National Archaeological Museum of Athens, what a nasty thing to say...

I went back to the National Archaeological Museum on Saturday 13 July. The kids love it and we went to all sections open to the public (apart from the bronze collection), twice.

I was trying to see the museum through the eyes of the tourists writing for the Virtual Tourist website, and especially as regards the staff. The staff in Greek museums are notoriously awful, but this maxim is more rooted in anecdotal evidence than any empirical data. I have my own tale of thoughtful and service-oriented staff (years ago, I managed to have the pot rooms opened for a private viewing of the Pitsa tablets just by asking nicely), so I am not going to say that they are all bad.

Some comments from virtual tourist: Some of these are two-star reviews, some three-star reviews.


Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
Paid 21 euros for three people. At 2.50pm we were rudely shooed out the door. The museum closed at 3pm
My comment: Aside from the fact that most get kicked out a full 20 minutes sooner, I just want to focus on the “rudely” point – we will be reading this sort of thing a lot below.

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
The entire staff is VERY unpleasant: no adjustment, no friendliness (no hello or goodbye, no smile, unable to point out the toilet ...) I am very passionate about the history of art and I visited many museums in Europe and I've never seen that anywhere else! People expected to monitor different rooms are dressed like they’re going to the beach, they stand no matter how (sometimes sprawled on their seats) they make phonecalls (!) laugh hard (!) mock visitors (!) have long conversations making fun of the visitors who are minding their own business, but what annoyed me the most is that two male guards followed me 2 or 3 rooms bestowing lecherous glances and smirks on me (I'm a 27 year old woman and there were few visitors).
My comment: The review is actually titled, “Superb collection / horrible staff!” Let’s add horrible to rude (and probably ought to add ‘creepy’ too). Perhaps over the top, but smoke/fire… Also let’s hang on to the dressed for the beach description (we’ll see some similar stuff below).

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
Unfortunately the exhibits are poorly presented and the staff look like they've just walked in from the street. They're shocking.
My comment: Ho hum. Let’s add “shocking” then. The funny thing is, that most of the staff do actually look like they’ve been dragged in off the street. Wouldn’t call it shocking, but it’s not a good impression.

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
This museum, though it had great substance in it, was in the ghetto and I was scared to leave my bag in the front. No uniforms for the staff which look like out of work volunteers.
My comment: Aha – so what the review above does not say is that they look like they’ve come of the street and this street is ghetto street (I have not linked to all the reviews talking about the drug dealers / users in the streets around the museum, but they are there – both the reviews and the druggies).

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
However, the most famous [galleries, with] the sculptures, were closed for some reason. Looking at the map of the museum at the entrance, it seemed to be the bulk of the museum. No idea why they were closed off. I asked one employee and all she said was "It's closed exhibition".
My comment: OK so, moving on now from how they look, dress and stalk, let’s have a look at how they deal with visitors’ questions. To the question “why is this closed” the guard answers, “it’s closed”. Genius.

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
In addition, the staff were extremely irritating. Whether they were chatting hard in groups or standing over your head to see if you were doing something wrong. In some rooms where you could photograph the objects, you may not take pictures of descriptions, or your fellow travelers. Bizarre. The guards follow you about in an extremely annoying way. Very uncomfortable.
My comment: OK – so photography in museums aside, the guards were chatting away in groups or intimidating the visitors. More on this later.

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
I visited the National Museum and have not seen something like this in my life and I have seen many sites and museums: poor education and lack of respect for the tourists from the employees of the Museum. They are most unfriendly people. They don’t know how to say things nicely, but do so screaming.
My comment: Unfriendly, lack of respect for the tourist. Shouting at the tourist... not much I can say about this.

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
I feel like my experience was ruined because of a grumpy old Greek man that yelled at us for taking pictures with the sculptures. Even though photography is allowed, he told us that if we wanted to pose with the artwork, we should just go to a photo studio. This museum needs to train it's employees on how to treat their guests.
My comment: Couldn’t have put it better myself. I am not commenting on the ‘unjust law’, but on the way it is enforced.

