In the winter of 2010/2011, I was blessed to attend a study abroad program in Greece for three weeks as well as an optional, 10 day “pre-trip” in Turkey (see previous blog entry). The class was about the Greek World; an examination into the history in addition to the literature and culture of ancient Greece. The class had 25 students (to start with), and most of them were not History majors. It was especially interesting to interact with non-history majors because they offered different views on something that I see a certain way. I will never forget: Erin, Shaina, Krita, Athena, Jaime, Bethany, Becca, Tori, Madison, Melissa M., Devin, Jenna, David, Melissa S., Amanda, Keyon, Victoria, Joel, and Kristin. Plus the 7 who went to Turkey: Jonathon, Stephanie, Amber, Alia, Jenn, Matt, and myself. In addition to Dr. Hood and Cecil, another adult came along, Art, who was a former student of Dr. Hood and is a brilliant research psychologist. I instantly made 20 new friends, which is something that is not easy for me. Perhaps the situation called for us to become friends, but I truly think that this group of people was awesome and I am glad that I could spend three weeks with them!
I remember being in the restaurant with the Turkish Elite in the Plaka Hotel as we watched the rest of the class walk up in the rain. I was nervous about meeting the new class. I felt like I had to establish myself as the “cool” and “outgoing” person that everyone likes. However, I quickly fell into just being myself. After a few minutes of being around everyone, I became comfortable. We walked to Zorbas, an excellent restaurant, and I led the pack down the narrow streets in the dark. There was nothing to fear of the group. We had a delicious dinner at Zorbas Restaurant (I highly recommend it). The retsine wine was excellent. Retsine is a resin that is found in the skins of the grapes that is left in the wine, which gives it a different smoothness as compared to other wines (or so I was told). The tzatziki and saganaki (pan-fried cheese) were just great. The main course was Chicken Artemis; pounded chicken fillet with a cheese and mushroom sauce. I sat next to Madison, Melissa M., Jonathon, and Stephanie. It was an enjoyable dinner. I planned to go out for a run with Joel and David the next morning.
I met David and Joel in the hallway at 6:00am. We went for a little run around the Acropolis. It was still dark as night and the city’s stray dogs went for a run with us. In the first full day of Greece, we did the “Athens Walk.” We first visited the Tower of the Winds located in the Roman Agora (marketplace). This interesting tower has an octagonal shape with the relief sculptures of the 8 major winds facing their respective directions. This was our first site in Greece and I was not aware of the rules regarding “exploring.” After Dr. Hood explained to us the purpose of the building, I went off to go around the tower, but a Greek security employee promptly yelled at me to not climb on the walls. At first I was embarrassed, but then frustrated because I did not understand why I was not allowed to do that. Dr. Hood later explained that the ancient sites are “holy” to the Greeks, and walking all over them is a kind of disrespect. Lesson learned. The next site we visited on the walk was the Mosque of Conqueror, built by Muhammad II who conquered Athens. From there we went toward the Acropolis up to the Aeropagus, the ancient law court. It is the place where Orestes was put on trial by the Furies and was judged by Athena in Aeschylus’ trilogy The Orestia. The Apostle Paul also gave a sermon to the Athenians there in the 2nd century AD. From there we went to the Odeon (a speaking platform) of Herodias Atticus. Lastly, we hiked up a mountain to get to the tomb of a Roman named Caius Julius Antiochus Philoppapos. We had a terrific view of the Piraeus (the port city of Athens) from there. Then we marched back down to see Hadrian’s Library which had some excellent ruins and floor mosaics. Our last stop was at the house of a Patriarch in the Greek Orthodox Church, as well as the oldest house in Athens. Unfortunately, during all of this, one of our fellow students, Kristin, was not feeling well. We had our lecture and dinner. After dinner we went to a bar nearby and I tried Ouzo for the first time. It is similar to the Turkish Raki, but not as good in my opinion. We went to bed soon after that because the next day we flew to the island of Crete.
