Just take me to where the jewelry is...

Can I just take a second to let everyone know that I have been trying my hardest to catch up to Sara and her pale-person blog, and I FINALLY thought I had caught up to her. But no, she's gone and blown me out of the water again. I'm just going to attribute that to her having no life (justkiddingIloveyou!!).

ANYWHO, I say that because I just read up on her Mycenae post and laughed my little heart out, so please, either read mine or hers. Mine is just going to be a disappointment in comparison (and most likely bore you to death).

Entrance to the Treasury of Atreus

The first place Roula took us this day was the Treasury of Atreus, aka the Beehive Tomb! This is believed to be the tomb of Agamemnon.

Please, just check out this little image I snagged off the interwebs:

SO EFFING COOL, despite the fact that I felt like the entire thing was going to collapse on us while we were in there.

Beehive tombs can be found all over Mycenae, and are almost all cut into the hillside like this one.

Inside the beehive!

Me & Kristine, aren't we just precious?

Then, we went to go visit the Lions Gate................. which I didn't get a picture of............................... don't even ASK how that was possible. I think I was distracted by all of the bugs stinging/biting people, and Joe doing things like this:

Oh well, what can you do? (besides cry yourself to sleep at night, I mean)

After hiking to the top of the hill, we came back down and went inside the little museum they had there. Had an interesting conversation with Joe about two pieces of pottery (and by conversation, I mean Joe talked while I listened and nodded my head occasionally):

Cross-hatching

Polka-dotting

Here is the question that Joe posed: are these attempts to create a new variation of colors.. or something more? Say, especially in the case of the dots, an attempt to create depth? Look closely and maybe you'll see it.

After the museum Roula had a real treat in store for us: a workshop! Where they made pottery, lots of knick-knacks, and most importantly... jewelry! The whole trip I was told that Mycenae had the best jewelry, and I was just waiting to get my hands on some. Andrew and Tracie convinced me to buy this super-fab ring, which I loved to death.. until I lost it in a 7-story mega-club in Madrid. Seriously, I almost cried when I realized I'd lost it.

Once we were finally ready to leave, we realized that a kitten managed to get itself stuck up inside the bus. Poor Yiannis, he had to dirty his nice clothes:

Down & dirty

But, like they say, all is well that ends well. The tiniest kitten you've ever seen eventually came scampering out, after numerous search & rescue attempts were made.

Hooray!!

One last picture, for good measure (and because it's so cute!):

Katie and I..... inside mine and Kelsey's Princess Room. Not quite sure why Katie was in there... oh well!

Poor Iphigeneia

The next day we found the Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron unoccupied except for a weed-whacking Greek man (whom Roula offered to yell at) and a cute little kitten. It was the first time that we were able to get up close & personal with the ruins we were learning about, which I thought was pretty sweet.

We also performed another play here, about the mythology of the temple (or one version of it).

Joe lining up the cast

ACT I: When King Agamemnon was preparing his fleet to sail to Troy (to get that Helen person back), he sacrificed a deer to the goddess Artemis. Now, this was good enough for the deity, who caused some bad winds to blow their way, and eventually the king was forced to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigeneia, so they could have some favorable winds backing them up. Aggie had to fool his wife, Clytemnestra, into bringing Iffy to him to be sacrificed, so he told her that she would be married to Achilles. After he tells them this, he regrets it and tries to send a letter telling them not to come, but Menelaus (Aggie's brother), intercepts the letter and they end up coming anyway. When they find out, Clytemnestra isn't happy and Achilles (yes, I picture Brad Pitt every time I hear his name), being the great guy that he is, vows to stop the sacrifice. But eventually Iphigenia willingly allows herself to be sacrificed.


ACT III: (which takes place after the sacrifice.. and after Act II which I can't really remember but involved Orestes killing his mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus) Orestes is ordered by Apollo to go to Tauris, and his BFF Pylades tags along. While there, they get captured by the Tauri, who like to sacrifice their prisoners to Artemis. But lo and behold, the priestess of Artemis is dear old Iphigenia (which is his sister), but they don't recognize each other. Eventually they figure it all out, and the three of them escape together, and Iffy remains a priestess of Artemis Brauronia. THE END.

After Brauron we went to Marathon and its museum there. We also got a chance to see the burial ground just outside of the museum, that they had placed a roof over (which was kind of cool/weird). Nobody but Kristine did any actual running (she even brought running shorts! Whatanerd :)

Those Greeks are just so helpful!

From there we had to rush to get to the tomb before it shut down, but it was only about a five minute bus ride from the museum. It didn't look like much, but it was still pretty impressive. Yes, that great, giant mound of dirt is indeed the archaeological site of the Marathon Tomb. 

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece, during an Athens vs Persia death battle. Even though the Persians had the numerical advantage, the Athenians were the victors. This tomb, though, is the final resting place of 192 Greeks who lost their lives in this battle. 

The Marathon Run comes from the story of an Athenian runner named Pheidippides, who was sent from Athens to Sparta to ask for help, covering a distance of 140 miles in just two days. Goddamn lil' mama!