Field Trip 1: Aegina
This past weekend, we had our first field trip! This one lasted all weekend, and we went to the island of Aegina. This island is pretty close to the Greek mainland, only about an hour long ferry ride. The Aeginetans were fairly present in ancient Greek history, especially in the Persian wars. Now, it's a quaint island with a nice seaside town. The weekend was packed with lots of activities, so this post is probably going to be fairly long.
We started our journey on Friday, February 15 in the morning. On the way to Aegina, we stopped at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus. Piraeus is a port city (the largest one in Greece) in the Attica region of Greece (Athens is also in the Attica region). At the archaeological museum, we saw lots of stuff recovered from the Piraeus region. Most of them were some type of burial monument.
My favorite was this really big mausoleum type of thing:
After that, we boarded our ferry to Aegina. The ferry was pretty big; our bus driver drove the bus right on to the ferry. It was about an hour ride, so a group of us sat and read a little bit of Thucydides's The History of the Peloponnesian War (we had to read all 87 pages of book 1 by Monday for our city-states class, this was most certainly NOT a leisurely activity) before heading up to the deck for the last 15 minutes of the ride.
Once we were on the island, we met up with a hotel staff member, and he along with Katerina, a guide from the Athens Centre, showed us to our hotel. We stayed at the Ulrika Hotel, which was just around the corner from the main seafront road and actually on the hill that lead up to the ancient acropolis of Aegina. Our professors stayed at the Plaza Hotel, which was on the seafront.
After we each found our rooms and settled in, a few of us got some gyros before heading out on an orientation tour of Aegina. The tour lasted about 30 minutes and we saw the main roads and fish markets, and Katerina made a point of showing us the best restaurants on the island. After that, we had the evening free.
A group of us went to a nice little restaurant called Cafe Alexandros where we each got a little something. I got baklava, and mine had pistachios on it instead of walnuts, because Aegina is known for its pistachios.
After that, some of the group went to explore the island while others returned to the hotel. I was one of the ones who returned to the hotel, because I had a site report the next day for my Honoring the Gods class, and while I remembered to print the handouts for my presentation, I was so excited about remembering to print them that I forgot to print the actual notes for my presentation. So, I had to transcribe all of them into my notebook (which ended up being around 10 pages of notes).
This is the island at sunset and later in the evening. I can't get over how gorgeous it was.
Later in the evening, the group from earlier went to dinner together. I'll apologize now for not remembering the names of any of the restaurants we went to except for Cafe Alexandros. It was a seafood place though, which we wanted since we were on an island. I got pasta with shrimp, and yes, it was heads-on shrimp (anyone who's known me for 12+ years will remember the horror story of the all-you-can-eat heads-on shrimp from the Chincoteague Island beach vacation when I was 9). After that, we headed back to the hotel where I finished my notes and prepared for the presentation the next day.
At the restaurant, a local cat came to visit us. We quickly discovered she was pregnant and ready to pop in about a week. She was very loving and friendly and I miss her already.
The next day (Saturday, February 16) was an early morning, and I quickly discovered that I had grossly underestimated how cold 40 degrees was. I only brought my raincoat with me, so I spent most of the day freezing outside or defrosting inside.
We started the day at the St. Nektarios Monastery and Cathedral. St. Nektarios, dubbed the "wonder worker of Aegina", was officially canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1961. Born on October 1, 1846 as Anastasios Kephalas in Selymbria (modern-day Silivri, Istanbul), St. Nektarios spent his life serving the church in many ways: becoming a monk, becoming an ordained deacon, writing Bible commentaries, serving as a priest at the Church of Saint Nicholas in Cairo, Egypt, becoming and serving as consecrated Bishop, establishing the Holy Trinity Monastery on Aegina and ordaining two deaconesses. He died on November 8, 1920 and was canonized because of his "innumerable miracles and his acceptance within the religious conscience of Orthodox Christians throughout the world", according to the restored ecclesiastical order of Saint Nektarios by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa.
We started by visiting the monastery he established, which was insanely beautiful itself:
I didn't really get any pictures inside the monastery, but these are some of the exterior.