The flight to Crete was not the smoothest. I will never forget the landing; right before we touched down, it appeared as if our wing was going to clip the ground. However, our skilled pilots managed to put us down without an incident. After collecting our baggage, we boarded our charter bus and drove to southern Crete from where we landed in Herakleon in the north. The Cretan countryside was truly beautiful. Our first stop was at Gortyn, the Roman capital of Crete. We visited the destroyed Cathedral of St. Titus and the famous Law Code of Gortyn, a wall of Doric script that declared the laws to the people. Next we drove up a windy road to the Minoan Palace of Phaistos. Here we saw impressive storage magazines and what is called the “King’s Megaron,” or throne room. Dr. Hood told us a story about how he once climbed the backside of the hill to get to the site some time ago when there was a Greek worker strike. We next drove to the famous Minoan palace of Knossos in the north. The clouds looked very thick and we expected rain. The geography of Crete creates a rain shadow in the south, whereas clouds tend to remain in the north. Despite the ominous clouds, a brilliant rainbow revealed itself to us. We arrived in Knossos in the early afternoon. I looked forward to this site very much because of its fame. Perhaps one of the best things about this trip was being able to walk and explore places that I had only read about in books or had been lectured to by my professors. Knossos was everything I expected and more. The palace was magnificent. Many of the tulip shaped columns, large pithoi (storage vessels), frescos, and storage magazines had remained intact for us. But not to be fooled, much of the site had been reconstructed by Sir Arthur Evans (dubbed “Knossosland” by our Professor). Some of the original frescos are kept in the Herakleon Museum, but there were several copies on display on the site. I also had the chance to see the oldest road and the oldest throne in Europe. But just when I was getting around to exploring on my own, I heard a loud whistle and yelling. I turned to look and it was a Greek site employee telling me that they were closing. I thought to myself, “but it is only 2:45… they close at 3pm.” I had to leave immediately as they were rounding up others. I was very disappointed by this. But I guess even Greeks want to clean-up before closing so they can go home right when it is “quittin’ time.” We then drove to our hotel in Herakleon. We were about a 2 minute walk from the sea! Unfortunately, our classmate Kristin had been admitted to the hospital in Herakleon with pneumonia. It was too bad that she got sick; we all felt bad for her and the situation. She had to stay there a few more days and then go to Athens where she spent another few days before going home. We had an interesting dinner that night (and the next night). It was a “traditional” Cretan dinner of primarily appetizers. We had everything from fried zucchini to French fries, and from meatballs to pork cooked in white wine. It was literally a 10 course meal! I felt pretty disgusting the next morning after having eaten so much food.
The oldest throne in Europe at Knossos
The next day was New Year’s Eve. We went to the Herakleon Museum. It was a great little museum. Literally, little (but do not tell the Cretan’s that). One of the first things to greet you in the museum was frescos from Knossos (with partial reconstructions). I was able to see my favorite piece of ancient pottery; a small vase with a large octopus looking right at you. Also at the museum were two large double-axes that were a common fixture at Minoan palaces. The famous Phaistos Disk was also on display. (Side note: It is a goal of my friend Jonathon and me to decipher the Phaistos Disk, which is written in Linear A. It will be our ticket to immortal glory in the history world.) There were also a few Roman statues, one being a Statue of Hades and Cerberus, the three-headed dog, which was pretty cool. After the short museum visit, Dr. Hood led an optional trip through Herakleon to visit the tomb of Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorbas the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, and then we went to see the Cathedral of Agios Minos (Saint Minos). Minos just happens to be the name of a Christian saint as well as the mythical king of Knossos; what a clever move on behalf of the ancient Church. The tomb of Kazantzakis was spectacular, located on the top of a hill overlooking the sea at Herakleon. His epitaph reads: “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” The cathedral of Agios Minos was equally spectacular. It was the first Greek Orthodox church that I had ever been in. I remember just standing inside and looking around at the ornate paintings and sculptures, almost caught in a trace at the beauty. Locals came in and out of the church, walking up to each picture, touching it and kissing it. Standing in this church made me miss home a little because I had not been in a church for nearly three weeks. That afternoon we went shopping for adult beverages in town for a proper celebration of the New Year. The hotel allowed us to use their conference/lecture room to have our party. After going to the same restaurant as the night before, we returned and had a great New Year’s party. I decided to let loose a little bit, and perhaps I drank a little more than I should have, but it was fun nonetheless. I would pay for my sins the next morning. Just after midnight, our party would have to come to an abrupt end because we had a plane to catch in seven hours. I could not sleep, partly because I was afraid to because I had drank more than I should. I stood in the bathroom for a good 15 minutes drinking water. I thought that would help for some reason.
