Δελφούς και Μετέωρα (Delphi and Meteora)

We got up early again on Wednesday morning – story of our lives!- and took a taxi into Athens because the metro line we usually take into the city was closed for some reason that morning.  Luckily, we had heard the announcement that the train wouldn’t be running on the way back to Marathon the night before, or we probably would have missed our tour!  We got to the hotel and got some coffee at Solo Café again.  I’m really growing attached to the people who work there.  They only speak enough English to take our orders, but they always look like they’re having a good time, even early in the morning. 

We got on the bus and had a two hour ride to Delphi, which is located north of Athens on Mount Parnassus.  The area was gorgeous.  The site of Delphi is located near the peak of one of the mountains, so you have very striking views from nearly every angle.  We also got a ton of exercise walking up the slope to see the stadium, which was a good ten minute walk away from the rest of Delphi, and then running back down the mountain because we were late for our bus!  Thankfully, we all made it!  We weren’t even the last ones.  Carla was very glad that she had the help of her walking stick.

 

Climbing up the mountain!

The Stadium

Here’s how Delphi worked back in the day.  Apollo, the god of music, truth, prophecy, and healing, is the patron god of Delphi.  He established a sanctuary where he was honored and where people could come to ask questions of an oracle, named Pythia who was given the ability to see the future by Apollo.  Pythia was a human priestess who would sit in a room called the Adyton while holding laurel leaves and gazing into a bowl of spring water.  There is some evidence that some vapors from the spring that flowed under the temple were helpful in putting the oracle into a trance-like state. When one Pythia died, a new priestess was named to replace her. Petitioners would sacrifice an animal and then draw lots to determine the order in which they got to approach the oracle.  The petitioner put his questions to the priests, who then went into the Adyton to consult the oracle.  The answers that people received back were often open to interpretation, and there are many stories in Greek mythology of people who misunderstood the oracular advice.  Their stories usually ended rather tragically.

This is where the oracle would have been

The Treasury of the Athenians

After spending an hour or so climbing around the mountain, we got back on the bus and went to the Hotel Amalia in Delphi for lunch.  We had a quick stop at the monument in remembrance of King Leonidas of the Spartans at the site of the Battle of Thermopyles.  The story is very cool, and probably familiar to many of you.  Emperor Xerxes of Persia was held at the gates of Thermopyles for three days by only 1,000 soldiers – 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians.  The Greeks lost the battle, but won the war later in the sea near Athens.  The monument itself was rather underwhelming, unfortunately.

Then it was back on the bus for three and a half more hours of driving to get to the city of Kalambaka for our overnight stay in the Hotel Amalia there.  These hotels are all gorgeous!  We had a half an hour before dinner, so I spent some time wandering around and taking pictures.  I went into a courtyard in the middle of the hotel to look! around. There was a little waterfall and a ton of flowers.  It was all very pretty, but someone shut the door behind me and locked me in the courtyard!  I was stuck for ten minutes or so before Mom came and found me and let me back in so I could eat dinner.  Her mama-senses must have been tingling or something, haha!

That night the news in Greece was all about the riots going on at Syntagma Square outside the Parliament building.  The Greek prime minister has been forced into accepting stringent austerity measures proposed by the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to be eligible for loans so that they can stay in the EU and continue to use the Euro.  Unfortunately, he accepted these measures after the Greek people had voted against accepting any additional measures in a recent referendum.  The irony of a government going against the wishes of its people here, in the place where democracy was born, is not lost on me, nor is it lost on many of the people living here.  There have been many protests in Syntagma Square since we’ve been there, but they have all been peaceful.  That night, as the parliament voted to accept the austerity measures, something switched in the crowd and a protest became a riot.  There were several people throwing Molotov cocktails and the police were forced to use tear gas.  There was at least one news van in flames.  I can’t imagine how scary it must have been to have been staying in one of the hotels in the square that night.  Luckily, we were all very far away from the area.  When we walked through the square the next evening, you could hardly tell that anything had happened.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast in the hotel.  The food at these hotels is way better than the food they serve at Golden Coast, we were all very impressed.  Then we hopped on the bus and drove about 30 minutes toward some pretty insane rock formations with monasteries on top!  The formations in Meteora used to be mountains, but a combination of water erosion and earthquakes turned them into several free-standing rock pillars.  The result is awesome – literally.  We all kept looking out the window, completely awestruck.  You really feel very small when you look at them.

