Mistras and Naphplion

Ne- yes

Ouki-no

Today was a super long day. We started at 8.00 to go to the Spartan museum, which was a tiny three room building. There were these really cool mosaics that we weren't supposed to take pictures of, but I sneaked one!

Sorry it's so blurry! I had to hold my camera down so it didn't look like I was taking a picture. There a lot of odd rules in museums about pictures. No flash, no posing with anything, and some things you can't take any pictures of at all. One lady in a museum told us "No strange movies!" when we were posing like one of the statues.

We then drove to Mistras. Mistras was one of the coolest places that we've been. It was a medieval citadel which totally reminded me of Osgiliath in Lord of the Rings, because there were mainly in ruins but you can still see the structural outlines. Also, you had to travel through what seemed like a small forest to get to it up on the hill. It was just beautiful. It had like 5 or 6 Greek Orthodox churches, and some of the girls went into one where a nun gave them candy.

Some of Mistras.
Me with a view of Sparta in the back.

Me, Lauren and Natalie in front of Mistras.

There were rain clouds, but the sun was still shining and we only got sprinkled on. It was really beautiful.

We then drove to Naphplion. We got lunch and had a break until 6 pm, when we drove up to the Palamidi Fortress.

The Acronauplia has walls dating from pre-classical times. Subsequently, Byzantines, Franks, Venetians, and Ottomans added to the fortifications. Nafplion was taken in 1212 by the French crusaders of the Principality of Achaea, then in 1388 was sold to the Venetians.[3] During the subsequent 150 years, the lower city was expanded and fortified, and new fortifications added to Acronauplia.[4] The city was surrendered to the Ottomans in 1540. Ottomans renamed her as "Mora Yenişehri" ("New City of Pelloponnes"). It was a sanjak centre during Ottoman rule. At that period, Nafplion looked very much like the 16th century image shown below to the right. The Venetians retook Nafplion in 1685, and strengthened the city by building the castle of Palamidi, which was in fact the last major construction of the Venetian empire overseas. However, only 80 soldiers were assigned to defend the city and it was easily retaken by the Ottomans in 1715. Palamidi is a castle constructed by Venetians during the 17th century. It is located on a hill north of the old town. During the Greek War of Independence it played a major role.

Katie, Erica, Me and Fran up at Palamidi with a view of Naphplion.

Katie, me and Fran

"Somebody needs a bush trimmer."

"That's what she said."

Palamidi is right above the sea.

Me, Lauren, Erica and Katie

Super cool arched tunnel.

This fortress was amazing! So much of it was preserved, like roofs and everything. It was just so dang windy, I almost got blown right off the mountain.

Greece is playing Argentina right now in the world cup, and so in every tavern and restaurant we pass, the game is on and everyone's eyes are glued to the tvs.