Monday 10th July: Athens

I woke up very nervous. I don't like being in front of people (is something like scenic-fear). I wore the clothes I had chosen for the event, the Awards Giving Ceremony. After that Alex (Andrej's teacher) appeared, and gave me the good advice of not wearing so good before breakfast (what could have happened if I had thrown the orange juice in my trousers?). I had breakfast, and then I got dressed very quickly. We all went to the Zappion Palace, a very beautiful building trying to imitate ancient temples. Unfortunately, I was so nervous, and I couldn't take any photo of it, or of the giving ceremony. But Georgios Pavlakos, from the Ancient Greek Language Conservation Organism (ODEG), took a lot, so these photos are by him (Efjaristw polí!).

This are the photos from the giving moment, when the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs gave me the diploma. The photo below is the "Spanish representation" of the contest!! In order, are: my teacher Concha, me, the Minister, Tania's teacher and Tania.

And these are the photos of each of us! I've got some photos of all of you (well, I supose not all, but most of you...). Here is Marina Pasin, from Cyprus, receiving the diploma.

And now Margarita Iliopoulou, from the beautiful city of Kalamata (I know it's beautiful because she sent me a postcard!).

And... it's turn of The Three B......!! They are a very good musical group, and now they're preparing a new CD. I'm their manager, so I have to make good press of them... The first is Despoina Sideri, from Thessaloniki.

The second one is Aspa (Aspasia Pitou in official forms), from Katerini. Is also known as the Mafiosa I (the second one is Marina the Italian).

And the photo with all of us!! I think is one of the best photos of the trip, because only in that moment (and also in Nafplion Pallamidi's Fortress) we are all together. The thing is that we were a lot, and the photo couldn't take all of us. I've got Mr. Pavlakos' photos where only appear the pupils, but I preferred to publish the photo where also teachers appear.

And that's all!! After that wonderful ceremony, we got the bus and went to have lunch at Skoufias (I think that in that ocassion food was excellent!!). After that we went to the National Archaeological Museum, placed in a big square with lots of trees. Unfortunately, I run out of battery soon, so the photos I have from it are Mislav's (thanks again!). However, I chose only a few photos from the museum, and this is one of them: a funeral stela, a very beautiful one, which represents a woman being attended by her servant. It transmitted real sadness, and also the way of representing clothes is very special and natural.

Of course, I couldn't forget the Agammemnon Mask, one of the most popular archaeological treasures of all History. Discovered by Schliemann, he thought it was Agammemnon one, but that isn't true, because he was a legendary king, not a real one. In the photo there are other things, like another mask, and more funeral articles, which were used to cover the Mycenaeans' kings.

Very near to Agammemnon Mask were the Mycenaean jewels, very, very artistic and well-made (lots of actual jewels aren't as good as those). I became stunned when I started to see the marvellous thing those people could do with gold (also with bronze). Time flew again, and we had to leave, so I had a last look to all those wonderful things and I promised myself I was going to return.

After the visit, we return to the hotel, and prepared for dinner. That night we were going to go to a theatre to watch a traditional Greek music concert. That was an amazing way to get to know Greek music, and I was very happy with that idea. We went to a theatre called "Theatre of Roks". It was in the middle of some mountains, and was a wooden building similar to ancient ones. All was crowded, and we had to walk a bit to get a proper place to sit down. The concert started, and the music was very good, very beautiful, but soon we (Aspa, Tania and me) realized that was going to last a lot. We became more and more bored, and after an hour and a half we were desperate, so we went (now also with Jessica) out of the theatre and we went to a bar to drink something. We started to feel human again, and after some time the concerted ended and we returned to the hotel, thinking we had to pack all the things, because the next day we had to move to Tolo.