A Piece of Greece: Touring around Museums, Landmarks and Tombs

Hello Hive! How’s everyone doing? It’s me again with an instalment about my trip to Athens, Greece. I used Canva in editing the first photo in this post

I just had to capture the early morning traffic outside our hotel

I went to Greece before the pandemic with 23 of my students who competed in the World Scholar’s Cup Global Rounds. In between competitions, we had booked group and personal tours.

On our second free day in Athens (a little after all the major competitions), we went to the National Archaeological Museum. It was near the hotel we were staying so we walked going there. Inside the museum is the famed bronze statue, allegedly of Zeus. It is uncertain of which god the statue is but most have identified it to be Zeus who is in the act of throwing something, perhaps a lightning bolt. There are other marble sculptures of gods and goddesses, and ancient artifacts. There’s also an ancient theatre costume on display. A portion of the exhibit is set for Odysseus, the hero in Homer’s “The Odyssey”.

Middle of the week, we went on a group tour. First we went to the Corinth Canal, which has a spectacular view of a narrow waterway. The pictures I’ve seen of it can never capture its beauty. Even the picture I took is no match for what I have seen in person. Peeking down the canal is quite scary, though. One wrong move, and it’s goodbye to my smartphone. It’s sad that I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures there. I must have been so awed by the scenery I forgot to take snaps of the place.

We saw a bit of the sea along the way. While it was terribly hot that day, our tour guide informed us that the place we’re going to gets covered in thick snow during winter and is a well-known place for snow activities like skiing and snowboarding among many others. We dropped by an ancient theatre where we had refreshments and some picture taking. It was really hot, I regret not bringing an umbrella with me.

My students on the theater steps

Our last destination was Mycenae where my students went for a hike to the tombs. I decided to stay behind because I had a student who couldn’t bear the hike up. We just went inside Agamemnon’s Tomb which is more accessible and didn’t require much inclined walking. It was an educational but exhausting tour. I wasn’t expecting it, but the weather was like Manila’s. There was even a reported heat wave that week. Whew.

I'll have a third instalment on this Greece trip sometime soon. 😊

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