This April, UK residents were given a plethora of public holidays. We had Friday off for Good Friday, Monday off for Easter, the next Friday off for the Royal Wedding, and the first of May off as a bank holiday. To take advantage of this, David and I only had to take 3 days off of work to escape to Greece for a 10 day vacation. Unfortunately we missed the Royal Wedding festivities, but we were able to catch the highlights on BBC while in Greece. And Karen was nice enough to save the British newspapers for me so I could read all about it when I returned.
So on Friday afternoon, we packed our bags and flew to Athens. We got there later in the evening and enjoyed dinner and drinks at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant and pool bar overlooking the Acropolis. David wanted to eat and drink like a local so he got a glass of ouzo with his meal. I warned him that ouzo tastes like black licorice, but he didn’t care. He kept drinking the stuff all week, even though he hates black licorice!
Because the bus didn’t have a bathroom on board, we stopped every couple of hours, which is A LOT on a 3-day trip. But it was great because we were able to see even more of Greece that way. Our first stop was the Corinth Canal, which separates the Mainland from the Peloponnese. The Peloponnese is an enormous peninsula just West of Athens. The Canal was created so ships wouldn’t have to sail all the way around the peninsula to get from the Aegean Sea to the Ionian.
After a quick lunch of souvlaki, we toured a pottery factory and showroom. David and I had way too much fun taking stupid photos with the sculptures.
Finally, we drove to Mycenae. During his senior year of high school, David’s small class took a trip to Greece. They visited Athens, Epidaurus, Olympia and Mycenae. Unfortunately, those photos are all in storage in Austin so we can’t do any kind of before/after comparison. And even though David has seen a lot of these places 8 years ago, he still had a lot of fun revisiting them with a newbie.
Mycenae was a fortified palace occupied between 1700 and 1100 BC. Because the palace is literally THOUSANDS of years old, not much remains today. But the famous Lion Gate is still intact (sans lion heads) and the circle graves can also still be seen. We walked through the complex and came to a secret flight of stairs. When we entered the tiny, pitch-black chamber, some people were exiting with flashlights. Who thinks to bring a flashlight on vacation?? Well, not us, so we weren’t able to continue any further. We later found out the stairs lead to a cistern beneath the citadel, which protected the town’s water supply during sieges.
David and I paid a bit extra to stay at the nicer hotels arranged by the tour company, so after dropping off the budget travellers, the rest of the group pulled into… the Best Western? My mom LOVES Best Westerns so I have to give a shout-out to her here. And I must admit, the Best Westerns in Europe are mostly family-owned and they are lovely. And surprisingly, they can be VERY expensive because of Americans, like my mom, who want to stay at quality, brand-name places. This BW did not disappoint. The views were spectacular and the food was delicious.
I have to mention that one of my favorite parts of Greece was the food, especially the breakfasts. For Lent this year, I gave up Pop-Tarts. So breakfast for the past 40 days was no fun for me... until Greece! David and I ate breakfast each morning at our hotels and at every single one, the buffets always included cake! If I can’t have Pop-Tarts, cake is the next-best thing! Usually people look down on me for indulging in so much sugar for breakfast, but in Greece it was completely normal! They were mostly chocolate cakes, but the BW in Olympia also had custard cake. Yummy!! If you serve cake for breakfast, you are guaranteed a good review from me! :)
Speaking of Lent, Saturday night was the day before Easter. Easter is the biggest holiday in Greece – even surpassing Christmas. On Saturday night, the entire town dresses in white and gets together around 11 PM at their local church. Everyone carries an unlit candle with them. And at midnight, the priest appears and announces ‘Christos Anesti!’ or ‘Christ is Risen!’ Then the people rush to the front of the church and light their candles. Fireworks go off, and the people also have an Easter egg fight. The eggs are hardboiled and dyed red. The object of the game is to use your egg to crack your neighbors, without cracking your own. Whoever is left with their egg still intact at the end of the fight wins! Then everyone gets together with family and friends and celebrates with a feast. The celebrations go on until the wee hours of the morning. So no one gets up Sunday morning and goes to church, unlike in America. They all sleep in. The next day, everyone brings out their spits and roasts a lamb or two outside. The intestines are roasted separately for the special Easter soup. And on Sunday night, the town gets back together for traditional dancing.
