Thursday, May 24, 2007

Sunday, May 6th

Katie here, your friendly Shore Excursion Escort. Since we last spoke I have graduated from zipping around on a bus with disabled folk to actually doing walking tours. Of ruins. In Greece.

The first place I went to was the ruins of the Palace of Knossos. "Palace," in 2,000 BC meant, "A big place where people hang out." Sort of like a mall.

The Palace of Knossos is also considered the home of the mythical Minotaur, a half-human, half-bull creature that lived in the Labyrinth.

Anyway, Katerina was our tour guide. She had never given a tour in English - only Italian. She also was a low-talker. Hence, all the guests hated her instantly and I spent most of the tour trying to get them to relax. Instead of relaxing, most of the guests just replied, "You should give the tour - you're loud enough."


These holes in the ground are speculated to be "sacrificial wells," which is a nice way of saying, "We found a bunch of dead, rotting bones in them. The bones of young girls"

A rich white guy named Sir Evans is the one who uncovered the palace complex, and he seemed to think that the area I'm standing in was a theater space. So, I got to stand in a real Greek Theater. The guest who is taking my picture made me recite a few lines from the show so I could say that I had actually performed in such an ancient place.



I wonder if, in 2,000 years, people will be perusing the ruins of The Mall of America, marveling over the remnants of the giant Snoopy balloon. And an aspiring actress like myself will stand on the ruins of a mall stage that once hosted not-so-prolific acts such as "A Salute to Flag Day," or one of the American Idol contestants from Season Four who got voted out in the first round. And standing there will mean much, much more to her than it actually did to anyone way back then.

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