Myron Liu

 Jetlagged from the long flight, we got off our Emirates flight at Athens airport. Besides the very noticeable graffiti-filled streets, my first impression of the city was one of confusion. Everywhere we went there was a trace of ancient culture mixed with the smog-filled streets of Athens. It was very noticeable with the train station at Syntagma square, our first stop, being built over the ruins of an ancient sewer. We stopped to watch the changing of the guards at the Parliament building (a building with interestingly enough a mixture of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns).

That night, as tired as we were, we ran up Mt Lykevittos. Atop the hill with an almost 360 degrees view of the city, we saw an amazing view of Athens and her entirety. The most amazing features of Athens, such as the Acropolis, lighted up at night created quite a spectacular sight. Along with information supplied from ourselves, Mr Bucko and Mr Boyce supplied us with information about the origin story of the naming of Athens (a contest between Poseidon and Athena which culminates into a spring and olive tree) and a bit of background into the Acropolis, war against the Persians and the Peloponnesian war. Exhausted from the day, we checked into Hotel Economy and I attempted to sleep as much as possible (only managed to get about 6 hours of sleep that night before it was breakfast time already).

 The next day, we went to consult the Delphic oracle at (amazingly enough) Delphi. Stunned by the picturesqueness of the location, we headed to see the ancient ruins of Delphi. We saw many of the broken columns around the Greek agora at Delphi, the Athenian treasury, the Omphalos, an oddly shaped stone that was the “navel of the earth”, the theatre at Delphi, the stadium (a great Frisbee-playing location in my opinion) and the Temple of Apollo. I found it hard to really appreciate the antiquity of the ruins. It was hard to comprehend that these ruins had been standing for over two thousand and five hundred years. Later, after being harassed by a lady constantly repeating “New Zealand”, we walked towards the free Wifi at the museum. The highlights of this museum for me would be the famed statue of the charioteer with the determined eyes staring in the distance (giving off the impression of humility), the beautiful statue of Antinoos, lover of Hadrian who drowned in the river Nile and the engraving sculptures of Heracles’ labours.

Later we walked to the Castellan spring and the temple of Athena, famed for its geometrically beautiful structure using the perfect ratio (the three simple Doric columns standing were quite iconic in Greece). After taking many photos of myself standing upon over two thousand year old blocks of marble, we headed back to the bus back to Athens. Before leaving we, not fearing the possibility of diarrhoea, filled our bottles with the slightly suspect spring water (it was as delicious as water gets and no cases of diarrhoea occurred).

After foraging for food later that night, we ended up touring the Roman Agora near the Acropolis (there was very interesting octahedral Winding Tower), the Arch of Hadrian and the temple of Olympian Zeus. The temple of Olympian Zeus had very little left of its interior structure. With its few still standing massive columns, one can only imagine the massive temple which once stood there. Finally we ended the night at the 1896 stadium where the Olympics took place (another great Frisbee playing location).

 After waking up and taking a shower, I quickly headed downstairs and tanked up on breakfast. We then left the hotel to walk to the National Archaeological Museum. On the way we found ourselves followed by two male dogs in love with one another and slightly confused about their genders. We toured the museum walking around viewing the amazing sculptures. Given basically free rein to see as much as we could, I hurried around the museum latching myself on any sculpture that looked interesting. Unfortunately there were too many interesting sculptures so by the end I was rushing to see everything I could. The highlights of the sculptures would be the bronze statue of Zeus/Poseidon (#teamposeidon) with the god holding his arm in such a position preparing to throw his thunderbolt/trident, the model of the cult statue of Athena (had an amazing number of specific representative features of Athena such as Medusa’s head on her shield, the Trojan horses/owls on her helmet, the serpent near her shield, the snakes on her armour with medusa’s head and the statue of Nike), the Minotaur by my namesake, the bronze jockey and the sculpture of Pan assaulting Aphrodite with Eros floating above.

Later in the afternoon, we hurried to see the legendary Parthenon, the Erechtheum and the other structures on the Acropolis. I felt quite overwhelmed by the size of the remnants of the structures. To create something so massive in ancient times is a feat of amazing ancient engineering and skill. The Parthenon, despite its awful condition, remained a source of awe for me. After moving away from the Acropolis, we headed to see the temple of Hephaestus, which ironically have very blackened marble. It is a far better preserved temple than the Parthenon but is smaller in size.

The Acropolis Museum, although not as diverse in its collection of sculptures, contained the current highlight of the sculptures I have seen on the trip: the model of the western and eastern pediment sculptures. Although the sculptures themselves are impressive on their own, I was by no means impressed by the figures until I realised the sheer size of them. On the top floor of the museum held the remains of the pediment sculptures. Many were well above normal human height. The technicality and the size of the sculptures attest to the amazing antiquity of Athens. It is definitely one of the most amazing things I have seen ever.

Then we split up as a group with some heading back to the hotel and the rest roaming with Bucko.

Finally we went back to the hotel after foraging for cheap souvenirs and dinner (ended up buying an owl from a slightly dodgy store and also eating “Greek yoghurt”).

Today, we, after we got fully packed and checked out of the hotel, headed to Corinth and Mycenae. At Corinth Canal, we found out that an orange thrown down from the bridge would explode upon hitting the water. Ancient Corinth was another location we received the freedom to roam around the ruins. The ruins themselves were scattered in all directions and I enjoyed running around from ruin to ruin viewing what was there. The temple of Apollo had (funnily enough) simple Doric columns. However, this did not detract from these amazing monolithic structures. After seeing the Sacred Spring, the Rostra and the ancient toilet, I headed to the museum where I saw the rows of headless statues along with some well-preserved mosaics.

Later, we went to Tiryns and Mycenae and explored the hill fort/citadel of Mycenae. After a quick introduction of the history behind the ancient structure and its relation to Agamemnon and the Trojan War, we were free to roam. Limited by our time, we quickly ran up the hill and searched for the key points such as the well and the location of the entrances. A highlight of the hill would be the Lion’s gate, a massive structure over three thousand and five hundred years old, and also the amazing “treasury”/burial site. The burial site was a very amazingly engineered building, which has a roof arching inwards into a point and has a special form of acoustics. We found it entertaining talking to the wall and hear replies from people opposite us. After a cheerful shout of the school’s name “GRAMMAR”, we quickly ran back towards the bus ready to go to our ferry to Ancona.

 Having such an exciting time so far, I am looking forward to many things such as journeying through France, looking at the even more amazing structures of Rome and seeing the real remains of pediment of the Parthenon, which the Brits snatched. Also no Frisbees have been thrown so far. Hopefully some opportunities in Rome?