26/4 - Athens
We woke up very early because someone had a 3:30 flight and we had to send her to the airport. There were many flights departing at 7am for Athens - including one via Larnaca (in Cyprus). Uhh. Maybe it was the scenic route.
The sign at Heraklion airport said all dangerous items found in hand baggage would be taken from passengers and returned to them at their final destinations. How helpful; usually they just throw them away.
The meat market in Athens has plasma TVs. Wth. I also saw one stall with arabic letters; at first I thought it was Halal, then I saw pigs' trotters.
When I was sitting and eating a sesame pretzel with my brother in law this Greek guy came up to us and spoke random phrases in Chinese. Some of the words even had a roughly correct tone, instead of the horribly off monotone which most amateur Western speakers of Chinese have. My brother in law thinks he met the guy last year also.
Kapnikarea church, 11th century. The vaulting is blackened with age.
I hope SARS never comes to Greece, or all the Greeks who kiss the surface of their idols will die.
Icon
It was forbidden to wear shorts when entering the church. Maybe if I go one of these joints in summer I should try wearing a sarong - after all, the monasteries which dictate that female visitors must wear skirts violate the spirit of the rule by giving those in pants or shorts long skirts to wear.
Exterior
All the mannikins in a United Colors of Benetton store window were nude. Uhh.
Penalty for Shoplifting - this beats going to the police. And how are they so sure they can catch shoplifters in the first place?
After lunch with my brother in law, I bid a sad farewell to Blue Bear as my brother in law brought him back to Singapore. I then went to the Byzantine and Christian museum, which I was pleasantly surprised to find was under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture (free admission!) They had 2 temporary exhibitions, one of which was interesting as it was about anthivolons, which were designs for icons and paintings and which I'd never seen before (not even in pictures).
Healing of the paralytic, pricked anthivolon, late 18th-early 19th century
Christ as vine - 2nd half of 18th century
St George, who looks like he's on drugs, 19th century
In the museum proper, the introduction claimed that 'Byzantine Empire' was the name given to the Roman Empire from the 4th century on. Hah!
Copy of the famous Justinian mosaic from 547AD at Ravenna
Marble slab with relief representation of the Nativity. Naxos, late 4th-early 5th century
The museum had a section with a roughly chronological layout showing how Christian art started out borrowing from pagan motifs and traced its development till the fall of Constantinople. It was horrible to find out (and see) that Christians chiseled the sign of the cross on classical statues to 'exorcise' them; their being buried in soil actually helped to preserve them from desecration.
Coptic limestone funerary statuette
Caption for a slave's funerary inscription from 5th-6th century AD Athens: "The many spelling mistakes are characteristic of the period".
The museum's collection was't that spectacular, but the exhibition was well laid out and presented, with much information and importantly, many large photographs of other seminal items in the history of Greek Christian art. For example there were photos of items in the Paris Bibliotheque Nationale (I must visit it one day).
Coins of Basil II the BUlgar Slayer. My favourite story involving from (quoted from Wikipedia): "On 29 July 1014, Basil II cornered the Bulgarian army and forced it to fight at the Battle of Kleidion, with Samuil several miles away from the battlefield. Having crushed the Bulgarians, Basil was said to have captured 15,000 prisoners and blinded 99 of every 100 men, leaving 150 one-eyed men to lead them back to their Tsar, who fainted at the sight and died two days later suffering a stroke... this gave Basil his nickname Bulgaroktonus, "the Bulgar-slayer.""
Icon with Archangel Michael. Constantinople workshop, 14th century
A photo of a mosaic was labelled as being from "The church of Saint Sophia, Constantinople". Hah!
Wall painting with Elijah. 2nd layer of the Church of Episkopi in Evrytania, 11th century
Academy of Arts
Kiosk - this place sells religious icons as well as hardcore pornography. Gotta love these Europeans.
I then went back to the National Archaeological Museum to finish off the last 6 rooms.
Funerary statue of a Siren, 330-320 BC
Funerary stele of a girl, 320 BC
Funerary Naiskos, 350-325 BC. Young Athenian warrior.
Aristotle - Roman copy of 325-300 BC original
Bronze statue of a youth, antikythera shipwreck, 340-330 BC
Statue of Themis, 300 BC
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros, 100 BC
Bronze portrait head, early 1st century BC
Augustus, 12-10 BC
Antinous, lover of Hadrian, AD 130-8
Attic sarcophagus, AD 150-70
Olympic Airlines' logo has 6 rings. Maybe the sixth ring represents them.
No video is allowed in museums run by the Ministry of Culture. Hmm.
This guy I met at the youth hostel was cutting pieces off a sausage with his Swiss army knife. I asked why he didn't just go and buy a Gyro, and he said he was sick of them. The next morning he was eating some cheese.
