How do you order a Greek Salad in Greece?

I always wondered, if you order a salad in Greece do you get what we know as a Greek salad? Or do you have ask for it specifically as a Greek salad? If you have ever wondered the same thing, let me clarify for you. Even in Greece, a Greek salad is called a Greek Salad. Just asking for a salad actually gets you cucumber and tomatoes with the oil and vinegar dressing and seasoning. To get the best salad there is with the feta, olives, peppers, and onions you still have to say Greek salad; just a fun factoid for you!

My midterms are done finally, and I think they went really well. Just in time because I am off to Egypt tomorrow morning! I'm traveling with Jamie and Diana again, and when we get there we are joining a tour so we will have a guide with us. We fly back Monday evening and are off of classes Tuesday for a Greek national holiday.

This past weekend was the ACT trip to Athens. With 3 buses and 150 students we made it through safely. Despite the traveling in large group pains that I expected, the trip turned out really well. The only thing I didn't really see when I was in Athens before was the new Acropolis museum and we got to take a tour of that on Saturday.

The museum just opened up this year and has gotten a lot of good reviews. The building itself is really well designed to represent how the monument itself was built. The floors are all clear and you can see the ruins below you because it was built over an archaeological site. The only way to enter the Acropolis is up a steep slope, so the museum slopes up as well. The top floor is the most impressive. It is the exact dimensions of the Parthenon, and from the outside the museum it looks like it is even positioned parallel too it, but I don't know that for sure. The frieze that runs all around the Parthenon is now in mostly pieces but they are shown in their original locations. The pieces that are still at other museums, mostly the British museum, are shown in casts. On the Parthenon itself the frieze is replicated and you can see it on the inside just past the columns.


The Pediments, what filled the triangular shape under the roof cornice on the front and the back of the building, are also displayed. Many of these pieces are fragmented or are not in the museum because they have not been returned. The best part of that collection was getting a feel for the size of the Parthenon, and being able to have a view of it while you walk around because the walls are all glass.

My favorite part of the museum, and my favorite part of the Acropolis is the Erechtheion. It is a smaller temple with multiple purposes and honored multiple gods. The South porch is the most well known because of the six maidens, the Korai, that support the roof. The ones that you see at on the acropolis are only replicas. The museum has the original 5, the 6th is unfortunately at the British museum. The Greeks hoped that if they had the museum, dedicated to only the Acropolis they would be able to gather all of the pieces back together, unfortunately that has not happened. Still, it was really nice to see the real ones, they are still in really good condition too. I would have taken pictures but it wasn't allowed. Here is what it looks like on the Acropolis.

The south porch.

The north porch.
The front of the Parthenon.

After seeing the museum and the Acropolis we had the rest of the day to ourselves. We spent most of the time enjoying the flea market and shopping. The weather stayed nice and the rain stayed away. It was a lot warmer than it is in Thessaloniki, it was like we were back to the end of summer weather. I still find it strange to be this warm in November.

Sunday we saw the changing of the guard at the Parliament building in the morning and then had more free time until the bus left at 4. After another 8 hour drive we were back in Thessaloniki and ready for another week of school. On the ride back, we had a small quiz given to us by our guide to see how well we had been listening to him. The best scores would get a prize. I was one of 6 that got the highest score but there were only 3 prizes so they randomly picked names and I won! It was pretty exciting because I usually don't have good luck with that. I thank my history class because that is really how I knew the answers. So, lets see how much you know about Athens! I don't have a prize for you so you'll just have to do it for fun. I'll put the questions at the end here and give you the answers next week.
Until next time!


Quiz!!
1. Athens was named after the goddess Athena because of her gift of an olive branch. What other god presented a gift to the city that they declined in favor of Athena?
a. Apollo
b. Hermes
c. Poseidon

2. Who was the Parthenon built to worship?
a. Athena the patron of the city.
b. Zeus the lord of the gods.
c. Aphrodite the goddess of beauty.

Shouldn't be too hard, and do me a favor...try not to just Google it, that's just cheating.