around Athens (1.3km, on foot): we got up in the morning and checked out of our hotel, then got breakfast at Takis again, and then Beth, Gina, and i walked around the Jewish Museum of Greece
on our last morning in Athens, we explored the balcony attached to our hotel room |
it turned out to have a little table and some chairs |
and a view of Falirou Street |
Theo, your elevator is calling |
first bicycle photo of this trip? |
last photo of the mysterious attractive church that is unlabelled on Google |
our morning starts with another walk to Takis Bakery |
apartment buildings |
an ad for supporting your neighborhood, context unknown |
bagels and breads inside Takis |
i decided to try a bagel |
Beth waiting for tea at Cultivos |
trees and pink building across from Cultivos |
a tree with complicated bark |
trash can with foot pedal |
we finish breakfast and walk north along some more pedestrian streets |
facade of Ciné Paris |
a used bookstore, sadly closed at this time |
tree in front of church with clay tile roof |
our destination for the morning, the Jewish Museum of Greece |
it seemed like a pretty reasonable museum, with a lot of floors and exhibits |
a wooden torah cover, called a Tik |
the ark they brought from the synagogue of Patras |
another Tik. isn't it cool looking? |
Gina learns about how to learn Hebrew from comics |
the aforementioned comics |
i guess i have some questions about the number of people who have successfully learned Hebrew by looking at this |
some photos of the synagogue of Patras |
i just thought these Tik things were very neat |
i've helpfully forgotten what this is, but it is here |
i know what this is, it's the ten commandments. you probably knew that too |
a variety of clay objects |
a different variety of metal objects |
copy of a marble plaque talking about the synagogue of the Hebrews, in Greek letters, from the 3rd century CE |
copy of a 5th century capital fragment with menorahs, lulavs, and etrogs |
copy of a plaque with a menorah and a lulav, from the Ancient Agora of Athens |
stone with Hebrew writing |
perhaps you did not expect the Portuguese Inquisition |
title page to 16th century copy of 15th century torah commentary by Don Isaak Abravanel (also Portuguese) |
page from a 1700 Dutch edition of Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus's History of the Jews |
I think this is a page from Shulhan Aruh, sorry it's blurry |
Context! Information about the Romaniote Jews who settled in Greece starting in the 3rd century BCE |
Context! Then Sephardic Jews who settled in Greece in the 15th century because you know why, took over most of the Romaniote communities |
here is some Arabic text, though i don't have notes about what or when |
some nice headcoverings |
also this coat, who wouldn't want it |
this one is pretty good too |
decorative vests and bonus pocket watch (i think all of this clothing is 19th century, from Ioannina, and mostly for a wedding) |
a yelek (an Ottoman-style coat) for a very embroidered child |
fancy shoe time |
this screen was painted by the museum's first director, to make a 'resting room' |
metal bowls |
megillah and decorative cloth |
hanukkiyah from Austro-Hungary |
stamps (apparently one of these is a stamp for kosher meat) |
tea service |
decorative metal plate |
various inscribed metal objects |
mezuzah |
ketubah |
headcovering |
funerary plaque from the 17th century |
5th century marble plaque from Athens (we saw a copy of this earlier, i think maybe this is the original) |
funerary stele from the 9th-12th century CE |
Part of a funerary stele from 6th century Corinth, interesting because it's bilingual (Greek, Hebrew) |
manumission stele for a Jewish slave, 300-250 BCE |
funerary stele for an infant, 1st century CE |
funerary stele 5th century CE |
i know it's a lot of funerary steles, but it's cool to see these very old objects in Greek with Jewish motifs. This one is from the 3rd century CE |
one more, from the early 5th century |
a variety of objects |
information about Rosa Pardo-Asser, part of an exhibit about post-WWII Greek Jewish life |
close-up of art on one of those steles |
a heavy book about Jewish enscriptions in early Greece, which i did not purchase |
leaving the museum |
around Athens (2.1km, on foot): after the Jewish Museum, we walked to Brettos Placa where we had booked a honey tasting, stopping along the way at a few souvenir and curio shops. We had the honey tasting, then said goodbye to Ashley, who was staying in Athens for the rest of the week, had a quick lunch at Kosmikon, and walked to the subway to head back to the airport.