Because it was Easter Sunday, the grounds of the Olympia excavation site were not open but you could still see the ruins from the road. We still haven’t heard anything yet about our Olympic tickets next year for London 2012 but we are keeping our fingers crossed!! We are even more excited now that we’ve seen the original Olympic grounds. It must be a sign of good things to come…
We stopped for an ice cream break in the Gulf of Corinth, where David tried to teach me how to skip rocks at the beach and marveled at the size of the local lemons.
Finally, we reached Mount Parnassus and Delphi.
We had dinner at the hotel, and then made our way to the town square, where the locals were performing traditional dances in front of the Byzantine church. It was a lot of fun to watch the whole town take part in the Easter celebrations. The local baker even made hundreds of cookies and passed them out to everyone. So nice!
But even though the hotel was nice, it was really old and outdated! I kept getting calls from a strange number on Sunday night, so I checked the hotel guidebook for country codes. One of the country codes listed was WEST Germany. And the next morning, I wasn’t quite sure how to dry my hair. The dryer in the bathroom looked like some small vacuum from the 60s.
Delphi was thought to be the center of the Earth after Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the world and they crossed paths in Delphi. Again, that cannot possibly be true, but that’s how the story goes. Delphi was also the home to a world-famous oracle with a perfect record for predicting the future. Travellers from all over the ancient world travelled to Delphi to consult the oracle. On our way down the mountain toward the Sanctuary of Athena, we stopped at the Castalian Spring, where the oracle bathed. It’s said whoever drinks from the Spring will be married within a year. Or if they are already married, they will have a happy marriage. Our tour guide told us she came to the Spring and drank and she did get engaged. But she was engaged for years and years and years before she actually got married. So her friends told her she drank too much! Lesson learned, so David and I were careful to only have a few sips each from the Spring!
We completed our tour of Delphi by hiking down to the Temple of Athena and the gymnasium, where athletes trained for the games held in the stadium. Then we had lunch at a local restaurant before driving the 3 hours back to Athens.
So on Friday afternoon, we packed our bags and flew to Athens. We got there later in the evening and enjoyed dinner and drinks at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant and pool bar overlooking the Acropolis. David wanted to eat and drink like a local so he got a glass of ouzo with his meal. I warned him that ouzo tastes like black licorice, but he didn’t care. He kept drinking the stuff all week, even though he hates black licorice!
For part of our trip, we booked a 3-day coach tour around the Greek mainland. Our tour started Saturday morning when our bus picked us up. Our guide was very sweet and funny. We shared the bus with a couple of American students teaching in Ireland also on holiday, a group of really fun Aussies on a couples trip, a couple of retired New Zealanders, and a few other travelers from the States.
Because the bus didn’t have a bathroom on board, we stopped every couple of hours, which is A LOT on a 3-day trip. But it was great because we were able to see even more of Greece that way. Our first stop was the Corinth Canal, which separates the Mainland from the Peloponnese. The Peloponnese is an enormous peninsula just West of Athens. The Canal was created so ships wouldn’t have to sail all the way around the peninsula to get from the Aegean Sea to the Ionian.
After snapping some photos and taking a potty break, we got back onboard and drove along the coast to Epidaurus. On the way, we saw the harbor where Paul landed before continuing on to Corinth. His visit to Corinth inspired him to write first and second Corinthians. Unfortunately, the harbor was sunk during an earthquake. But apparently swimmers can still see the ruins underwater. We didn’t stop, though, and it was too cold to swim anyway. We drove through modern Epidaurus before stopping at the Theatre of Epidaurus, a very well-preserved ancient theatre in Greece. The acoustics are amazing as our guide demonstrated by quietly tearing a piece of paper in the center of the stage. David and I could hear the rip all the way up in the nosebleed seats. Performances are still given at the theatre these days.
Next on the agenda was Nafplio, a beautiful seaside town with a Venetian fortress at the top of the hill overlooking the city and an island fortress in the middle of the harbor. The island fortress was the local executioner’s residence until 1930 and now it’s a hotel.
