Leaving Skopelos wasn't easy.
In the dim light of 6:30am, Jill drove us down to the village to await the ferry. I had time to run to the pastry shop for some pistachio pastries (shame on me if I didn't scheme to get to the shop one more time). What was hard was saying good-bye to Jill. And then looking at the town for the last time.
Off to Athens. . .
I thought I might have been too tired at this point in the trip to really enjoy the wonders of Athens. That my trip was done in my mind, my residency complete and my desire to be home in the U.S. too strong to really want to explore the ruins and figure out the web of streets unfamiliar to me. . .
I was very, very, very, very wrong.
First, can you believe these next two photos are of the Athens subway? It is museum-like, not to mention easy to get around even if you don't know Greek.
Second: hours after I arrived in Athens I attended the First Annual Athens Biennial. I wish I could have taken photos for you, but none were allowed. I will say the following: it was called Destroy Athens and it dealt with ideas of Greek identity and culture (which, if you haven't been to Greece, are so palpable that you can taste it and that you start asking yourself -- or at least, I do -- about my own cultural identity) and stereotypes. It was not a barometer of art at the moment, but told a story of dead-ends (see website below). So, it featured art by prisoners, videos that bordered on or would qualify as pornography, videos on the demolition of skyscrapers shown in 100 degrees Farenheit, piles of garbage as art, and the best video I've ever seen stemming from printmaking (aside from the work of William Kentridge). If you are interested in learning more about the Biennial, you can visit www.athensbiennial.org.
Third: The Acropolis. A-C-R-O-P-O-L-I-S. I am immensely grateful that I was walking around in a city where looking up, around a corner, and across a street meant that I would see ancient ruins. Amazing. Chills. A full heart. All of that. Just a fantastic experience. There was a windstorm at the Acropolis, but I tell you, I had fun eating that dirt. It was well worth it. Please go and experience the grandeur if you have the chance.
After visiting the Acropolis I headed toward the Olympieion where the Temple of Zeus stands. I happened upon it, knowing where I was in a general sense (if the sun's still up, I never consider myself lost). Seeing it and Hadrian's Arch when I wasn' t looking was like stumbling upon a field of dinosaurs: it just doesn't happen. But it did, and visiting it was amazing. Here are the photos of traffic by that area (I'm in the median) and then the architectural ruins.
There were more places I visited that day: the amazing Lalaounis Jewelry Museum (see http://www.lalaounis-jewelrymuseum.gr/); the Plaka, an ancient part of the city with more ruins and lots of shopping; backstreets leading to the Tower of Winds (see below); and then an evening in the hotel bar (see www.artgalleryhotel.gr), populated with only three of us, the owner, bartender Angelo, and me. And then a few others, including two sisters from the Western U.S. and a female named Ama who is an Italian archaeologist excavating a city in Turkey, in Athens for a conference. We had great conversations about politics, the recent fires, famous folks who have stayed at the hotel, intuition, and my plans for coming back to Greece . . .
And then, after eleven hours from Athens to Philly, then six in the airport in a daze, then three more from Philly to Minneapolis in the dark, I saw family again, and I was home:
Thank you all for reading! I'm so glad you came along for the trip.
