Today was my first taste of the ancient ruins of Greece as we went to our first museum and archaeology site. We went to the Eretria museum and they had a nice collection of pots and funerary offerings all found in Eretria. Then they also had this whole outside area where you could walk around and even explore the ruins! 
They had a tomb that was excavated and on display behind glass. There was this weird platform thing that some thought was for making wine but I've decided was for sacrificing animals (see the spout that would easily catch all that sacificial blood? Handy!).
A big highlight for me was that we got to see archaeologists at work! While they weren't dressed like any archaeologist I know...ahem...they certainly looked like they knew what they were doing. Jesse translated a conversation with them and we found out that they've been at this site for four years but this site has been excavated for the last 30 years! Here's a photo of where they sort pieces they've found. Now this would be fun for any puzzle enthusiast out there! To me it seems impossible how they can reconstruct 30% of a statue or sculpture - how do they know where everything belongs?! That's why they get paid the...uh...probably small bucks.
They had this whole area where you could walk around, in and through! It was wild to be able to actually walk on and in these ruins! This is definitely as close as I'll ever get to being Indiana Jones! :-) And why did I have to wear those stupid shorts for this photo shoot?!
While walking through these ruins we came across this broken pot that had yet to be assembled. It wasn't behind glass or a roped off area - just sitting there on the ground. Seemed so weird to me that I could pick it up if I wanted to (which I didn't).We also saw this place called the Mosaic House. It's a house that has these amazing mosaic floors. Thousands of pebbles and stones were used to create these intricate designs.
After this exciting outing, we headed deeper into the mountains to a place called Steni. Guess what? We had a fantastic lunch! Probably the best lamb I had was from this place. Mmmmmm. Afterwards we walked around the village which was super quite as we were there during the Siesta. This village had about nine of these constantly running fountains throughout. You could go up to one and drink right from it as it was all spring water! We saw many people fill up their jugs with this fresh water. Cold and refreshing! Then we all just chilled in the village for an hour or two. As in all the villages we visited on my trip - this one had a church. The churches in Greece are all very colourful! Some are painted on all walls and even the ceiling, and this one in Steni had a very colourful wall with sculptures all over it.
I took this opportunity to make another drawing. This time I have a photo of what I drew. As you can see I took a few liberties with what I saw...that's art for you!
On our drive back we saw a couple things that warranted stopping and checking out. One was this cool swinging bridge that was pretty bouncy! Another was this really neat mini-church that could only fit one person inside! Often in Greece you'll see these mini birdhouse sized churches which act as a memorial for where someone died. Not sure what this one is all about as it was literally in the middle of nowhere!That night we had dinner in Eretria where Jesse and I played a game and walked around and talked about guy stuff! We played Through the Desert - which Jesse won.
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