During the wars between the Venetians and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire, the Venetians built fortresses all over Greece. In fact, even though modern civilization and philosophical thinking began in Greece, the country has been the center of so many conflicts and wars that the actual country is younger than the US. The present borders have only been in existence since 1948 when Italy returned the Dodecanese islands. It is richer than many other Balkan countries, but there are still a lot of economic problems. Fortunately, we did not experience any kinds of strikes or issues while we were abroad. But we did notice, especially in Athens, a lot of garbage and graffiti in the city. Something else that we, as dog lovers, also paid attention to was the number of large stray dogs EVERYWHERE. There were so many dogs roaming the city streets or following us in the country, but many of them had collars so we finally asked our guide what the deal was. She told us that many people can’t afford to feed their larger dogs, and the country is against putting the animals down, but there is a private group that will spay/neuter the dogs and give them their shots. If this has been done, the animal wears a collar to let people know they are healthy and safe. Many businesses and residents leave food and water outside their doors. It’s not such a bad life, I guess. They roam around in their packs with their friends all day and none of them looked like they were starving. And they were all very, very sweet!
After a quick lunch of souvlaki, we toured a pottery factory and showroom. David and I had way too much fun taking stupid photos with the sculptures.
David looks like he has a mohawk in this picture, but it's just a shadow - thank goodness!
Finally, we drove to Mycenae. During his senior year of high school, David’s small class took a trip to Greece. They visited Athens, Epidaurus, Olympia and Mycenae. Unfortunately, those photos are all in storage in Austin so we can’t do any kind of before/after comparison. And even though David has seen a lot of these places 8 years ago, he still had a lot of fun revisiting them with a newbie.
Mycenae was a fortified palace occupied between 1700 and 1100 BC. Because the palace is literally THOUSANDS of years old, not much remains today. But the famous Lion Gate is still intact (sans lion heads) and the circle graves can also still be seen. We walked through the complex and came to a secret flight of stairs. When we entered the tiny, pitch-black chamber, some people were exiting with flashlights. Who thinks to bring a flashlight on vacation?? Well, not us, so we weren’t able to continue any further. We later found out the stairs lead to a cistern beneath the citadel, which protected the town’s water supply during sieges.
The Lion's Gate, entrance to Mycenae
Entrance to the cistern
The circle graves of the area eventually led to beehive-shaped graves, or tholos tombs. I learned all about these ancient graves in my Roman Funerary Monuments class at UT (I know, total nerd alert – who takes a class on ancient graves??? But I love that kind of stuff so don’t make fun of me!). We walked back down the hill from Mycenae to Agamemnon’s Tomb, the best tholos tomb. It took me all day to explain to David that Agamemnon was not a real person and the tomb is just a nickname. And even though he’s been twice now, I still don’t think he believes me. But to his credit, it can get very confusing trying to figure out what’s fact or fiction, especially the way the tour guides explain things. For example, in Mycenae, we heard the entire story of Agamemnon and his dysfunctional family and the Trojan War. Later in Athens, we learned all about the origins of the city when Athena and Poseidon competed for the rights to the area… but none of those people actually EXISTED! They were all gods or goddesses or fictional men and women created by storytellers. It would basically be like going to France and touring the cottage where Belle lived before she met the Beast, fell in love, and became the princess in Beauty and the Beast. But in reality, it’s just some farmer’s house. The real stories are not nearly as exciting, so all of these soap opera dramas are relayed to tourists instead.
After we left Mycenae, we drove for about 3 hours to Olympia. During the drive, we passed through the region of Kalamata. I have never seen so many olive trees in my life! It was a sea of olive trees. Beautiful!
David and I paid a bit extra to stay at the nicer hotels arranged by the tour company, so after dropping off the budget travellers, the rest of the group pulled into… the Best Western? My mom LOVES Best Westerns so I have to give a shout-out to her here. And I must admit, the Best Westerns in Europe are mostly family-owned and they are lovely. And surprisingly, they can be VERY expensive because of Americans, like my mom, who want to stay at quality, brand-name places. This BW did not disappoint. The views were spectacular and the food was delicious.
