In Athens

A couple of things at the National Museum which I went to as I happened to walk by it.

This 5th century dedicatory stele depicts a scene from the myths related to the Mysteries of Eleusis: on the left, the goddess Demeter gives an ear of corn to Triptolemos, so that he may give it to the humankind and thus teach it agriculture. On the right, Persephone, daughter of Demeter, watches.

An early 5th century bronze, variously identified as either Zeus or Poseidon. This is an example of the so called Severe Classical style, for which anatomical precision was typical.

My plane was at the Athens airport shortly before 2 pm. To my joy, I found that they have in the last six years built a metro line that takes you straight to the city. It's super modern and has air conditioning. In central Athens, I had to change line a couple of times, and by that time it was already rush hour so the metro was like a can of sardines. A very warm - several degrees above 20 C - and humid weather, so by the time I got to the hostel of the Finnish Institute I was soaked. A quick shower, and off I went to walk around a bit. On first glance, it doesn't seem like Athens has changed much in the last six years, apart from there being some new stores and cafes and such and some places that used to be there having gone out of business (particularly I was disappointed to find that a Greek fast food place not too far from the hostel where you could get great pork pitas has now been replaced by a Pizza Hut). Athens is still very very noisy and everybody drives a car everywhere. I don't think I've seen as many cars anywhere else. I'd better not walk along the major streets too much, otherwise I'm liable to get a lung disease from the exhaust fumes of the car.