The Octopus Vase in the Herakleon Museum
Early on New Year’s Day we went back to the airport to fly to Athens. I thought that I would have a major headache or be sensitive to loud noises (like a typical portrayal of a hangover), but I did not. My only complaint was a stomach ache, but that lasted until mid-afternoon that day. After landing in Athens, we boarded another charter bus and drove west and south to the coastal city of Nauplion. The drive was somewhat unpleasant due to the curves and turns and my stomach was killing me. Others, however, had it much worse since they partied harder than I did. We stopped in Corinth for a rest and a quick lunch. We got to see the Corinth Canal which connects the Corinthian Gulf in the west to the Saronic Gulf in the east. The place we stopped at had a cafeteria and gift shop. I had to work up the fortitude to eat something, and I definitely could not walk past the aisle of alcohol. It is kind of funny looking back on it. We continued on and drove past the ancient city of Corinth. We could see the Acrocorinthos, which is the fortified citadel of Corinth on top of a mountain. We were told we could hike there the day (which did not happen because of time and rain). When we got to Nauplion, our very skilled bus driver navigated the narrow streets and we applauded his efforts. Our hotel had a wonderful view of the Saronic Gulf and the port. In the afternoon we had the chance to explore on our own. I went with Jonathon to look for good places to eat. We stopped by a small Greek Orthodox church, (which was just as ornate as Aigos Minos), an average gelato shop, and we found a cheap Gyro place. After dinner, Dr. Hood took us to a REAL Gelato shop (run by Italians). He knew the family for many years. We patronized this store several times in our three days in Nauplion; it was that good. After gelato, we all went back to study for our first midterm, which was the next day.
The view of Nauplion Bay from out hotel
Our first full day in Nauplion started with an exam. Great. I was not worried about it, it was just a matter of me getting it done. It went well. The day was not a nice as the day before. We drove to our first site, Tiryns, under a gray sky. Tiryns was a Mycenaean outpost for the great citadel of Mycenae, just miles away. The great walls are still impressive to this day. But other than that, not much remains. The next stop was at Mycenae. This site was great. We stopped by the museum first, but there was nothing that exciting there. I had been looking forward to seeing the famed Lion’s Gate for some time. It had rained on the way there and when we walked up to the Gate, the rain had made the relief look terrible and not clear. That was truly disappointing, but I still got a picture of it. The grave circles were impressive to see in person. It drizzled on-and-off while we were there which made the old polished stones slippery to walk on. Dr. Hood took us to a cistern that we were able to walk down into. You need a flashlight to get down safely. We formed a line and walked on down, but to our disappointment there was nothing really to see at the bottom except a little graffiti, so we just walked back up. It was rather anti-climatic, but exciting to walk down in the dark. After this site, we went to a tholos tomb dubbed the Tomb of Agamemnon. It is only called that because, again, Heinrich Schliemann found a gold death mask, which he called the Mask of Agamemnon, so naturally it was his tomb. It is most likely not Agamemnon because carbon dating puts the tomb around four to five hundred years before Agamemnon lived. After getting rained on, we had lunch and then drove toward Corinth. In Corinth we visited the museum which has some very good Roman statues and some mosaics and a cool Archaic Sphinx. The ancient city of Corinth was mostly just Roman remains because the Roman destroyed Corinth in 146 BC. One of the first things you see is the Fountain of Glauke, the daughter of the Corinthian King named Creon. Behind the fountain a ways is a Temple of Apollo. The Roman agora is recognizable with the outlines of shops lining the way. There is also a speaking platform called the Bema where the Apostle Paul addressed the Roman consul of Greece in the 2nd century AD. Due to the time restrictions and because of the rain, we were not able to visit the Acrocorinthos, which was a little disappointing. But then we drove back to Nauplion. That night I had dinner at a pasta place with Amber, Jonathon, Stephanie, Alia, Erin, and Victoria. They charged us one Euro per person for the bread they gave us and the pasta was not that good. We fed our disappointment with good gelato. That night we read the plays Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers for class the next day. Reading the plays out loud with funny voices made it so much easier.