After visiting the monastery, we visited his cathedral that is actually still in the process of being built. Although it is modern, it has a Byzantine style of architecture. The cathedral actually isn't finished yet, so there's scaffolding both inside and outside.
When we went inside, after giving a monatery offering, each of us lit a candle.
The altar was absolutely breathtaking.
The interior in general was just beautiful.
We also visited the remains of St. Nektarios, tucked away in a corner of the church.
After visiting St. Nektarios's memorial sites, we headed up to the Temple of Aphaia. This was the monument I chose to do for my Honoring the Gods site report (and, if I do say so myself, I crushed it). I won't recite the entire presentation for you, but I'll just give you the basic rundown: this temple was dedicated to a local deity of fertility and agriculture. She was worshipped exclusively at this site. The sanctuary went through several phases, and the remaining temple was built anywhere from 500-470 BCE. The especially interesting part of the temple was the pediment sculptures (the pediment is the triangle part at the top). There were sculptures on the east and west faces of the temple which depicted the "greatness of Aegina" of local heroes fighting in each of the Trojan wars: on the east, the first of Heracles (or Hercules, as he is more commonly and incorrectly known) against Laomedon of Troy, and on the west, the second of Agamemnon of Mycenae against Priam of Troy, which is the story featured in Homer's tales. These sculptures are important firstly because they contain traces of paint (yes, paint! Believe it or not, most if not all sculptures in ancient times were actually painted brilliant colors, they weren't just white marble as they are today), which is important for studying sculptural painting techniques, but more importantly because the sculptures show the transition from archaic to classical art. The sculptures were originally built at the same time, but the eastern sculptures were damaged and replaced, and the style of art in Greece shifted during that period of time. Here are pictures of sculptures of dying soldiers from each pediment. You can see for yourself how they differ:
And here are some pictures of the temple itself:
After everyone turned to ice listening to the riveting tale of the Temple of Aphaia, we stopped by a concession stand to buy some pistachio snacks and souvenirs, including this ring.
After we paused for a bit, we visited a local potter. He told us about the process of making pottery, from extracting the clay from the earth to firing the pieces in the kiln. He had hundreds of pieces of pottery available in all shapes and sizes. Literally an entire room and yard full of them.
After we visited the potter, we headed to Paleochora, the ruins of the old town of Aegina. This was a Byzantine settlement that has since been abandoned. It's on the top of a very tall hill (honestly after climbing it, I'd argue in favor of its mountain status), because back in the day, people settled inland, fearing piracy closer to the coast. The hike itself wasn't too bad (and I don't hike ever, so that's saying something), and the view from the top was absolutely gorgeous. You can see how much smaller St. Nektarios's Cathedral is from the top!
I didn't go to the tippy top though, because the final stretch was STEEP. I already don't do major inclines out of fear of falling, so the fact that I even got as high as I did was pretty incredible. Everyone else in my class did, though (and I mean everyone, my professors too), so I patiently waited where they all went up. After a while of waiting and not hearing anyone coming back, I started to worry that they abandoned me, because I seemed to remember hearing something about a path leading the other way. But after about 20 minutes, two guys from my class came back down, so I assumed all was well. We got back to the base of the mountain where the rest of the class was waiting, and I discovered they sent those guys back to collect me. So not really abandoned, but kind of.
That night, we visited a local soap company called Cool Soap. It was, indeed, very cool. All of the soaps smelled AMAZING.
We were all pretty exhausted, but still decided to go out for dinner again. The same group from the night before went to the restaurant next to the one from the night before. This time, I got seafood pasta, which included shrimp, mussels and crab meat. It was VERY good.
The next morning, we visited Kolona, the ruins of an archaic village around a temple dedicated to Apollo. The only thing left of the temple was about 3/4 of a column, but it was still pretty neat. And, the site gave us some great views.
After we visited the ruins, we visited the archaeological museum of Aegina. There was some cool stuff in there, like a really old kiln and even some pieces of broken sculptures from the Temple of Aphaia.
After the museum, we had some free time before heading back to Attica. Anelia and I chose to visit Cafe Alexandros again and walk along the water, just admiring the Mediterranean sea.