outdoor seating built into the side of a tapas bar |
bar-raising graffiti |
this is the answer key |
long-necked sculpture people in a shop window |
more graffiti weighing in on Gaza |
i did not in fact take home a souvenir solar-powered Greek revolutionary soldier |
sorry for the glare, but this surprised-looking Medusa was really something |
alley leading to steps down |
the Benizelou Mansion, the self-proclaimed oldest house in Athens, with its oldest part dating to the 16th century (and most of it from the 18th century) |
trees in the interior courtyard of the Benizelou Mansion |
a rug store |
this rug is neat, right? |
the Olive Tree Store, where we bought a wood serving plate |
interior of a fish spa |
here are the fish; they bite the dead skin off your feet, and that is how a fish spa works (we didn't try it, so i can't report back) |
a napkin-holder shaped like a boar |
this profile map of Athens is possibly slightly oversimplified |
clay tile roofs |
window display at curio store Amorgos |
window display at book/map store, which Gina and Beth are browsing |
we arrive at Brettos Placa for our honey tasting |
eggplant and pepper spread, in the Brettos Placa store |
the table is set for our honey tasting |
from left to right: thyme honey, oak honey, heather honey, pine honey, chestnut honey |
jars of honey |
wine barrels in the honey tasting cellar |
wine bottles on the walls of the honey tasting cellar |
these bottles are from a different tasting that we did not do |
oregano, back in the store |
lesbian olive oil |
lunch at Kosmikon: tzatziki, taramosalata, hummus, and tyrokafteri |
beverage! |
this grilled calamari was really nice |
tree on a pedestrian street |
Beth and Gina walk down a pedestrian street |
window sign of found-materials art store Elleniko Spiti |
a boat with an eye and another boat, at Elleniko Spiti |
a chest with sailboats painted on it |
a different sign with pomegranates |
one last acropolis view before we head to the airport |
political sign |
Athens to Corfu (400km, by airplane): after taking the subway back to the airport, Beth, Gina, and i flew to Corfu, an early evening flight with great sunset views.
We saw these signs all over the subway, and it turns out they are ads for an insurance company. |
Waiting in a crowded subway station to transfer to the airport |
Buildings on a hillside |
Graffiti: POISONOUS! |
artistic curving train tracks |
IKEA |
airport wall art: the amphitheatre at the Acropolis, filled with a crowd |
an airplane, ready to take us to Corfu |
view from our airplane, taxiing by a plateau |
view from our airplane, flying over farmland near Athens |
coastline south of Athens |
city in a valley |
mountains and sky, the beginning of sunset |
mountaintop, more city, more coast |
did somebody say 'sunset'? |
i would definitely recommend this flight for the amazing sunset views starting shortly after takeoff |
this one, for instance |
once again with more cloud |
once again with more red |
last one, for the road |
approaching the blurry red coast of Corfu |
Corfu airport to Corfu town (by taxi and on foot): we took a taxi to Hotel Cavalieri, where we met David and Tom in the lobby, checked into our rooms, and then walked to Rex for dinner. Not pictured: salty donut appetizer, David's rooster pastitichio, kumquat liqueur we tried back at the hotel.
Gina recognized at least one building from The Durrells in Corfu while we were in the taxi, but it wasn't this one |
hey, we know these people! |
fourth-floor room means four flights of stairs, but the elevator was neither large nor fast |
our room at Hotel Cavalieri |
streets of Corfu |
interior of Rex, where we (and everyone else) had dinner outside |
David and Tom at dinner (second dinner, for them) |
vegetarian moussaka! |
meat moussaka! |
signboard at an ice cream place |
arches, behind construction fences, in the dark |