Lodging

We will stay in flats (apartments) in Athens and hotels when we are on the road. I include links to some of the hotels we've stay in on previous trips, but there is no promise we'll be in the same place this time.

Note: while clean and safe these hotels are not as luxurious as their websites make them out to be!

Athens
Art Gallery (2015)
Parthenon (2009, 2013)
Philippos (2012)

Nafplio
Agamemnon (2013)
Victoria (2012)
Rex (2009)

Olympia
Neda Hotel (2015)
Europa (2013)
Ilis (2012)

Delphi
Olympic (2015)
Acropole (2012, 2013)
Villa Apollonia (2009)

Kalambaka
Kaikis (2015)

Thessaloniki
Luxembourg (2015)

 

 Anticipated Schedule

This is the outline of what we do. The May term trip had a different schedule and logistics, you can see information on it here. Look at this as general outline, and subject to (modest) revision.

11/16, 11/17

Pre trip meeting, Ford Hall (attend one)

Sign up for site report
Select roommates

Tues, Dec 29

Fly to Greece

Be at MSP airport by 5pm for 7:20pm departure.
Readings:

  • C: "Before we land in Athens" (logistics and historical overview)
  • C: Peter Hall, “The Fountainhead: Athens 500-400BC”, Cities in Civilization, 1998
  • C: “Expansion and renaissance”, The Rough Guide, 2008

Take self quiz at end of the section

Wed, Dec 30

Arrive 4pm
Orientation meeting
Walking tour
Opening symposium (dinner)
Safety meeting

Discussion: "First impressions"

Thurs, Dec 31

Acropolis
Acropolis Museum

Group dinner at Taverna
New Year’s Eve in Syntagma Sq.

Readings:
C: “The Acropolis”

Fri, Jan 1

Class discussions:

  •  “Intro to the class"
  •  “Approaching the past: Homer and the Amazons”
  • “Independent and contemporary Greece”
  • C: Section 2: “Democracy”
  • C: "Athenian Civics 101: Direct Democracy in the Periklean Age."
  • C: “The Mytilenian Debate”, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides, book 3 (36-50)

Sat, Jan 2

Orientation meeting
Pnyx (Assembly Grounds)
“Their democracy and ours”
Kerameikos
“Is Pericles right about Athens?”
Subway museums

Student reports: Pnyx, Courts, Economy, Pericles
Readings:

  • C: Thucydides, “Pericles’ Funeral Oration” in History of the Peloponnesian War, book 2.35-45
  • C: "Funeral Epitaphs", Stylianos Spyriadkis, Bradley Nystrom, Ancient Greece: Documentary Perspectives.

Actors practice for theater

Sun, Jan 3

Theater of Dionysus “Aristophanes and the Sophists”
Reader’s theater performance
Agora

Student report: Theater of Dionysus
Actors 1, 2 & 3: Reader’s Theater
Readings:

  • C: Thomas Schmitz, "Orality - Literacy" in Modern Literary Theory and Ancient Texts
  • C: "Introduction to Aristophanes' Clouds"

Mon, Jan 4

Small Museums
Class:

  • Discuss Museum visits
  • Rhetoric
  • Democracy

Self study guide on rhetoric due (at start of class)
Student report: Rhetoric
Visit small museums
Report on Museum trip
Readings:

  • "Conceptualizing Rhetoric"
  •  C: Section 3: “Rhetoric”
  • R: Sections 1-4

Tues, Jan 5

Corinth canal / “U.S. Marshall plan”
Roman Corinth / “Rhetoric in the New Testament” / “Greek Religion and Christianity”
Karonis tour
Mycenae

Journal  1 due by departure
Start of bus tour
Student reports: Corinth, Mycenae
Overnight in Nafplio

Wed, Jan 6

Theater of Epidaurus
Epiphany celebration.
Medieval forts in Nafplio (Ottoman, Venetian and Frankish culture)

Student report: Epidaurus
Overnight in Nafplio

Thurs, Jan 7

Preserved mountain village of Dimitsana and the Open-Air Water Power Museum

Overnight in Olympia

Fri, Jan 8

Olympia
“Sports, religion and women”
Rio bridge (impressive modern engineering achievement)
Galaxidi (rural fishing village; former shipping hub)

Student report: Olympia
Overnight in Delphi
Journal 2 due

Sat, Jan 9

Delphi (Including Sanctuary of Athena Pronoia and Castalian spring) / “Greek religion” / “Women and the oracle”
Monastery of Ossios Loukas
Distomo Memorial (WWII massacre)

Student reports: Delphi, Ossios Loukas
Overnight in Delphi

Sun, Jan 10

Meteora monasteries (striking spire site; Byzantine art and culture) /  "Visual rhetoric as illustrated by Orthodox icons and frescos"

Student report: Meteora
Overnight in Kalambaka

Mon, Jan 11

Tomb of Philip at Vergina (Hellenistic site)
"Hellenistic Greece"

Student report: Philip and Alexander
Overnight in Thessaloniki

Tues, Jan 12

Roman site
Archeological museum
Byzantine site
Explore city

Student report: Greek Jews
Overnight in Thessaloniki

Wed, Jan 13

Jewish museum / “Neo-Nazism in Contemporary Greece”
Class: “Northern Greece”

Overnight in Thessaloniki

Thurs, Jan 14

Dion / Mt. Olympus (brief stop to view mountain)

Overnight in Athens

Fri, Jan 15

National Archeological Museum
Closing symposium and graduation

Do class eval (online)

Sat, Jan 16

Integrative discussion
Free time

Discussion: “Putting it all together / how have we changed?”
Transitioning back
Report on National Museum
Final journal  due
Class evaluations (online) due

Sun, Jan 17

Fly home

Check out and be ready for bus to airport at 4:15am
Arrive in MN same day.
Flights

You must either travel with the group (and me) to Greece or make sure you will be at the airport when we arrive. We are doing activities right upon our arrival. You can make separate plans for travel home if you wish or come back with the rest of the group.

Typically, we fly to an east coast city, change planes and fly non-stop overnight to Athens.

On the way back we do it in reverse, only because of time changes we arrive late on the same day we depart.

After you are accepted you will get detailed information on flights.