Tuesday, October 13, 2009
My 15 hour labour-of-love, enjoy!
Tomas's Greece trip summary
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
After being back for a few days from the trip, I thought I'd kinda sum it all up and make some observations. I think Claire will do the same.
Favorite moments, lots but a few stand out
- The first walk up the Acropolis and discovering things along the way like Pan's cave without anyone else around
- The Thermopylae "You Are Here" sign.
- Hiking up the mountain at Delphi and thinking "hey, it's the middle of the night back home..."
Observations:
- Greeks are not the happy people I thought they'd be. There's always exceptions, we met some really helpful nice people. In general though, they seemed sourly, no smiles, or laughs without extreme prompting. Maybe they're are sick of tourists.
- Greek drivers are just as bad as I'd read. Encountered two 10 year olds driving a truck at one intersection. Speed limits mean nothing. I'd written earlier they go at least 20k faster than speed limits, I hadn't driven much at that point. They go at least 40+ over the limit if traffic isn't holding them back. Doesn't seem to be any enforcement of any traffic laws. They pass each other in the middle of town over double lines. They are statistically the most dangerous european country to drive in for a reason!
Here is a map of the route we took (in green). Click to enlarge
- The greek food we encountered wasn't that great except for the bread and greek salad. Very few veggie options. No simple rice/potato dishes like I thought. Even stuffed grape leaves were a rarity without meat in them.
- The ruins we visited had way fewer tourists than I'd feared. This is good and bad, good for our visit, but less money for the site for improvements. For instance ancient Sparta was virtually empty, it was free to enter, but there was no signs anywhere to tell you what you were looking at like many sites.
- If using the Tube (subway) in London to get to your flight, add an extra hour just for the tube ride as delays are common! it took us 2hrs on the tube.
- Get a better GPS if possible, definately bring a good road map to supplement the GPS. If our GPS would have broken in the middle of a drive, we'd have been in trouble.
- Pack even less clothes. I packed extremely light, but I coulda gotten by with less.
- ebook reader - for Claire at least! she ran out of books, and books are heavy when you have to carry luggage around like we did. They cost around $350 but I'm sure they last for years.
Things I'm glad we did. These are tips are for anyone doing anything remotely similar
- bought a small netbook for the trip. This allowed us to back up photos and write the blog easily.
- brought a GPS, invaluable when driving, even one that makes mistakes
- packed really light. Who needs 2 pairs of shoes? This left room for souvenirs too.
- used a credit card that covers car rentals. this saved us about $20-$25 per day, over $300 total.
- most importantly, timed it right, I went when I really wanted to go.
- and here's the souvenirs I brought back for myself
Whats next?
I don't think I'll ever travel again like I did to africa and greece. I consider myself lucky to have 2 places I've wanted to see as much as I did these. It makes travelling so much better than going "just for the hell of it". I've travelled to many places, and its nice, but it can't compare to travelling somewhere you REALLY want to see. Travelling just to get away and experience something new is still a good enough reason. I hope to make it to north africa, tanzania (for 3rd time), and italy some day for this reason... with stops at Nick & Vivs (london) of course.
The whole trip was like a dream in a way because everything I did happened in the middle of night back home. Who's to say I didn't dream the whole thing? :]
Marathon
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
So our last historical site was the site of the Battle of Marathon. This is where the Athenians fought off the Persian 10 years prior to Thermopylae. The Athenians won decisively.
They discovered the burial mound where the slain athenians were buried. A small park surrounds this and the battle field.
The general Miltiades (above) whose helmet from this very battle we saw in the Olympia museum, he had offered it up to Zeus in Olympia:
Gates of Fire!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Finally we made it to Thermopylae (Greek for Gates of Fire)!
This was harder than it should have been to find, all the guide books give vague directions like "it's on the Athens road" and even google maps had it wrong. It took an extra 20km of driving and 2 stops for directions from locals but we found it!
Now the story of Thermopylae is really what started my whole venture into Greek history, so this stop was momentous for me. It's a great feeling to get somewhere that you REALLY wanted to get to, similar to what I felt when I made it to Africa the first time. I think a key to travelling is timing it right when you want to go the most, the urge to get to Greece had been festering for over 2 years. Part of me wanted to wait another year so I could plan it "just right" but I didn't want to risk losing the feeling I had. Like some military guy said: "a good plan executed today is superior to a great plan executed tomorrow".
We ended up planning a great trip anyway, but getting here now was important.
Being on the very spot I'd read and seen so much about was simply awesome.
Here's what the battlefield looks like today (taken from the very hill of their last stand)
Here's what this area used to look like :)
(from the great movie "300")
Ancient Plataea
First here is the bridge we crossed to get to mainland Greece. I think it's the nicest bridge I've seen:
The Plataeans have got to be just about my favorite of ancient peoples, they were there in Marathon, Thermopylae, the Battle of Plataea (of course) and were a player in the Peloponnesian War.
Here's me on the ruins of Plataea, so glad we made it as its really out of the way and no tour group goes to it. There are no markers or anything, we just had google maps and ancient maps to go by,
Not much to see unless you're a history buff like myself...
We went to Thebes on the same day but it was a disappointment, the museum has been closed for renovations for 2 years and counting...
Celebrity Sighting!
Friday, July 17, 2009
In a quick stop in Nafpaktos on the way to Delphi we spotted Duran Duran!
Friggin A! I loved those guys in the 80's. They still got it.
Olympia!
