians needing to destroy the previous religions sacred places.

Supposedly when it was time for a ritual, they'd sacrifice and animal - outside the temple.  Within the temple itself, there was a place for people to come. The oracle spoke through a young woman who lived there.  She would chew a lot of bay laurel leaves and sit in the steam area.  There are a lot of hot springs around there and they'd channel the steamy water through the bottom of the temple.  So - between the herb chewing and steam , the young woman would probably be pretty high and say all kinds of stuff.  There were priests who would then interpret what she was saying.  Interesting.









After touring the temple site, we checked out the museum.  We saw a statue of the Sphinx.

And a depiction of the head of Medusa.  You can also see how it was originally colored - with darker and lighter parts.

And we saw some ivory statues of gods with their gold headdresses.  The ivory is dark because the statues had been burned.

I even learned about the differences between cyprus trees.  The male of the species - on the left side - are tall and straight and contained.  The females - on the right side are more open and spread out.