Acropolis and Acropolis Museum 

Warning us that this would be the highlight of the trip was not enough of a warning. The Acropolis was everything I could have imagined and then some. It’s one thing to know that this is one of the most admired buildings in the world, but standing in front of it, and even getting to step inside of it for a bit was overwhelming. I felt very priviledged to be allowed to do that. The review of the Orders and parts of a temple were very helpful in putting the Parthenon back together as a picture in my head. As Thanos said, I believe we were a bit spoiled to see the Parthenon first before any of the other temples because it really is a work of art. To know that every surface that could hold sculpture wassculptured, and then seeing the smaller temples later showed just how important the Parthenon was to the Athenian civilization because they were willing to spend that amount of time and money. I also gained a lot from walking around the Erechtheion. Learning about it in class, I loved the way it worked formally, but I didn’t understand it as a building that had many iterations and program requirements. Seeing the hole in the coffers that was reflected in the porch floor kind of put it into perspective for me that all the mythology I learned about in class became real for these people. This was a monument not to architectecture, but to these mythological gods and goddesses, which added another layer of understanding to these ancient structures. The restoration and renovation work we saw was fascinating, thinking about the consequences behind restoration of the Acropolis and what it means for the history of the site. The amount of care these people took in the renovation, however was breathtaking. I feel as though the Parthenon is a very sacred object and I think it is in fantastic hands. Finally, the Tschumi museum was a great way to end the day. Not only were we looking at some of the most sacred ancient sculptures and pieces of architectural history, but I was astounded just standing and taking in the spatial qualities of the museum. Having studied Tschumi’s writings, I know he’s a great theoretician, so I was excited to be in a space he devised based on the phenomenological framework he set up in his publications. I’ll admit it took me a bit of walking around to realize that the 3rd floor of the museum was a reenactment of the Parthenon, but once I realized, I was fascinated by the difference created in the use of the metallic columns and coloring of this modern space in combination with the fragments of the metopes and frieze. The only thing I seemed dubious about was the reconstructions of certain pieces, such as the cornice piece. A lot of it seems somewhat made up and I’m not sure where they extrapolated this information from. Either way, it’s interesting to see this reconstruction.

this is how many people there were. there were just as many inside as well.

this is kind of the postcard picture of the Erechtheion. This is the most BEAUTUUUFDSUITUDSLAL temple!!

Xueping’s face when we found out we were privileged enough to go INSIDE the Parthenon!

crying because our feet are ON THE PARTHENON FLOOR

fdjsalkf;s

we got to talk with the restorators as well, this dude was showing us how sculpting went. he spent 7 months making a block as straight as possible. cAN YOU IMAGINE.

the excavations under the acropolis museum. the columns had to be placed so that they were both structural and didn’t disturb the excavation site!

scale reconstruction of the frieze inside the museum

Mycenae, Nafplion, and Tiryns 

I remember this section of Architecture History 1 very clearly. As I was fresh out of CFY and new to what ‘architecture’ really was, I looked at this class as a way to bring myself up to date with that. I saw this on the slide projecter and thought “wait….this is architecture?” This kind of hesitation eventually went away, but it popped up again seeing, not what was left of Mycenae and Tiryns, but what wasn’t there anymore. The ability to imagine walls where lines of rock are and columns where circular rock mounts sit is not the easist thing in the world. It’s also one thing to listen to an instructor tell you the formation of a megaron in class with diagrams and pictures, but to have someone explain it to you while you’re actually looking at it is an overwhelming experience. It has nothing to do with not trusting your professor to tell you the right thing, but seeing the proof of civilization in front of you, it creates another layer of understanding that, yes this exists. I saw it with my own eyes and I gained information from that such as how fast the wind blows up here, what it looked like situated out there in the middle of the mountains, and what the color of the stone was. This isn’t anything I could gain from a slide. These sensory elements are going to be very incredible to experience as the trip progresses. Although they may be the death of me as well. It’s slowly getting easier, but the barrage of bugs and the sun beating down on me have taken their toll.

Greek culture in general has been a completely new experience. The immersion of language is fun and a totally new thing. The Greek language feels very familiar, almost like I can understand the rapid-fire tongues around me and I have responses sitting on the tip of my tongue. Of course this isn’t the case, but I’ve learned a bit of Greek even though almost none is necessary to get me by, especially in Plaka and the touristy part of town. Although, I have found that the waiters will start serving you with a smile on when you give a simple “kalimera” as you walk up, and an “efcharisto” and a smile back as you leave. Although Myrsini warned us not to stick to gyros every night, I’ve had one for 4 meals so far and I’m not sick of them yet! We have tasted the gelato a bit, but we’re keeping in mind that whatever we think is good-quality gelato here, it’s going to be far surpassed by our experience in Italy. However, Italy will have next to nothing on the tzatziki sauce and yogurt/nut/honey snacks that I can’t seem to get enough of here in Greece.

MYCENAE: the Lion’s Gate

MYCENAE: entrance to the tholos, a beehive construction.

NAFPLION: just a look at how beautiful Nafplion was. there is a harbor behind where this was taken.

TIRYNS: people standing where columns would go as part of the megaron. you can see the inscribed circle to the left center where the hearth would be. and part of the rectangular throne inscribed to the bottom right.

TIRYNS: and this is how beautiful the landscape of Tiryns is.

I’ll probably be updating this this weekend to tell about my week. Which has been pretty crazy. Right now I’m sitting in a cafe waiting for the day to start and there’s a man working his worry beads staring out the window. I kind of really love it here.

whatdoyoumeeeeean-howamidoing:

poorhornycat:

mamafriesmeal:

gamblechocolate:

lady-tyrell:

sonicscrewme:

andergay:

cornnuts:

coolestgirl-:

louisecriss:

tintination:

-andrews:

-redux:

#the sans is comic

#the copperplate is gothic

#how many more puns will the futura bring

#by georgia is this pun hell-vetica or is comedy on tumblr just not as pro as myriad anymore?

#the calibri of these puns is deteriorating

#i don’t know about you but i really would have appreciated an arial view of this picture

#you all need to get a new courier because these jokes are terrible

i’m going to throw up from laughing

#these puns are so last century gothic

 #these puns aren’t really making an impact on me

#you are all a bunch of wingdings

Everyone, typography humor.

#we’re all going to helvetica

I made it?!?!!!!?

fdsjafsj finally done packing.