Pylos

Today was by far my favorite day in Greece so far. We were supposed to go to the Olympic games museum this morning in Olympia, but it turns out that the museum is permanently closed due to lack of funding for staff. So we got some free time before we left town.

We traveled by the same bus (same terrible driver) to Pylos, and on the way we stopped at the museum for the site of Nestor's Palace, and the site itself.

Nestor's Palace.

Bronze Age Pylos was excavated by Carl Blegen between 1939 and 1952. It is located at modern Ano Englianos, about 9 km north-east of the bay 37.028°N 21.695°E. Blegen called the remains of a large Mycenean palace found there the "Palace of Nestor", after the character Nestor, who ruled over "Sandy Pylos" in the Homeric poems. Linear B tablets found by Blegen clearly demonstrate that the site itself was called Pylos (Mycenaean Greek Pulos, Linear B Pu-ro) by its Mycenaean inhabitants. This site was abandoned sometime after the 8th century BC and burned to the ground. The ruins of a crude stone fortress on nearby Sphacteria Island, apparently of Mycenaean origin, were used by the Spartans during the Peloponnesian War. (Thucydides iv. 31)

A bathtub at Nestor's Palace, in situ.

Me on the east side of Nestor's Palace.

Me and Lauren in front of some pretty flowers.

Pylos (Greek: Πύλος, historically known under its Italian name Navarino), is a large bay and a town on the west coast of the Peloponnese, in the district of Messenia in southern Greece. It is the capital of Pylia Province. Nearby villages include Gialova, Elaiofyto, Schinolakka, andPalaionero. The town of Pylos has 2,561 inhabitants, the municipality of Pylos 5,402 (2001).

Old Pylos and New Pylos are distinct settlements and castles, several kilometers apart. Old Pylos (Navarino Vecchio) is located on the northwest of the bay, while New Pylos is located in the southeast.

The bay of Pylos was the site of two naval battles:

• the Battle of Pylos, in 425 BC during the Peloponnesian War
• the Battle of Navarino, in 1827 during the Greek War of Independence.

(Wikipedia)

Since we thought that both these were actually in the town of Pylos, we had a free day by the time we got into town. The town itself is beautiful, it's kind of like a California beach town. We got lunch right next to the sea, and then we rented boats. That's right, we rented boats and took them out all on our own! And can you guess how much a whole four hours of self boating in the Mediterranean Sea with two boats and nine people cost? 12 euro a person!!!!!!!

It was the most amazing time. I think it really was a once in a lifetime event. The water is so blue, and the view of the little town was beautiful. I would move here and become a fisherman just to hang out on a boat in this water.

The town of Pylos, view from our boat.

Erica, Katie, me and Fran

I got to drive the boat!

Me and Erica

A castle! I have no idea who built it or in what age, but it was super cool! I need to find out about it.

And dinner was amazing too! The square directly next to our hotel not only had really good crepes (I got one for lunch) but most of us got cheese burgers and fries with coke. We need some American here!

My vegetables smiled at me!

The square in front of our hotel in Pylos.