Alexa Berkshire - Blog 1

The meals and hotels and views have been incredible. The ancient sites are truly breathtaking. This trip has been a dream, and we’ve only just begun.

It’s been such a neat experience to witness the lives these people led so long ago. Visiting different sites each day is exhausting, but very rewarding. It is mind-boggling to imagine even one civilization building and defending such massive walls, but traveling to each of these different sites is incredible. There are so many similarities and differences in the type of construction and with that, there comes the ability to deduce the time in which it was built.

I was tasked to report on the Stoa of Attalos in the Agora of Athens. I think doing the small report helped me appreciate this trip and this heritage and culture even further as this provided me the necessity to brush up on my knowledge of ancient Greece. It was very cool to actually get to walk into the building that I’d been researching so heavily before arriving and see the notable details I’d read about. In all other classes, the report is usually given via the dim glow of a projected presentation over an event or place a long ways away with an audience of sleepy-eyed classmates. It was a little windy and warm, but being in that building was a neat ‘full-circle’ kind of experience.  

We’ve seen two ancient theaters during our first week one being what is considered the very first act of theater ever – the Theater of Dionysus and the other being the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus. Seeing these massive theaters really put into perspective how large these communities would have or could have been. When you look at a temple or citadel or collection of pottery in a museum it can be hard to fully understand the size of the community associated with those things. Being at the sites of the theaters made it clear just how many people would have gathered to share in such timeless art.

Kind of unrelated, but our guide is named Aristotle. He’s an archaeologist turned passionate tour guide and has been super helpful and humorous. His affinity for novelty t-shirts and Star Wars jokes have been aptly intertwined into his analysis of ancient monuments and keeps the dialogue interesting.  

10/10 would recommend him for any and all future trips to Greece!