Thursday – there’s this bar/restaurant called Yellow Dog one block down (it’s down some stairs from us- we’re in a very hilly area). During the world cup we’d often go watch the games at Yellow dog. They also have delicious homemade pasta. And they have karaoke.
So we watched the game, I had pesto pasta, then we sang. We met some nice girls from Georgia state there.Saturday Liz/Angela/I woke up early to take the bus to Delphi. We wanted to tour with Professor Hale of the archaeology group (nick/lili/ray went with the archaeology group- their car broke down, they also took a detour to a battle site- the one in 300).So we ended up touring by ourselves. We saw the museum. Then we went on the mountain- it was crazy I felt someone hug me from behind and it was Cynthia who coincidentally also was in Delphi climbing the mountain that day. So we climbed the mountain.
It’s great touring these places with liz because she’s a classics major and knows a lot about the history. It’s crazy- the oracle sat on a tripod on a rather precarious stone. She inadvertently smoked sulfur and made crucial life decisions. There are many stories- like one emperor (again the one in 300 I think) asked the oracle if he should go to war. She said a great empire will be destroyed if you go to war- and he thought that was the green light but the empire in reference was his. Of course the oracle usually prophesized in vague/confusing ways so that the prophesies could be twisted into being applicable. They also got pretty rich off of tributes. They also have a temple, amphitheater, and stadium there. The climb to the top takes a decent amount of time and it was crazy hot.After we had lunch at this cute café- pizza and lemon fanta. We then went to the Tholos- which according to greek mythology is the center of the earth. From there zeus sent two eagles to create or scout the rest of the world? unclear...but it was cool! really hot though.
Then we explored the town- which again was cute. Grabbed ice tea/gelato and went back to Athens. In Athens we were exhausted when we arrived (lots of walking/heat) and just got mcdonalds and went to sleep.
Sunday was also super productive. Liz/Angela/Marj/I toured Athens. We went to the Sunday flea market in monistaraki.
That was nice- fun going through the flea market. We bought mean girls, prestige, and troy (with a greek dvd case/subtitles!) We went to Keramikos- it is a giant cemetery in Athens. It’s usually not that visited, but it should be it’s great. It’s an ancient cemetery- a lot of people were buried in (didn’t really distinguish by class). There are many gorgeous funeral monuments/pots/offerings that are in the museum there (interestingly they banned monuments/statutes once the democracy started bc they wanted citizens to be equal). We also saw several tortoises crawling around- which was cute. There were gorgeous flowers, trees, pomegranate trees, etc growing in the cemetery. 
It was just very nice and peaceful. Wandered around the streets of plaka/syntagma. Got souvlaki for lunch- souvlaki/gelato is going to make me really fat. Then we went to the Acropolis. It was stunning- a beautiful day and we went late enough that most of the tourists were gone. We spent a couple hours up there- talking, looking around, taking pictures of course. And blowing bubbles! 
Then we met up with the rest of the group (just getting back from Delphi). It was two people in our group’s birthdays. Also Emma was leaving (the archaeology people were supposed to work in the harbor, now working in the agora which wasn’t per her line of work and she had a better internship in new York). That was quite sad because Emma is really nice. We had dinner in a nice taverna in Pagratti. Afterwards we went back to an apartment and had baklava to celebrate the birthdays.
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