Mykonos, Samos, Ephesus, Troy, Gallipoli

Tuesday 7/31

Arrived in Mykonos around 245pm. My intention was to get a boat over to Delos and see the lions there. I was so close I was sure that there would be boats but I was wrong. My plan was foiled. I walked with my suitcase all the way around the quay to the other side to see about a place and everyone along the way said forget it so I did. Figured I’d be doing damage to Jackie’s luggage, so I walked back to a place where I could leave the luggage and went to the little town beach for a swim. Want to talk paranoia? Walking out on the pebbly beach and going into the water knowing passport, cash and ferry ticket and basically everything important is sitting on the tiny little beach while hundreds of people are walking by was unsettling. Al and Ann Hunter would be aghast. I had put my bright orange shirt on top of the backpack so I could see it from out in the water without my glasses (cuz I didn’t want to lost the glasses in the ocean). I was noticing how clear the water was, though. I could see my feet and then I stepped on something that gave me a sliver and I was going to go in and check it out when I couldn’t see the orange shirt. Panic! Then I noticed it blew off onto the sand but the pack wsa still there. Jeez. Got out and was trying to get the sliver out (impossible0 and I noticed all of the green and clear glass in the pebbly sand. Bummer! Turned me way off cuz that could ruin my trip. I’ll be needing my feet. Found some place to eat a little and have a beer,

Long story short that was the last interesting thing I did in Mykonos. Went back to the café where I left my bag and tried to get on the net with my laptop. No way. Downloaded some email on my ipod and eventually got on the 9pm bus to the other port where I waited for 5 hours (aaaaghh) for the ferry. Got through moist of Hunger Games and was a little jittery from 1130pm to 130am when I was all by myself, defenseless, with all of my stuff clearly visible. Could’ve been rolled easily. To the credit of the Greek people, nothing happened. 

Got on the boat and went to my sleeper cabin. Looks like I have a roommate who's not there yet. he gets in an hour later and makes a bunch of strange noises. I try to stay asleep. He gets up like an hour later and makes more strange clinking noises. Whatever. He leaves. Then the steward bangs on the door and says it's time to wake up if I'm getting out at Lesvos. But I'm not. Anyway, not much sleep going on in the old sleeper. 

Wednesday August 1

Arrived in Samos and realize that the ship to Kusadasi leaves in an hour and I race over to the other side of the quay in Samos and grab a ticket. Also able to book a tour to Ephesus and get a hotel idea (Atilla's in Seljuk, run by Australian guys with a pool - sounds good enough). 

Ephesus was great to see but I was kinda tired and it was blazing sun and copious tourists by the time I got there. Tour guide was ok I guess. Ran into the normal problem with tours - spent a lot of time jawing about irrelevant stuff and then stopped for lunch at some authentic Greek food place (food actually pretty good but way overpriced and then we stopped at some hokey leather place, where they gave us a "demonstration" - simply a bad runway show of these people wearing leather coats. You wouldn't believe how impressed some of these shopaholic tourists were. They actually bought some of this junk for hundreds of dollars. I went back to the bus. Two people wanted to get out of the bus early. looks like the driver gave them my luggage by mistake. They figured out the error before I did and I got my stuff back. I'll be more careful next time. 

Atilla's turned out to be a pretty cool place. Dinner was included and it was good. I played in a "killer pool" tournament and got 4th out of 22. not bad. Had one awesome shot to stay alive and then blew an easy one on the next round for the loss. Typical.

They gave me a lift to the bus station next morning and I made my way up to Cannakale for the tour to see the Gallipoli battle sites from the First World War and of course Troy. 

Thursday August 2

Troy was great to see. Just being there was the best part. And seeing the general location and geography makes me a better teacher of the Iliad I think. The guy who dig it up (Schliemann) pretty much just drove a bulldozer though it while looking for the gold (which he found and transported back to museums in Germany, which were then stolen by the Rooskies when they invaded Germany in 1945 (should've been us)). Anyway, they ain't giving it back anytime soon.

