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  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Folding Mirrors)

    Two more items from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and I wouldn’t have actually guessed what these were if it wasn’t for the descriptions next to them.

    So, this item is a folding mirror, and it shows the female Goddess Nike, which represents victory, killing a bull. Not the most pleasant item perhaps, but it has some age, it dates to around 290BC to 300BC.

    And another folding mirror which was found in Demetrias, which is now in Greece, and shows a female with an earring. It dates back to the third century BC and was likely owned by a wealthy individual.

  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Doves)

    I thought initially that these were pigeons, which struck me as a strange thing to make a figurine of. They’ve actually doves, not that there’s much difference between them and pigeons, and they were found in the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Daphni and they date to the fourth century BC.

    As another of my little asides, near to where these were found, and also in Daphni, is a monastery on the outskirts of Athens which was built on the former site of the sanctuary of Apollo. Some of the remains were taken by Lord Elgin and sold to the British Museum where they are still located today. However, the British Museum doesn’t display them, so it’s questionable to me why they’re holding them, surely a provincial museum somewhere would be better to have them where they could be seen. Having said that, the British Museum apparently don’t display 99% of their items, so this isn’t an unusual situation and perhaps it really is the case that no museum wants them on a long-term loan.

  • Katowice – Masala House

    It’s my final full day in Poland of this trip and I’m not due to come back to the country for a good few months. Unfortunately…. So, today’s lunch was at an Indian restaurant as I haven’t had an Indian meal in Poland for quite some time now.

    Masala House is part of a small local chain and is well reviewed, and they also had some very reasonably priced lunch options. The staff were friendly, although service was a bit slow at times, and there was an English menu available. The lunch menu had also been translated into English, which it usually isn’t in many restaurants.

    I went for the chicken green curry and when it arrived it was certainly very green. Given that this was the lunch deal, the portion size seemed much more generous that I had expected. The sauce of the curry had a depth of taste to it, and there was plenty of spinach in it, which was rather evident not just by the taste, but also by the colour. The sauce had a taste of onions and ginger, with fresh cream decorating the top of the curry. The chicken itself was tender and served in large boneless cubes, and it had absorbed the taste (and colour) of the curry even though it was probably added late on during the process.

    I also ordered a bottle of Pepsi and this was suitably chilled, and was served with a slice of lemon. Very lovely.

    And one Gulab Jamun, my standard dessert of choice in Indian restaurants, although that’s primarily as there’s usually not much other choice. I admit that ordering one piece, which was the standard on the menu, probably was hardly overdoing it, but I was more interested in how it was served. It was served warm, which I personally think is correct, and the sauce was sugary and I liked the addition of sesame seeds to give the dessert extra texture. As these desserts go, this is one of the better examples that I’ve had.

    The entire meal cost just under £6, which I thought was very reasonable for the curry, rice, dessert and drink. The prices for the usual curries are more expensive in the evening, but the atmosphere was relaxing and comfortable, and I imagine that it’s quite a popular location at weekends.

    As an aside, as I’m good at those, the restaurant has managed to pick up very few negative reviews. But there are a few across review sites, although perhaps from the same party, about failure to accept Groupon vouchers. I personally would rather restaurants didn’t use Groupon, they always seem to end up with customers having problems with it, and it seems such a tacky way to do business. Anyway, just my view…

  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Hippo)

    I might well be posting photos of random artefacts from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens for many more days yet, there was much to see.

    Anyway, this is a hippo dating back to 3,000BC, made from granite and found in a temple at Abydos in Egypt. It’s apparently a particularly rare find given the large size of the hippo. I imagine that creating this would have taken many hours of chipping away at granite, but it still seems to be in reasonable condition even given its great age.

  • Katowice – Poland’s New Sunday Trading Laws

    This seems a retrograde step to me, it’s the Polish Government’s plan to bring Sunday trading to an end in 2020, other than for a limited number of businesses. There’s a compromise arrangement in 2019 where Sunday trading is allowed on the last Sunday of each month, meaning that shopping centres and the like have to produce these reminders of when they’re allowed to open.

