Photos Day 8
I was going to do this vaguely chronologically, and do pictures from Rome and Venice next, but it turns out that no-one has put the Italian photos on any internet photo-sharing websites (they're on a backup website but I have no idea which/what the password would be), such as facebook or photobucket, so I'm going to have to skip forward in time to the Athens photos, from February this year, as the computer on which all the photos are stored is off.
I'm hoping these will be more interesting than the China photos, because I can actually remember what we did on the trips, and I know a bit about Ancient Greece anyway, unlike with China, where everything was completely unknown to me. And still is, really.
I don't usually go abroad this much, prior to 2010, I had only been abroad once in the previous 5 years (except for visits to see my Grandmother in the Lands of Nether), I just wanted to say that so I don't become like the guy in my maths class who boasts continualy about the four holidays he takes every year. Or if I have already become that person, I hope that this will go some way to diminishing that idea.
We did all of the ancient Acropolis stuff on one day, which makes sense as it is all on one hill (the acropolis), and the theatre of Dionysus was the first actual "site" on the Acropolis that we visited.
The word "Acropolis" only refers to a City on a Hill, and none of the individual momuments/locations, on the site itself. The Acropolis of Athens, although referred to as "The Acropolis" frequently, is not the only Acropolis in Greece, but is probably the most famous.
The Theatre of Dionysus is the worlds first open-air stone theatre, and was initially huge, stretching up pretty much all the way through the grass that is visible in this photo. We also saw the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which is better preserved and much larger now, but originally, the Theatre of Dionysus was about 3-5x larger in terms of capacity (originally 5x, the stone structure the current remains are of, which were built about 200 years after the original, held about 3x as many). They were never really used at the same time though; The Theatre of Dionysus was built about 500BC, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus was built about 100AD, so is a Roman structure, and the Theatre of Dionysus was (I think) largely unused and in disrepair by that point.
The Theatre of Dionysus
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus
This is the better preserved amphitheatre, and is still in occasional use; Elton John performed there in 2000. It was hard to get a good photo because we had to hang onto some railings in order to get a shot which didn't have metal bars running through it, and we were all slightly terrified of dropping our cameras down the steep drop.
And finally, a picture of a man with a myseriously Zeus shaped haircut, who I spotted whilst sat in the Theatre of Dionysus. This got Claire and I extremely excited, and we wanted to follow him but unfortunately our tour guide was talking to us at the time I spotted him, and by the time she'd finished, he had disappeared.
Also; Guyfriend got elected as Head Boy last week, which means POWER!
I'm hoping these will be more interesting than the China photos, because I can actually remember what we did on the trips, and I know a bit about Ancient Greece anyway, unlike with China, where everything was completely unknown to me. And still is, really.
I don't usually go abroad this much, prior to 2010, I had only been abroad once in the previous 5 years (except for visits to see my Grandmother in the Lands of Nether), I just wanted to say that so I don't become like the guy in my maths class who boasts continualy about the four holidays he takes every year. Or if I have already become that person, I hope that this will go some way to diminishing that idea.
We did all of the ancient Acropolis stuff on one day, which makes sense as it is all on one hill (the acropolis), and the theatre of Dionysus was the first actual "site" on the Acropolis that we visited.
The word "Acropolis" only refers to a City on a Hill, and none of the individual momuments/locations, on the site itself. The Acropolis of Athens, although referred to as "The Acropolis" frequently, is not the only Acropolis in Greece, but is probably the most famous.
The Theatre of Dionysus is the worlds first open-air stone theatre, and was initially huge, stretching up pretty much all the way through the grass that is visible in this photo. We also saw the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which is better preserved and much larger now, but originally, the Theatre of Dionysus was about 3-5x larger in terms of capacity (originally 5x, the stone structure the current remains are of, which were built about 200 years after the original, held about 3x as many). They were never really used at the same time though; The Theatre of Dionysus was built about 500BC, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus was built about 100AD, so is a Roman structure, and the Theatre of Dionysus was (I think) largely unused and in disrepair by that point.
The Theatre of Dionysus
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus
This is the better preserved amphitheatre, and is still in occasional use; Elton John performed there in 2000. It was hard to get a good photo because we had to hang onto some railings in order to get a shot which didn't have metal bars running through it, and we were all slightly terrified of dropping our cameras down the steep drop.
And finally, a picture of a man with a myseriously Zeus shaped haircut, who I spotted whilst sat in the Theatre of Dionysus. This got Claire and I extremely excited, and we wanted to follow him but unfortunately our tour guide was talking to us at the time I spotted him, and by the time she'd finished, he had disappeared.
Also; Guyfriend got elected as Head Boy last week, which means POWER!