Well, the day has come. Today (June 18th) was our last day exploring sites together. It was very bittersweet, as most of us are exhausted and missing our families, but still loving every minute of the trip and not being quite ready to give it up.
We started our day off leaving the hotel to get onto a bus that would take us out of Athens to see our final round of sites. Throughout most of our trip, it was a daily bus journey across Greece, and we all bonded with our amazing bus driver, and were sad to say goodbye when we arrived back in Athens. To our surprise and excitement, we lucked out and got him as our driver for the final day as well!
After reuniting with our driver, we boarded the bus and headed out to our first stop of the day, Brauron. Our peer, Rick Castle (Personal blog: https://troystory3blog.wordpress.com/ ), gave us some information about the history of the sites, its uses, the mythology behind it, and also helped orient us to the different buildings located around us. The site was a rural location dedicated to the goddess Artemis Brauronia. Every four years a festival was held that was representative of the maturation of young girls into a marriageable age. The girls would wear robes and walk through a ceremonial procession, then shed their robes and dedicate locks of hair and childhood toys to Artemis.
| Figure 1: Rick presenting to the group at Brauron. |
| Figure 4: Side view of Temple to Artemis at the site of Brauron. |
| Figure 3: Bridge into Sanctuary at Brauron. Only example of a classical age bridge. Wheel tracks visible on the stone. |
| Figure 2: Pillars ahead of excavated dining halls at site of Brauron. |
Our next stop was Thorikos. This area was different than others we had seen, as it was part of the industrial area on the coast rather than the urban. This was the site of many mines for the Ancient Athenians. We spent awhile jumping around and exploring all the levels of rock, and found one mine shaft (with a grate over it) that we got to look down into. I found the levels of stratification in the rock to be especially interesting.
| Figure 5: Students exploring the site of Thorikos on a very overcast day. |
After Thorikos we stopped by the Archaeological Museum of Laurion. This museum was smaller than most of the ones we’d seen previously, but it still had some lovely sculptures, and was very airy and light inside.
Before our last stop of the day we took a break at a little seaside café, and some of us went exploring on the shore while we waited for our food. Keegan and I discovered this little hidden cave, that we enjoyed sitting in while admiring the view.
| Figure 8: Bonus picture of the adorable dog that greeted us when we got the cafe. |
| Figure 7: Keegan exploring on the rocks. Temple to Poseidon visible on hill in background. |
| Figure 6: View from the hidden cave. |
We continued on to the VERY LAST SITE OF OUR ENTIRE TRIP! A very sad realization we had on the bus up the hill to the site of Sounion, Temple to Poseidon. This temple was uniquely positioned on top of an outcropping of rocks, with the sea on three sides. Although it was pouring rain and absolutely freezing (a dramatic change from the intense heat we had grown accustomed to) we stuck it out on top of the cliff and took some pictures while examining the temple.
Figure 9: Temple to Poseidon at the site of Sounion.
In the evening we met up again and headed out to our final ‘family’ dinner. We had traditional Greek foods of tzatziki, saganki, souvlaki, and moussaka. After dinner, we took our last official group photo together. Everyone was feeling a little sad, while still enjoying each others company, and I might have a cried at the table. We split up afterwards since some people needed to pack and others finished off some souvenir shopping.
| Figure 10: The last group photo of our odyssey. |
For the last time, too many of us crowded into one hotel room for a late-night hangout. We had the goal of pulling an all nighter so we would sleep on the plane (that didn’t work out) but we did say goodbye to the people who had middle of the night flights to their next destination.
The friendship and experiences gained on this trip are invaluable, and I hope my classmates know how much they mean to me. We’ve been through a lot together, and whether laughing or crying, or trying not to yell at each other out of hunger and exhaustion, this trip would not have been as amazing as it was without each of them.
Our professor Dr. Glazebrook, and TA Stephanie, did a phenomenal job of guiding us through Greece, and were always there for us no matter what or when we needed something.
A final thanks to all of you for following along on our journey. With that, the Brock Odyssey of 2017 comes to a close. Safe travels everyone.
