Our Trip Through Greece
By Ella Stainwright
Travelling Through Greece
Greece
is the eighth country we have visited so far and my favourite country. It was the most interesting country filled
with all sorts of different information about Greek myths. We went to museums, ruins, Greek restaurants,
islands and beaches.
Athens
Our
first stop was Athens, the capital city of Greece. We stayed there for seven nights and we did
so many things, I can’t name them all.
We went on city tours, through ruins and we toured museums. Our time spent in Athens was full of
interesting times and schoolwork became even more interesting than usual.
I love
the Greek myths. I love the legends of
battles and power and that was what we started studying in Athens. I already knew a lot about the Greek myths,
from one of my favourite book series – Percy Jackson. Even though I knew quite a bit about the myths,
studying the real stories, history and ruins was very interesting.
The
Parthenon is on the top of the sacred rock, the Acropolis. It is up there with the other ruins, the
Erectheum, the Temple of Nike, the Odeon Theatre and the Theatre of Dionysus,
god of wine and theatre. The first ruin
we got to was the Temple of Nike, which means victory and battle in Ancient
Greek. That is where the shoe brand ‘Nike’
came from. Their symbol is the same as
Hermes’, the messenger of the gods – a wing that Hermes wears on his helmet and
shoes. After the Temple of Nike, which
stood at the entrance to the Parthenon, we saw the Parthenon. It would have seemed much more powerful if
there had been less cranes blocking its beauty from view. It had tall columns, though many drums had
been replaced. It was huge and was the
second most sacred temple in its days of glory.
It was amazing.
We also
saw the Odeon Theatre. That was the
first building we actually saw and there are still shows and concerts held
there. The Theatre of Dionysus was a
total ruin. The theatre could have once
held 17,000 people, but now bricks are strewn everywhere and it could not have
fit more than 200 people – probably less. However, the theatre was beautiful and
probably once had beautiful smooth, white marble benches and the ruin still has
signs of old stone thrones. They were once beautiful and now dusty grey.
Down in
the city of Athens we also went to the two agoras, the Ancient Agora and the Roman
Agora. An agora is a meeting and market
place – a sort of town square where people used to meet to vote, discuss
problems and trade for food and money. The
Roman Agora had the night time clock that used water. The Ancient Agora was much the same, though
without the water clock and with different columns.
Our time
in Athens held many adventures and learnings and was an interesting and
enjoyable experience. I have left with
many excellent memories.
Santorini
Santorini
is a volcanic island that we were lucky enough to visit for six days!
Santorini
borders a caldera. Santorini is a
volcano and it used to erupt. When the
ground became unstable the crater collapsed and it took part of Santorini with
it. I find it hard to imagine what it
would have been like watching the volcano erupt. I imagine slow running lava or a huge
eruption almost half a kilometre in the air, and many moments too late people turn
and run, but the lava chases them. It
must have been terrible.
There
were ruins on Santorini too. A ruin
called Akrotiri and another called Ancient Fira. We only went to see Akrotiri and the closest
we got to Ancient Fira was the beach town Kamari. Akrotiri had the ruins of an old rich town and
the archaeologists have found paintings and beautifully painted old pots. We followed a guide around and learnt about how
the people would have gone to the toilet the same time, in the same room over a
wooden board. It was very interesting.
Mykonos
On some
of the days, all we did was look around and play in the pool, well Kaelie
played in the pool. The pool was
freezing! On the day I did go in the
pool, I had so much fun. Kaelie and I
played races and dodgem cars and tackling, though she always insisted on
winning. The beach was a very enjoyable
experience with sandy water to play in.
It had a lot of deck chairs and not enough room for people to relax on
towels so we had to squish in. On the
first day on the beach I just sat around with Mummy and we talked, but on the
second day I had a lot of fun. I
imagined I was Cinderella and that I had to clean with the water and sand. It was so much fun.
On another day, we went to town where we got to see some beautiful windmills and streets. There were five old windmills, that are only there for show and don’t do any more work. They had huge powerful arms that would have produced a lot of power. The streets had beautiful Bougainvillea trees with pinks leaves that clustered together to make flowers that waved in the wind. Right near the water’s edge there was Little Venice with beautiful blue and white houses. The streets were narrow and windy like a maze and they had many markets throughout them. They had streets made from cobbles and other streets made from cement. The streets of Mykonos town were beautiful.
On
another day in Mykonos we visited Delos Island and it was very interesting.
Delos Island
Delos is
a famous island filled with ruins. It
was very important to the Ancient Greeks as it is said to be the mythical birth
place of Artemis and Apollo, two very important Greek gods. The Greek gods are mythical beings that have
the power to create natural disasters when they get furious and to create a
peaceful atmosphere when they are pleased.
The Greek gods are said to be unpredictable with constant changes in
their attitude. It is no exception for
these twin gods.
The myth
goes like this:
In
another version of the myth Hera sends a snake to chase Leto so she could not
get any rest, but the snake could not enter Delos.
While we
were in Greece I had an interesting and enjoyable time. It was a very educational opportunity and I
had a wonderful time. I hope you liked
my blog and learnt a thing or two.