Early afternoon I met up with my Au Pair friend that lives in Athens. She had heard about a place and we decided to check it out after lunch. When we arrived I thought it was going to be like the space and science centre at home but it's not quite. You pay to see individual exhibits, each one has a video, all in Greek though so that didn't do either of us very good. We did find one that sounded good and it's presented live so we got an English description. What we saw was a 3D virtual realty tour of Ancient Olympia and the original Olympic Games. It was awesome! You stand inside what they call "the cave". It's a room with screens to the front, left, right and under your feet. You wear 3D glasses and the "tour guide" uses a controller to move you around. It was like being inside of a video game. It's only downside is that it screws with your balance. I nearly fell down a few times though I was standing still, and I'm sure I probably would have been sick if I stayed in any longer. The "tour" is 15 minutes long and then automatically shuts down because apparently the mind doesn't appreciate being in virtually reality for any longer.
While inside I got to see what everything would have looked like, as well as seeing the statue of Zeus, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. He obviously isn't around anymore so it was kind of exciting to see him where he would have been, even if just on a screen. It also shows the flame, gymnasium, pools, shops, "hotel", etc. After seeing all that we watched a bit of how the games were played and the award ceremony.
This was an awesome thing to see and if you ever have a chance to see something like this, on any subject, I highly recommend you do.
After we finished the tour and had a short walk around the building we went back to the metro and took it to the modern Olympic stadium here in Athens. It is a really bizarre structure and kind of makes me think of a play structure that I want to climb on. We didn't go inside but walked around to see the different areas and took pictures.
Another ride on the metro and back to Plaka for tea and hot chocolate at Starbucks and a short walk around before it got colder and we both headed home.
Again, on the metro, headed towards home, I have never seen it so crowded in all the times of been on. And I'm on a lot. It was the kind of crowded where your arms get pinned at your side and you don't have to worry about holding on to something because you couldn't possibly fall over. After seeing so many people all dressed in the same colors and wearing scarves and carrying flags I figured out that there was a football/soccer game tonight. Once everyone unloaded at the stadium the metro was nearly empty, and much less smelly.
My stop is not far from the stadium and then my usual bus and walk before getting back to the house. Dinner. Retire.
And that is where my night end.
0 comments:
Post a Comment