While out and about over the past through days, one of the most prominent features of the landscape has been this:
This morning, we climbed that hill, which is around 900 feet tall. That being said, though, it wasn't a terrible climb. It was steep, but paved, and switch-backed such that I could walk fairly normally the whole way up. And once I made it to the top, I entirely forgot my weariness, between walking up a small mountain and waking up at 7:30 in the morning, because of this view:
This morning, we climbed that hill, which is around 900 feet tall. That being said, though, it wasn't a terrible climb. It was steep, but paved, and switch-backed such that I could walk fairly normally the whole way up. And once I made it to the top, I entirely forgot my weariness, between walking up a small mountain and waking up at 7:30 in the morning, because of this view:
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| Facing North |
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| Facing South |
It was hazy, so the view wasn't as good as it could have been, but that being said, it was still amazing how much of the Attika plane was visible. We could see the three tallest mountains in the area: Mount Parnitha, Mount Penteli, and Mount Egaleo. Mouth Penteli was particularly interesting to me, as that is the mountain from which much of the marble used in Athens came from. I would love to go there to hike, and see the marble outcrops myself. In the past, the tallest two of these mountains had giant statues of the gods at the summit, of Athena and Zeus, if I remember correctly. We could also see nearly all of the Attika plane, including Athens and the surrounding towns and municipalities. Nearly all the temples were visible: the temple of Olympian Zeus, the Parthenon, the Temple of Hephaestus, the Monument of the Muses, and Panathinaiko Stadium. It was very cool to be able to see these all in relation to one another, and it certainly makes the myths about Athens make much more sense. Having this sort of context makes much more sense than just looking at a map and trying to understand the relations of these places from that. The photographs, mental and digital, that I took while standing on top of Lakavitos will be a major resource I will use during the duration of the course, as we explore historical sites from prehistory through today.
Courses also began today, with an introduction to the Greek alphabet in Modern Greek 1, and a historical overview in my Civilization class. For me, who hasn't really had a formal course on Greece history itself, and hasn't had world history at all in 5 years, this overview was really interesting, and gave me a good framework, which will be filled out much more thoroughly over the next few weeks. The information in the textbooks, too, while a bit dense, gave me a good understanding of what has happened on this peninsula in the Mediterranean in its 400,000 year human history. I look forward to fleshing out the visual and informational overviews I got today over the rest of my time here.
καλή νύχτα!
Courses also began today, with an introduction to the Greek alphabet in Modern Greek 1, and a historical overview in my Civilization class. For me, who hasn't really had a formal course on Greece history itself, and hasn't had world history at all in 5 years, this overview was really interesting, and gave me a good framework, which will be filled out much more thoroughly over the next few weeks. The information in the textbooks, too, while a bit dense, gave me a good understanding of what has happened on this peninsula in the Mediterranean in its 400,000 year human history. I look forward to fleshing out the visual and informational overviews I got today over the rest of my time here.
καλή νύχτα!