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
What we did not know was it only opened till 3pm, and they started to kick you out 20 min before, the staff also chatted too loud, a leisurely operated museum.
My comment: Leisurely, unless you dare to take a photo... then you get the screaming and the shouting.

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
I agree with my fellow-travellers below that the staff is terrible. Did not agree to take my coat in the cloakroom, were rude etc.
My comment: Back to “rude”

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
I travelled from Ireland to come and research this stunning collection. Breathtaking but two tips, go first thing at 9.30 to avoid the crowds, and expect the staff, who almost outnumber visitors, to have either an arrogant or apathetic attitude - 80% horrid staff. 
My comment: Title of the review is “Excellent museum despite the arrogant staff” – are we beginning to see a pattern here?

Review source: click for full Tripadvisor review
The staff in the rooms seem to be rather too full of their own self importance and indeed one of them told my husband to delete a picture he had taken of our daughter beside one of the exhibits as she was posing like the statue. He told my husband she could have her picture taken with it if she stood with her arms by her side!
My comment: Again the photography rule, but “full of their own self-importance” says a lot, no?



So, rounding all this up, I would like to add my own three tales with guards, totally anecdotally - keeping in mind that many are great and actually interested in their work and don’t dress like they’ve been dragged in off the street.

In the sculpture rooms, just before the horse and jockey, the guard was sat on a bench for the best part of two hours chatting with a woman who could have been his sister or mother (both the guard and his interlocutor were both at that age where either could be likely). They both looked dishevelled and he took no interest in his room while chatting. This reminded me of the dragged off the street comments.

In the second room with the archaic sculpture, I noticed one of the lights was not working. I pointed this out to the guard and we had a nice surreal discussion. It went a little like this:

- that light seems to be not working
(I was pointing at this light):

One of these kids is doing his own thing...

- you’ll have to ask at the information desk about that
- err, no. The light is not working, I don’t need to ask about it, look (I point)
- if it is not intended to be off, the technical department will sort it out
- does it look like it is meant to be off?
(the guard was in a room where the exhibits looked like this):

Kore in the dark, well-lit kouros

- the technical department is responsible for lighting
- and how will they find out if no one tells them?


As an experiment, I am not going to tell anyone just to see when (if ever) it will be fixed.

[edit: on Saturday 7 September the blown bulb had been fixed - so something is working…]

My final anecdotal piece of the day involves a game of ping-pong played by the guards in the vase room. I was looking for the Dipylon inscription (only the oldest evidence for the Greek alphabet currently in Greece – so not really an obscure thing – link to Greek wiki, link to English wiki). I told them I was looking for the pot with the really old inscription, and one guard bounced me into the next room, then the other bounced me back into the first room, the first guard displaying total ignorance of vase shapes in the process.

Disappointing, though my fault in part for not recalling that it's called the Dipylon Oenochoe. It would be interesting to try the experiment again using the actual name of the thing. Anyone want to put money down on whether they will take me to it?

So – what is the MiniCult going to do about the appalling state of its human resources? Sweet bugger-all, no doubt.


Oh, and a cute video from the visit:

Open e-mail to the New Acropolis Museum

" Is the museum still implementing its no-photography policy? If so, how is it justified, given that the archaeological law (Ν. 3028/2003) in conjunction with the joint decision of the Ministers of the Economy and Culture of 28 December 2011 (126463, Article 1.1) permits free photography in museums when carried out with non-professional equipment?

What is the procedure for an interested amateur photographer to be granted permission to take photographs inside the museum for personal / educational purposes? Many thanks for your time. "

So - let's see what they reply.

Kerameikos cemetery and museum

On the Sunday after Easter, I took A to the Kerameikos. I wanted to have another look at the sub-mycenaean and protogeometric pots after my visit to Nauplio archaeological museum a week before and the Easter holidays seemed to give themselves to this, what with the gentle beginnings of spring coming on. It was going to be quite an adventure. I had not yet been left alone in charge of A out of doors for quite so many hours, and we had public transport and dangerous roads to deal with (and a lot more besides).

