Day 15: Beta day (#2) in Greece

After visiting the sites in Delphi, and enjoying some authentic Greek cuisine, we went on to the next part of our adventure. The second step on our journey in Greece was going to Olympia, and seeing the archaeological sites and the museum. When we got there, off the bat we knew it would be a hot one, but the troops rallied together and we went on our way. The sites in Olympia were a lot easier to navigate than the ones in Delphi, with a lot less of uphill walking which was to the delight of all of us. What was cool about Olympia was that it was the birthplace of the Olympic Games. It's home to what was once the most important athletic center in Greece. When we first walked in, one of the first things we saw was the Temple of Hera, which was home to one of the Greek masterpieces, the statue of Hermes, with the infant of Dionysus. That statue was discovered in 1877 in the ruins of the Temple of Hera. We saw the statue a little bit later in the day when we visited the museum.

After we saw the Temple of Hera, we continued to walk around the site. The next thing we saw was the Ancient Stadium in Olympia, which was home to the first ancient Olympic Games. The stadium had a 200 meter race way, which unlike tracks today, it was just a straight shot for 200 meters. The crew decided to do a relay rice, and the ones who came out on top were Kaya and Louis. Me and Lin put up a good fight, but we ultimately came up short in the end. So that means I probably would have been looked down upon in ancient Greek times, and not have any statues built of me as a glorified athlete.

Then we went on to see the rest of the sites, which included the Temple of Zeus, the first administrative buildings for the Ancient Olympic Games, and the first place where the athletes were able to train and use their version of locker rooms. My favorite part of all of it was seeing the first locker room areas and stadiums, because it was cool how we started off the trip going to Wembley Stadium and seeing how massive and advanced the stadium is, and then being able to compare it to what they used back when the games first started.

It was an awesome experience being able to go to where the first Olympic Games started, and being able to realize how much the games have transformed over the years, and turn into the great spectacle that they are today. To end the day we got to cool off a bit in the hotel pool, then we jumped on another 3 hour or so bus ride and got to our final destination for this amazing trip, Athens.

I was also able to put on a little bit of a show for my classmates In one of the ancient temples, which is shown below.