 After the Troy tour it was lunch and a tour to Gallipoli with (of course) a bunch of Australians. They are always very friendly and fun to be around. They are always curious why an American would want to see it but once i give em my history teacher spiel, they accept me pretty well. It really was a great experience to see Gallipoli and i had the best tour guide so far. A history grad student from the local university, his English was great and I learned a lot. The tombstones were very poignant as they usually had sad inscriptions from family members of these kids that died so far away. and then on the way back he played that "And the band Played Waltzing Matilda" song about Gallipoli. Moving.

Back just in time for a 6 hour bus ride to Istanbul. More later! Picture below from the bus up the Dardanelles (which I remember learning about from old Frank Corwin in high school myself)

Santorini (Thera)

Sorry for no post in a while, guys (my avid readers whoever you are). I've had some internet trouble. I wrote it down in Word though and will post now:

Today (Monday 7/30) I boarded the 8:20 catamaran from Crete to Santorini. I just learned from a wonky Linked in group for ancient historians that the Minoan sites at Knossos and elsewhere in Crete are not on UNESCO’s World Heritage site list. The group is outraged and I am on a mission to find out why. Would’ve been better had I known that yesterday, but oh well. Anyway, back to today.

Arrived in Santorini with that same feeling of not knowing exactly where I wanted to stay, and therefore, how to get there. But I had some mild anxiety about wanting somewhere to put my bags so I could see stuff. I determined to become decisive however, seeing that the decision point had arrived. Since the port we landed at was far enough from town to require using slow, crowded, and unreliable public buses or highly expensive taxis, I decided to rent a car. I could get a stick or automatic for the same price. After hemming and hawing I decided on the automatic, because I had no idea what dinky impossibly steep dirt roads I’d land on with a stop sign at the top and me stopped at a 50 degree angle with a cement truck immediately behind me. I figured the automatic would be good there. So I got that one. Then the weasel rentacar guy rented my car to the English lady behind me in line who wanted it for three days and couldn’t drive a stick. I demanded a beer (large) for my trouble, upon my return tomorrow. He looked pained and apologetic at the same time. Oh and by the way the tank was empty with the gas light blinking, so I had to stop for gas at the gas station right away, which allowed the English bird in the car I should have had to pass me on the one-lane road, driving about 14 miles an hour helped by a ten-mile tailwind. I tailgated her for a while and as I passed her on a switchback I honked long and loud just to freak her out and I think she started to cry. (OK that whole last sentence was fake. I tooted happily as a sign that our cars looked alike and wasn’t that fun?)  Sorry. Enough of this blather. More about the history.

Since all state-run museums are closed on Monday, the National Archaeolgy Museum in Fera and the Aktoriri archaeological site were unavailable. But there is this rich guy who opened a museum with the novel idea of making high-quality life-size replicas of the pieces and having a museum in the tourist area explaining the whole thing. This is open on Mondays (thank you, capitalism). It was pretty cool. This art was pretty distinctive from Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek art of the same period and just as highly accomplished, if not more so. But as we know the volcano demolished most of it and the Sea peoples or the Myceneans did the rest. And frescoes don’t last long once they’ve been demolished. That’s where Princeton came in. These guys from the engineering department did 3D scans on all of the little pieces of fresco that have been lying on a table while greek archaeologists have worked on the world’s toughest 3d jigsaw puzzle. The Princeton guy made like 12 matches with their computer, more than a year’s output from the human team. Hopefully they stick with it.

After seeing fantastic views of blue water and cruise ships in the caldera (imagine very similar to Crater Lake with chunks of the sides missing). I cruised over to Perissa (another town south of Fera with good beaches. I got a hotel for 40 euros instead of 200 in the main town. Nice pool too. After a swim and some reading I got back in the car and headed for Oia (pronounced ee-yah)…(not pronounced yee-haw; that peeves em off…which is why I do it!) Trying to catch a good picture of the iconic sunset shot over the little house with a blue dome was like trying to get through a bunch of 13-year olds at a Justin Bieber concert. So I pushed aside the feeblest looking old bat and took a quick snappy and ran away. I tried to get down to the harbor and that was a nightmare with a zillion little Toyota Yarises and smart cars and scooters and four-wheelers (which they rent out) I got stuck at the bottom but managed to turn the car around on a hill with a stick in a very tiny little space in a foreign country without dinging anyone. Then I’d had enough and watched the stupid sunset from the car on the ride back home.