The metro station called Kerameikos (despite what the name may suggest) is not the closest stop to the site and museum. The closest is actually the Thiseio stop, but this does not have the escalators to help with arriving and leaving with a pram. Do not make the same mistake I made and expect anyone in the vicinity of the metro station to know how to go to the homonymous archaeological site and museum from the metro. Do not even expect them to know that the stop they are standing in is named after the old cemetery which used to stand in the potter's quarter. That's the sort of mistake that idiots with over-idealized images of their own countries make.

Finally getting oriented with the GPS maps on my swanky Nokia 5800 (which them promptly proceded to die on me) we set off up Pireos towards the entrance of the Kerameikos. At some point in between death-defying maneuvers necessitated by the lack of pavement on some parts of the road, I realized that A. was missing a sock. She had been playing with them, and evidently she'd been playing with the sock formerly on her right foot a little too much. We proceeded barefoot for the rest of the journey. It was a Sunday, early afternoon. The fleasiest part of the flea market is set up just outside the entrance to the site and with it a plethora of 'used' goods, prospective buyers and the sort of people who trade in used goods of uncertain provenance. Great.

Once we found the entrance, behind a stack (literally) of used stereos and speaker systems, the museum and surprisingly the site itself are quite pram-friendly.

The museum is essentially a square building with an atrium-like light well in the centre. Gone are the old-school wooden cases from years ago (that you can still see in museums like Thera and Naxos). Everything is new and shiny, including the patches of damp causing the paint to bubble and crumble in some places.

One side of the square houses the sculpture - two kouroi, a number of sphinxes and some grave stele, together with a boundary marker with interesting epigraphy. There are also some classical family grave markers of the overly classical style which is too much for me. The exhibition passes into the Atrium where the large marble bull memorial draws all the attention and smaller low relief works sit around the edges overshadowed by the bull. From there, we start the history of Athenian pottery…

The first leg covers the sub-mycenaean, protogeometric and geometric eras.

Next we have the first representational ceramics, going through to the mature black and red figure eras.

The final leg of the square has more classical and too much hellenistic pottery. Labelling is in the most rudimentary name rank and serial number style which characterises so many Greek museums, which is a pity as there is a lot of potential to explain aspects of the ancient world in this museum.

Pieces I particularly enjoyed are:


Grave marker - bearded boxer: The piece was found re-incorporated into the Themistoclean walls of Athens as a spolion. It is remarkable for being a quite individualistic portrayal of a presumably recognisable person at a time when portraiture was not really developed.



Boundary marker, showing the boundary of the road for Eleusis (a nearby town with a very important sanctuary, the road for which passes through the cemetery of the Kerameikos): ΗΟΡΟΣ ΤΕΣ ΟΔΟ[Υ] ΤΕΣ ΕΛΕΥΣΙΝΑΔΣΙ
It is interesting to see the H being used as a rough breathing on the word Horos, but not on Hodos and also interesting to see the E used where we would expect an H. Guys who dig epigraphy could probably date it on these grounds alone to the nearest five years, but this kinda thing ain't my bag, baby.



It's archaic. I like it for the hair, for the hands and for the smile, although I did not make a note, so I cannot write too much about this.



The cinerary urn from tomb 18/I of the Kerameikos cemetery in Athens dates from the 10th century BC and aside from the wavy lines, sports one of the earliest depictions of horses in Attic vase painting.



From a tomb dating between 750 and 700 BC. The depiction of the warrior is pretty standard - helmet plume, beard, twin spears and swords together with a sort of "boeotian" shield. I like this sherd because you can clearly see the individual brushstrokes used to make up the warrior and at the same time you have a nice look into a cross section of the fabric.



This vase dates from the first quarter of the eighth century BC and depicts two men taming a horse. It is one of the earliest depictions of the human form in Attic vase painting.



From a tomb dating between 740 and 730 BC. The tripod shape is one associated with ritual use, burnt offerings or funerary meals. The decoration is split into two bands - a frieze along the top showing standard geometric-era warriors and little vignetted warriors wrestling lions in the legs. The depiction of the warrior is pretty standard - helmet plume, beard, twin spears and swords together with a sort of "boeotian" shield, alternating with the standard round shield. The lion in the lower register is depicted as a ferocious beast, but clearly not one with which the artist is familiar.

