Southern Greece

After Egypt I was sure that anything else I went to see after that would be a huge let down. So when our trip to the Peloponnese rolled around needless to say I wasn’t too thrilled. I still had horrible memories of our bus trip to Northern Greece.

We packed a sack lunch for later in the day and set off towards Southern Greece. We made a restroom stop near the Corinthian Canal. Most of us had already been there when we went bungee jumping but it was fun to look at again just the same.

Our tour guide’s name was Dionysus, which was highly intriguing because Dionysus was the god of sex, wine, and basically partying. I can’t imagine naming my child that! We started our sightseeing out at the city of Ancient Corinth. Paul spent a lot of time in this city and there were several interesting biblical references. The place smelled horrible though because it was near the sea. We saw the theater there that was built during the 5th century. The modern day remains are from the Romans. At the theater there was an inscription with the names Sostines and Erastus on them. These names are both found in the text of Paul and while they probably don’t refer to these specific people there’s always a possibility. Sostines is referenced in Acts 18:17 and was the leader of the Synagogue. Erastus is mentioned in Acts 19:22, II Timothy 4:20 and Romans 16: .
Once in the actual ancient city we saw the Temple to Apollo. This particular temple is famous because it houses the skin of Marcius and his flutes. Story goes that Apollo had a contest with a man named Marcius. Apollo was jealous of him because all the people of Corinth loved Marcius’ flute playing. Apollo won and as his prize he took Marcius’ skin. The other notable thing we saw was the bema. This is where the counsel of Corinth would meet and where Paul came before Galio to be tried.
The Museum at Corinth was full of states, pottery, and other items found in Corinth. I found this interesting…. One of the reasons so many of the statues are headless was because emperors used them to show their citizens what they looked like. So to conserve marble instead of making an entirely new statue they would just put a new head on it.
From there we wound our way up to AcroCorinth. Someone decided it would be a great idea to have lunch at the very top of this huge fortress so up we climbed. And we climbed and we climbed and we climbed… It was used as a fortress because of the great view and let me say from personal experience… It’s AMAZING! This was also the location of the Temple of Aphrodite. The priestesses had their temple at the top and were essentially prostitutes. Men would come to the temple to worship them through sex. I was trying to tell my mom about AcroCorinth and the prostitutes and she misunderstood me and thought I said they were still up there. I was about to correct her wrong impression but instead what came out of my mouth was, “Yeah. It’s a tourist attractions. It’s x amount of dollars for 30 minutes.” I had her going for a little bit. She would go, NO! And I would say, YES! It was an interesting couple of minutes. NO! YES! You’re kidding! No mom, completely serious. I came clean though and told her the truth.
Just when I thought the day was going to be over we packed up and headed off to another site. The theater we went to see is one of the best preserved from classical Greece. It is dedicated to the god Dionysus. Our tour guide stood in the center, ripped paper, whispered and did numerous other demonstrations to show how amazing the acoustics are. We sat at the very top of the theater and could hear him perfectly. It was pretty amazing!
We rounded out the day at a really cute hotel is a sea side town. After dinner a bunch of us walked down to the beach and walked along the sand, dipping our toes in the surf. Samantha and I got this really big urge for ice cream so we went in search for some but couldn’t find any. We checked about 5 different places but no, none! Even at the place that was called, Café Ice Cream. Personally I think it’s a crime to call a place Café Ice Cream and then not sell any.

Day 1 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004725&l=e4901&id=1523040053

Day 2:
The night before I had planned on getting up early and going down to walk along the beach again and watch the sunrise. Well guess what…. I didn’t want to get up. Luckily I caught the tail end of the sunrise from my balcony. It was so beautiful I decided I had to walk down by the beach again even if it was just for 20 minutes. It set a wonderful tone for the rest of the day.
First stop: Naphtilon where we saw the Castle Palamidi. This castle was sweet! It made me want to live in one. Well minus never getting to bathe and no central air or heating, and no deodorant and numerous other factors. It was built during the 2nd Venetian period and fortified by the Byzantines. You can see round stones that were used in trebuchets. When you walk through the gates there is a hole in the ceiling, which they used to pour hot olive oil on any intruders that got past the other defenses.
After Dionysus told us a little about the castle we got free time to climb all over the thing. I’ll give the people who lived in that thing this… They would have to be in pretty good shape. Luckily we got to climb down the set of 999 steps rather than up. I think I would have stopped half way up and said NO castle is worth this.
We followed this site up by Mycenae, one of the most ancient Greek cities. This city is famous for several reasons. One is because of its walls called “cyclopean walls”. The stones are so massive that later civilizations decided the wall could have only been built by Cyclops. The Lion Gate is another famous landmark of this city. Just inside this gate an archeologist named Schliemann discovered grave circle A. He discovered what is called the Mask of Agamemnon (you may recognize this name in connection to the city of Troy) even though the mask dates much earlier than Agamemnon. There were some amazing domed tombs here that make you just marvel at the technological advancement of the people during that time period.
That night we stayed in a hotel owned by Best Western. We had like a 6-course meal and AMAZING beds. If we stayed in that hotel every time we traveled my life would be complete!

Day 2 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004724&l=30d9a&id=1523040053

Day 3:
Well it rained all night and into the morning. As we headed off to Olympia it was STILL raining. We started out in the museum… I won’t bore you with everything we saw expect 1 thing… The famous statue of Hermes by Praxiteles. It is a statue of 2 gods (Hermes and baby Dionysus). Zeus as usual was up to some of his old tricks and got some woman pregnant. Zeus’ wife Hera got jealous and told the woman in order to find out if Zeus really loved her she must ask him to promise to do whatever she wanted. The woman asked to see Zeus in his true form and as a result she was burned up. Zeus rescued her baby (Dionysus) and continued the pregnancy in his thigh. Hera went on a rampage looking for the baby so Zeus gave Dionysus to Hermes. The statue depicts Hermes carrying off the baby to be raised by the nymphs.
Olympia was BY FAR one of my favorite sites in ancient Greece. It was beautiful! The leaves were starting to turn golden and the air was nice and crisp. It made me feel like fall had finally come. It made me think of hayrides, roasting marshmallows by roaring fires, and hot apple cider. Have I mentioned I LOVE fall. I tried to get a picture of the leaves falling and failed miserably.
The boys raced at the stadium and now are 2008 Olympic Athletes. The “track” is 193 meters long. The first Olympics was held in 776 BC in honor of Zeus. The games were held every 4 years on the 2nd full moon after the summer solstice, a tradition that is carried on to this very day. Besides the stadium there were the buildings used for trainings, an ancient basilica, and the temple to Zeus and Hera.
Once we finished up at Olympia there was a fantastic 6-hour bus ride back to Porto-Rafti. The bus rides aren’t as bad if you sleep through most of it but sleeping on a bus is difficult and NEVER comfortable. More to come… So read up, look at the pictures, and enjoy!

Day 3 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004722&l=aa812&id=1523040053