I designed my hotel choice to be close to the archaeological site so I could check it out and get back to Fera to see the museum and then down to the port to drop the car, collect my beer, and hop on a boat (ok…ship) to Mykonos by 12 noon. That gets in at 245pm, and I have some time to scoot over to Delos (as in Delian League). Next boat departure for Samos (my gateway to Ephesus and Turkey) leaves at 2am so I got a cabin. Costs a little more but no one throws up next to you…unless your wife’s in the cabin (ha ha...sorry, hun) I get in at 7am and might just take a day tour rather than actually enter the country with a visa and all. I’ll think about looking around for my passport that I haven’t seen for several days. …...once again, just kidding, but there are moments of terror where I have lost track of something (wallet, passport, rental keys, boat ticket) followed by moments of relief where I’ve left them in a dumb but recent place. Ah…travel.

I’ve kinda noticed that I haven’t seen a lot of comments from colleagues yet, so I’ve been keeping it light on history and heavy on human interest stuff. So if you’re a colleague (despite the pain in your mind of the notion of your being a colleague of mine), write in and I’ll add the wonky stuff in. And remember – all seeming grammatical errors are just colloquialisms for the masses (i.e. kinda, a lot, etc. – dang it; I notice that my spellchecker keeps changing alot to a lot. Irritating.)

Tuesday 7/31

My plan worked perfectly. I woke up and blew off the very lame breakfast top make it to Akrotiri. Stopped for some cash at the ATM. It really irritates me that they make you jump through all the hoops to get money before at the very end the message says “We’re plum out of money to give you!” I’ve seen this trick before in Italy so I asked for just a little bit and they still rejected me. You would think they would have the courtesy to just say "no money" on a big sign. Anyway, so I’m left with very little cash now, but enough to make it to the archaeological museum. Especially since I have an international student ID card (which teachers can get) that saves like 70% of the cost of entry. I have to say I wasn't very impressed with what I saw. I know it’s a work in progress (which it says in a hand-written sign) but you think they could have thrown up a few plaques telling you what it is you are seeing. I asked if they had a guide and they said not; they only have guides when the big tour groups from the cruise ships come in. So they had interspersed a bunch of people to sit around in chairs and watch me walk around. (see upper left of picture above) They sorta had a laminated page that said generally what the deal was (which I already know) but not what it is you are seeing as you walk around. Anyway, I’m still glad I went. I was able to figure out a few things, mostly that the people were very advanced (more advanced than today even…ha ha). They had two-story houses with frescoes and cool art and were pretty wealthy as a city.

Then I was able to cruise back up to Fera, grab some cabbage out of a friendlier bank and see the archaeological museum with the real artifacts from the ancient culture. Then I returned the car as empty as it was when I got it and the guys like, "Empty?" and I said heck yeah! I got a nice breakfast before my boat to Mykonos.

More to come later! Next is Mykonos, Samos, Kusadasi, Ephesus!

Athens and Crete

There was the example of hubris where I was driving in Athens evening freeway traffic and I was feeling very confident and actually said to myself, “Kev you are the man!” That statement (even to myself) is an example of having hubris – overbearing pride. This angers the Greek gods and they send nemesis to bring me back down to earth, in this case with the help of my GPS which said something I couldn’t really hear (above the sound of my own self-congratulation) except the word “right” but the GPS seemed somewhat urgent, so I moved right to be ready, after which she tells me to Exit left. Usually she gives me so much time that it is confusing. But not on the freeway. She’s Janey on the spot. I was able to make the exit due to superb reaction time (uh-oh more hubris).

Then I had to climb over a curb to get a parking spot somehow missed by the Athenians.

More later. Coming into port of Heraklion Crete after nice sleep on overnight boat.