More pots can be viewed on Flickr here: A visit to the Kerameikos in April 2010

We then went outside with A. for a photograph together in the Kerameikos proper.

New acropolis museum - opening soon... or is it?

I am writing to complain about the sheer volume of information that is being poured on us Athenian Culture-Vultures about the opening of the new Acropolis Museum.

As of 3 June a mere 17 days away from the opening, no press release has been released by the Greek Ministry of Culture. Did I write Ministry of Culture, I meant to write the ministry for has-been ministers moved over here to keep a low profile while fat-man general secretary "bounce" Zachopoulos skims the cream off the milk.

So - where were we? Ah, yes. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Don't believe me? Look at the photo - screen grab from the press-release page of the MiniCult on 3 June. Mr. Samaras, the man who loved Greece enough to resign as Foreign Minister when the borders were opened in the early nineties seems less enamoured of Greece now. He has the perfect opportunity to bring the world's attention to this country and to our showcase super-duper-wow museum. Paging Mr. Samaras!

So, I wish I could write more about the opening. Truth is, I know nothing about it. There is no information on the site of the MiniCult and no information on the site of the museum itself other than the opening date of 20 June.

If I were a journalist in foreign parts I would not know anything about the opening of this museum. That is a shame, Mr. Samaras. And it's all yours.

Mayday! Mayday!

So, the practice of leaving the city for the countryside in order to catch "May" probably has its roots in pre christian times and is probably independent of the calendar itself.

We left Athens on Tuesday morning with a hamper full of goodies lovingly and painstakingly prepared by K during the afternoon and evening of the 30th of April. The plan was to go and visit a sinkhole at Skourta in Boetia, survey it and assist Komni dive the sump at the end of it.

The weather was not so good, cloudy and drizzly. On reaching the sinkhole, we saw that water was running into it, making it potentially dangerous to enter, and certainly dangerous to attempt a dive.

We re-routed the party from the plain of Skourta back onto Mount Parnes and headed for the fort of Phyle. Here we were met with a rather disconcerting spectacle: close to a hundred day trippers each with a portable barbecue and popular music of the most degenerate popular nature blaring from the car radios. We walked up to the fortifications, past one family group which was preparing to barbecue what looked suspiciously like genuine cantral asian shashlik and sat around admiring the view of Athens from the fort. Bored, and having sated our mayday induced urge to gather flowers and weave them into garlands, we split up, some going back home, others for rock climbing and us, with hamper safely in the boot, heading off to make a quick tour of the castles of the Attiko-boetian borderland.

Our tour was not as successful as we may have liked and our sprits were a touch dampened by the lack of sunshine. We drove up some exciting dirt tracks following ministry signposts to castles and forts on the way to the tower at Oinoe, and from there we went on to what was once called the castle of the Gypsies - Gyftokastro, but unsurprisingly this name is being used less and less in favour of the fort's ancient name - Eleutheriai.



This is a nice little fort situated in a very commanding position on top of one of the few roads linking Thebes to Athens, and it is in very good condition.

Google Earth shows it very nicely:

We walked around here for a while and took our hamper to Erythrai. Not finding the fort here (note to MiniCult - what about a signpost guys?), we went on to Plataea, saw the walls of the city, were unimpressed and set off for Kithairon with our hamper, spending about 45minutes trying to squeeze our way through the 4x4 infested streets of Villia.

And there on Kithairon, the scene of Oidipous'exposure, and Aktaions and dismemberment, but also (more happily) the scene of one of our first trips out of Athens with K (before we started going out), and with a rather cold wind blowing, we enjoyed our picnic at 1080m altitude.

Photos and possibly more videos as and when they are processed.

Byzantine and Christian Museum - pic of the day 2

Today's picture is from the Byzantine and Christian museum in Athens, from the section of the museum dealing with late antiquity when there were many changes being made to old temples to convert them to christian use. I am not sure if the specific capital is from the parthenon, the acropolis in general or what, but it is in that corner of the museum (good, this, ennit?)

What have we got here? well, it is a marble capital with what seem to be crowned lambs sticking out at the corners. Things to look out for are the deep drilled holes in the lower half of the capital, which are trying to go for the so called marble lace effect (as employed to good effect in the 6th century basilicas of Constantinople and Ravenna and also in Egypt of the same time).