Today we saw where the ancient Greeks started the Olympic Games. It was amazing to walk in the same footsteps of all the elite of Greek society who did so for over a thousand years. There weren’t many events (5 or so) so winning was a BIG deal when there’s only a handful of winners every 4 years. Winners were celebrated in their home cities as heroes. They would earn free meals and not have to pay taxes for life! No women allowed either, just being caught watching the events was punishable by death for a woman.
Here's what it used to look like:
Here's what it looks like today:
Here's an impressive statue of "Hermes" which is in the museum.
The javelin area, with me showing how it's done.
The original track! I didn't break any records like I did in Nemea.
And here's the World's Most Expensive Slurpie! Next time we ask for the price before buying! ($6.50 for it)
Sphacteria
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The island of Sphacteria just a few km from Pylos played a big role in the Peloponnesian War, see here. Spartan troops got trapped on it and were blockaded by the Athenian ships. They circled the island hoping to starve them out. The spartans ended up suing for an end to the war which Athens refused. The spartans on the island ended up surrendering (something they'd NEVER done before).
At the closest point to the island, I decide to walk/swim to it rather than hire a boat. A much more satisfying way to get there! Here's me on the island barefoot. If you look close you can see goats to my right.
During the war slaves were bribed with promises of freedom if they could smuggle food onto the island by swimming. not many survived the water and the Athenians!
We also visited "Nestor's Cave" on the mainland via some very beautiful scenery. That's the Ionian sea behind me where it meets the Mediterranian.
Here's a view from the cave
Sparta!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Couldn't resist doing the kick from "300"...
At last Sparta! We drove a few hours deeper into the Peloponnese today and made it to one of my top goals of the trip. It's well known there is not a lot left over from classical Greece. but actually that's wrong, there's a lot of ruins, just not a lot of buildings and structures - there's plenty of pieces!
Here is the famous modern statue of Leonidas
Here's a statue of a hoplite warrior - some think it to be of Leonidas. There is a little 4 room museum in the town.
Just past the statue up top are the ruins. Here is what the ancient ruins look like today. The place was pretty empty and we pretty much had all of ancient Sparta to ourselves for a while this afternoon.
Something I really wanted to visit was the Eurotas river that I've read about in historical books. It was quite difficult to find, we walked up and down it looking for a path to it. We eventually got an escort from an elderly farmer to the river by his farm.
Here it is. Something pretty amazing about the river is...
... there are actual Spartan ruins sticking out of the river bank and in the river itself! Walking along the river we actually found 2 pieces of marble columns, here's one of them. Maybe I have a future in archeology?
We'll only spending one day here, but it was pretty memorable.
Tomas
Day 7 - Ancient Mycenae and Epidaurus
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Two big archeological sites today! First, we drove to Ancient Mycenae, an ancient citadel that is 3500 years old! It was the stronghold of Agamemnon from the Iliad.
Down the road a little is the "Treasury of Atreus" a.k.a. the tomb of Agamemnon even though it wasn't actually him that was buried there.
Then if was off to Epidaurus, a site with the best remaining ancient theatre described as "acoustically perfect" (my guidebook says is was built according to Fibonacci's sequence).
This is a two-story building where ancient Greeks came to be cured by the Gods (after they took in the latest off-off-Broadway show at the theatre??).
And tomorrow, we're off to Sparta to see King Leonidas!
Claire
Ancient Corinth and Nemea
Friday, July 10, 2009
Corinth! (ally of Sparta) was one of my "must see's" when we first started thinking about what to do and see in in Greece.
It's connected to my favourite time frame of 500-400BC in several big ways.
1. Its where all the city states of Greece met to develop a strategy on resisting the impending Persian invasion of Greece in 480BC. It resulted in the defense at the Thermopylae pass and the battle of Plataea.
2. Its was an early instigator of the Peloponnesian War by attacking an ally of Athens. Corinth got Sparta involved in the whole mess originally, too.
3. Fought the Athenians in Syracuse which is a pretty amazing battle and really did the Athenians in.
A few pics:
The acropolis area
Temple of Apollo, beautiful
Our Handy Transportation
Thursday, July 9, 2009
What a beauty - Renault something-or-other
This baby is loaded:
- auto locks
- 5-speed manual
- fm radio / CASSETTE stereo
- AC
- left / right indicators
Day 2 Acroplis - Photos!
Well, we finally got some internet. It wasn't working at this hotel in Tolo for the first 2 nights, but I helped them out with it - and it's working now.
Here's us during our first night in Athens. We are in a touristy area (Plaka) which is pretty hectic and full of people, but it's safe to walk around in and close to the good stuff. Most of the restaurants seem to be carbon copies of each other, and they don't serve the type of Greek food I was hoping for (greek potatoes and stuffed grape leaves). But the Greek Salad is very good. You don't need a fancy sauce, just oil and vinegar does it.
Pan's Cave, anything in there? It goes deeper than it looks!
This is me sitting in the Cave of Zeus, I guess I showed the proper respect as lightning didn't strike.
Here is the one and only Parthenon (going through some repairs right now). All the temples on the acropolis were starting around 450BC. There was lots of room for construction as pretty much the entire city of Athens and its acropolis were destroyed by the Persians in 480BC. It's been partially destroyed several times since then and the big statue of Athena (the Parthenon is her temple) has disappeared. The bloody Venetions bombarded it with canon fire in the 1600's while fighting Turks holed up there.
It wasn't as busy as I'd feared it would be, and since we took the long way around climbing up to the acropolis, we only really met 1 person for the first half hour or so on our way up.
Ancient theatre of Dionysus. Originally built around 450bc, added to for several centuries.
More later...
T
