Day 4 Photo Album Link
Hello everyone! Today was day four of Greece. Can you believe we are already at day four? We know we can't. We started off our day with a nice early breakfast, and then we were off to Olympia! Olympia is the sanctuary of Ancient Greece and is where the Olympic Games were first started in 776 BC. They continued there until 393 AD. 1503 years later they were revived by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1894.We started walking to the main gate of Olympia and within a couple minutes we all were thirsty (it was hot!) and had to sit down. After our break we passed through the gate and walked into one of the most amazingly ancient places ever. All we could see around us were the ruins of the historic site of Olympia. You can still imagine what it would have looked like ~3000 years ago. As we went on with the tour we learned so many things. One thing that we remember quite clearly is that if two athletes tied in a fighting event, things got pretty interesting. They would take turns punching each other in the face until one was knocked out. The conscious athlete then won the competition. Eventually, we moved onto the stadium where we all ran in the footsteps of the ancient Greeks. They also had a podium where we could pose. Once we were done with the sanctuary, we entered a museum which was AIR CONDITIONED!
As our day at Olympia ended, we had some free time to explore the village at the site. So we did typical things like getting ice cream and souvenirs, but when Mr DeMerchant was going to a jewelry shop he found out that the owner's brother had been a part of the Olympic torch relay 4 times! He had kept the torch, which happened to be at the store, and we were invited to hold the torch and get our photo taken.
In the evening, after dinner, we had some more free time around our 'home town' of Kyparissia. We got to swim in the pool, climb on crazy monkey bars at the beach and buy baklava.
Torr and Maddox
Today we visited Olympia, site of the first Olympics. I will not mention the actual visit but I did want to mention a cool coincidence that happened.While walking through the town I noticed a sign for a free museum dedicated to Archimedes. With a little time to kill I wanted to check it out as he is my favourite ancient scientist and mathematician. When in Greece as they say ...
As I was walking back one of the shop keepers asked where I was from and when I told her Canada she immediately called me back. As it turns out her brother was the fastest in the village of Olympia and the fastest runner gets to be the first one to carry the flame for the Olympics. He had a chance to carry the torch for four Olympic Games, including the Canadian Olympics in 1976. She had the torch for USSR Olympics in the shop and all of the students who wanted to had a chance to hold it and have their picture taken. A good way to cap off the trip to Olympia seeing the site of the first games and holding a torch from the modern Olympics. Cool things do happen if you put yourself out there and are open to them.
Mr D
The museum of Olympia was outstanding! It nearly blew my mind to look at the artefacts and statues and think they were made two thousand years ago. It looked like they were made two years ago, and even some of the artefacts had two thousand year-old paint on them! Imagine someone from that time, sculpting and painting a statue that would become famous. It really makes you think.
ReplyDeleteWe had a very knowledgeable tour guide at Olympia and a lot of students asked really good questions. Even with the heat, you could tell how interested the students were and how much they enjoyed walking in the footsteps of the athletes in the stadium!
ReplyDeleteThis day was so much fun. Both the archaeological site and the museum in Olympia were interesting. It's difficult to believe that everything there had so much history. Another amazing thing was being able to hold one of the actual Olympic torches while we were in Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics. It was so cool!
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