This is one of the more florid and over-worked capitals I am familiar with, hence its notability and inclusion here. The lamb theme is very popular in both mosaic work and plastic work for a few centuries, appearing both in the old (Theodosian) hagia sofia friezes from the 5th century and in the mosaics at St. Apollonaris in Classe from the sixth century.

Do I need to go into the why the lamb is significant in early christian art? What about the problems over the depiction of christ in human form to the extent that this goes against the graven images commandment? Maybe some other time.

Byzantine and Christian Museum

About a month ago, we went to the Dali Sculpture exhibition at the BXM - Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. Not a bad exhibition but a little smaller than I would have liked. Much sculpture and some prints which were not bad. I don't know - we have seen so much stuff that has pushed the envelope since Dali, that what we were looking at seemed almost normal or tame. We could still marvel at the three dimensionality of twisted christ (I may have a photo somewhere) or the surreality of his Aphrodites (picture above - note the ear-nose and throat), but there was something about the exhibition which I did not like. Maybe it is that the same scultpure was exhibited in two different sizes, next to each other, or like the Aphrodites above, but I think that the problem was that there was very little to look at. I'll get some photos of Dali up later.

In the meantime, I would like to introduce an occasional feature of the blog which will run until I get bored of it, called ByzMus picture of the day.



It's a tomb monument from very early Christian times - from late antiquity with that characteristic late antique depth to it. It's trying so hard to present a classical face in the subject matter, the poses and the clothing (although clothing would have been classical even then), but at the same time we see elements of what has been called the "stumpy-dumpy style" creeping in - like why is the horseman's hand almost the same size as the horse's head?

I like it because it is approaching the byzantine from late antique, you can almost feel the thresholdiness in the spirally striped columns and over-wrought elaborate designs to the pediment and other architectural bits behind the figures. At the same time, the eyes in the figures are normal - there is no trace of the fourth century's huge bug-eyes.

And that's all I am saying about this one for now.

Weekend shopping and loafing

Yeah, so here's my weekend:

Friday I left jbex earlier than usual but nicely beyond the 8 hours one is expected to stay there. The unrelenting boredom of jbex did not allow me to delay my departure any longer, despite our meeting time with K at "the Mall" being at half seven, meaning I would have to walk the over heated passageways and open spaces of this huge building alone for about one and a half hours before K turned up. The plan was for me to exchange a book I had been given for my bidet last month and then watch a film at one of the fifteen screens that the village cinemas have in the complex. If there was time, I would be going to the cosmote shop to upgrade my mobile phone.

Seeing as I arrived a full 90 minutes before our meeting there was plenty of time and I went on an uncharacteristic spending rampage through the high tech shops renting space within the walls of "the mall".

First off was cosmote, where I renewed my contract with them and was awarded 185 euro for a hardware upgrade. I chose to upgrade my 5410 for a 5500, I think, fucking numbers make it very hard to know which model I have which one I used to have, which one I had last year and so on and so forth. The one I got is the so-called sports model, which is splash proof and slightly shock proof and has a 2 MP camera. I had to pay some extra over the top of the 185 freebie, but I was prepared for that since the chances of such a large amount as a freebie next year are minimal at best.

So - with new phone in hand, I went in search of a bigger memory card. Since when have phones had memory cards? I found one at Plaisio a nice 1 GB card... then off I went in search of those connector thingies that allow me to plug my old fat charger into my new nokia's slim charger hole. I picked that up at a Germanos after being told in a Vodafone shop that I would not find it anywhere in "the mall" but only through club nokia themselves.

Somewhere around this point in the evening I realized that I would never be able to work in retail because I would have to spend at least some of the day dealing with arseholes like myself and having to maintain a straight face and a welcoming smile.

Next up I went to change the book I had been given as a present for the bidet a month earlier and had to charm the till lady and explain that I already had the book and had been travelling and for this reason I was unable to bring it in to be exchanged earlier and please please let me change it. Funny place fnac - French bookshop place. Seems to be doing ok though.