Apparently, a guy named Athanasios had a similar reaction to the rocks in the 14^th century, so he decided it would be a good idea to build a monastery at the top of one.  I honestly have no idea how they got all the stone they needed up there to start building, but eventually they rigged up a pulley system and used carts or nets to haul people up the side of the rocks.  It wasn’t until the early 1800s that someone had the bright idea to carve stairs into the side.  Even so, the monasteries are not easy to get to (which, I imagine, was sort of the idea – weed out the unworthy or insincere and whatnot).  This first monastery was named Meteoron, and is where the whole area gets its name. 

The stairs we had to climb to get up to the monastery

Once we finally got up to Meteoron, it turned out that the inside of the monastery was just as impressive as its surroundings.  We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside the church itself, but the walls and ceilings were all completely covered in frescos in both the Macedonian and Cretan styles.  This style tries to make the figures look unrealistic in order to take people away from the burdens of their everyday life.  Figures who are most important are the largest and the colors of the paintings are mostly primary colors with very striking gold accents.  Most of the frescos depicted the martyrs and saints of the Bible and how they died.  There were some extremely gorey paintings!  I saw one depiction of a male martyr losing his head, blood everywhere, and another of a female martyr getting her breasts cut off.  I was surprised at how violent some of the images were.  Closer to the altar there were more depictions of saints, angels, the founders of the monastery, the apostles, Mary, and Jesus.  These were less graphic, but significantly more stunning. The furniture in the room was all elaborately carved dark wood.  I could find animal figures woven through leaves and vines on most of the pieces. Below are examples of similar art from other places in the monastery.

As well as the art there were some human remains on display in the sanctuary as well.  There were three skulls in boxes with little circles cut out so the very top of the skull was visible to the eye as well as two human arm bones (looked like a humerus and an ulna to me) in a chest with the lid open.  These were all displayed in a glass case so that they could not be touched or damaged.  They are apparently the remains of some of the founders of the monastery and are rather holy.  There were also some museums in the monastery.  We could see what military uniforms looked like throughout Greek history as well as old religious artifacts.  There were BEAUTIFUL hand written gospels and religious texts dating from the 13^th century that it just killed me not to be able to take pictures of.

Wine/beer anyone?

Oh, and did I mention the views were amazing?  The rock we were on is called Platys Lithos and is over 2,000 feet high.

After Meteoron we visited St. Stephen’s monastery, which has been converted into a convent.  It was very similar to Meteoron, but not nearly as old.  They are also in the process of redecorating the sanctuary, so we were able to see the paintings more clearly.  Then we got back on the bus and started the five and a half hour drive back to Athens.  We arrived back at the hotel at about 8 PM and I proceeded to veg out for the rest of the night.

Today is our last day at the resort.  I will probably try to spend a little time by the pool and at the beach.  Dad and I are going to rent bicycles and go to a little town that is nearby this evening when it cools down a bit.  Tomorrow we go to the airport and head home.  This will probably be the last blog post of this trip unless something really exciting happens on the way back to the States.  Thank you all for reading!  I hope you enjoyed hearing about our travels.

LOVE!

Amelia

Χρονια ΠΟΛΛΑ, ΜΑΜΑ! (Happy Birthday, Mom!)

 Just a few orders of business to begin with before I tell you all about what I learned today.  It’s mom’s birthday! (Everyone say: “Happy birthday, mom!” Great, thanks.)  We didn’t do anything too crazy, but we had lunch with Abi near her school and she got a delicious lemon pie with a candle in the top.  Yum!  Also, happy Bastille Day from Golden Coast!  This morning we noticed that there were all sorts of French flags hanging around.  There is a huge French population staying at the hotel, so I’m sure they appreciate it.

Another early morning.  Who’s surprised? No one? Well, I suppose I’ll skip the rigmarole of getting downtown because you call could probably do it as well as we can by now.  Our tour today was only five and a half hours.  We got a driving tour of the important sites in downtown Athens (including many sites that have already been mentioned in the blog: Parliament, the National Library, etc.), got to stop for 10 minutes or so at the Panathenic Olympic Stadium (the first stadium used in the modern Olympic games), walked up the Acropolis of Athens, and a visited the new and delightful Acropolis Museum.  