  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Jockey of Artemision)

    This large sculpture, located in the National Archaeological Museum, of a horse and young jockey is made from bronze and dates to around 140BC. Strangely, the statue likely only survived as it was on board a ship that went aground off Cape Artemision in Greece, otherwise it might have been melted down. It’s not known who the creator was, but it’s thought it might have been dedicated to the Gods as thanks for the horse winning a race.

    Known as the Jockey of Artemision, the sculpture is carefully crafted and has plenty of detail, particularly on the faces of the jockey. The sculpture wasn’t found in one piece and was instead brought up from the sea floor over a period of 11 years. Only in 1972, nearly fifty years after the sculpture was initially discovered, were the pieces all put back together again.

  • Krakow – Liban Quarry

    When I went to Krakow a couple of years ago I visited Płaszów concentration camp and meant to come to the neighbouring quarry where Schlinder’s List was filmed. However, the rain became torrential and made a visit down to the quarry rather less appealing. On my latest visit to Krakow, it seemed an appropriate time to go and explore the site.

    Liban Quarry has three periods of use, the first was when it was used as a limestone quarry, the second when it was used as a labour camp by the Nazis and the third when it was used as a film set by Steven Spielberg when he directed Schindler’s List.

    The above photo is of the mining equipment from that first period of the site’s use. The quarry was established by Bernard Liban, hence where it got its name from.

    A view from the base of the quarry.

    The site is bigger than it looks from above when exploring it from the ground, making it easy to get just a little lost. There isn’t much obvious evidence of when the site was used as a labour camp, although it’s hard to establish what is original and what has been created during the making of the film. It’s also difficult to ascertain what exactly took place in this part of the site during the Second World War, as it’s not part of the main concentration camp, but does appear to be a site where individuals were required to work.

    This road of smashed up Jewish gravestones isn’t real and is from the film.

    Two close-ups of the recreated road.

    This is also from the film and is a recreated paid of barriers with electric fences.

    A close-up of the film prop.

    This is a fascinating site and although the film set sections are fake it’s still a sobering scene, especially as one of the largest concentration camps in the area borders this quarry. It was easier than I expected to get down to the quarry (I’ll put that on my list of things to write about in the future) and it was a larger scale site than I had been expecting.

  • Flixbus – Krakow to Katowice

    I keep saying that I won’t use Flixbus again, but I’ve decided that I think I might. They’re so bad that their incompetence is proving to be quite amusing and I rather like the challenge of guessing where their bus might leave from. The element of jeopardy makes for a much more exciting wait for the bus.

    Actually, to be fair, the initial instructions in the bus station say to go to stops G14 or G15. This isn’t really difficult at Krakow, as the Flixbus stops are all together. However, obviously they’re not actually going from the stop they say they will, it was instead going from G16. This isn’t a problem, it’s the next stop along and is clearly signed.

    Anyway, who needs that level of certainty? Of course the driver decides he’ll leave from another random platform where there are precisely no other passengers waiting. Fortunately he drives by the correct stop so that everyone can see they’re waiting in the wrong place, I consider that quite thoughtful to be honest. In Katowice the bus driver didn’t do that, he just parked in the wrong place and was quite subtle about it.

    One thing I quite like about Flixbus is that most of their buses seem to be empty, which is primarily probably because most of their passengers are still likely standing at the platform or are actively trying to find the bloody bus. I think I’ll use Flixbus again, it’ll give me more to blog about.

     

  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Egyptian Funerary Stela)

    Located in the National Archaeological Museum, this is the funerary stela (or tablet) of Amenemhet.

    And this one, which is more colourful than the photo suggests, is a funerary stela with a representation of Khenit and her son, Kai.

    Neither of these are dated, but both are likely from the Middle Kingdom, so at some point between 1975 BC and 1640 BC.

  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Egyptian Funerary Model)

    Located in the National Archaeological Museum, this is a wooden funerary model of a ship and its crew. It dates to somewhere between 2040BC and 1640BC and was a grave good to help ensure that the soul was able to travel on a pilgrimage to the city of Abydos.