So one hardback Jamie Oliver cookbook later, I found myself browsing through Multirama and buying blank DVDs and things, when K comes and finds me not a moment too soon as I was eyeing up a rather fine looking Canon digital camera, the G7 I think, which has manual focus and all sorts of things not found on your run of the mill digital point and shoot, and I really ought to go to the photovision exhibition at the old airport at hellenikon to see what else is happening in the digital world. Apparently - according to missy behind the counter, Nikon have been left behind in the race, and this upsets me because I am Nikon mad and don't want to have to change my brand, even though I'll have to change absolutely everything else and consign all my lenses and stuff to the big camera bag in the sky.

We went to get the tickets when K turned up, two tickets for Blood Diamond with that blond kid who was in Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet. We got a free coupon for cheap pizza which we cashed in on and killed time before the film by walking around the mall a little and sort of trying not to stare as we walked past what is currently the only Hooters in Athens.

The film was good enough, with blondie putting on a good performance and a convincing accent which dropped only once or twice through the whole film. There were moments when one is forced to do a bit of thinking about how our greed taps into other people's greed and ultimately fuels a whole lot of other people's unhappiness. But, like the heroes of the film said (repeatedly too): T.I.A: This Is Africa...

Apparently blondie's been put up for an Oscar tonight and before I get a chance to post this tomorrow morning we'll know what has happened with that.

Saturday started off badly with the usual arguments and raised voices which precede any shopping trip for things which I consider superfluous and unnecessary. In this case new shirts for me to wear when traveling and wearing a tie. I have two or three and some which though old are not so bedraggled as to be unwearable. In my book. What the fuck do I know though. Oh no, I have to have a bunch of new shorts in all sorts of weird colours which are now fashionable rather than buying a whole bunch in the diachronously fashionable blues I usually go for.

On the plus side I bought some gloves for caving. Crazy thing, gloves, only worn them once in the three years I have been doing this and I can't say that I was aware of their benefits at the time. Anyway - I now have some better gloves and we'll just have to wait and see to what extent they'll be useful. The idea is that they are only for things like Propantes when we'll have like 300m of rope going through my right hand in only a few minutes.

After a fondue at Bartesera off Kolokotroni street we came home and prepared to go to our local cinema - Petit Palais to see the German art-house film "The Lives of Others". Yeah, so we thought blondie and the African were good the night before, this one blew us away and had us in tears at the end. Characters were well rounded and deep, the whole was claustrophobic enough to make you feel you could taste the atmosphere of the mid eighties Eastern Germany. The film was amazing, I think it is proposed for an award tonight as foreign film, though I cannot be sure if it is this one or the one we'll be seeing on Tuesday (did I mention our orgy of cinema going is continuing?). The end was beautiful, the last line of the film being both moving and funny at the same time but natural, too. There was no other way to end the film.

Early to bed as we had our first introduction to rescue techniques this morning and we had to be up early for it.

For ease of access, many of the field meetings of the cave rescue team happen in an abandoned half finished building in Papagou. The building has had anchors put in, in a whole lot of places and it is perfect for teaching. There were not that many of us apart from the new kids, and this was a good thing as it gave us a chance to see things and do them for real rather than see others from a distance doing them too quickly to follow. It weren't half cold though... My only regret is that by going to the rescue training, I miss Komni's dive in the sump in our new sinkhole on Parnitha, but like I said to myself to persuade myself to go, the sinkhole will be there next time, the stuff you will learn at the building site will not be taught again.

Back home for a nap and then back to the cinema... this time to Andorra which was to have been the scene of our first date with K, only she came very late and the film had started so we went to eat something instead, and that gave us an opportunity to talk and one thing led to another and here we are almost four years later.

Anyway - Andorra was still playing Little Miss Sunshine (it has been playing all the Oscar nominees over the weekend) and since we didn't see it when it was out last month, we went. The film was a good road movie with plenty to laugh out loud at and quite a bit of stuff to think about. It gets my thumbs-up on many levels. But I am running out of steam now and so will not be doing it justice... pity.

Next up: got to charge my new phone and see what it is like, no?

So that was my weekend. Back to the grindstone.