Just to be clear, "Acropolis" refers to any high city, or the edge of a town (from the Greek "acron," which means edge, and "polis," which means city). The Acropolis in Athens is a complex that includes, among other things, the Parthenon, which is a temple devoted to Athena Parthos, or Athena the Virgin, the Temple of Athena Nike, or Athena of Victory, The Theater of Dionysus, and a lot of sand and rubble and fat tourists.
There is a very good possibility that I am suffering from Important Stuff Immunity. We have seen so much in so little time, that I could be done with freaking out over ancient runes. Perhaps nothing short of Athena herself welcoming me into her famous monument would have satisfied me as we walked up the slippery rocks of the Acropolis.
But I don’t think that is it. I think one of the reasons the Acropolis as a whole is so disappointing is that the site itself is more picked over than T.J. Maxx on a Friday.
A dude named Lord Elgin took pretty much all the beautiful sculptures form the Parthenon back to England with him. Back in the 1800s you didn’t bring back postcards and t-shirts of ancient treasures – you brought back the treasures themselves. It seemed like everywhere we looked, there is a picture of what was there and an explanation of where it is now.
This is the East pediment of the Parthenon.
I saw more of the East Pediment when I was at the British Museum.
I think what I will remember most from the Acropolis is this girl in the green and white striped shirt.
When we were making our way up the stairs to the Parthenon, this chunker climbed over some rocks and smacked Jennine in the face with her sandal. She looked Jennine in the eye and didn't say a word of apology. She made me so. Angry. I'm angry just thinking about her, dressed like a pack of Fruit Stripe gum.
Sometimes the most innocuous thing becomes your clearest memory.
Cody agreed. He told us, “I remember going on this awesome field trip in grade school to the Mayan runes. But the only thing I still remember about the trip is that Robby Herrera got detention for throwing a juice box at a rival school’s bus.”
He paused. "Actually it might have been Incan runes. But, I know for a fact the juice box was a Capri-Sun."
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And if you want to see VIDEO of this trip, including Katie, Steve, the aforementioned Cody Dove, Jennine (Profeta) and myself, check out the entry "Second City Athens" at Dave On A Cruise!
I too wanted to smack that woman in the face...turns out she was French.
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