After visiting the archeological site, we went to the museum see some excavated artifacts. It was equally if not more interesting than visiting the site itself. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, and we learned a lot from him, and each time after he had given us the information he would say: look, what a beautiful art! And now as I am looking at these pictures I took at the Delphi museum, and I do not want to write about each of the sculptures what/who do they represent and what is their significance. I just want to say the same thing our tour guide Kosta said: look, what a beautiful art! Look at all these muscles! Look at all these imperfect wrinkles of the clothes!
The ivory and gold statues of Apollo and Athena. They were buried near the temple in the antiant times when were became deteriorated of natural causesDid you know that you could tell just by the clothes or absence of it that the first culture represents a polititan, the second one – a warrior and the third one an athlet?The bronze Charioteer is considered to be a most valuable exhibit of the museum was created in 470s BCI don’t know who has lunch at 2-30PM, but apparently, some Greeks do 🙂 That was supposed to be a picture by the #marathon hashtag, but I opted for the better view behind me
Now, here is a little bit more about our trip to Delphi. Boris was joking about visiting the first database in the world (because Delphi is a place where Oracle lived), and I said that it’s rather the first AI :). Except for that, we knew little about Delphi, so we spent all three hours on the road listening to the tour guide who was filling us in.
As I said, the most striking part were the views on the mountains and valleys, but that’s something impossible to describe or to capture on a photo. I tried but it doesn’t represent the reality, even remotely!
Each turn of the road produced more ahhs, because each next view was even more scenic than the previous one!
I have to admit, that I either forgot or never knew that Delphi is located by the Mount Parnassus.
And similarly(or consequently), I forgot that the temple with the Oracle was dedicated to Apollo. Another thing I didn’t know was that Appollo supposedly was out of town for winter months, and at that time, Dionysios ruled the city, and the plays were presented at the theater.
The visitors could ask the Oracle for advice only when Apollo was present.
The road the visitors would take to get to the temple
The Pythias were older women, but it was not like this from the beginning. Initially, Pythias were young virgins, but because of multiple cases of rape, the decision was made to choose Pythia from older virgins (over 50).
Pythia sat in the “basement” of the temple surrounded by the smoke of burning bay leaves. Also, although it is not confirmed, but it was believed that there were some cracks in the earth from which the vapors that caused the trance emanated. Pythia didn’t say anything in response to the questions. She could just move or produce some sounds, and these signs were interpreted by the prophets and communicated to the priests who gave the meaning of the response. So it was a very complicated procedure indeed!
Omphalos – a conical stone that symbolizes the center of the world, located close to the Apollo templeThe Theater – the first row seats were designated for dignitaries and have backsThe view of the TempleContinuous excavationThe view of the TheaterA gigantic Roman stadium above the theater
I mean, those people who post on social media while being at the conference. I can hardly post anything because I am talking to people and writing follow-up emails and messages. And I can’t even finish one post about our trip to Delphi, which was back on Monday!
My current trip was planned several months ago, but I was utterly not prepared by my departure time on October 18. Just one thing to mention: I was not packed in the morning of the day of my departure.
My flight to Helsinki had a connection in London, and when Boris and I flew to Athens on Sunday, we had a connection in London again. Both times, it was horrible: long security lines and no priority line, and taking all the things out. Both times, there was no time to stop in the lounge.
The good part was that I had a Business class upgrade on the flight from London to Helsinki, and for some reason, they had a larger aircraft on this flight, so the business class was a real thing, with all these cool seats, and a nice lunch, and a cinnamon bun for a dessert.
I arrived in Helsinki at about 4-40 PM on Saturday, and on Sunday morning, we took off to Athens, with yet another connection in London, and the flight was delayed again, and no business class this time :).
On Saturday, when I was doing an early hotel check-in, I realized that I accidentally booked one extra day, and it turned out that removing this extra day was considered a late cancellation, but it was too late to do anything about it.
That will be the end of the complaints, because the hotel is great, and we did a day and a half of touring, and now the conference is happening, and although I am not presenting this time, I do not have a second to spare!
Just pictures for now, but there will be words as well 🙂
The best thing was the day of traveling through the mountains, but you can take as many pictures as you want, and they won’t even remotely describe how it looks and feels!
A recent Time Magazin article talks about the anti-Russian sanctions and how they didn’t work. Unfortunately, nothing in this article is new to me: for several reasons, I have been well aware of a “shadow fleet” and other ways to get around the embargo. The horrifying numbers from this article basically say that about half of the Russian war is funded by EU countries. Again and again, the economy rules and there is not enough political will to change the course … although as I just said, I have hope!
Forteen open tickets, actively working on four of them, all being more than one week long projects
Collaborate with people visiting from our Austin office
Mom:
Introducing a new caregiver
Scheduling somebody present for all days when there will be any medical worker present
Making sure all medical workers have Anna’s phone
Making sure Anna has all caregivers phones
Making sure Mom has an updates schedule on her whiteboard
Postgres business
October meetup: food, drinks, setting things up
Posting about October meetup, sending the video for processing
Scheduing November meetup: verifying the training center availability, submitting the service ticket, asking the speaker for talk description, actual scheduling
Created a new NFP
Applied for EIN
About a half of the tax-exempt application package is ready
ACM
Had a call about possible ways to collaborate
Sent a follow-up email to the ACM Chiago board
The Night Ministry
Scheduled one dinner at the shelter
Talked to several people about other ways to be involved
Other volunteering
Howard-Evanston community board meeting
Other
Doing my nails before departure
Packing (a total disaster this time)
Joffrey a night before departure
I was asked to review a book of my good friend, and I couldn’t say no!
Going to see a ballet the night before my departure was a little bit tight, even if I wasn’t as busy as I ended up, but having all I had this week, it was a crazy idea. I think that if I wasn’t going with my neighbor, I would just stay at home and pack, but I didn’t want to let her down. And OMG, how glad I am that I went! The batter is brilliant! The more Joffrey performances I attend, the more I like them!
I didn’t know that this ballet was based on a novel; I only learned about it from the program notes. I still had the right days to read it, so I got an audiobook and listened nonstop, even when I usually listened to the news. I listened to it almost to the end by Thursday evening so I could follow the plot (and I shared it with my neighbor because otherwise, it would be almost impossible to figure out what was going on on stage).
The epilogue was quite unexpected, and I was eager to find out how the book ended. It turned out that the book ends… well, unexpectedly, but I am not going to put any spoilers here. I loved it! Some comments on Goodreads say that Part One is too slow and not engaging, but I can’t imagine it to be different. I loved the novel, the ballet, and the endings of both.
Hettie's Reflections 