great falls, maryland

although i like D.C. and wandering through museums and neighborhoods, sometimes i need to get out of the city and into nature. my friend m and i decided to go climb old rag on this president's day, but were deterred by reports of skyline drive being closed due to snow and the prospect of a long drive without the rewarding climb. so we decided to stick closer to home and go to a D.C. landmark that i haven't been to yet - great falls national park. i'd heard that the maryland side has better hiking and views, so off we went.

once you get out of the city and past the beltway, i'm always surprised by how beautiful it is. this area really does have a lot going for it.


[the great falls]


[the potomac. love that color.]

the maryland side is actual along the chesapeake and ohio canal (so called c&o canal) - built to transport goods up the potomac and get it past those big rocky areas, falls, and rapids. pretty spectacular engineering feat with a series of locks all the way up. originally it was supposed to go all the way to ohio, but construction stopped somewhere in pennsylvania. you can see parts of it go through georgetown still as well.


[c&o canal locks]

we hiked along the "billy goat trail" - so called since it involves lots of rock scrambling along the side of the river. love it. i would go hiking on that trail just because it's called the "billy goat trail"


[thanks to m for being my model]

it's been a fairly mild winter here with no snow worth mentioning minus a few dustings that melted immediately. but it has dipped below freezing pretty regularly. all along the trail were icicles and frozen pools with beautiful patterns inside the ice. loved it.





and we saw some wildlife!



excellent way to pass a beautiful president's day!

greece, athens

and then ... i got lazy and stopped writing in my blog, which i have honestly loved keeping for the past few years and am sorry that it has fallen by the wayside.

the main update is that we are still waiting on our fiancé visa for iván to come back to the states. and that my knauss fellowship ended at the end of january. it was hard to leave, and i am sad to have such an incredible, challenging, thought-provoking year end. i started a temporary contract with the highly migratory species management division with NMFS (i worked with this group on ICCAT/atlantic tuna/shark/swordfish stuff during my fellowship year) and am enjoying seeing a different side of fisheries management and loving new challenges, new things to learn, etc. i am still searching for something a bit more permanent to come along, but for the moment, am pleased to still be in D.C. and in a job that i like.

can you handle a multitude of posts about what has happened since i last updated in august?

starting in july in athens, greece.

as i look through my photos from that trip, i feel again that sense of awe that fills you when you see ancient ruins. and athens .... and the parthenon ... is spectacular. at the time i was there, riots were occurring fairly regularly about the economic crisis in greece and i was expecting to see protests and evidence of unemployment, but did not. the week i was in athens, there was a lull in protests. i was lucky - i'd heard bad things about visiting athens as a white, solo female, but really didn't encounter any problems. i also stick to touristy places and tend to not go out at night (or at least far from my hotel).

the view from my hotel room:



words cannot describe that site and how it takes your breath away. the area around the acropolis - and where the agora and theatres and all the quintessential landmarks of ancient greece - was recently transformed into a pedestrian promenade, without cars and traffic to worry about as you wander (and if you're me, wide-eyed and jaw gaping) through these ancient sites. it makes for a lovely experience.

i got to the acropolis as it opened (avoid crowds!) and spent a good hour at the top of the plateau soaking in the greek sunshine, taking photos, and gawking at these sites. my high school art history class came rushing back, mixed with my freshmen college class in western traditions, and ... really i have no words.


[erechtheion]


[caryatids]


[temple of poseidon. i like that you can see the old and new marble in the wall]


[parthenon]


[pediments, metopes, frieze]


[temple of athena nike]


[a view to see/a from the top of the acropolis. i was lucky to have such a gorgeous clear day]

as you come down from the acropolis, you pass by the odean of herodes atticus, where to this day, they hold performances. unfortunately, there was nothing there the days i was in town. but something else to come back to greece for. can you imagine sitting in those stands, built in 161 AD (built by a roman), and see a show?



i wandered through the ancient agora, where socrates himself spoke. they have restored a "stoa" there (a covered walkway that was a shopping area). people used to gather here to watch the panathenaic procession. there's a museum inside, with some great models that help to show what it would have looked like with actual buildings (and not just the ruins that remain) plus the everyday items that were found here.


[view of the agora coming down from the acropolis]


[the restored stoa of attalos]




[the wonderful contrast - graffiti-covered metro train passing by the stoa]

the acropolis museum is astonishing. no pictures allowed inside, but this is where the items recovered from the acropolis are housed. the whole thing is stunning - its modern architecture and style contrasts and compliments the ancient items it houses and shares a site with. the glass atrium on the top floor is built in alignment with the parthenon and allows you to see the frieze and sculptures from the temple. most astonishing are the plaster white replicas of the frieze - the originals were stolen from greece in 1801 and are currently in the british museum - more than HALF the frieze from the parthenon is in britain. maybe the brits should give them back to greece....


[when they built the museum, they found ruins underneath - an ancient athenian neighborhood and designed the building so you can see them.]

i basically did the whole tour of the ancient sites and went to at least 4 different museums. a few other highlights was the temple to olympian zeus and seeing the changing of the guards in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier by the parliament building.


[temple of olympian zeus. those columns are massive.]


[changing of the guard. i like their outfits.]

i must say, that even though i do love pottery and statues and the wonders of greek art in general, i was potteried and statued out by the end of my two days in athens.