Day Three
(Transcribed from notebook)
Can't make this an extensive entry, as it's 10.30pm already and I have to be up at 6.15 (*shudders*) for a trip to Mycenae. Should be good, but that doesn't make 6.15am much more fun.
In any case. More site-seeing. Library of Hadrian, Roman agora, Greek agora, temple of Olympian Zeus... Don't get me wrong, I found it all fascinating, but I know it's kinda hard to enthuse about it here without boring you all to death. There was more than an element of 'a series of small walls...' about a lot of it - though with damned impressive columes, I'll admit. Cultural highlight of the day has to have been the visit to the Pnyx. For those out there who aren't geeky classicists, the Pnyx was where the the ordinary people of Athens used to meet in assembly. It wouldn't be an exageration to call it the birthplace of demoncracy. It was where Demosthenes and Pericles and the other great oractors used to address the massed populace. I knew all that, but what no book tells you is what the Pnyx was *like*. It's a large cleared area, more or less semicircular in shape, cut into the side of a hill. Looking out from the Pnyx, you can see the whole of ancient Athens spread out underneath you. The orators used to stand and speak with the agora and the Acropolus behind them. It's no wonder democracy was such an inspiring concept for a while - every time they met, they were reminded '*this* is your city, *this* is what you're working for.' It was amazing.
A note on dogs and cats. They're damn well *everywhere* in Athens. Not really house pets, just wandering the streets, minding their own business. Couldn't help but remember the bit in Plato about how animals wander free on the streets of Athens - 'because in a democracy, even the animals think they have a right to their own opinions!'
Food still great, weather still cool but reasonable (I prefer that to sun and heat anyway), blah blah blah - all good. Only missing home a little. I hate being foreign, I hate not speaking the language, I hate being a tourist, but I'm keeping busy and trying not to think about it. Missing all my friends.