Panathenic Olympic Stadium

I have already had the pleasure of visiting the Acropolis of Athens before in July of 2011 on a cruise excursion, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the visit today.  In fact, we were all impressed by the improvements the Athenians have made on the pathways (they were much more easily navigated) and the weather was significantly better in the morning as compared to mid-afternoon.  One thing that I didn’t realize is that the Acropolis is not located on the highest hill in Athens, but the second highest.  This is because it is the only hill with a water source, which was strategically important in making the area defensible in the case of attack.  A little history lesson for you:  The Acropolis was settled in 3200 BCE.  It started as a small town, but eventually only the rich and important lived there.  With the rise of democracy in the 6^th century BCE the Athenians declared the space to be sacred and offered it up to the gods.  The shrines located on the top of the Acropolis were all built between 400 BCE to 400 CE.

The first sight to see while walking up the hill is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.  This is a theatre built in the 2^nd century BCE for the use of musical performances only, distinguishing it from an amphitheatre like the one in Epidaurus which is for dramatic performances. If you turn to look down the hill it is possible to see the Temple to Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and craftsmen, where the Greek Agora (or market place) was also located.  This is the best preserved temple in Athens – it even has some of its original roof intact.  Finally, as you climb you can see the rock, called Areios Pagos (“Ares Rock”), where the Apostle Paul preached Christianity for the first time in Greece.

 

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Temple of Hephaestus and the Agora

We finally made it up to the top of the Acropolis and got to see the temples located there.  First is the Temple of Nike, the goddess of victory, where they erected a statue of Nike without her wings in order to trap her in Athens (I don’t think that worked out for them very well).  Then there was the Erechtheion with its porch held up by six intricate statues of maidens.  The statues up on the Acropolis are replicas, but we got to see the real statues in the museum later.  There was also a fountain that where the Athenians had rerouted the stream that has been running over the Acropolis for thousands of years, so we got to take a sip of that.  It was good and very refreshing, but it did have a mineral flavor from running through the ground. 

Erechtheion and the Porch of the Maidens

Finally, of course, was the Parthenon.  The Parthenon is dedicated to the goddess Athena, who won the city of Athens from Poseidon in a contest.  The two gods were fighting over the city at the top of the Acropolis and Zeus came down to settle the argument.  He decreed that each got would give the Athenians a gift and they would choose which they liked better.  Athena gifted the Athenians with an olive tree and won the votes of all the women, while Poseidon gifted them with a fresh water stream and won the votes of all the men.  As it was, the women outnumbered the men, and so Athena, the virgin goddess of wisdom and defensive warfare, became the patron of the city and gave it her name.  However, since Poseidon’s gift was so important, the Athenians also paid him a great deal of homage in the decoration of the Acropolis.  The word Parthenon actually means the house of the virgin.

This is a miniature replica of what used to be over the columns of the Parthenon's entrance.  It depicts the competition between Athena and Poseidon over the city of Athens

Later in the afternoon we arrived at the new Acropolis Museum.  This was had not been built the last time we were in Athens, and we were all very impressed with it.  Most of the decorations and archaeological finds from the Acropolis and surrounding areas are beautifully on display in the museum.  Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures of the majority of the displays.  However, we were able to take pictures of the maidens from the Erechtheion and on the third floor, where they had created a to-scale, modernized replica of the Parthenon so that we could see how the reliefs and sculptures would have been placed in ancient times.  It was AMAZING.  It was so cool to be able to walk around a room and see reliefs tell the stories of the Trojan War and depict a parade in the exact order they would have appeared.  I would highly recommend this museum to anyone who visits Athens.  Below I have posted some of my favorite pictures as well as captions so you understand what they are depicting.

The original maidens from the porch of the Erechtheion

Demeter and Persephone - large scale replicas of the original statues over the entrance of the Parthenon.  The originals are in England

Dionysus and the horses from Helios' chariot - large scale replica of the original statue over the entrance of the Parthenon

Men carrying jugs of water in parade to a celebration - original relief from inside the Parthenon

The rest of the day was HOT.  We had a long walk to go have lunch with Abi near her campus for mom’s birthday.  After lunch we had hoped to see her college, but apparently you had to have a guest pass or college ID to enter, so we just gave her a hug and a kiss and said, “See you later!”  She’ll be home in the first week or so of August.  Tomorrow we have our only two-day excursion to Delphi and Meteora, so I won’t be able to post until Friday.  Then we fly home on Saturday!  This vacation has passed so quickly already, but I am definitely missing my own bed, my boy, and even my turd of a cat.