The following day we went to Epidaurus. On the way, we stopped at an ancient Mycenaean bridge which had been weathered by the centuries, but still intact. Our first stop at Epidaurus was the museum, but it was closed because it was Monday, so we started off with the site. The first place we saw was the remnants of an ancient apartment; four distinct courtyards surrounded by rooms that were residences. After that we walked to the northern edge of the site to where ancient people would have entered the city; through the Great Propylaea (which is nothing more than a stump of stones now). Next, we walked into the cistern, a newly opened part of Epidaurus (at least, new to Dr. Hood). Right next to the cistern was the partially reconstructed Tholos (circular tomb). Walking back we had a sneak-peek at the Stadium, which looked very nice, but we were not allowed to go to it. Next we walked past a minimally reconstructed Temple of Artemis toward the Roman baths, which concluded the main part of the site. On the way to the grand finale of Epidaurus, we tried the museum again and a lady opened it up to us. She instructed to remain quiet and go quickly, which we did. Inside there were some nice statues, parts of the buildings, a beautiful example of a Corinthian capital, and a wonderful statue of Asclepius (the cult hero of healing, see my Turkey blog on the Asclepion) with his trademark staff of healing and snake. The most important structure at Epidaurus is the Theater; it is the best preserved Greek Theater in the world. Dr. Hood entertained us with the opening seven lines of the Iliad. From the top row, he was dwarfed by the size of the seating and the orchestra (the stage for the chorus in a Greek play), yet his voice was perfectly clear. The acoustics of Greek Theaters in some ways are better than some modern indoor venues. By this time, it had started to rain again and we made our way back to Nauplion. For lunch, a group of us went to that cheap Gyro place that Jonathon and I had found. It was a small place and they could barely handle our business. To our error, we ordered our food and sat down at the bar and tables. This may not sound bad, but in Greece they have two prices on the menus; one for take-away and one for sit-down. They assumed we were going to leave, so they charged us the lower, take-away price. They could only give us a dirty look. The gyros were delicious. After lecture in the late afternoon, another group of us went to dinner at a pizza place near the place we had lunch. It turns out that they had just opened for business the day before. It was run by an English woman and her Greek husband. She waited our table and was extremely fun. The pizza was great as well! After dinner, we went to the real gelato place again and it was good as usual. Back at the hotel we read the final part of Aeschylus’ Orestia trilogy, The Eumenides. It was our last night in Nauplion. I must admit that it was one of my favorite Greek cities. The next day we would leave for Sparta!
