Pub challenge 103-106

Sports Bar, Athens

Agora, Delphi

Top's, Opympia

Theogonia, Olympia

The road to Nafplio

Theater at Argos

A few more ruins today on the way to Nafplio. Basically we just stopped at Argos because it was on the way. It was a very important city in ancient times and, as you can probably tell from the name, it was very important in Greek mythology. Little can be said about the ruins though - pretty standard fare. There were two theaters, a few temples and a lot of ugly clay brick buildings built later by the romans. We spent a fair bit of time there just checking them all out though, and I was particularly impressed by the theatre.

Beach at Tolon

This afternoon, after we arrived in Nafplio, we decided to drive to the nearby beach town of Tolon. Neither of us had swum at the beach in like 8 years, so seeing as we're on the Mediterranean, what better opportunity than now? The beaches still don't beat those in Australia though...

Olympia

Bear with me while I get my notes in order - I didn't manage to post yesterday, and I'm getting my days mixed up and what I did. Lucky thing I've got Jan with me, or I might start telling you about Dublin!

One of the best preserved bronze statues
of ancient Greece, in the Delfi museum

So yesterday morning we checked out the museum in Delfi (really spelled Delphi or Delphoi, but I'm not one to admit I made a mistake) where they put all the parts of the Delfi temples most susceptible to erosion, as well and numerous other finds such as pottery, bronze statues, pottery, everyday items and pottery.
So then was a whole lot more driving on the agenda. On the way, after driving through the chaotic, anarchic traffic of Patra, we stopped to have lunch on a beach. Promptly an old lady came down from a nearby house and gifted us a massive bag of grapes and tomatoes, speaking Greek the whole time. Very nice, but slightly intimidating. I gratefully accepted them, but ended up throwing the tomatoes out. I'm sure they were good, but I don't eat tomatoes. Still, I've been snacking on the grapes on and off since then, so I'm happy.
Our stop yesterday was Olympia - naturally the original home of the olympic games and the site of one of the ancient wonders of the world, the massive statue of Zeus.

THE Olympic Stadium

Again the whole place looked like Zeus had been playing jenga - the very minimal, bare stadium itself was the tidiest and most well preserved part of the complex, but the rest of the area was made up of a jumble of temples, accomodation and other buildings that have since fallen into ruin. Unfortunately the statue of Zeus is long gone - destroyed and melted down, but I did take a leisurely walk up and down the stadium where 2500 years ago Greek athletes sprinted like things possessed.

Temple of Zeus. Well, what's left of it.

The rocky road to Delfi

Today I picked up my freedom/rental car. By god it feels good to be able to go where you want when you want!
My day started this morning at 7. I had ordered a rental car through a German agency for the next five days, as I travel around the Greek mainland with Jan. The spot where I was to pick it up was just outside the airport, so again I had to take the crowded train in that direction. Second time in three days, and I haven't even caught a plane.
Anyway, the rental car is perfect. Small little Japanese thing, but it has air-con so I was happy. Mind you, even with air con, the Greek sun shining directly onto you through the window makes you sweat like a pig. So the first thing we did after picking the car up was to stop at a nearby Lidl (Lidl is like Aldi for those of you who don't know) for supplies - bread, cheese, water that sort of thing. Of course I expected that in an air-conditioned car the butter would be reasonably alright, but of course it melted a couple of hours in all over the luggage compartment. Oh well.

Poseidon temple at Sounion

The final destination today was the little town of Delfi, but along the way we had the chance to see a number of other interesting sights. First was Sounion, the site of a spectacular temple to Poseidon on a rock jutting out of the southernmost part of Attica, the part of the country surrounding Athens. It was a marvelous site, but as with so much ancient stuff in Greece it was a ruin and not much can be said about it.
Next, on the way to Delfi, was Eleusia, the site of the Eleusian Mysteries - cult ceremonies to Demeter and Persephone. The temple complex would have looked breath-taking when it was built, but right now it looks like God forgot to put his lego-blocks away.


The final stop of course was Delfi. This place holds a lot of significance. While the town that belonged to the holy spot was never very big, the temples built into the dramatic mountains were always places of incredible significance, and the Delphic Oracle apparently held a lot of clout in all matters national and international.
Like so many temple complexes, built around it were also an amphitheatre and treasury, which, looking at the reconstructions, would have originally looked remarkably like a modern bank. Hardly surprising actually, considering that's more or less what it was.

Temple at Delfi

Theatre at Delfi

But there was also a Stadium where events second in importance only to the Olympic games were held (that site is for tomorrow by the way) and a Gymnasium.

Not enough space for all these pictures!

One thing that is always painfully obvious when looking at ancient Greek buildings is how little people in the last twenty odd centuries cared for them. Even though the ancient Greek ability to build probably far surpassed their own, the Romans and later the Christians positively delighted in ripping down Greek temples and pillars and putting up their own ugly buildings.

Yet another day in Athens

Well, I woke up this morning sore from walking too much, and spent the whole day walking anyway. And just now I've had a couple of pints, so I'm not sure how much effort I can be bothered putting into this post. But here goes anyway.

Antikethera mechanism. Yes THE antikethera mechanism, in
the national museum of archaeology, Athens. If you need
to ask what that is, we are no longer friends.

