Catching Up (Olympia)

Olympia

Olympia was a very, very small town- but here is a photo of our hotel:

It had an amazingly large swimming pool and it was so nice! I think it may have been 11 or 12 feet deep so I did a lot of diving in which is always very refreshing in the hot sun.

The site we went to visit, was of course, the Olympic ruins. Here, the ancient Olympic games were held. Even though pretty much everything left was only a a fifth of what it used to be (or not there anymore..), you could tell that this was a gigantic place. I couldn't even imagine what it would have looked like to see it as it was meant to be seen.

Here I am with a Greek tablet. The room used to be (something else) but was turned into a church, so the tablet says things about Jesus and his divinity.

These were pedestals for statues.

An Ancient Wonder of the World:

The Temple of Zeus

That single column is actually a replica, to give an idea of

what the temple would have looked like (i.e. it was huge).

Entering the stadium...

where races were held

Professor Engen, showing us the proper way to start

(my feet photo at the top is the correct positioning for your feet)

Tholos tomb

And of course, after the site we always go to the museum.

Here is a pedament:

The helmet of Militiades, the general at the Battle of Marathon.

And, funny story.

When I first flew to Athens from Philadelphia, I sat next to this guy on the plane who was an incoming college freshmen at Yale. He said he was Greek and that he went to Greece every summer to stay with his grandmother in Thessaloniki. He also fluent in Greek, so he taught me some words (which were really, really helpful) and when the plane ride ended and we got past passport control, we said good luck to one another and were on our way.

The trip continues, I go to Athens, Nauplion, Sparta, and then here, to Olympia. At the hotel, I'm walking out to lecture and I pass some people entering the hotel- one of which is none other than Marios, my 9 hour plane trip buddy. WHAT?!?!

And after that, I run into him here, at the Olympia museum.

And then I see him again at the Delphi site, completely randomly.

After I get home and post my photos on facebook, he leaves me links to his photos,

which are of the exact same places as mine, showing that we were pretty much

at the same places, just at different times.

Amazing.