Amelia

Ελληνικά νησιά στη Μεσόγειο (Greek Isles on the Mediterranean)

There are times that I wish my family knew how to relax on vacations, but then I think of all the things we would never see.  A pool is just a pool.  The ocean is big and blue and magnificent, but there is more to the world than just the beach.  So on days like yesterday, when we miss both breakfast and dinner because we leave our hotel before 6 AM and don’t return until after 10 PM, I try to be grateful that my family and I get so many experiences on our vacations.  Yesterday night, it was hard to do, but today, as I sit on the porch, enjoy the beautiful weather, and listen to the kids play in the pool, it is much, much easier.  It probably doesn’t hurt that I got to sleep in this morning. J

We woke up at 5:30 AM on Sunday morning and ate a breakfast of bread, butter and honey, and cheese because the Olympia restaurant where we eat wouldn’t be open for four more hours.  Then we made our way down to the lobby to meet a minibus taxi that we had arranged for the night before.  Due to the fact that we had to be at Hotel Amalia earlier than normal (7:30 AM), we knew there was no way we were going to be able to take public transportation and make it on time.  We arrived early enough to get coffees at Solo Café.  The Greek gentleman working there is very nice and helpful to us poor Americans who need weak coffee haha.  We sat in the lobby of the hotel and then Abi showed up!  YAY!  It was nice to have her around for a day, we had been missing her own personal brand of entertainment.

The bus took us to the port of Lavrio near Athens and we hopped onto the big, three-story ferry that would take us to the different islands on our tour that day: Hydra, Poros, and Aegina.  We were one of the last buses to arrive, so there were very few tables available.  We spent the first hour or so of the ride sitting on a ledge at the bow of the boat.  It was a very windy, but a great view!  Eventually, Carla and Dan found a table in an air conditioned portion of the boat and we went down to pick our excursion while we were on the island of Aegina.  The ferry rides were all very interesting.  We sailed for about 2 hours to get to Hydra, another hour or so between the second two islands, and another 2 hour sail back to the mainland port.  There was a DJ who played all sorts of music up on the third story.  They gave Greek dance lessons and there were a lot of people who danced almost the whole time they were on the ferry, it was a lot of fun to watch!  There was also a three-man band that played traditional Greek music for you in the area we were sitting.  One of the gentleman was playing a bouzouki, it is a guitar-like instrument that is round on the back, like a big wooden bowl with strings.

Our seat at the bow of the ferry

We stopped at Hydra (pronounced more like ee-dra, the H is silent) first.  The water was gorgeous – so blue and clear!  The town we were was not quite as idyllic as Oia on Santorini, but it still looked like a post card.  Lots of narrow cobbled streets with whitewashed buildings and colorful doors.  There are also stray cats EVERYWHERE.  They’re all very tame and would love it if you had some food to give them!  We wandered around going into shops and souvenir shopping for an hour before we had to get back onto the ferry.

Poros was more of the same, but we only had about 40 minutes so we only got to shop right next to the harbor. A long strip of the harbor was covered in these hand painted rocks shown below. When we got back on the boat it was our turn for lunch!  The food was traditionally Greek and some of the best I’ve had on the whole trip. 

By the time we reached Aegina, it was during the hours of siesta.  Like in many Mediterranean countries, Greek business shut their doors for several hours in the afternoon and early evening.  This is obviously less observed in more urban areas, but on a rural island like Aegina almost everything was closed.  That’s why we got to do excursions during this visit.  First we got to visit the Temple of Aphaia.  It is one of the most well-preserved temples in Greece and it celebrates a local goddess of fertility who came to the island to flee the romantic intentions of King Minos.  Experts actually believe that Aphaia is actually a different name given to the goddess Athena to distinguish her from the patron goddess of the nearby Athens.  There were also some beautiful views of the island from the acropolis the temple was on.  After we toured the temple we stopped for refreshments and got to have some pistachio ice cream.  Aegina is grows some of the best pistachios in the world, so of course we bought a bag to munch on during the ferry ride home.

On the way back to the ferry we stopped at the Church of Agios Nektarios.  Nektarios was known as both a miracle worker and a healer during his lifetime.  Although he was popular with the people during his lifetime, his methods were frowned upon by the Greek Orthodox Church because they believed him to be using his popularity unwisely.  He ended up moving to Aegina and starting The Holy Trinity Monastery where he stayed until his death in 1920.  In the 1960s, the Greek Orthodox Church sainted him, making him the most recent saint in the church.  His remains and books of his teaching are accessible at the church and monastery in Aegina, making the church a common pilgrimage for members of the Greek Orthodox Church.  The church is huge and a great example of Byzantine architecture. Unfortunately, they were doing some work on the interior, so we couldn’t see the inside of the domed roof or several of the beautiful frescos inside. 

