Palace of Galerius

Alessandra Pierracini, Spring 2012

 

Hello internet world! Well after sleeping about 11 hours last night it is safe to say I’m like 30% less jet lagged than when I first got here!!! Yay!!! So, today we went to the Archaeological Museum and went on a walking tour of the city.  The city itself really isn’t too interesting looking architecturally but the history behind it all is so amazing!!! Beneath the city is an entire world of ancient ruins from the Byzantine era.  So basically you can just be walking along the city and there will just be a random giant pit of ruins below you. 

Anyway, the walking tour was great and very informative & we even rode the bus a couple of times!! Exciting!  We also toured inside the Church of St. Demetrius who had a very interesting story.  St. Demetrius was apparently preaching Christianity & converting Pagans to Christians outside the Turkish baths down the street. The emperor obviously was angered by this and challenged a Christian named Nestor to a duel against his best gladiator so that they could see which religion was better (whoever won, duh).  Nestor won, the emperor was PISSED & killed Demetrius & Nestor….we actually got to walk in the Roman Bath (discovered underneath the Church!!!) where Saint Demetrius was held captive and murdered….crazy!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve learned that the downtown area is like a 40 minute walk from our apartments over at Papakyriazi.  This means we’ll probably be relying on cabs & buses. The main street is called Tsimiski and nearby is Aristotle square where everybody hangs out most of the time. There is also a Starbucks in the square!!