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Today was our first full day trip outside of Athens.  We met at the bus stop at 7:30am, way too early for most of us.  We had a lecture on the bus on the way to our first stop, the Amphiareion.  The Amphiareion was a sanctuary, with a temple dedicated to Amphiraeus, where people would come to be healed (for quite a high fee, of course).  People who were sick would come, pay the fee in front of the priest, and sacrifice a goat.  Then they would sleep in the goat’s skin in the temple.  The cure for their ailments was supposed to come to them in a dream, in the form of the god standing at the diseased’s head and telling him what to do.  Healthy people came to the sanctuary as well; it was also like a spa, where they would relax and be entertained. 

The next stop was Eretria, but to get there we had to take a ferry across a strait.  The views were beautiful, and I got a little preview of what the six-hour ferry ride on Friday will be like.  Not too bad for 20 minutes, but I’m not sure about 6 hours.  At Eretria, there is a museum with the contents from many graves (pots, jewelry, etc) on display.  There are many steles, or grave monuments, there as well.  The site of the town was across the street from the museum and had the foundations of many houses and graveyards.  Most of it just looks like rocks on the ground, with some walls visible, and you can make out the squares that were the houses or rooms of houses.  It’s very hard to imagine what it looked like in ancient times because nothing is left standing now. 

Our third stop was Lefkandi, where two graves were found, a man and his wife, along with two horses, indicating he was a warrior and probably important.  The wife is buried with lots of jewelry and a dagger by her head, so it is not clear if she was buried when she died naturally or if she was sacrificed once her husband died.  A house was built around their graves, but it is no longer standing.  We had to look at this site from the road because the keys to the gate to get in didn’t work, but this site was smaller, so we could see everything from outside the fence.

The final stop was the museum in Halkis.  Here we saw more household objects and jewelry, as well as many statues.  The museum was pretty small, but the items are impressive. 

I’m getting a better feel for what my routine will be like while I’m here.  We have expeditions in the morning, which usually end around noon, then some free time for lunch and errands, then class, first Greek language then history/civilization, at 3:30-6.  I hope to spend time after class blogging and checking email.  Sounds like a good schedule to me. J Of course, there are days when we have full day excursions, like tomorrow, and multiple day trips, like next week.  

Today we went on a walk around ancient Athens.  The weather was sunny and warm, as it has been the past few days, which I’m very happy about.  Today we visited the temple of Olympian Zeus, the biggest temple built in Greece.  What was left of it was quite impressive.  We also saw the Areiopagos, the place where the court used to meet to decide certain murder cases.  The Agora, or meeting place, Roman Agora and Library of Hadrian were also sights we saw today. 

Exciting news!  We had been having trouble getting hot water, but now it's fixed, so we can take hot showers! 

Even more exciting news! We don’t have class Friday through Monday because of Greek Easter, and today a few of us booked a trip to Santorini!!  We are taking the ferry there Friday morning.  We will take the normal ferry, which takes 6 hours.  We are staying two nights at what looked like a very nice hotel (with breakfast included) and coming back Sunday night on the fast ferry, which will take four hours.  The pictures I’ve seen of Santorini are amazing: super blue waters and white buildings with blue roofs.  I can’t wait!