Tag: museum

Acropolis

When we were in Athens last time, we wandered around without tour guides, and I wanted to take one “proper” tour. I booked it for the first half of Tuesday so that I would be free to meet with people arriving on Tuesday afternoon.

Short summary: too many people! Back in 2014, we were in Athens in March. It was warm and there was enough tourists around, so I pictured pretty much the same in the second half of October, but I was wrong! This time, there were crowd and crowns, and one stream of people moving up the the Parthenon, and another stream moving dows. The marble steps polished my millions of feet made these ups and downs quite adventurous.

It was still beautiful, and the sky was still blue, but I missed the lonely climbs we had back then, when at least at some moments, there was nobody except of us, the mountains, and the marble.

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The Delphi Museum And Going Back

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 causes
Did 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 BC
I 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

Archeopteryx In The Field Museum

The archaeopteryx acquired by the Field Museum in 2022 is only the 13th ever found – I didn’t know they were so rare! And there were tons of other things about archeopteryx that I didn’t know; I learned them yesterday during the discussion in the Field Museum. It was the opening night for Chicago archeopteryx – it took two years for scientists to prepare this fossil for the exhibition. Two lead scientists answered the audience’s questions. They were visibly excited about the new research prospects and said a book was in the works.

Other things I learned:

  • All archeopteryxes found so far didn’t reach their maturity and were still going, so we do not know the size of an adult.
  • It’s close to impossible to tell the gender of the species.
  • We do not know what they ate, but most likely insects (judging by the teeth enamel)
  • All birds lost their teeth in the process of evolution, and scientists are unsure why. All birds swallow small stones to grind the food in their stomachs (anyone who ever butchered a chicken would agree :))
  • The feathered were not for flying originally, but rather for temperature preservation, and the ability to fly was an extra bonus 🙂

Things Are Working When People Are

Today, after a very long break, I went to the Art Institute with the youth from the shelter. C. tried very hard to make things happen that time, but in the end, the only reason everything worked was the staff, who suddenly became available and ready to drive the youth to the museum. I just started to describe what was going wrong and how there was no way it could work, but then I deleted two paragraphs because, in the end, the important part was that there were three really engaged residents and the amazing staff, and everything worked perfectly!

For all of the youth, it was their first visit to the Art Institute, and they were overwhelmed with the options. They wanted to stop by each object on their way and read everything about it. As always, there were remarkable observations and unexpected questions. As always, there was a stop at Amorino after the museum was closed. As (almost) always, the youth thanked me for the outing. One of the youth was especially thankful and said: Sorry, I am not really cultural, I do not know anything about art and I didn’t know what I would like, but I liked everything!

And here is very tired and very happy I.

Michigan Central Restoration

Continuing from here. It is such an amazing, such an unbelievable, and such an American story! Between 1988 and 2018, the building was not only vandalized but also looted. When Ford Motors bought the building and started the restoration, they wanted to have as many pieces of the original station as possible, so they asked everybody who had taken something from the abandoned building to return these pieces, no questions asked. And people started to bring these things back! There is a whole exhibit on the station’s ground floor showing what was returned – it’s amazing! Not just small objects, but the pieces of staircases, parts of light fixtures, and even the big clock!

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Another Chicago Weekend

I love having Lena in Chicago because she likes the same things that I like, so her favorite weekend is also my favorite. If she had a mini-vacation (which I hope she did), I also had it!

She arrived on Friday, and we even had some time to talk, but I was too tired to stay up late (on Thursday evening, my Amazon Fresh order was delayed, and I had to wait until 11:30PM!). But the next two days, we had a blast!

I made salmon and broccoli quiche for breakfast. My balcony is in the middle of repair, but they allowed us to but the furniture back during the non-working hours
Millenium Park had only two entrances open because of the 20-years celebration, and some parts were permanently closed, so we had to go through security multiple times
We were the first to enter the Art Institute on Saturday, and it was my third time to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit.
We also saw the Christina Ramber retrospective, but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.
Then we went to the Member’s Lounge Bar
… and took tons of pictures of ourselves. BTW, Lena talked me into wearing a dress that day, saying that her only opportunity to wear a dress was when she visited me in Chicago.
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Aquarium

Today, we visited the Aquarium. I love this museum, and I reserved the tickets immediately after knowing my friends were coming. This was a great idea since the Aquarium was sold out for the day!

What I completely forgot (or ignored) was that this weekend is a NASCAR weekend. Although the races are happening during the weekend, the street closures started a week before (and would still be there the week after). Last night, I tried to figure out what exactly would be opened and closed, but without any luck.

That being said, getting there was quite an adventure, and Sonia (the youngest child and my goddaughter) was screaming that she couldn’t go anymore, but when we finally got to the Aquarium, all the hardships were forgotten! I love when people love the Aquarium and when they not just quickly browse the exhibits but actually pay attention to all of them, so it was a real joy!

We spent five hours in the Aquarium, and that’s only because we skipped the show and a big portion of it is closed for renovation. And a way back seemed not as bad!

Back To Tallinn

We returned to Tallinn at 8 PM and had a very late dinner at Pepper Sack:

I took the outside photo the next day, at daylight
Moose meatballs
Apple and raisin cinnamon crepes
Sorbet boat
The Holland-style Townhall photo
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Georgia O’Keeffe Exhibit

I just mentioned it briefly, but I wanted to write about it “properly.” Not even to write – there is not much to say about it except that it is marvelous, but just to show the pieces I admired the most. And I am sure I will visit this exhibit many-many times…

:)

I got out of my office building and hopped on the J14 bus to get to the Art Institute. I was smiling, because I saw the Big News just twenty minutes before. And everybody was smiling. And those who didn’t smile when they got on the bus started smiling when they got themselves situated and took out their phones. The seats on the right and on the left of me started to fill as the bus was making stops. A lady on my right looked up at me and asked: Did you hear? Yes, I did! They were fast to decide! Well, not that fast … but I am glad it didn’t take days! Yes! And now the question is, what’s next!

I got off the bus and went straight to the Art Institute. Today was the first day of the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit preview. I almost never can make it to the first preview day, and that’s the best time to see a new exhibit with very few people attending. Miraculously, there was almost no line at the bag check, and the virtual line for the exhibit was also almost non-existent.

While I was there, I received several texts from my friends – Did you hear? – Yes, I did! I do not know how many people around me were answering similar texts, but there were a lot of smiles around. OK, this could be all for Georgia O’Keeffe 🙂

I knew were I wanted to go when I got out of the Art Institute – just across the road to Amorino!

Several new flavors, including biscotti and cinnamon:)

And when I got off the Red Line, I saw that sign by the Jarvis Square Tavern:

… I love living in Rogers Park!