Published Thursday November 18th, 2004

Tuesday was an interesting day. I got up at 06.45, quickly had breakfast, and then at around 07.20 I was picked up by a representative of G.O. Tours, along with some others from my hotel, though none of which were going on the same tour as I.

We got on a bus which brought us elsewhere where we waited a bit, and got split up into different tour groups and buses for different tours. Soon, all was set and we were on our way..

Our first stop was at the Corinth Canal. We stopped there for around 30 minutes. I bought some local sun dried grapes, or raisins which were the best I've ever had. We continued driving until we reached the village of Mycenae where we sent to see the Mycenaean ruins, tombs, and citadel or Acropolis of Mycenae. Citadel is a cool word.. I want my own citadel..

acro - top, height, tall
polis - politics, things having to do with culture, city

Anyway, we briefly stopped at one of the best preserved "Bee-hive" tombs in Mycenae. It was a long exposed shaft entrance into a hollow, empty, giant dome chamber.. It was pretty interesting and certainly cool!

We continued on to the ruins where we walked through the Lions Gate into the ancient acropolis's ruins. The tour group leader/guide has a lot of information to give.. It's amusing because other tour groups come and go while we are still in the same location, still respectfully listening to her talk and spew a plethora of information. It's nice to have because she can answer and tell you anything about the sites. One usually doesn't even need to ask questions because she tells you anything and everything one might want to know before one could even form a question.

I explored the ruins on my own a bit after our guide finished speaking. I found a sort of dark passageway leading down a corridor of steps which I walked down. In the pitch black, my cameras flash and my lighter were the only sources of light I had.. I need a small flashlight to add to the crap I carry around on my person.

We left Mycenae and nearby the ruins we stopped for lunch. I sat down at my own table when Todd, 30 (I believe), from Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A. asked me if I would like to join him and his mother for lunch at their table. I accepted Todd's invitation and joined them as we each had a Greek salad.

After lunch we moved onwards.

After an hour or so we reached Epidaurus, another archaeological site. What was of main interest at Epidaurus was the Theatre of Epidaurus. It was a lovely and very well maintained semi-circle amphitheatre. Nearby was also the Sanctuary of Asklepius, which was, "the most brilliant centre of healing in the ancient world." (Ministry of Culture, Archaeological receipts Fund, Epidaurus pamphlet)

I chatted with Todd a bit more as we explored the ruin. After leaving Epidaurus, we drove to the town or city of Nafplio, the first capitol of modern Greece. Above Nafplio, on a hill, lies another structure, the citadel of Palamidi. With 999 steps, one could reach the top. Unfortunately there was not enough time to see the grand, well preserved citadel on top, perched on a hill above Nafplio.

We first stopped at a hotel outside of Nafplio where those who had selected "luxury" class hotels for their travels de-boarded the bus. This included Todd from Florida.

The rest of us dove into Nafplio and checked into Hotel Victoria. A small hotel, but still pleasant.. "Tourist" class. Once I'd seen my room, rested a bit, I went and walked around town and up and down a very nice, very nice, promenade on the water front of the Aegean sea. Took some photographs, and as the sun set, I sat on a rock wall and stared out into the Aegean see and at the straits of the Peloponnese while sitting cross-legged in a sort of meditative position. It was so peaceful that I told myself I must do it more frequently.

I returned to my hotel where I soon met up with everyone from the tour in my hotel as we went and had dinner at a lovely restaurant on the Aegean. We all (12 including myself) sat at one long table. This was fun. Listening to everyones conversations, and even participating in some.. We laughed at jokes and almost naturally spoke bits about ourselves.. 2 pairs of couples who were friends came from Miami. A family of 3 and 2 of their relatives, husband and wife plus a daughter of my age came from nearby Sydney, Australia. Another couple came from the French speaking part of Canada, their French sounding very much not like the French I am used to hearing, and instead sounded more Slavic..

It was a grand time while we ate a 4 course pre-selected meal. After dinner, I strolled in the dark, warm evening. "Little Summer" is what the Greeks call this time of year (October), according to miss-tour guide.

I returned to my hotel room and went to bed at around 22.30. At 06.45 Wednesday morning, 20th of October I got a wake up call to the phone in my room instructing me to get up for breakfast at 07.15.. I ignored it and got up at 07.10. Went and had breakfast, and soon we were back on our bus, on our way..

We went to the other hotel where we picked up the remainder of the tour group. Todd of Florida asked, and sat next to me and thusly we chatted about various things into the morning as we drove across the Peloponnese.

We made a stop the Mycenae Centre store/shop where they made various sculptures and ceramics in the ancient style and way. I bought myself a piece of carved marble for 19 Euro's. My souvenir for this trip. Locally, hand crafted item copied from antiques. Why not purchase a souvenir here? That was my rational.

As we contained driving on a curvy highway which became almost a treacherous, small curvy road, relative to the giant bus driving from Tripoli to Olympia, I noticed particular things. Frequently there were little shrines with idols inside them with an overall appearance of a mailbox placed randomly on the highway. These were there as shrines for an accident or death related to cars on the road as a sort of memorial. This was not very reassuring for there were many of these shrines along the road we were driving on.

Secondly.. There were many partially completed multi-storied houses.. My guess was, which was later confirmed by Todd of Florida to be true when he asked miss-tour guide, that the basic structure and foundation was built, and then as one moved in, one would build walls and complete the building for a particular floor. Rather interesting because these partially finished partially livable buildings were all over the place, and are kind of bazaar to see. One floor has a cute and pleasant brick or white walls, then the floor or etage below it is vacant, transparent and void of any building with the exception of the fundamental pillars and structures supporting the floor above.

The landscape was very much like the landscape one might find in Utah and Arizona with mountains. Later in the day, the landscape was very much like the San Gabriel mountains or the Ojai area of Southern California in the U.S.A.

120 minutes before lunch we made a stop for, "snacks and coffee," at which time I wrote the first half of this entry. As we continued driving in the direction of the town of Olympia, Todd of Florida and I continued having pleasant conversations.

We drove on the coast of the Ionian sea before reaching Olympia. We had lunch at some self-serve cafeteria where I ate stuffed, rolled cabbage which was very good. Talked politics with Todd of Florida and a family of husband, wife and daughter of Taiwan descent from Toronto, Canada.

Talking politics has never been as enjoyable as today, with various people I don't know from various places. It was an enjoyable time, surprisingly.. I mean.. politics.. I was tempted to strike up a religious debate to see how that would go.

After lunch we drove to the Sanctuary of Olympia where the ancient Olympics used to be held. We visited a museum and then the ruins. One of the ancient wonders of the world was the Golden and Ivory statue of Zeus which stood 12 metres tall in the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. I stood on the ground of the temple where it once rested.. but my imagination failed me.

I also stood on the track of the ancient stadium, which had slopped, grassy hills surrounding it serving as stadium seating as opposed to actual seats. Here, I sat down again in a sort of meditative position for some time. It was very peaceful again. 45,000 people were estimated to have been able to sit in the ancient stadium.

kotinos - Olympic wild olive branch crown thing.

At 07.10 we departed the ruins and dropped off the direct few people at their hotel. The rest of us then drove to another hotel which is the most luxurious and most fancy hotel I've been to thus far in Greece. I took a shower, and now, 19.17, here I am in Hotel Antonios, in Olympia, writing these words into this journal or composition note book to be later typed up and put up as a entry in my weblog..

Note that photos in this entry have not been altered and could possibly use some white-balancing, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue adjustments among other touch-ups.