Athens today. Started out at the national museum, which was quite fascinating. Bronze statues that had been found in the sea after spending a thousand plus years there, etc.. More marble human/animality than you could shake a spear at. Interesting to walk through the evolution of sculpted art - from the statues with both legs shaped in one pillar, to dual leg stances, to weighted stances, to full-on action poses (the discus thrower, et al.).

Then off to the Acropolis and the surrounding ruins. Walking around the city for a few days, seeing it in the distance, looming above you, does something to add to the experience. When you finally get up there, you have high expectations, and in my case they were certainly more than fulfilled. Even in all its manifold destruction, it still emanates authority. There's a million and one stories to be told about that place, and its probably less than 3 acres in size at the top. But there's simply no end to the lore and adventure that existed, across the ages, on that one rocky hilltop.

Standing by the flag pole, we debated whether or not Paul would have visited the Acropolis in his time or not, with both sides making logical arguments. Personally, I think if he preached on Mars Hill, he walked the rest of the way up.

I of course am already running out of MBs for the digital, so I have to start getting selective, as I opted against bringing the laptop with me, and therefore can't upload to free up space. I was realistic about the fact that I couldn't go cold-turkey on internet (I mean, the first step is admitting you have a problem, right? I have a problem. I'm fine with that.), but I did think it was an important step to pretty much totally disconnect from work for a week or so. I was thinking about this dilemma with the camera today, however - kind of ironic that I now, somehow, feel limited by the hundreds of pictures I can take.

What in the world did people do back when they used to have rolls of film they had to carry and (shudder) get developed? How did they take more than a few pictures of anything?

And to think they did it all without cell phones.

(Seaward bound in the morning.)