Rotunda

Today the art teacher at ACT met anyone who wanted to go at Kamara to show us the Rotunda and the Byzantine Museum of Thessaloniki. Located right behind the arch, I walk by the Rotunda all the time but this was the first time I went inside. It was built in 306 AD as either a pagan temple or mausoleum, but throughout the ages and various occupations has done time as a church, a mosque, a church again…The teacher knew a lot about it and described the kinds of mosaics that would have taken up the large spaces where they have been destroyed. Apparently it’s always the same cool temperature inside—good to know for when it gets very hot!

Next we walked down to the Byzantine Museum, which I actually already visited when I first got to Thessaloniki. Once again, only three rooms were open to the public because the museum doesn’t have the funds to open all the rooms. Just another interesting manifestation of the debt crisis…

It was beautifully, gloriously sunny again today, so I made myself my grilled sandwich, poured myself a glass of the best orange juice ever, and dragged my chair out to my little balcony to bask like a cat in the sun. I’m on the best side of the building in that from about 12-4 I’m directly in the sun, although I did have to keep scooting my chair back. I read my first real book in ages—it was nice!

Cleaned the room again today, and got resourceful when it comes to heating up pasta; the drawers above and below my toaster oven get really warm when it’s on (I discovered this when I went to grab a fork out of said drawer one day), so I put my bowl of pasta in with my silverware while cooking a baked potato; while it wasn’t hot, it was fine and would have warmed more if I had left it in longer. Yay impromptu warming drawer!