Peloponnesus Days # 4, 5 and 6: Olympia and Delphi

The last two days the hotels both charged for their internet usage, so I decided to explore the towns instead of using my last bit of money to sit inside blogging.

So, Friday morning, far too early, we got on the bus and left Sparta for Olympia. The bus ride was much longer than anyone really expected, and we ended up getting to Olympia too late to do both the museum and the site in the same day, which pushed our schedule back a little bit for the rest of our time in the Peloponnese. I wasn't thrilled, as two full days in Delphi had been a very exciting prospect, but as it turned out, I wouldn't have spent a minute less in Olympia, so no worries.

The Bus ride took us over these mountains and gave some rather spectacular views when the rocking motion didn't want to make us close our eyes from fear and/or hypnosis.

Our quaint "rest stop" along the way. Not your typical tour bus pit stop. :-)

The spring where we all filled our water bottles. Also, the best water I've had in Greece yet!

 First view of the site of Ancient Olympia. The columns have been stood back up, but almost none of that is reconstructed stone work. Truly incredible!

For those who don't know: Olympia is the original site of the Pan-Hellenic Olympic Games, beginning in 776 b.c. This means gymnasiums (pictured above), temples (pictured below), stadiums (pictured far below) and lots and lots of treasuries and offerings from all over the Ancient Aegean world, including Grecian colonies in other areas of the world. The site is huge and splendid in every way, and we didn't being to cover it in the three hours we spent there.

Frontal view of what remains of the Temple to Olympian Zeus, plus reconstructed full-scale column and scale tourist (you can just see him in white on the left side of the picture if you squint.)

JK sizing up one of the column pieces from the original temple. That is a mid-size cross section of one enormous column. Many laying around us were even larger.

Across the way from the temple to Zeus was a temple to Hera, his wife. It was a little smaller, of course, but still very prominent. 

We actually were able to go a little inside of the temple to Hera and look around a bit at what the inner structure of an ancient temple might be (sans grass, of course).

This round structure (only part of which is re-stood-up here) is called a Tholos (which is Greek for "round thing"). No one knows what they were used for, but they seem to crop all over in the darnedest places. They're usually called "religious" and left at that.

The grand entrance to the Olympic Stadium. Even in 400 b.c. everyone's trying to out-do each other for showiness at the Olympic Games.

And the Stadium itself. We held a race where we all had to run barefoot across the stadium and back, just as they did in ancient times. Surprisingly, the guards were fine with this (apparently it's bad form to preform in a theater, but isn't to run on a track. Oh well.) The stadium is about 191.7 meters long, so I was a bit winded after that sprint, but I was proud not to come in last. 

We stayed in Olympia that night without much event or ado, got up early again and went to the Museum attached to the site on Saturday morning. The museum was fantastic, containing, very much intact, the friezes and pediments from the original temple of Zeus as well as some lovely roman sculptures, a great bronze collection and the famous statue of Hermes standing with the baby Dionysus on his arm (no picture because there were already quite enough in this post!) It was a lovely walk through and I would have liked more time there, but I guess I just have to go back later. 

After racing out of the museum around noon, we all grabbed our lunches in a little town called Nafpaktos on the way to Delphi. Nafpaktos, as far as I could tell is a town on the water that makes most of it's money trapping tourists with it's picturesque beach-front tavernas as they make their way toward Delphi. There is one main street and beyond that it gets a little run-down and shabby. There was also a creepy looking state-fair sort of attraction being set up, which did not help the general atmosphere. I was too busy thinking about Delphi to pay too much attention to the town, anyway.

We got to Delphi just in time to do a small portion of the site (which is so large that is divided into an upper and lower section anyway) and to have dinner before checking into the hotel.

The Tholos structure at Delphi. No one knows what this was used for either.

View overlooking the remains of two temples and a treasury, looking back on the Tholos.

I had a quick dinner that night and proceeded to walk around the town essentially on my own. The "towns" at these sites (with the huge exception of Sparta) all tend to be little tourist traps with hotels, shops and tavernas, and no real sign of the people who live there. Delphi, unfortunately, was no exception to this, but I did go into one store (and spent about an hour there) where the man running the shop was very surprised to find I knew a little Greek. He had the most lovely chess sets, which I would have gladly bought could I explain the 75€ to myself and figure out how to get one home, but we got to talking over the items (in Greek, whenever I could) and then about family life and what I was doing in Greece. He wanted to invite me to dinner, and was very sad that I had already eaten. I got to meet his precious daughter, Eirene (which means "Peace" at least in Ancient Greek), and we listened to Leonard Skynard and Johnny Cash in his shop together. His colleague also dropped by the store for a while and they explained their mission to find the Nymphs, Druids and Fairies on top of Mount Parnassos (the great mountain that Delphi is founded on top of), and showed me pictures of what I think were fireflies inside the caverns. It was fun to talk to them at least, and the colleague told me that I had a very positive aura and was no ordinary tourist. That made me feel good, even if it was a sales pitch, which I'm not sure of even now. 

Sunday morning was another early one, but with good reason. We had to complete the Delphi Museum and most of the site by about noon. The museum was fine, though nothing spectacular with a few exceptions of a Sphinx that stood about 8 ft tall, two very famous Kouros (young male nude) statues, and the friezes and pediments from around the temple of Apollo and the Athenian treasury. It was fun, but I'm glad for the sake of seeing the actual site that we only spent about an hour inside. 

Then there was Delphi.

For those who don't know, Delphi is the site of the most famous Oracles and Prophecies of the ancient world. People from all over Greece, the Byzantines, Italy, Egypt and as far as Asia and - I think - Gaul came to visit this Oracle for advice. It was said to be founded by Apollo himself, who was a god of prophecy among many other things, and a Pythia (a very special priestess) was chosen to sit on the tripod and receive Apollo's messages of the future. She would go into a trance (possibly induced by chemical vapors rumored to be on the site) and speak in tongues, which would then be translated by the surrounding priests into a prophecy in hexameter verse. Welcome to the ancient version of rock-paper-scissors. It also held athletic games similar in scale to the Olympic games every four years and was one of the best known sites of the Ancient world, often called the naval of the world in it's heyday.

First view going up the mountain. This site is immense!

Picture of the Athenian Treasury along the way up. This is a reconstruction, but from what I understand they had a fair bit left to work with while reconstructing the site.

The enormous altar of Apollo, with JK standing in for scale. It was less massive from the other side, but still looked more like a defensive wall than an altar.

 A special secret tunnel one level below the temple. No one really knows it's purpose (though it was probably something to do with the smoke or general mysticism of the Oracle). When we passed by there was no guard and no rope, so our professor encouraged us to go through which I did (twice). It was actually quite a mystical experience as, even though it is a short tunnel, the structure of it is such that there is a point with no light whatsoever. A priest/ess or messenger might feel truly connected to the god at such a moment, so we felt it might serve as a right of passage of sorts as well. The second time I went through, a guard very politely asked me to get out. I was disappointed, as the site still wasn't roped off, but I understand why they don't encourage people going through. 

 

The other entrance/exit of the tunnel. There is a third, but I don't seem to have snapped a shot of it. (I am told by a roommate that she got a picture of me exiting the tunnel, which I will steal from her in due time.) 

A small view of the site from within the tunnel. It's pretty cramped in there, but it's fun to crawl through. Reminds me of an ancient Discovery Zone or McD's Playplace of sorts. 

The immense temple of Apollo to go with his enormous altar. The ramp is still in just gorgeous condition.

Ariel view of the temple and its inner structure. This thing is so big. I cannot stress that enough. It's a fair minute-long walk to pass by it lengthwise.

The theater at Delphi, which is less impressive than that at Epidaurus, but still quite nice.

Some remaining column pieces at the far end of the site. We all got to explore on our own for about an hour between the lecture and time to leave. I was extremely grateful for that.

Looking along a drain pipe back towards the main site and JK, ES and LV from my group. Isn't the scenery overwhelming? It's hard to pay attention to the little ruins with the giant mountains sitting there.

Looking down on the Athenian treasury and surrounding ruins from the temple level.

We left Delphi around 12:30 and stopped for Lunch just a short while later in Arachova, which is another town which seems to make most of it's money from tourism. It did seem like more of a town existed that was readily available to tourists, however, which was a refreshing change, especially getting ready to come back to Athens, even for a little while, where tourism is only the norm in the summer.