The drive to Sparta felt like a long time, but it was only about three hours. The road was windy as we drove south through the Peloponnese. Dr. Hood pointed out several “mailboxes” on the side of the road. These were not actually mailboxes; rather, they were roadside memorials for those who have been killed at that location on the highway. Some of them were decorated and well constructed. Others were dilapidated and defaced. Cecil, the Vice Provost of our university counted 137 on the way to Sparta. Once we got into the Eurotas River Valley, we could see the snow-capped Mt. Taygetus in the distance. Slowly we descended onto the plain, drove through Sparta, and then continued onward to the Byzantine Palace called Mystra. We got off the bus at the top of the hill and proceeded to walk through the palace grounds. First we hiked up to the upper citadel. Dr. Hood said that our class was the first to ever have all students climb to the top. Slowly we descended and visited the churches of St. Nikolas and St. Sophia, which were still very much intact, including a few mosaics and wall paintings. We met back up with the bus at the bottom after passing by the great Palace, which was under reconstruction. We then drove into Sparta and settled in our hotel and headed out to lunch. I walked back to the hotel with Stephanie and I found a large brown grasshopper. She managed to have it crawl onto her hand and I took a picture. Then it started to fly around and it landed on her. She screamed and I was too much of a coward to take it off. Eventually it flew away, but not after giving us a good laugh (at least me anyway). After a quick stop at the hotel, a group of us went to the ancient Spartan acropolis. We walked about a quarter mile down the road and were greeted by a giant statue of Leonidas, the king who led the 300 Spartans against the Persians in 480 BC. There is not much to see in the ancient Sparta site, just a few ruins surrounded by thousands of olive trees. The top of the acropolis is a roughed up old modern building with littered with graffiti. Around the corner and down a hill were the ruins of the Temple of Artemis and an unexcavated theater. The Temple of Artemis is where the ancient Spartans used to annually beat their boys, who were not supposed to wince at the pain. The theater was a Roman addition so that they could make a spectacle out of it. When Dr. Hood turned a blind eye, we went down past the fences. We walked around the ruined temple for a little bit and then went back to the hotel for lecture. After a great dinner, Stephanie, Alia, Shaina, and I went out to the big square that had a Christmas tree made of lights and other Christmas themed decorations. I went to bed that night planning to get in a good run before leaving Sparta.
The Temple of Artemis (right) and Roman theater (left)
I woke up a little before 6:00am that morning and David and Joel did not wake up to go run with me. I went out onto the main street by myself in the dark. It was extremely cold! I ran for 20 minutes and I never warmed up. It was the last real run that I did in Greece and it will always be remembered. We got on the charter bus and began driving west toward Olympia. Just past the city of Megalopolis we could see a large nuclear plant that powers most of the central Peloponnese. It was a sight I did not expect to see in the middle of the Greek countryside. Our site for the day was the Temple of Apollo at Bassae. It is one of the best preserved temples in the Greek world, located at the top of a mountain overlooking tangled mountain valleys. In the distance to the northwest you could see the Ionian Sea. The temple has a large tent covering it, protecting it from further erosion due to snow and ice. In my opinion, the tent took away from the spirit of the site, but I suppose that it was the best thing in order to preserve it for future generations. Stephanie and I were able to hop the lame fences and get a good picture of where the single Corinthian column would have stood in the middle of the cella; a feature unique to this temple. Dr. Hood promised us a peasant lunch for that day. He lived up to it. At this particular restaurant, we were served an above average bean soup in addition to the usual dry bread served before a meal. Many of us waited in anticipation of the second course, but it never showed up. Several students were not satisfied and went to a nearby convenience store of the ghost town and bought chocolate. We continued on toward Olympia. We arrived late in the afternoon to the Hotel Europa, which is now owned and operated by Best Western. The rooms were very nice. Many of us will remember taking a particular quiz on Greek lyric poets; or rather we would like to forget it. After lecture many of us patronized the hotel bar. The bus then took us to dinner in town, but we got lost on the way. However, it was remedied by an excellent dinner. Tender beef tenderloins served with rice topped with cheese. Once we got back to the hotel, some people went back to the bar, others went to their rooms. Others did the reading for the next day’s site in Olympia.
The Temple of Apollo at Bassae from the Outside
Bassae from the inside
Part II coming soon!