This is where Agios Nektarios' remains are buried

We made it back to Athens at 8 PM, but we couldn’t be dropped off at our usual point because there was a demonstration taking place at Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament building.  All the roads were blocked off and there were riot police everywhere.  However, the protest seemed to be very peaceful and under control.  There was no rioting.  Our trip to the hotel was a long one and we didn’t make it back until after 10 PM.  Dinner wasn’t being served anymore, but we had had so much to eat during the cruise that it didn’t matter too much.  Today was another beach day, so we got to sleep in and be lazy!  Tomorrow we have a half-day tour of the Acropolis of Athens and we will get to visit Abi to see where she’s attending school.  

Ακρωτήριο Σούνιο και τον ναό του Ποσειδώνα (Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon)

Thankfully, after the long day we had on Thursday, we only had a half day tour scheduled for Friday.  We all slept in, having exhausted ourselves the day before, and took our time eating breakfast and getting ready for the day.  We made our way into Athens and got there at about noon – plenty of time to do a little tourism before our bus left.  Our stop in Syntagma square is also the location of the house of Parliament.  We were just in time to catch the changing of the guard as well as listen to one particular Greek woman air her complaints very loudly – presumably about the current financial crisis.  Except for that woman, long ATM lines, and some heavy traffic due to supposed demonstrations in the square (which we’ve never seen), there has been very little indication of unrest in Athens.

We then walked a few blocks to see the National Library of Greece, the University, and the Academy of Arts.  The only building we were allowed to go into was the National Library, which was alright by me!  We were only allowed into the entrance of one of the rooms, and no pictures were allowed.  The books were very old and the titles on the bindings were all in Greek.  The room itself was smaller than I had anticipated, although the library itself seemed to be much bigger than just the area we could see. 

After the library we headed back toward the Hotel Amalia and found a café where we grabbed a quick lunch and took a break from the heat.  We hopped on our tour bus and settled in for a long drive.  This tour was much bigger and the tour guide was speaking in both French and English.  The drive took us along the coast of the Aegean Sea and was gorgeous!  I slept off and on, but every time I opened my eyes all I could see was blue sky and bluer water. 

As we drove down to Cape Sounion, the guide told us how the Aegean Sea got its name.  Apparently there was a king named Aegeus who had not been able to have children.  After a trip to Delphi to consult the Oracles about the issue, he stayed in a neighboring kingdom and slept with a woman who was visited by Poseidon later that same night (lady gets around!).  As it turned out she was pregnant and Aegeus was happy to claim the child as his own (presumably he didn’t know about the “other guy”), but he couldn’t stick around to raise the child due to his kingly responsibilities.  He gave the woman his sword with the instructions to send the child to him when he or she was grown with the sword to prove his identity.  Nine months later a healthy baby boy named Theseus was born. 

When he was old enough his mother told him of his father’s identity, gave him the sword, and sent him on his way.  During his journey to his father’s home, Theseus completed many labors, including clearing the mountains in the area of criminals.  His reputation proceeded him and he was welcomed in his father’s city as a hero.  When his father learned who he was he was welcomed with open arms as a prince.  Unfortunately, the city was under a blood tax by King  Minos of Crete, who required 14 young people (seven boys and seven girls) to be delivered to the Labyrinth on his island in order to feed the Minotaur housed there.  Theseus decided to go with the next shipment of people in order to kill the Minotaur.  Before he left he told his father that he return home with white sails if he was successful.  He managed to kill the Minotaur and find his way back out of the labyrinth, but he forgot to change his sails on the way home.  King Aegeus was at the tip of Cape Sounion watching anxiously for his son to return.  When he saw the black sails of the ship, he flung himself off the cliff in despair and drowned. 

Seems melodramatic to me (I mean, seriously, wait a few more hours and find out for sure!), but apparently that’s the way to get a sea named after you.

We got to Cape Sounion and hiked on up to see the Temple of Poseidon.  The sun was just starting to set and the view was stunning!  Definitely my favorite ruins so far.  Just so beautiful.  We spent about an hour there, walking around the whole thing and taking pictures.  Then we got back on the bus and drove back to Athens.  I slept most of the trip, which made the time go much faster.

Today we got to just laze around the resort.  Carla and Dan got here at 11 AM, so we have been able to catch up with them and hear about their cruise.  Tomorrow we have an 11 hour tour of three islands in the Mediterranean: Poros, Aegina, and Hydra.  We have to get up very early in order to make it to Athens, so we’ll be calling it a night early this evening.

Amelia