Rain That Comes Down Sideways, Panathenaic Stadium

February 17, 2007

Athens, Greece.

Today was the windiest, coldest, and most ridiculous day ever. If anyone at Davidson saw us scramble up to the top of a windy mountain top, just to see the fallen down column drums of the temple of Poseidon at Sunion they would have laughed and laughed. At school if there is bad weather the solution is simple- you just stay inside. Today, we just got absolutely soaked.

We stopped at Sunion with the wind howling and the rain coming in sideways at us. Luckily Toumazou understood that there was no possible way to take notes in that kind of weather, so he gave us a lecture in the small café that overlooked the temple. Then, we bundled up and ventured out into the rain. I had not gone more than 10 steps before my jeans were soaking, not just on the thighs where the rain would hit if you were walkig, but all down the sides and the back because the rain was being driven in horizontally by the wind. Luckily, my gore-tex shoes and my wind/waterproof jacket protected the rest of me, but even my face, which was almost completely covered with a baseball cap, a scarf, and two hoods, came back sopping. We quickly ran around the temple complex, Toumazou shouting out important landmarks, and giggled at the absolute absurdity. What madness! We came back to the bus absolutely soaking wet.

It was kind of a shame—according to Toumazou at this elevation and as close to the sea as we were at Sunion, we could have seen several of the greek islands from the vantage point at the temple, even as far away as the Cyclades. However, there was no chance of that here—the sky was grey and the air was full of cold wet rain and the landscape that we could see was rendered in a flat silhouette that is only possible when the light levels and the fog obscures everything. Which it did.

Back on the bus, I stripped off my overcoat and took off my jeans. My jeans were soaked through and even my long underwear was a little wet. The whole inside of the bus was steamed up because of all of the moisture.

The next stop was at the temple at Thorikos, which was important because it was one of the earliest known Greek theatres, and was constrained into an odd shape because of the number of other buildings on the site. The stage area, which is normally in the shape of a circle, was squared off here, and the seating area had this kind of funny oblong shape instead of the usual semi-circle. It was still wet so we did all of the lecturing on the bus, and then moved out into the open air, re-wetting everything that had started to dry during the bus ride. In the distance we could see a harbor with a huge tanker in it, partially obscured by the mist and the fog. We scrambled around the complex a bit and saw the remains of some more houses and a temple, and walked around the seats of the theater before gratefully stepping back on the bus for our final stop.

The last place we visited today was the site where a sacred cult to Artemis had a kind of initiation rite for the young girls of Athens. Called Brauron, it was the site of a number of sacred festivals where women, called bears, would parade from Athens and participate in certain strange types of dances and festivals. Brauron is located in a marshy area, but it contains the remains of a large greek stoa, restored so that we could see the columns from the base all of the way up to the entablature. I enjoyed walking around here and taking pictures, but by the time we got to the site I was so sick and cold that I wanted to get on the bus and sleep, and then get back to the hotel as soon as possible and shower.

However, by the time I had gotten back to the hotel, I was warmed up and rather restless. We had gotten back slightly earlier than usual and I decided that since I already had on my running tights underneath my jeans that I would go running. It was better than shopping, considering how much money I had been spending recently. So I changed my shirt and headed out into downtown Athens. I took a route away from Syntagma square and away from the acropolis, headed down a major street where I thought I could run for long periods of time without running into too many traffic lights or pedestrians. Pretty soon, however, I saw a blue sign that pointed me in the direction of the Panathenaic stadium. I couldn’t resist. I made the left hand turn and ventured down the wide boulevard.

I ran down past what looked like a royal palace, complete with these guards in strange uniforms—white tights and shoes with these large pom-poms on the toes and a red and black jacket. They stood perfectly still and only their eyes moved as they passed me.

I reached the stadium, which looked even better when we were not peering at it from under our umbrellas and hoods. I ran straight up to the open end and peered around—how to get inside. I took a side street that went around the outside of the stadium and ran up a long series of stairs before I came to the back of the stadium. Finally I reached a building that seemed to open onto the upper reaches of the stadium. I went through the gate, ran up a short ramp, and found myself on the upper levels of the Panathenaic Stadium.

Cautiously I looked around—there was a small series of metal steps leading from the retaining wall behind which I stood and down onto the actual stadium steps themselves, and the gate was unlocked. Yes! I was in! I moved over the retaining wall and down the steps and into the stadium, which was MUCH bigger from the inside than it appeared on the outside. I entered from the top and began to run stairs. I snaked around all of the way from the entry point on one side of the curve until the end of the U shape on one side. Below me, I could see the tourists taking pictures through the gate at the open end of the U. Finally, not being able to take it any longer, at the end of my circuit I ran down from the second tier of seating to the first and finally down to the stadium floor.

The length of the stadium stretched out before me as I walked onto the track. I peered down the starting line into the curve of the stadium at the far end, the image that the thousands of athletes over the thousands of years had contemplated before they began their race. I lowered my head, and bolted for the turning post that signaled the end of the stadion. It felt amazing! I was running on the track of the Greater Panathenaia, which was one of the most prestigious of the athletic events in Greece, second only to the Olympic Games, and I was there. That was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life, and the only thing that detracted from the absolute joy of being able to run on the Panathenaic track was the fact that I was so out of shape at the end of the run. Nevertheless, I completed my run and got back to the hotel completely sweaty and red faced, had dinner and wandered around for a bit, and packed for bed. At the end of the night, a group of us finally decided to indulge ourselves in a little bit of a bacchanalia. We grabbed some bottles of wine and hung out in the hotel, drinking and talking until very late into the night. At the end, it was the late night crew of Chris, Brad, Katie and I—a group which had not met for a while, and we talked about life and our pasts until late late into the night. Sleep was too short and the morning came too quickly. We were leaving Athens.