8.03.2011

Greece, Smile for the Camera!: Max's Basketball Escapade III


When we awoke the next morning we were back in Athens. Our tour bus was waiting to take us four hours north of Athens to the ruins of Delphi. Delphi is home to one of the largest collections of ancient Greek artifacts and sculptures. This is because Delphi used to be the religious capital of the ancient Greek empire. The archeological site sits nestled against a mountain looking out over a sprawling landscape of mountain peaks and steep valleys.
            
Again, as we did in Santorini, we hiked up and down and all around the ruins of Delphi. We saw ancient temples, treasuries, theaters, tracks, and most importantly, the navel, or belly button, of Zeus. It was said that thousands of monks and religious figures made the pilgrimage to worship and touch the navel of Zeus, the most powerful God of all.  And so flash forward thousands of years and here I am, touching the most important, religiously speaking, piece of stone in ancient Greece. It was a pretty spectacular experience.
            
After we had hiked around for what seemed like forever in the hot and humid climate, we went inside to the site’s museum. The museum at Delphi was the greatest museum I have ever visited. And I have been to all the museums in Washington, I’ve walked the Freedom Trail in Boston, I’ve been to the Atomic Bomb memorial in Hiroshima, Japan and this museum blew those guys out of the water. The collection of marble statues, carvings, ceramic pots, bronze shields and helmets, jewelry, and weapons was unreal.
            
My favorite piece from the museum at Delphi also happens to be one of the three most important bronze sculptures in the world: The Charioteer. The Charioteer is world famous because of the condition it is in. I know I have included one, if not two or three, photos of this sculpture in my slideshow because it was so stunning to me. This sculpture survived thousands of years of baking sun, rain, snow, and wind and yet it stands as if it was sculpted yesterday. Although one hand as well as the chariot and horse are missing, the body of the Charioteer remained completely intact. From its flowing robe, to its eyelashes. That’s right, the sculpture had visible eyelashes. How cool is that? Eyelashes that had been carved and sculpted thousands of years ago still visible and intact today? I will never see anything like it the rest of my life.
            
The archeological site and museum at Delphi were spectacular. But we couldn’t stay there forever. The next day we had to travel almost seven hours on the bus. We were headed to the town of Kalamata. To get there we had to go back through Athens and head another couple of hours south through the mountains and olive fields. On our way, we stopped at Epidaurus, the most famous, yet unknown, amphitheater in the world.
            
The acoustics are so exact at Epidaurus that no matter which seat you choose out of the nearly 15,000 available, you will be able to hear the actors voices perfectly. Our tour guide actually demonstrated the acoustics for us on our visit. We all climbed to the highest seats possible all the way in the back row and listened as we heard her tear a piece of paper, drop coins, and whisper. It was absolutely incredible knowing that our modern movie theaters don’t even compare to the theater at Epidaurus.
           
Here is a fun activity for you to do now. It also gives you a chance to stretch your legs and your eyes. Get up and go find your bottle of olive oil. Chances are it says the olives are a product of Kalamata, Greece. If your bottle doesn’t say that, I’m sorry. You’re not tasting the world’s finest olives.
            
After a long day of traveling, we were ready to sleep. Our 7 AM wake up call was only a few hours away and we wanted to be awake and ready for our visit to Olympia, home of the original Olympic games and the oldest Olympic track in the world.
            
The Olympic track at Olympia is a giant stretch of dirt in the middle of an ancient city. It wouldn’t be different from any other track except for the fact that our modern Olympics blossomed and bloomed from its foundations. Track and Field, actually sports as we know them today can be traced back to the track at Olympia. As a college athlete, it was quite a spectacular and humbling experience. “Just think,” I thought to myself, “all those wind sprints you run at practice laid their roots here. Awesome!”
            
After pondering the very essence of sports at Olympia, it was time to bus ourselves back to Kalamata. We had a game to play. Our first of three. I won’t spend a whole lot of time talking about the games we played in Greece because it’s not very appealing to those of you who aren’t basketball players, but I’ll give you the highlights. Game one: Location: Kalamata, Greece. Opponent: Kalamata All Stars. Outcome: We beat ‘em. Last thoughts: It was so cool to play overseas!
            
The next day we woke up and were bussed back to Athens. Overall it was an uneventful bus ride. One stop for lunch and that was it. Not a whole lot to talk about. I listened to my entire 80 song playlist and that’s about it.
            
However, the entire day wasn’t completely boring. We played our second of three games in Greece. This time the opponent was a Greek professional team. That’s right, we played a bunch of paid professionals. Even though we lost, it was only by 15. And we played against professional athletes! It was pretty awesome to know that we could hang with a professional team.

After playing the professional team we were all pretty exhausted. We bussed back to the hotel and got some well-deserved shut-eye. I slept extremely well despite the fact that the next day would be our last in Greece. But we were going to tour the city of Athens on our last day so needless to say I was eager to get going the next morning.


Catch the final part of Max's adventure tomorrow!

0 comments: