Ancient to the Ancients

Last night, I went back to my room and watched CNN for a little bit more (they were showing sports highlights, haha) and then went to bed. I woke up today and had a chocolate filled pastry for breakfast. So good but so bad for you. I took the bus to Mycenae. They are ruins that are about 3500 years old. They are slightly after the Minoan ruins I mentioned before from Crete and Santorini but way before the Ancient Greeks. Actually, the Mycenaeans were ancient to the Ancient Greeks. They thought that the walls of Mycenae were built by Cyclops. The ruins are of the palace and temples and stuff. The most famous part of the palace is the graves (picture 1). Quite a few of them were not plundered and all those treasures were still preserved. The other big attraction at Mycenae is the Lion Gate (picture 2). It is of two lions standing and facing each other. The heads are gone though. You walk under it on your way into the ruins. I went into the underground cistern. It was kind of creepy because there were a lot of stairs and I had to use my flashlight for light. I liked it though. While I was walking around, a girl was going at the same pace as me (looking, taking pictures, and reading the interpretative signs) so I said something lame like "These are cool ruins." She didn't run away like I thought she might. Actually, we spent the rest of the time at the ruins talking. She is from Australia but lives in London (like most Aussies I have met). She was really nice but a few years older than me. She told me that she is going to be doing a six month bicycle tour of Italy soon. Wow, good for her. She saw a lot of the stuff on the mainland of Greece (Meteora, Delphi, Olympia, Thessaloniki) while I saw a lot of the stuff on the islands so we exchanged how favorite parts. Her name was V or something like that (she just said V and never told me how to spell it).

We went into the museum which was nice but too hot. I almost passed out while we were walking around because I was so hot. Once I was outside and in the breeze again, I felt much better. Most of the stuff that has been found at the site has been moved to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. We saw some "beehive tombs". They are tombs in the ground that are shaped like, you guessed it, beehives. No honeycombs or anything like that, just pointy domed. I skipped the one o'clock bus to see some other ruins down the road and ended up having to sit around for 1.5 hours for the three o'clock one (the ruins only took a half hour). That was ok with me. I just read, looked at the ruins more, and admired the fantastic views over the countryside. Mycenae was good because it allowed the people to control and view a wide area (picture 3). While I was sitting and reading, a woman came up to me and asked if I was from MN (I was wearing my Twins shirt). I said yes and she asked to take my picture since I was the first Minnesotan she had met for a long time (she is from MN). She took my picture which was kind of weird but fine by me.

I got back to Nafplion and decided to walk up the 900 steps to Palamidi castle which is situated way above the town. I trudged up the steps. The great views of the countryside and town from above were worth it (picture 4 and me at the top picture 5). Really awesome. It was very humid though and I was sweating like a pig at the end of it. The castle wasn't open which didn't bug me because I didn't really want to go in anyway. There were a lot of middle school aged kids running around the town and the castle. I thought that was strange. Maybe school got out today or something. I walked back down the steps to the beach. Very small, pretty, pebbly beach. A couple Greek guys were sitting and talking while only wearing speedos. It was as attractive as it sounds. I walked around the rocky promontory that separates the beach from the town (the path and view is picture 6). Three girls were walking a ways behind me and singing pop songs. Then I sat by the harbor and read more of Zorba the Greek. I had a gyro for dinner. Cheap and not too bad tasting. Then I came to this internet cafe. I had ice cream from the same place I got from last night. It was good but not as good. I got a weird flavored one that I didn't like too much which stunk. I saw my last sunset in Nafplion as well (picture 7). Sad that it was my last and super beautiful. Tomorrow morning I leave for Athens where I will stay until Monday. I hope everyone had a good Thursday!

Love ya!

Tragedies and Comedies

So after finishing that post yesterday, I found out that Katherine's name is actually Catherine. I should have known, she's from Canada. Haha. Oh well. I changed them all to with a c now. Anyway, we left the internet cafe and went to the grocery store. You might be thinking, "Wait, didn't Jeremy already go to the grocery store on Tuesday?" You are thinking correctly then. Haha. I went twice. I bought some white chocolate, some puffy things that were flavored with peanuts and hazelnuts and some cookies. I already had petit-beurres (butter flavored crackers). Catherine bought some petit-buerres as well but a different brand so that we could compare. Then we ventured over to the big indoor municipal market and I bought peanuts and she bought banana chips (dehydrated bananas). It sounds like a lot of snacks and it is, but it really wasn't very expensive at all. It was 5:30 but we were bored so we got on the bus to the port even though our boat didn't leave for 3.5 hours. The bus ride was uneventful. We got to the port and it was 6 but we were able to board the boat. We did even though, again, we were 3 hours early. Haha.

