Nemea, Corinth, to Naxos

Ok, so I know I keep saying that 'today was a long day!' but I think yesterday was the longest day yet! We left Nafplion at 9.30, which wasn't so bad, but it turns out we would have been fine leaving at a later time. We drove a few minutes to the site of Nemea, which is where Heracles slew the Nemean Lion, and where they have the Nemean Games.

We then drove to ancient Corinth.

Corinth, or Korinth (Greek Κόρινθος, Kórinthos ( [ˈkorinθos] (help·info)) is a city in Greece. In antiquity it was a city-state, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. To the west of the isthmus lies the Gulf of Corinth, to the east lies the Saronic Gulf. Corinth is about 78 kilometres (48 mi) southwest of Athens. The isthmus, which was in ancient times traversed by hauling ships over the rocky ridge on sledges, is now cut by a canal. (Wikipedia).

Me and Natalie in front of the starting blocks of the track at Nemea.

Temple at Corinth.

I caved in and got hammer pants. Now I totally blend in with the locals.

Some mosaic at Corinth.

Then after some MORE driving, we stopped at the Corinth Canal, which I had no idea was going to be so deep. I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but it was a long way down, and I'm scared of heights. : /

The Corinth Canal.

MORE DRIVING. We got to the port of Pireaus at about 3.30 to catch our ferry to Naxos at 5.30 pm. We heard that the day before there was a strike by the Communist Party and the whole port was closed off, and that's why we arrived so early. However, I'm pretty sure the bus driver was just sick of us and wanted to leave. We got on the boat, thinking we would have seats because our ferry tickets were 30 euro. However, we were wrong, and spent the entire six hour ferry ride outside in the back of the boat on the deck. Not only this, but the boat left an hour and a half late. A couple of really nice Croatian women let us sit next to them and their little dogs in a booth, and one let me borrow her jacket when I got cold. They were awesome!

Ugh boat.

We were supposed to arrive on the island of Naxos at 11.30 pm, but because the boat left late we got in at around 1 am. I was too grumpy to appreciate the island or the cute little hotel we're staying at.

Because last night sucked so much, we had a free day today. I slept in until 9.30, ate breakfast, showered, taking my time and trying to feel better after yesterday. We decided to go exploring and then to the beach. I met a family from Tucson, and when they found out that I'm traveling to Rome after Greece, they told me that they lived in Rome for two years, and gave me a list of places to go that aren't too touristy.

The view from our hotel on Naxos.

The beach by our hotel.

Me and three other girls got on a bus to go to a beach about 20 minutes from our hotel, and it was totally worth it. There were only a couple of gypsies, and they were good ones! I actually got a foot massage from a man from Beijing, and a purse from another one. I haggled him down to 20 euro from 45! Tonight we are going out to dinner, courtesy of money already spent on the cost of the trip.

Natalie, me, Lauren and Jessica.

Mycenae and Epidavros

Today was another super long day. We left at 7.30 am for Mycenae, which was awesome! Its about an hour drive from our hotel in Naphplion. You enter the site through the Lion's Gate, which was also the traditional entranceway.

Grave Circle A at Mycenae.

The style of walls here are called Cyclopean walls, because the people who lived after the ancient Greeks didn't believe that men could have built walls with such large boulders, and believed that it was the work of Cyclops.

Me under the Lion's Gate in Mycenae.

View of Mycenae from the palace.

Kate and Natalie looking up the tholos tomb.

I thought it was weird that the little museum at Mycenae had a replica of the Mask of Agamemnon. We saw the original in Athens at the National Museum of Archaeology. Why would they bother making a replica? I know it was found at Mycenae, but still. Is the one at NAM even the original I wonder?

We also got to walk inside of a complete tholos tomb. I didn't even know there were any complete ones left!

A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb (plural tholoi) (Greek:θόλος τάφοι, θόλοι τάφοι, "domed tombs"), is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones. The resulting structure resembles a beehive, hence the traditional English name.

Tholoi were used for burial in several cultures in the Mediterranean and West Asia, but in some cases they were used for different purposes such as homes (Cyprus), ritual (Syria), and even fortification (Spain, Sardinia). Although Max Mallowan used the same name for the circular houses belonging to the Neolithic culture of Tell Halaf (Iraq, Syria and Turkey), there is no relationship between them. (Wikipedia)

After we left Mycenae, we drove about another hour to The Sanctuary of Asklepios, which was an ancient healing center. I had never heard of it before, so I was a little skeptical about it's coolness level. But it turned out to be great!

