Sojourn in Greece

Suddenly Fall is here. This first rainy weekend is chilly enough to need a light coat, and the overcast skies bring a strange quiet to the beach town streets after all those relentlessly sunny days.

When I first came here, I watched this land next to ALBA being fenced off, and a huge hole dug. Two years later, the fence was sturdier, and the hole was still a hole. The Church plans to build a large scale church here and the mayor of Vouliagmeni has opposed it. However, last week, there were men in new yellow construction hats running around, and sounds of digging commenced. A tent was erected for ground breaking, with lots of black robed bearded clergy and faithful (donor?) laity showing up. The police were guarding the entrance and looked at me suspiciously so I didn't fish out my camera.

This week construction is in full swing, and today, the street's been blocked as several men have been hoisting and securing this huge crane.

The church owns the land the ALBA buildings are on also. If I got it correctly, the building our classrooms are in was given to the Church as payment for (semi-legally) building the office complex on Church lands. The Greek Orthodox Church is fabulously wealthy and powerful. This week the newspapers are abuzz with the latest scandal of the Church receiving valuable public lands in a fraudulent exchange with the government. And I guess in Vouliagmeni it's score one for the Church, down one for the municipal government.

Beachgoers peer up at the brand new sign with a sketch of the proposed church building.

Construction begins last week. ALBA buildings in the background.

Many of the trees are loaded with seedpods or cones, like this pine. Judging from the small size and twisted shapes of most trees, they need to produce a lot of seeds each season to ensure survival.

Hmm. I wonder if the pruning is done at the end of the dry season to allow new growth in the cooler, wetter winter?

We now know that yesterday was indeed a specially beautiful day. My housemate's daughter was rescued from the waters off Staten Island -- just in time, it seems, and thousands of people are breathing a sigh of relief and joy. "Be glad for this our sister was dead, and is alive again; was lost, and is found."

Here in Vouliagmeni, it had rained in the wee hours--such a beautiful sound. When I walked to school Tuesday, the fresh washed sky was the bluest of blue and the Mediterranean Sea was a dark Prussian blue with sparkles.

Waiting for the bus in Voula.

I took a few hours off for the luxury of a shiatsu session from C. who has been studying now for 2 years. A Greek giving a Japanese massage to an American---love it. We went to a boutique store after that, where I bought a dressy jacket. The store clerk spoke a familiarly accented English. Sure enough, Swiss German, as is the store owner. Both married to Greek men. Since coming here I have used my French and German, such as they are, almost every day. One of the pleasures of being in Europe is the great mixing about of peoples, now made easier with the fluid borders.

Athena as she looked in the Parthenon.

Finally I made it to the renown National Archaeology Museum on the north end of the city center.

After walking through everything to see what was there, I lingered in the Neolithic & Mycenaean section -- such ancient stuff, such artistry!!, the Attica funerary statues, the cafe courtyard, and the Egyptian collection. Plenty more to see next time! Though color excites me more than sculpture, after a while.

And below -- in the 13th century BC they really did write in Linear B! A young woman's order for dyed wool, apparently. And a cute guy is sketched on the back.

And here I go again, two pictures of tourists. Both poor quality because lighting etc. was suboptimal. 4 perfectly clad Japanese young women sitting at the cafe window as if they were mannekins, looking through their guides to decide what's next. The other photo, taken as I was relieving my feet for a while, juxtaposes live, bronze, and marble statues. Both tourists stood still and stared for quite a while. It's a technically and artistically amazing sculpture.