We had deck tickets but a guy from PA who worked for the boat told us to just sit in one of the lounges because they weren't going to fill up. The lounges were filled with airplane type seats and had a 40" big screen tv in each one (picture 1). There were over 6 lounges on the boat. The worker guy told us the boat caught sit over 1000 people. Jeeeeez. We sat down and watched House with Greek subtitles. We couldn't figure out how to turn the volume up so it was not that enjoyable. Right after the show finished we figured it out. D'oh! Then we watched a show that is like Entertainment Tonight, it reported all the celebrity news. We tried to guess what they were talking about because it was all in Greek. While this was going on, we were talking and snacking. She said I was to blame for her eating all those snacks. I told her she was to blame. We could not come to a consensus. Fire Down Below, a Steven Seagal movie came on when the boat started moving. HILARIOUS! We made fun of the movie the entire time it was playing (while still snacking, haha). Then Matrix Reloaded came on but it was after midnight so I laid down and so did Catherine. I split off and on for the rest of the trip but Catherine told me (after the fact otherwise I would have tried to remedy the situation somehow) that she was too cold to sleep so she didn't. The ferry arrived at 5:30 am and we got off and found the subway.

We got off Line 2 at the same stop but I was going to walk to the bus and she was going to the train station so we said goodbye. I was super sad about it. The burden of loneliness was squarely back on my shoulders. It is one of those situations where you don't know what you are missing until you try it. I was used to traveling alone (after doing it for 18+ days) but once I tried traveling with someone who is cute, funny, smart, female, and nice, traveling alone is not so good anymore. Honestly, I hadn't felt that alone since my mom left back in March. Part of traveling is moving on and stuff. One of those "Better to have loved and lost" things except more like "Better to have traveled with and split up". The dumb thing is that I could have changed my plans and traveled around Athens with her today but for some reason I didn't. I don't why I didn't. It wasn't because I was afraid of changing my plans because at that time, I had no firm plans so I don't know. Oh well. I still had a really good day even though the whole time I kind of wished I wasn't alone.

I took a city bus to the Coach Terminal. I bought my ticket and waited for an hour for my bus to leave. The station was pretty dirty. The bus ride was only 2 hours and it went through some extremely pretty scenery. I arrived in Nafplion at around 10 am. Nafplion is a town on the Peloponnese Peninsula. It is small but very pretty. I went to the place in my Let's Go book (thanks again Amy, that book freaking rocks) and left my bag while my room was getting ready. I walked around Nafplion. There is a section called the Old Town that is awesome (picture 2) and has tons of these big red bush/vine things hanging all over. The buildings have windows and balconies just like Venice as well. There were some statues of Lord Byron and some other people who have visited (picture 3). I scoped out some possible dinner places because I didn't have anything else to do. Two places looked good. I walked along the waterfront as well. There is a little castle out in the harbor. Very cool. There is alsoPalamidi Castle up on a rock way above the town which reminded me of the Alhambra in Granada (view from my hostel's terrace picture 4). I went back to my hotel and showered and watched CNN for a while. Then I left and waited for my bus to Epidaurus.

Epidaurus has some very famous Ancient Greek ruins that are about 30 minutes south of Nafplion. The most famous part is the theater. It has 33 rows and can fit about 14,000 people. Not as big as the one in Ephesus but still very spectacular. The view from the top is amazing. The acoustics of the theater are very famous as well. If you stand in the middle of the stage area, people in the very top row can hear you rip a piece of paper or drop a coin on the ground. The acoustics are that good. There are also some ruins of the healing temples and stuff near by the theater. Back in the day, Epidaurus was more famous for it's healing powers than for it's theater. I spent 4 hours there wandering around and watching people in the theater. One guy started singing opera which was sweet (picture 5). Some of the ruins were of a stadium built 2,300 years ago that the local high school still has track meets at now (picture 6). There was also the bathhouse where people got healed (picture 7). I met two couples (one of them took my picture) who are guidance counselors in the US somewhere (I didn't ask). Both had heard of SJU though.

I took the bus back to Nafplion and wandered around for a little bit. The picture I took of the red bush things is one of my absolute favorites (picture 8). The sun was setting as I walked. I know I have said this before but this was quite possibly THE BEST SUNSET EVER (picture 9 and 10). The sun was shining through the clouds onto the mountains across the water, there were some little boats going back and forth in the harbor and the little castle was there... The whole thing was almost too beautiful for me to look at. I know that that doesn't make sense but it's true.

I ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. My table was under some of those red vine things. I had mousaka in honor of Catherine. She told me she had mousaka in Santorini and liked it a lot. I had not had it yet. It is minced meat and vegetables (mostly egg plant) topped by bouchemal sauce. Really good. Then I had ice cream for dessert. Second best ice cream ever (after that almond stuff in Granada). The caramel ice cream was the PERFECT consistency: not too soft, not too hard. Completely delicious.

Phew. That was a lot of writing and a long day. Tomorrow I am going to some more ruins. Mycenae and up to that castle on the rock.

Toodles!