Ancient medical tools. Wouldn't it be great to get brain surgery or something stitched up back then?

There was an almost perfectly preserved theatre, which had great acoustics. Bella stood at the center of the theatre floor, and we walked up to the top (it was really big too), and we could hear every word she said at a normal volume voice. We could also hear her crackle a paper and drop a penny.

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.

This is Sparta!

Today, we drove to Mt. Lykaion, where a group of students from UofA and University of Pennsilvania are currently excavating. It was super high up, and supposed to be one of the birth places of Zeus (I think it was Mt. Ida). It was a nice day, not super hot and a little cloudy, but as soon as we reached the peak of the mountain, the winds picked up and I was freezing! Other than that it was beautiful, and it would be a great place to do a dig. The students said they would be there for 6 weeks, trying to find a Temple to Pan.

The view was great, and you can see most of the Peloponnesus from the top.

They served us lunch, and we hopped back on the bus to drive to Sparta.

The view from the tippy top of Mt. Lykaion.

I think my face says it all. Someone wore shorts and flip flops to climb the mountain. What a dummy.

And since we got here, we've been Sparta kicking everything. We Sparta kicked our hotel room door, we Sparta-kicked some milk and cookies on the balcony, and we Sparta-kicked each other. I would totally Sparta-kick some Persians if I see any.

Kalamata Day 2, Messini

Sorry I didn't post anything last night! Our hotel in Kalamata didn't have internet, and I didn't have much time to blog. So I'll split up the two days into two blogs.

Two nights ago we celebrated Erica's birthday in style! We had gotten her a cake in Pylos and surprised her with it at dinner. We got a super pizza deal, and sang happy birthday, and made awkward faces.

In Athens, a little gypsy boy walked up to us one night at dinner, playing a little guitar wanting money. He had this face ^^ with a tiny unibrow. When we didn't give him anything, he lifted the guitar over his head and screamed a little. I thought he was gonna turn into the hulk. But we've been making this face ever since.

Me and Lauren.

We then walked down the beach street. Bella came with us, and when we passed by a taverna we heard some traditional Greek music playing. Bella just said, "I have to dance." So she went in and started dancing with everyone! And then I danced, and then everyone joined in!

It turns out that it was a baby girl's baptism party, and everyone there knew each other. I felt bad for crashing it, but one guy took everyone's left shoe, to try and get us to stay, and the father of the baby girl also wanted us to stay. And when we left someone gave us traditional Greek sweets that they have at holidays, weddings, and other celebrations.

Yesterday morning, we drove about 45 minutes to Messini, and the Archaeological Museum of Messini. Messini was great! It was the most well preserved site that I've seen so far (because I've seen so many), and it was a big site! We went pretty early in the morning, and it was cloudy so it wasn't as hot as it has been.

There were a really cool theater with a mausoleum as the focus, that was probably dedicated to Thesueus. And we took some nice senior pictures.

The museum was super tiny, only two rooms. The original Spear-Bearer statue was there, the one that's been copied many times in Bronze.

I got carsick, AGAIN! The roads here are super windy and up/downy. And our bus driver probably doesn't have a real drivers license. But its cool, tomorrow I'll just take some dramamine on the way to Sparta and Mt. Lykaion.

When we got back, we did a little souvenir shopping and spent some more time at the beach. And next door to our hotel, we found this awesome restaurant called PJ's, which is owned by Americans and has pizza and cheeseburgers and stuff like that. That's where we went last night too.

Kalamata

This morning we left Pylos, and drove to Kalamata. On the way, we stopped at the Kalamata museum, which we weren't allowed to take photos in. Actually, the people working there followed us around the entire place, making sure we didn't lick the glass or anything.

I noticed these spraypaint pictures everywhere around the museums:

Throw the nazis in the trash?

Our hotel here is literally on the beach. When we got in, we had lunch and then a discussion about the Trojan War and Heracles.
Here's the view from our balcony.

Sorry I didn't take more pictures today! I didn't bring my camera down to the beach because I was working on my next report, about Helen, and I wanted to focus. Tomorrow I'll take more! Well, depending on where we go.

I'm really missing American things. Olive Garden, hamburgers, English, snacks, American electrical outlets, toilets that you can flush the toilet paper in, creepy men with unibrows not staring at you all the time, people sized showers, free internet everywhere, Dr Pepper, being able to use debit, credit, big bills, knowing where things are, family, friends, mom, dad, boyfriend...

Mainly food stuff : )

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.