Arachova from across a valley. We ended up picnicking, as we did for lunch most days.

We returned to Athens about 5:00pm (around 4 hours ago now) and I am very ready for bed. M, G and I are all going to Santorini tomorrow morning, and our boat leaves at 7:25, meaning we have to be at the port at 6:15, so we have to leave the apartment around 5:30 at the latest, so we have to be up by... by... early... *sigh*. I'd best go to bed now. I do not know at all whether or not our hotel/hostel will have internet, and may decide against bringing my computer entirely. We shall see. There will be pictures Friday at the latest.

I hope you all have enjoyed your virtual tour of the Peloponnese. Please gather all of your thoughts and exit the web-page carefully. Thank you again and Καληνύχτα!

Peloponnesus Day #3: This is Sparta!

Only two major stops today, though both very important. We got to wake up a little later than originally planned because breakfast at the hotel was completely backlogged Wednesday morning and the professors wanted to avoid that as much as possible today. So, of course, the hotel gave us a wake-up call an hour earlier than they needed too (because that's how these things work). Most people ended up oversleeping anyway.

First stop was Mystra - an ancient byzantine citadel atop a very tall mountain about 6 miles South of Sparta. The site was gorgeous, though quite a hike for so early in the morning. This will be comprised mainly of pictures, as our Guide didn't have much to say about the site.

Atop the fortress pinnacle, looking down, down, down.

Another angle, doing much the same.

Wide shot, to give an impression of how expansive even this topmost part of the citadel is. The whole site took over 2 and 1/2 hours to skim. We barely scratched he surface of available ruins and reconstructed churches in that time.

Arch and pathway going down from the top.

Reconstructed bell tower.

Surviving fresco from the middle ages (exact date unknown) inside one church ruin.

More fresco in the same church. It's amazing how much remains!

Pathway going back up toward the top.

Reconstructed bell tower.

Same tower from beneath. This is actually part of a fully-functioning convent located within the ancient site. The nuns were quite sweet, as were the cats who live with them.

Near the bottom of the site, looking back toward the top. Did we really hike that? I don't recall.... We must have at some point, but it didn't feel like we went that far up.

Around 2:00 we finally left Mystra and headed for lunch in Sparta where we would be spending the rest of the afternoon. Everyone was starving by this point and really excited to take a walking tour of Ancient and Modern Sparta. We've all seen 300 of course, and after spending so long in Athens, we wanted to get a taste of the top rival to our home city-state, and find the biggest cliff face we could so we could take turns standing at the top and yelling "This is Sparta!"

Sparta, in fact, is...

...not what we were expecting.

It's a lovely little city, but there isn't much to it. It's built partly on top of the ancient city, like most modern towns around here, but the ancient city was unoccupied for over 1000 years before the modern city was founded, so the two really have nothing in common. Also, Mystra stole most of the Ancient Spartan ruins for it's expansive construction, so there isn't much of Ancient Sparta left to uncover or explore. Still, it was fun.

A statue of Leonidas in front of the modern stadium. They have some sense of city pride, anyway. The funniest thing about modern Sparta to me is that there is no tourist market whatsoever. I feel that if they just opened a few tourist shops and got the KTEL train to come here from Athens, Sparta could be a thriving tourist center, but they don't even try. It's probably smart not to invite that sort of activity into such a small, close knit town, but I would think that Greece as a whole would take about any source of outside income they could get these days...

"This is Sparta?" Well, an ancient Spartan theater, anyway, probably dating from the Roman era.

JK and I did a lot of exploring on our own in the Ancient Sparta site and did come across these wall paintings, pretty well preserved, in a corner. The British excavation team hasn't finished the site for decades, due mainly to lack of funding, so the site is pretty barren, but that also means that pottery shards are still just laying on the ground (no, we didn't pick any up - that's illegal, even if we were very tempted) and there are no guards, so we could sing and dance on the ancient, grass-covered stage as much as we wanted. And we stayed there and did just that until after sunset. :-)

One last comprehensive look at the ancient site. This theater is pretty much all they've uncovered, although they are pretty sure that they at least know where the agora is and will get around to it one day.

So, all in all, a good picture day, but not much in the way of new information or varied sites. We are spending this one night in Sparta, just to soak it in (and recover some much-needed sleep!) Tomorrow, bright and early, we head for Olympia to spend the day there!