Then, we took the ferry back to the mainland.
All in all, it was a busy but very fun weekend. I loved my first experience with a Greek island, and I can't wait to visit more in the coming months!
We started our journey on Friday, February 15 in the morning. On the way to Aegina, we stopped at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus. Piraeus is a port city (the largest one in Greece) in the Attica region of Greece (Athens is also in the Attica region). At the archaeological museum, we saw lots of stuff recovered from the Piraeus region. Most of them were some type of burial monument.
My favorite was this really big mausoleum type of thing:
After that, we boarded our ferry to Aegina. The ferry was pretty big; our bus driver drove the bus right on to the ferry. It was about an hour ride, so a group of us sat and read a little bit of Thucydides's The History of the Peloponnesian War (we had to read all 87 pages of book 1 by Monday for our city-states class, this was most certainly NOT a leisurely activity) before heading up to the deck for the last 15 minutes of the ride.
It was pretty, but cold.
Once we were on the island, we met up with a hotel staff member, and he along with Katerina, a guide from the Athens Centre, showed us to our hotel. We stayed at the Ulrika Hotel, which was just around the corner from the main seafront road and actually on the hill that lead up to the ancient acropolis of Aegina. Our professors stayed at the Plaza Hotel, which was on the seafront.
After we each found our rooms and settled in, a few of us got some gyros before heading out on an orientation tour of Aegina. The tour lasted about 30 minutes and we saw the main roads and fish markets, and Katerina made a point of showing us the best restaurants on the island. After that, we had the evening free.
A group of us went to a nice little restaurant called Cafe Alexandros where we each got a little something. I got baklava, and mine had pistachios on it instead of walnuts, because Aegina is known for its pistachios.
After that, some of the group went to explore the island while others returned to the hotel. I was one of the ones who returned to the hotel, because I had a site report the next day for my Honoring the Gods class, and while I remembered to print the handouts for my presentation, I was so excited about remembering to print them that I forgot to print the actual notes for my presentation. So, I had to transcribe all of them into my notebook (which ended up being around 10 pages of notes).
This is the island at sunset and later in the evening. I can't get over how gorgeous it was.
Later in the evening, the group from earlier went to dinner together. I'll apologize now for not remembering the names of any of the restaurants we went to except for Cafe Alexandros. It was a seafood place though, which we wanted since we were on an island. I got pasta with shrimp, and yes, it was heads-on shrimp (anyone who's known me for 12+ years will remember the horror story of the all-you-can-eat heads-on shrimp from the Chincoteague Island beach vacation when I was 9). After that, we headed back to the hotel where I finished my notes and prepared for the presentation the next day.
At the restaurant, a local cat came to visit us. We quickly discovered she was pregnant and ready to pop in about a week. She was very loving and friendly and I miss her already.
The next day (Saturday, February 16) was an early morning, and I quickly discovered that I had grossly underestimated how cold 40 degrees was. I only brought my raincoat with me, so I spent most of the day freezing outside or defrosting inside.
We started the day at the St. Nektarios Monastery and Cathedral. St. Nektarios, dubbed the "wonder worker of Aegina", was officially canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1961. Born on October 1, 1846 as Anastasios Kephalas in Selymbria (modern-day Silivri, Istanbul), St. Nektarios spent his life serving the church in many ways: becoming a monk, becoming an ordained deacon, writing Bible commentaries, serving as a priest at the Church of Saint Nicholas in Cairo, Egypt, becoming and serving as consecrated Bishop, establishing the Holy Trinity Monastery on Aegina and ordaining two deaconesses. He died on November 8, 1920 and was canonized because of his "innumerable miracles and his acceptance within the religious conscience of Orthodox Christians throughout the world", according to the restored ecclesiastical order of Saint Nektarios by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa.
We started by visiting the monastery he established, which was insanely beautiful itself:
I didn't really get any pictures inside the monastery, but these are some of the exterior.
After visiting the monastery, we visited his cathedral that is actually still in the process of being built. Although it is modern, it has a Byzantine style of architecture. The cathedral actually isn't finished yet, so there's scaffolding both inside and outside.