Today started by going to the national museum of archaeology - the biggest archaeological museum in Greece. Just let that sink in. Greece, with a culture rich in the kind of things archaeologists love to dig up that lasted like three thousand years. This museum was huge. Even Jan, who I thought had an insatiable appetite for this sort of thing, had a brainfart about an hour in and despaired at every new room we came across. It was still fascinating though.

Yet another spectacular view of the Acropolis, this time
from Philipappapou.

After that we headed off back into the city to mop up the few archaeological sites we didn't manage to see the day before, as well as the Acropolis museum and the Philipappou hill. The Acropolis museum was quite good, housing basically most of the shards and scraps of the Parthenon that were blown off it by the bloody Venetians as well as several models of the various temples on the Acropolis so you got a very good idea of what it would have looked like. The Philapapappapapou hill was the site of Pnyka, basically a rocky crag where ancient politicians assembled to discuss whatever it was ancient politicians discussed. At the top of the hill is a monument built in the second century AD, which is in fact a mausoleum to... someone. You get great views of the city, particularly the acropolis, from just about anywhere on the hill.

Anyway, as I've said it was a long, hard, hot, sore day and I really can't be bothered writing much more, so look at some pretty pictures!

Hello Athens! (And Pub Challenge 102)

Proof I do have friends! I only had to pay this random
guy on the train 50 Euros and he agreed to pose in a
photo!

Well, good to hear from you all! Looks like you're going to have to keep putting up with my posts...
I arrived in Athens yesterday after a mammoth bus trip next to an old Greek bloke who kept trying to talk to me even though it was absolutely clear that we couldn't understand each other.
Pretty much the first thing I did when I arrived, after hunting down my hostel, was to take a train to the airport. No, I haven't had enough and decided to fly back home. In fact I was picking up my mate, Jan, (no he's not a girl. It's a German name, pronounced Yun. Sheesh) who will be travelling with me for the next week or so. The great thing is he really knows his way around Greek history, so it's almost like having a personal tour guide.

Taverna Plaka, Athens

The airport, like any decent international airport, is far out of town, so after the 30 minute trip back in, Jan decided he wouldn't mind getting off a few stops earlier so as to walk the rest of the way and see a bit of the city as it's turning night. Seeing as he was the one with the heavy backpack (I having deposited mine in the room already) I had no objections. Navigating our way by the sun (I'm not even making this up), we worked out the approximate direction to the youth hostel and proceeded to slog our way through the streets, even cutting across part of the Acropolis hill. When I finally found us on the map I discovered that , before we veered off in that direction, we had already been very close to our destination. So basically we clambered over the ancient heart of Athens for nothing. Still, it was great fun. That evening we treated ourselves to a Guinness at a nearby pub then flaked out.

Greek Theatre on the Acropolis

Today, however, was our first day of sightseeing. Naturally we visited the Acropolis and the Parthenon, as well as the Agora (the old marketplace), the original Olympic Stadium and the Temple of Zeus. The day was filled with in-depth discussion about history and architecture, most of which I won't bore you with (unless you are particularly interested in the difference between Doric, Ionian, Attic-Ionian and Corinthian pillars...), however I will indulge in a quick history lesson. Athens, of course, is the birthplace of democracy. We're talking several hundred years BC people in this very city came upon the great idea that the regular people living in a city should have a say in how that city is run. Of course at the time "regular people" didn't include women, foreigners, slaves or gingers. Still, pretty good effort for a time when the rest of the world still thought dirt was the height of technology. And they knew how to build.

The Parthenon

Those temples, even what little is left of them often, are staggeringly impressive. Pictures simply don't do justice. The parthenon, particularly, perched as it is atop the rocky, cliff-encircled hill in the middle of the city, is mind-blowing. It's also relatively well preserved. It would have been moreso, however, had it not been for a war in the 17th century. There the Ottoman Turks had seized athens and used the natural defenses of the Acropolis as a fortification. Not expecting their enemies, the Venetians, to destroy such an iconic building of their neighbours, they used the Parthenon as a gunpowder magazine. You can imagine how that ended. They are, however, busy restoring the colossal temple to Athena with original fragments found around the area, and where they are missing from newly carved marble from the original source. It should look nice and quaint when it's finished.

Meteora

I was already almost finished with my next post when I realised I hadn't even posted about this one! The last few days, since Brindisi, have been mental.
First of all the ferry went without a hitch, except that it arrived in Igoumenitsa, Greece, at 3 in the morning and I couldn't get a wink of sleep for the whole trip. Upon arrival I found a pissy little one-horse town with absolutely nothing happening. After a lot of hunting I finally found the bus station - a poxy, crappy little building down a dusty little alleyway. After a number of minutes with my Lonely planet guide, flicking between descriptions of towns, travel suggestions and translations, I finally found out my best way to get to my next destination was to catch a bus to Ioannana na na na, then another one in direction Trikala and get off at Kalambaka. Only problem was the first bus to Ioanananana didn't leave until 7 am. That gave me about 3 hours to wait at the poxy little bus stop. Still didn't get much sleep. On the bus there, however, I managed to doze for about an hour. But my lack of sleep didn't bother me when I saw Meteora.
I found out that apparently the Irish don't have a complete monopoly on insane monks. Meteora is an area of bizarre, lunar-landscape granite columns. And naturally, in the 14th century, monks decided to build monastaries on top of them.
Behold.