Agora Galore

Today (thankfully) was a much more "normal" day. We went to see the Roman agora which was even more beautiful because so much more of it remains since it's of a later period.

Below, the Roman "Tower of the Winds," an eight-sided building representing each of the eight directions on a compass. It was most likely used as a planetarium.

Next, we saw a beautiful old mosque called Fethiye.

Afterwards, we went to another section of the Roman agora and saw Hadrian's library (built in 137 A.D.) which once held thousands of ancient records, all of which were burned when the library was destroyed by the Herulae in 267 A.D. The Herulae were a nomadic Germanic people who were originally hired as mercenaries in the Roman empire and then settled as a tribe. In this part of the agora, there is also a public bath house, public bath rooms, and beautiful open courtyards and covered pathways.

Of course, there were "stray" dogs at this site. Two were clearly "top dogs" and kept fighting with this other one whenever he came into a certain section of the agora. It was a little scary/funny because they started fighting in the middle of this little asian family and the asian family didn't really know what to do.

Anywho, at the Roman agora, there were also remnants of some beautiful mosaic floors in some of the structures.

By 1 p.m., we had the rest of the day to ourselves (no class, woo!). Since we were already near downtown Athens, a few of us went to our favorite dessert place that makes killer baklava and filtered coffee, so I had a nice cup of hot, fresh, brewed joe :) mmm. Did some grocery shopping, took a little nap, went for a run, and now we're studying for our Greek History midterm which is tomorrow. Yikes! Wish me luck!