When we went inside, after giving a monatery offering, each of us lit a candle.
The altar was absolutely breathtaking.
The interior in general was just beautiful.
We also visited the remains of St. Nektarios, tucked away in a corner of the church.
After visiting St. Nektarios's memorial sites, we headed up to the Temple of Aphaia. This was the monument I chose to do for my Honoring the Gods site report (and, if I do say so myself, I crushed it). I won't recite the entire presentation for you, but I'll just give you the basic rundown: this temple was dedicated to a local deity of fertility and agriculture. She was worshipped exclusively at this site. The sanctuary went through several phases, and the remaining temple was built anywhere from 500-470 BCE. The especially interesting part of the temple was the pediment sculptures (the pediment is the triangle part at the top). There were sculptures on the east and west faces of the temple which depicted the "greatness of Aegina" of local heroes fighting in each of the Trojan wars: on the east, the first of Heracles (or Hercules, as he is more commonly and incorrectly known) against Laomedon of Troy, and on the west, the second of Agamemnon of Mycenae against Priam of Troy, which is the story featured in Homer's tales. These sculptures are important firstly because they contain traces of paint (yes, paint! Believe it or not, most if not all sculptures in ancient times were actually painted brilliant colors, they weren't just white marble as they are today), which is important for studying sculptural painting techniques, but more importantly because the sculptures show the transition from archaic to classical art. The sculptures were originally built at the same time, but the eastern sculptures were damaged and replaced, and the style of art in Greece shifted during that period of time. Here are pictures of sculptures of dying soldiers from each pediment. You can see for yourself how they differ:
And here are some pictures of the temple itself:
After everyone turned to ice listening to the riveting tale of the Temple of Aphaia, we stopped by a concession stand to buy some pistachio snacks and souvenirs, including this ring.
After we paused for a bit, we visited a local potter. He told us about the process of making pottery, from extracting the clay from the earth to firing the pieces in the kiln. He had hundreds of pieces of pottery available in all shapes and sizes. Literally an entire room and yard full of them.
After we visited the potter, we headed to Paleochora, the ruins of the old town of Aegina. This was a Byzantine settlement that has since been abandoned. It's on the top of a very tall hill (honestly after climbing it, I'd argue in favor of its mountain status), because back in the day, people settled inland, fearing piracy closer to the coast. The hike itself wasn't too bad (and I don't hike ever, so that's saying something), and the view from the top was absolutely gorgeous. You can see how much smaller St. Nektarios's Cathedral is from the top!
I didn't go to the tippy top though, because the final stretch was STEEP. I already don't do major inclines out of fear of falling, so the fact that I even got as high as I did was pretty incredible. Everyone else in my class did, though (and I mean everyone, my professors too), so I patiently waited where they all went up. After a while of waiting and not hearing anyone coming back, I started to worry that they abandoned me, because I seemed to remember hearing something about a path leading the other way. But after about 20 minutes, two guys from my class came back down, so I assumed all was well. We got back to the base of the mountain where the rest of the class was waiting, and I discovered they sent those guys back to collect me. So not really abandoned, but kind of.
That night, we visited a local soap company called Cool Soap. It was, indeed, very cool. All of the soaps smelled AMAZING.
We were all pretty exhausted, but still decided to go out for dinner again. The same group from the night before went to the restaurant next to the one from the night before. This time, I got seafood pasta, which included shrimp, mussels and crab meat. It was VERY good.
The next morning, we visited Kolona, the ruins of an archaic village around a temple dedicated to Apollo. The only thing left of the temple was about 3/4 of a column, but it was still pretty neat. And, the site gave us some great views.
After we visited the ruins, we visited the archaeological museum of Aegina. There was some cool stuff in there, like a really old kiln and even some pieces of broken sculptures from the Temple of Aphaia.
After the museum, we had some free time before heading back to Attica. Anelia and I chose to visit Cafe Alexandros again and walk along the water, just admiring the Mediterranean sea.
Then, we took the ferry back to the mainland.
All in all, it was a busy but very fun weekend. I loved my first experience with a Greek island, and I can't wait to visit more in the coming months!
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