Got off the boat and looked around with a dumb expression for a while wondering what to do at 6am. I knew I needed a hotel and there was one I’d seen from the boat that looked good – the Megaron. I felt that 99 euros was a decent deal. I know many travelers would be going out of their minds at the sheer cost but have they checked out the prices of Travelodge in Montana during basketball season. I figure I’m doing well, seeing as how there is a rooftop pool with an harbor view and an awesome breakfast. I recommend it. It’s a little eerie as there is hardly anyone around. Might be a Russian mafia place, but I’m minding my own business.

Saw the Archaeological Museum in Herakion which has awesome artifacts that are all over our textbooks. Unfortunately they are doing restoration so they only have a very small room with the best stuff. Kids – you’d love it! I read all the plaques and spent a while anyway. And it was only steps from my hotel. Then I was going to take a double-decker convertible bus out to see the ruins of Knossos and everything else on the tour. But it was Sunday and the bus doesn’t run. So I figured out how to take the city bus out to Knossos but by the time I got there it was high noon and blazing hot. Luckily for me the heat bounced back off the ruins into my face to keep me doubly warm. Horrible! But not to complain. I am glad I saw it, and especially glad I saw it without kids. Some moron brought his two kids six and seven years old and you can only imagine their boredom and pain.

This a.m. I go to Santorini (which is the site of ancient Thera, which the Minoans blew up to make a tourist resort for us! Actually a massive volcano around 1400 BC blew it up and began the beginning of the end for Minoan civilization, who, weakened by having their Cretan island probably swamped and many killed, were taken over soon by the Myceneans. Off to learn about them now (if I can find something I didn’t already know!) (Yikes – hubris. I don’t know squat!)

Almost 7am. I have to run down for my awesome breakfast. Oddly enough they are always trying to shove cookies into your hand, even at reception. But they’re fancy cookies and not at all to my palate’s liking. But I bet they’d be expensive. And they’re very proud of them. So I’m doing my best, “Oh no I’m full. I couldn’t possibly eat another cookie!” act. Little do they know I could put down quite a few cookies if they were Oreos or something.

 Leaving port of Piraeus. I did get to see a remnant of the Long Walls built to protect Athens, Piraeus and the road in between.

 This is the most famous fresco from the Minoan times showing their distinctive art style and their favorite game of bull-jumping. I tried it but I still prefer golf. (just kidding....about the trying it...not the golf part.)

 Massive clay jars meant to hold honey and or wine.

The reconstructed palace. Some believe it was reconstructed pretty poorly. Looked ok to me.

Epidauros, Sparta, Mystras, Pylos, Olympia, Delphi, Thermopylae

Epidaurus was great except I couldn’t find it right away because the GPS took me to some crummy theatre near Epidauros that was under construction. I first was thinking, “What’s the big deal?” and then realized it couldn’t be right. Epideurals is actually a very very cool theatre and I got some snappies of it (as the aussies say). Made it to Sparta after some of the most incredible scenery. Will try to get some pics up. 

So today is Saturday in Greece. Yesterday was a power day, which means that today I’m a sloth unfortunately.

Driving away from Sparta, where I forgot to do a video of me screaming This is Sparta (darn it), I went to a place called Mystras, which was a monastery during the Byzantine days. It is incredibly high up and the views are spectacular and of course I had to climb it. Took some fantastic video of the panorama. I have to wonder if the Spartans had hung out up there. They must have!

Then I drove up and over the mountain (there is a large mountain between everything in Greece) with the intention of driving to Olympia. Started getting kinda tired on the way down and that didn’t seem wise so I stopped at a mountaintop chalet. Got a room for €30 and pretty much fell asleep. They weren’t serving food so I ate some stale lame plastic bag pretzels (batonettes, they said) and went to bed.

Up at 4 in the morning to plan the day and out by six with no brekkie (as Aussies say; I don’t usually say). By now I’d decided I couldn’t pass up seeing Pylos and Sfacteria (the battle where the Spartans got trapped on an island and were so sad and hungry that they surrendered. The Athenians demanded ransom for their return and the Spartans paid. So much for “come home on your shield… etc.) So that was cool. I drove out on a little sandspit to get a good picture (rental car) and moved on to Olympia. Spent about an hour looking at the ruins. I especially liked the temple that Alexander the Great gave to Delphi with statues of himself. And there was Miltiades actual helmet that he wore at Marathon in defeating the Persians. One might be tempted to disbelieve this, but it was inscribed as a gift to Delphi by Miltiades, so I think it’s legit. Forgot to mention that the National Archaeological Museum in Athens had lots of arrowheads and spearheads from Thermopylae – very cool.

