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Athens! I am in you!
Mar. 23rd, 2014 05:18 pmAnd cranky, because the common area of the institute has been taken over by a posse of smokers, leaving me to huddle in my bedroom and grow increasingly annoyed every time I have to brave the lingering fug to go to the kitchen or the bathroom. I thought we had a bloody no-smoking-indoors policy, not an "it's okay if you blow it out the window every so often" one.
But if the AD doesn't seem to mind, what the hell can I do about it?
Anyway. Athens. It's warm during the day and chilly at night, which is about normal for March, and which means I should've packed more than one jumper and more than one pair of trousers, but I'll survive. Finally crawled out of bed this noon after a broken night's sleep (I missed my down-stuffed duvet, even if I did bring my pillow, and a damn good thing I brought it, too) (I also miss my bed, which even with its bockety mattress offers more back support and less narrowness than this one) (yes, I am spoiled and like my creature comforts and have used too many brackets) and headed out to Plaka to get lunch and wander into the agora.
Was packed. Seems like everyone in Athens was down in the flea market this spring Sunday.
Every time I come here, I find something new in the agora. Not that it is a new bit of recently-uncovered archaeology, no: just that each time I see something I hadn't seen before, or notice it in a new light. Today, with all the spring flowers blooming and common and rare swallowtail butterflies chasing each other through the air, it was the Altar of the Twelve Gods, or the corner of it that is as much as can be seen since the establishment of the Athens-Piraeus railway in the 1890s; and the foundation-stones of the Arsenal in the lee of the Hephaisteion.
It is beautiful, and I cannot think why my mood now is so sour.
Perhaps I am cranky because I am tired. I will feel better once I start spending my days in the library of the École Francais, and start making noticeable progress again, I am sure.
But if the AD doesn't seem to mind, what the hell can I do about it?
Anyway. Athens. It's warm during the day and chilly at night, which is about normal for March, and which means I should've packed more than one jumper and more than one pair of trousers, but I'll survive. Finally crawled out of bed this noon after a broken night's sleep (I missed my down-stuffed duvet, even if I did bring my pillow, and a damn good thing I brought it, too) (I also miss my bed, which even with its bockety mattress offers more back support and less narrowness than this one) (yes, I am spoiled and like my creature comforts and have used too many brackets) and headed out to Plaka to get lunch and wander into the agora.
Was packed. Seems like everyone in Athens was down in the flea market this spring Sunday.
Every time I come here, I find something new in the agora. Not that it is a new bit of recently-uncovered archaeology, no: just that each time I see something I hadn't seen before, or notice it in a new light. Today, with all the spring flowers blooming and common and rare swallowtail butterflies chasing each other through the air, it was the Altar of the Twelve Gods, or the corner of it that is as much as can be seen since the establishment of the Athens-Piraeus railway in the 1890s; and the foundation-stones of the Arsenal in the lee of the Hephaisteion.
It is beautiful, and I cannot think why my mood now is so sour.
Perhaps I am cranky because I am tired. I will feel better once I start spending my days in the library of the École Francais, and start making noticeable progress again, I am sure.