I have to mention that one of my favorite parts of Greece was the food, especially the breakfasts. For Lent this year, I gave up Pop-Tarts. So breakfast for the past 40 days was no fun for me... until Greece! David and I ate breakfast each morning at our hotels and at every single one, the buffets always included cake! If I can’t have Pop-Tarts, cake is the next-best thing! Usually people look down on me for indulging in so much sugar for breakfast, but in Greece it was completely normal! They were mostly chocolate cakes, but the BW in Olympia also had custard cake. Yummy!! If you serve cake for breakfast, you are guaranteed a good review from me! :)
Speaking of Lent, Saturday night was the day before Easter. Easter is the biggest holiday in Greece – even surpassing Christmas. On Saturday night, the entire town dresses in white and gets together around 11 PM at their local church. Everyone carries an unlit candle with them. And at midnight, the priest appears and announces ‘Christos Anesti!’ or ‘Christ is Risen!’ Then the people rush to the front of the church and light their candles. Fireworks go off, and the people also have an Easter egg fight. The eggs are hardboiled and dyed red. The object of the game is to use your egg to crack your neighbors, without cracking your own. Whoever is left with their egg still intact at the end of the fight wins! Then everyone gets together with family and friends and celebrates with a feast. The celebrations go on until the wee hours of the morning. So no one gets up Sunday morning and goes to church, unlike in America. They all sleep in. The next day, everyone brings out their spits and roasts a lamb or two outside. The intestines are roasted separately for the special Easter soup. And on Sunday night, the town gets back together for traditional dancing.
Unfortunately my stupid alarm didn’t go off on Saturday night at 11, so I woke up at midnight instead when the first fireworks went off around the hotel. Luckily, we did wake up the next morning in time to eat cake for breakfast, check out the lamb roast, and then meet up with the group to tour Olympia.
Because it was Easter Sunday, the grounds of the Olympia excavation site were not open but you could still see the ruins from the road. We still haven’t heard anything yet about our Olympic tickets next year for London 2012 but we are keeping our fingers crossed!! We are even more excited now that we’ve seen the original Olympic grounds. It must be a sign of good things to come…
Temple of Zeus which once housed his massive statue, one of the 7 Wonders of the World
In front of the original Olympic stadium
After Olympia, we stopped to eat lamb for Easter lunch. We did not have intestine soup, though, thank goodness! It was not offered, so I didn’t have to worry about refusing or worse, politely trying to eat that nastiness. After lunch, we did a wine and olive oil tasting at a local shop. We bought some goodies for ourselves and some gifts for Karen, who was kind enough to watch Kirby for us – again!
Then we drove along the Ionian Sea coast to Patra. We toured the new bridge that was built shortly before the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The bridge connects the Peloponnese and mainland Greece on the northern part of the peninsula.
We stopped for an ice cream break in the Gulf of Corinth, where David tried to teach me how to skip rocks at the beach and marveled at the size of the local lemons.
Finally, we reached Mount Parnassus and Delphi.
Delphi is the tiny town closest to the top of the mountain
We had dinner at the hotel, and then made our way to the town square, where the locals were performing traditional dances in front of the Byzantine church. It was a lot of fun to watch the whole town take part in the Easter celebrations. The local baker even made hundreds of cookies and passed them out to everyone. So nice!
Again, the hotel we stayed at had an amazing view of the Gulf of Corinth and olive groves. Mount Parnassus still had snow on it and the ski resorts nearby were operating. It was a really beautiful part of the country...
But even though the hotel was nice, it was really old and outdated! I kept getting calls from a strange number on Sunday night, so I checked the hotel guidebook for country codes. One of the country codes listed was WEST Germany. And the next morning, I wasn’t quite sure how to dry my hair. The dryer in the bathroom looked like some small vacuum from the 60s.
Hotel aside, Delphi was amazing! It was one of my favorite days in all of Greece. April is a great time to visit because it’s not too hot, it’s not tourist season so the sites aren’t very crowded and it’s less expensive to travel, and all of the flowers are in bloom. Usually Delphi can be pretty dry, but it was gorgeous the day we were there. We started off in the museum, which houses some of the most precious artifacts that can’t be exposed to the elements. Then we walked through the ancient agora, or marketplace, and onto the temple, theatre, and stadium higher up the mountain.
Temple of Apollo
Frieze housed inside the Delphi Museum
Athenian Treasury
We completed our tour of Delphi by hiking down to the Temple of Athena and the gymnasium, where athletes trained for the games held in the stadium. Then we had lunch at a local restaurant before driving the 3 hours back to Athens.
Temple of Athena
More to come soon...
What a great post! I can't believe how much you two are able to travel. Keep posting pictures! Miss you!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness Sarah! You either have an amazing memory or you take notes! It looks like you had such an amazing time...I can't wait to read the next post!
ReplyDelete