Oh yeah and my favorite part was an are of Olympia where statues of Zeus were lined up right before the entrance to the stadium. The statues were paid for by athletes caught cheating, and their names were inscribed on the bases of the statues. People would then be allowed to spit and urinate on the bases as the entered the stadium. What a cool idea! I’m thinking Barry Bonds and Clemons and that cardinal slugger whose name I forget. And the Boston Marathon cheater. And the biking guy. Anyway, much more effective than court cases and asterisks on their statistics. Greeks had some good thoughts, which is what I’m here to learn about.

Delphi was 4 hours away but I made it in 3 ½ despite the fact that my GPS from hell puts me on gravel roads rather than main thoroughfares every chance it gets. And it scares the living daylights out of me when it screams “Go straight on” for no apparent reason. On the approach (a very stressful approach with cones and signs in Greek with lots of exclamation points and danger symbols) to the bridge across the Gulf of Corinth, it (she, naturally) yells, “Exit ahead!” but I wasn’t really supposed to take the exit. She was just pointing it out or something. Luckily my innate sense of direction saved me. The exit she wanted me to take was a kilometer ahead. Aaaggggh!

So I’m having fun.

Delphi is on a major (yep) mountain. But I got there and saw the Treasury of the Athenians. Very cool. This is where they put all their loot from members of the Delian League. After enjoying Delphi I motored on to Thermopylae which was just over the mountain (natch). Guess who forgot to get gas in Delphi! No prob. There were gas stations along the road…which were all closed because of the economy. So that was a bit stressful. Then it started raining and all other cars disappeared so I was thinking I’d be like the Donner Party but with no one to eat. Made it to a gas station and saw the plaque on the hill where the Spartans made their last stand.

Went home after that. Had to turn the car in. But the office was closed and parking in Athens is a holy nightmare. Found some illegal spot but had to move it to an equally illegal spot. Going off to see if the car is still there. Then it’s off to either Crete or Thera. Getting laundry done too. See ya later!

Tolo, Epidauros, Sparta, Mistras, Kallimata

I've got to hit the road now to get to Epidauros and back before checkout. (Ha ha. The spellchecker wants me to replace Epidauros with Epideurals.) Hopefully I will be able to make Kallimata tonight, or possibly even Olympia tonight. adios for now!

Corinth, Mycenae, Nemea, Nafplion

Last time I wrote in, I had just been back from walking around the Acrop. I then went on a tour of Athens given by an archaeology professor who stays in the hostel and had studied in England. He was a very nice guy, but got stalled at places a bit too long. Ended up being a three-hour tour (...a three owwwerrrr tour) and blew my plan. But we did visit the Athenian and Roman agora, Hadrian's Arch, the Temple of Zeus, Syntagma Plaza (where the riots had been. There was one rather lame union protest going on but the participants looked bored as they marched down the street.) Saw Parliament Building and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the guards in their funny shoes. Went through the shopping areas of Monastiraki and Plaka. Saw the stadium where the Marathon ends and the National Gardens. Did I mention the Areopagus where democracy began and where Paul gave his message to the Athenians. Didn't work so well so he went to Corinth. Also saw the Pnyx (try pronouncing that one). After the tour mercifully ended (it was really very good) I raced onto the subway and went to the National Archaeological Museum where I saw manhy famous pieces like Agamemnon's mask and the statue of Zeus or Poseidon (they really don't know which) and several Minoan and Mycenean pieces. Then cabbed it back to the hostel and walked up to teh Parthenon and then the Parthenon museum. Instead of seeing the museum I just went to the cafe and had a cheese melon delicacy and a beer. Actually it was one of the worst beers I've had in a long time - said something like Bio Beer on the label. I've got to stop trying new beers. Heineken was the same price. Anyway I was happy with the honey melon cheese thingy from Crete.