Καληνύχτα!

Peloponnesus Day #2: Maximum Rockness!

Still having trouble with the pictures, but it's ok.

Day 2 of "CYA Explores the Peloponnese" included a very early morning, trips to Epidaurus and Franchthi Cave, and a picnic lunch by the sea. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Epidaurus was - if I'm going to be honest - a little disappointing. The site has a lot of potential (they're still working on reconstruction) and the history of the cult there is really cool, but Lecturer/Tour Guide was having difficulty holding my attention (and from the sound of his lecture, his own as well!) with side comments about the gods worshiped here and the construction of the area. The problems with this site are 1) Nobody quite knows what these things are, since none of the stories really tell us anything that doesn't involve supernatural occurrences. 2) The site looks like a pile of rocks, even more so than most other sites I've visited. It's not just that it looks that way in pictures, it looks that way in person, too and that makes things difficult to picture. Anything that looked remotely interesting to explore was roped off for reconstruction and continuing excavation. So, lots of potential, but it's just not there yet. Which is weird, because the site has been open to the public for decades.... ah well. Pictures!

One of the reconstructed areas, which represents an old entrance-way to somewhere (either a gym or a dining hall, they think). You can see the rock piles surrounding it.

One area I found on my own in an area they thought equivalent to some old-style locker rooms (perhaps, if Building #1 was in fact a gym. Otherwise no idea. It looked like the ruins of a bank more than anything else to me. :-P)

More rocks and a mysterious (purpose unknown) semicircle of large benches with a table of sorts in front. A waiting area with checkers, perhaps? Who knows. Also, some reconstruction of a tholos (read: round building) in the background. The existence of that building puzzle archeologists as well.

Part of the remains of the Sanctuary of Aesclepius, the Healing God (we know what something is!)

Some of the detail of the reconstruction(?) of that sanctuary above. This is a wall of sorts between the larger columns.

The East side of the sanctuary reconstruction, with scale CYA class.

Here is the real treat at Epidaurus - the theater. This was mostly not reconstructed and mostly found above ground as is. Performances are still held here (unfortunately only in the summer and not by tourists) and the acoustics are phenomenal. From where this picture was taken, you can hear a coin dropped in the middle of the stage perfectly, even with people around you talking. It's absolutely incredible. JK and I tried to dance on the stage (it's a theater, and a functioning one, so why not?) but they blew the whistle at us. I guess they didn't want people getting excited. Pooh. (JF says she got pics, though.)

The other best part of Epidaurus. On the way in there were puppies, and on the way out there were kittens! Here, in order from left to right, ES, AS and JF giving the cats some love.

After Epidaurus we stopped at a small bakery (far to small for the 40-or-so of us, anyway) and grabbed sandwiches for a picnic lunch by the sea side. The profs weren't paying much attention, so rather than eating on the grassy knoll, we decided to all eat on the rocks.

JF on a rock by the sea.

JK and AS on rocks across the way.

The little church we ate by. We didn't get to to go in (I'm not sure it's open to the public) and no one seemed to be there or care that we were using their front yard as a picnic area.

The Line following a Professor to our next stop, Franchthi Cave. We are quite good at lines, on the whole.

The "path" we took to get there, looking behind us. Good thing the Professor knew where he was going!

Franchthi Cave. This collapsed cave is one of the earliest inhabited areas we have evidence for in all of the Aegean. It's open to the public as in there are no guards and the area is marked off by signposts as an archeological site, but it's difficult enough and dangerous enough to get to that it doesn't get a lot of foot traffic. Apparently the danger level is high enough that CYA doesn't really approve of groups going there, but the professor who took us excavated the area in the seventies and he takes a group every year anyway.

Looking down one of the excavated trenches in the cave, with scale class.

Looking down into the collapsed area of the cave from above. We climbed up some 30 ft on that brightly lit rock two pictures above. It was very fun. :-D

The view back towards the front of the cave from atop the rock.

ES getting back down, which wasn't particularly easy.

We left the cave slowly and walked back along the beach for about an hour before getting back on the bus. We're in Nafplio again, but everyone's too tired to do much tonight. We'll get dinner, gelato and probably call it a night after that. Tomorrow, Mystra and Sparta!

Καλησπέρα!