So its been a while and so much has happened since then! The time after i last wrote we were preparing for final review of our second project. The review was scheduled for thursday before we left for spring break. On thursday it was pushed to the monday we get back, and then friday early morning i hopped on a plane to greece!
Athens was amazing. There was so much green space and it was such a beautiful city. At every plaza there were multiple trees, at least in the area we went around, and with so many roman ruins it added to the immense patches of green. The first day we were there, after we landed, we decided to just walk around and basically observe the city. Our hostel was pretty much at the base of the Acropolis, so we were pretty easy access to most of the areas we wanted to see in the day and a half we were there. When we started to walk around the corner to the acropolis, it was a city that then opened up to what felt like walking out into a smaller town. The acropolis is up on top of the hill, and the base is surrounded by so much grassy open space it was incredible. And right behind it from the direction we were coming was a mountain that was completely trees. We walked past a really modern building, that is apparently the new acropolis museum, and were so fascinated that we decided to figure out when we could go back and actually try to go in it. It was eventually figured out that, though it is still under construction and not open yet, they let people in between ten and twelve am.
Lindsey and i decided to go ahead and go up to the Acropolis, us history buffs just couldnt wait till tomorrow. It was so incredible to look at from below there was just to much of a draw. Everyone else decided to walk around some more, and that we would just meet up with them in the hostel in a couple of hours. Going up to a place that is thousands of years old was one of the most incredible experiences. And just the fact of seeing a piece of architecture that influenced so many people throughout history and that we have learned to much about was just incredible. We had to walk up the hill to get to the entrance first though. The area around was so well designed. It felt like we were in a garden that had planned paths and organized flows of travel. There were so many trees, it was almost like they had created an area in the city that removed you from the city. And this was what we had to go through to get to the entrance. In designing all of this green space, and maintaining it all the way up to the "hill" madethe experience so relaxing and removed you from the knowledge that the city is so built up around it. When we got up to the top, everything that was up there just made us awe struck. It was such a cool feeling to stand where people stood for so many years, and just picture how it was before time took its toll. At 5:30pm though they started blowing whistles and kicking everyone out, so it was our time to leave, and stop admiring, and go to the hostel to meet up with everyone else.
Our full day in Rome consisted of waking up and going to the Acropolis museum, the new modern building at the base of the Acropolis. This building, we learned, when they struck ground for construction they hit roman ruins with artifacts that date back over 4000 years. So, the design was re-evaluated and the building was lifted and now creates a canopy over the ruins, protecting them and opening it up for everyone to see. The floor on the inside of the building is made of glass and in periodic areas opens up so people inside of the building can look down on the ruins. After we stayed there for a while and sketched, Lindsey, Josh and I decided to start walking to all of the areas a bit to the outside of the Acropolis. We had been told the day before that we need to walk up the little mountain/hill next to it and that there is an incredible view of the entire city. Again, we got to a place where when walking around it and then up it I felt completely removed from the city. It is amazing how a city maintains the areas like this instead of letting them get built up and populated. It becomes a retreat for so many people, and is so serene in so much chaos. More cities need to have spaces like this in which it is in the center of the city, and a person can go to "leave the city" without actually leaving the city and be in a place with so much nature and calm. When we got to the top there was so much space to walk around, and so many incredible views of the city. In observing green space for class (as you have probably been able to tell that is what i am doing) I really looked around and tried to observe the city outside of where i had seen and see if the rest of the city was so observing of the necessity of green space. It appeared, that outside of the "old city" area, the plazas with trees and green space seemed to trickle away and one moved away from this center. It was a really beautiful sight to see though because at two of the edges of the cities were mountains that were vast and green and on one side you could see the water. After that we walked around the old city, and went to the Agora. By this point i truly began to realize that, as in Rome, the city maintained a lot of green space in the old areas and lost it progressively as the new areas arose. That is one thing i can say for Barcelona, at least for where i have been so far, that though there are not a lot of places in the city that maintain a lot of large green spaces, the places in both the old and the new city contain trees and at least some growth giving life to some plazas.
Sunday we hopped on a boat, and took a ferry to Santorini. The ferry ride was so amazing, we went past so many greek islands an basically just got to spend the day looking all over the Aegean Sea. I really cant complain to much. When we started to pull up to Santorini, the whole side of the island we saw were these huge cliff faces. The cities were all at the top built into the edge of the cliff and looking out over the water. Their connection to the waterfront were these incredibly long, winding paths that gradually led you up the cliff. The island was really cool, and when we finally got up to the top was like being in the country. The houses/buildings dont exceed two story, and there are just miles of fields. And from each side of the island you can see all the way across. The island was big length wise but width wise it was pretty narrow. Our time on the Island was spent visiting the black, red, and white sand beaches, going to the towns and shopping where we could. Basically it was an amazing place to just walk around and see everything. The green space is hard to explain in the city. The cities did not feel like cities, and many of the places that you walked did have trees but there was no planned green space and it was not the feeling in itself of being a city so the green space was not completely necessary. And the rest of the island was fields and farm and beach and cliff. We missed tourist season by about a week, so a lot of the touristy stuff was closed so that just meant doing what we could on our own.
On thursday i came home, with Alwin, three or four days before everyone else. And Caryne came! It was/is really exciting to have my best friend here! And then Amanda came on saturday so the week just kept getting better and better! And so far i have just been taking them around, going to class, and spending as much time with them as possible. Sunday we ate a huge lunch/dinner down by the beach. It was the most amazing food i have had so far. Seafood here is definately amazing. And i am definately going to have to eat it more.
Tonight, we are going to watch an orchestra at the Palau de Musica, which not only is it cool to go watch this but it is a really cool architectural building with what we hear is an incredible stained glass ceiling. SO that should be a really fun experience. Amanda's birthday is tomorrow, so of course we will be celebrating that. But i will get on tomorrow and i am going to be updating this with at least a little blurb every day. So keep updated and i will be posting frequently!
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