I realize I am probably putting my audience to sleep, so suffice it to say I saw a ton of stuff before getting back to the hostel for the night. Hung out with a lot of people who made me feel very old, but they were very nice to me and gave me proper sympathy for the bloody knee I got during the hike.

Wednesday – After an early breakfast and checkout I was off walking to find the rental car place – also found a post office but only had enough money for 3 stamps. Dang. Needed an ATM also. The car is ok but the directions from the Avis lady were totally lame, so I spent alot of time missing turns and getting lost while trying to get out of town. Like…an hour. Ouch. Didn’t get too bummed out, as nobody was being inconvenienced but me. Very mature. I had brought my GPS from the States but it doesn't work here, and the GPS I rented from Avis is slow at crucial times, like saying "turn right" after the intersection is behind me. I eventually got the hang of it and checked out the Corinth canal at the isthmus. Seventy feet below the bridge over the isthmus at Corinth, the water was a gorgeous blue and you could see the outlets on both sides a few kilometers away. I decided to stop off in ancient Nemea (where they had Pan-Grecan games like Olympia’s) and then ancient Mycenae, which was truly spectacular. Fantastic geography. And then came down to Nafplio, which is one of the more beautiful places I’ve seen. Right on the Aegean coast and beautiful neo-classical architecture (from around late 1800s). It was the first capital of Greece so they made it look good. Now it’s off the beaten path so prices are pretty good. Nothing I’ve seen has been very crowded. It’s like I’m off-season with prefect weather and everything’s open. Grabbed a 3* business hotel (with a pool) at 2* prices near the beach. Ate a Greek pizza overlooking the port and castle at sunset.
Thursday

I like Nafplio so much I’m going to hang here for the morning until checkout. Then I see the beach town of Tolo for a quick swim and will hit Epidauros, site of the best preserved  ancient theatre in Greece, which has a lot. I’ve already seen five. I brought a book of three Euripedes plays so maybe I can read them in Epidauros. But then I have to hustle on to Sparta (yeah I know – there’s nothing there). Maybe I’ll get someone to film me on the iphone screaming, “This is SPARTA!” like the movie, and then kick some animal into a well. Not really. About the animal. Maybe the other part. After that it’s over the hill into Mistras (like a Byzantine Bechtesgaden) and to see the Messenian plain. I’ve attached some pictures of Nafplio, including one with me in it.

It's Tuesday morning here. Athens is 10 hours ahead of Medford Standard Time. I finally got to sleep around 1am in the hostel. I was trying to figure my way around my dorm room with no lights on so I wouldn't wake everyone (I couldn't have figured out how to turn the lights on anyway). I was pretty proud of myself but  shouldn't have bothered as four yahoos woke up at 230am and showered, talked and had a velcro party, constantly zipping and unzipping suitcases and other junk. On the other end of the spectrum, it's 9am and there is still one guy sleeping.

I was up at 6, showered and walked around the Acropolis trying to get my bearings. Also got some breakfast and coffee. Will do a walking tour with a history professor and an archaeologist this am.  Then I will go to the national Archaeological Museum during the heat of the day and then maybe take a bus tour to Piraeus (hoping to see the long walls that kept Athens from being stomped by the Spartans (for a while) in the Peloponnesian War. Then back to the Acropolis Museum during the evening. Happy hour at 8 here at the hostel. Missed yesterday's trivia night.

Greek is seriously tough to figure out. Two different styles of writing it. I'm getting the hang of it though. A little worried about renting a Citroen car tomorrow. Besides the fact that I don't relish driving a French car in a dangerous place, they have stop signs at almost every driveway meant to tell people to stop before entering the big road (duh) but they face the big road so it's hard to tell which signs are for me and which are for the other guy. Whatever. I'll just drive like the Greeks and ignore them all. Gotta go. Can't sit around jawing with the homies all day. Will post when I can.

Don't have any good Athens pics yet, but this is an idea of the parking situation around the city. Teeny little cars. Excellent parallel parking skills.