Today was an absolute whirlwind. I spent five hours seeing three museums and a photography gallery. I began the day by sleeping in: until 9:30. I love vacation. Then started the museum circuit. I returned to the National Archaeological Museum, found out some more information and then went next door to the Epigraphical Museum.
Just a few of the many shelves full of inscriptions.
This funeral stone sits in a courtyard used for storing the larger stone objects — and empty HP printer boxes.
I’ve never seen such an amazing museum with so little resources. It has thousands of ancient stone inscriptions and minimal staff. Part of this is from today being Saturday, but even in the rest of the week the staff there is minimal. There were three members watching it today, turning on the lights for me for each room that I entered. There isn’t a price to visit; it’s so unknown that they wouldn’t be able to subsidize any of it with admissions profit anyway. The museum rooms contain one inscription that is over 2800 years old. It would have been an ancient item even for Socrates. The museum is literally full of etchings that have numbers but don’t have displays describing them. The side rooms are full of shelves of tables with all of the items. In the middle of the rooms are empty tables with signs on them asking researchers to please inform the museum when they’re finished examining a piece.
The inscription from the Acropolis dating to the 8th century BCE.
On the way back from the museum, I found a photography store. Unlike the tourist-oriented stores in Florence, this store was definitely for professional photographers. It had more equipment than I’d seen in any of the Ft. Worth stores and it only had half of the space! I went in knowing that I’d replaced the only camera thing I’d destroyed since coming to Europe; my replacement lens is already at home and waiting for when my parents and brother come over around Thanksgiving. I did lose something before the summer which they had in stock: the eyepiece for my camera. The rubberized cover for the backside of the camera’s glass that shoots off of the mirror through the lens isn’t an essential part (I’ve still been able to use the camera), but was annoying not to have. It’s all better now.
After a quick souvlaki for lunch, I visited the Athens Cathedral. I’d never been in a Greek Orthodox church before. It was darker than I was expecting. I’m guessing it was because they’re restoring the inside and the scaffolding was covering the windows. Either way, the inside was pretty and the darkness made the icons and the wooden interior designs stand out even more.
Next in the whirlwind tour was the Benaki Museum. With four floors of Greek history dating from the Ancients to the modern Greeks who received Nobel prizes in the late 20th Century, this museum was thorough. Unlike the National Archaeological Museum, this one arranged everything chronologically. It didn’t put sculptures in one wing, pottery in another and medallions in another (with inscriptions being in a completely separate museum). While the museum was interesting, I was particularly fascinated with the baby Christs in the post-Byzantine mosaics. They had receding hairlines! With two of them, the perspective was so off that the hair started at the crown of the head. I know that many of the movements in art tried to make Jesus seem more realistic and relatable to humans, but to have Christ also relate to so many men (and women) by sharing their predicaments — it’s remarkable (especially since it wasn’t intentional).
After the Benaki I returned to my hotel and saw a photography gallery next door. Next door?!? Yes; apparently I didn’t notice it until the day before I left Athens. There were about 40 photographs, but they were pretty good. It’s a private showing of a photography professor from Yale. The gallery correctly promoted his style as one similar to David Lynch, a film director who presents non-existant stereotypical places full of nostalgia that is filled with hidden clashing conflict. The photos were good, but the gallery staff was a little clueless. I asked if the shots were done with a digital camera or a film one. They said it wasn’t a video. I changed it and asked if he’d used a computer to do some of them. They had no idea. Oh well — it wasn’t that important.
The whirlwind ended where it began: relaxing in my room.
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