Friday, March 30, 2012

Mainland Greece

After we hit the Greek islands we wanted to see some of mainland Greece, away from Athens.  We joined a tour that went by bus to the north of Athens, about a 5 hour journey.  We learned a lot on this tour.  It took about an hour to get away from Athens to finally see he country side, Athens is huge.  The first area we drove through was Thebes. This is where Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. Many of Greece's other literary works come from this region. One story especially famous is that of Oedipus. He was the son of the King and the Queen of Thebes.  As a baby, he was abandoned in the hills because of an oracle that any son the King had would eventually kill him. The king had his feet pinned so he could not walk (Oedipus means swollen foot) and be left to die. A royal shepherd found the boy and brought him to the palace of the King in Corinth.  The king and and queen raised him as their own, since they didn't have their own kids.  Then after growing up in Corinth the oracle was told again - that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother.  Because Oedipus didn't want to kill his "parents" he ran away from Corinth.  On the road one day he met a man and had to defend himself so he killed him (not knowing that the man was his real father). Then he encountered a Sphinx who wouldn't let him pass unless he answered the Riddle "What walks on 4 in the morning, on two in the day, and on 3 in the evening?"  (I'll give you a second to think of the answer).  Because Oedipus is also credited with being an incredibly intelligent man he answered the question. "At youth a baby crawls on all fours, an adult walks on two legs and the elderly use a walking stick. The answer is a man."  Having heard that Oedipus answered correctly the Sphinx killed herself by throwing herself into the sea and releasing Thebes from her harsh rule.  The people of Thebes were thrilled and said "We should make him king and give him our recently widowed queen as his wife."  In this way the prophesy was fulfilled - Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. After realizing this the queen killed herself and Oedipus blinded himself. Greek mythology!

As we went along we got out of the bus at a few stops to take pictures like the one below.
Apoxaba, Greece with snow capped mountains.
Our first major stop was in Delphi.  The city dedicated to the god Apollo.  It was buried through the ages, but in the last century has been excavated and is currently being reconstructed, restored, and preserved. The most interesting story we heard here was that there was an Oracle (a person) who was the interpreter of Apollo at the temple. She had a room under the temple where she would receive her inspiration. It was told that she was never wrong, her answers just needed to be interpreted. One story was that there was a king who wanted to go to war with the Persians so he consulted the oracle. He asked if he would have victory when he went to battle. She answered that a great power will fall. Excited by the Oracle's words he went into battle... and lost, not realizing that he was a great power :).  Another one was a man trying to prove that the oracle had no power at all.  He went to the oracle with a dove clenched in his hand and asked is this dove dead or alive.  If she said dead, he would let it go, if she said alive he would crush it in his hand. The oracle's answer was, "The answer lies within in your hands." And one last one, just to prove that she would never be wrong. A man asked if his wife would bear a boy or a girl.  The Oracle said "Boy, not Girl".  He went home and his wife had a girl. He came back to the Oracle and confronted her. All Oracles were written down so they looked at the record. "Boy not, Girl".  :)  (Greeks are great story tellers aren't they.)
Pics of Delphi below.
We pretty much had class before the tour began.
V at the Amphitheater in Delphi
Stadium in Delphi
Temple of Apollo in Delphi
Each of the polygonal shaped blocks of this retaining wall have Ancient Greek laws of the land on them for the citizens of the land to know them. Hard to see at this angle though.
The Athens treasury to the Apollo Temple in Delphi.
We made a quick stop at Thermopoly.  Because I really liked the movie "The 300" I was sooo excited to see this place.  Where, as the story goes, 300 Spartans lead by King Leonidis defended against the Persian king Xerxes and his millions. The Spartans all died, except one left to tell the story.  I was a little disappointed though because the movie made it look like the sea was right there... it wasn't. It was too much of a hike to see the passage but still it was cool to see where it all happened.
Statue of a Spartan in Thermopoly
Now on to our final destination, Meteora. We were looking forward to seeing this place as it has a number of monasteries built in seemingly precarious places, on the tip top of rock formations.  We got there late in the evening so Mu and I took a quick walk around before sun down.  One thing we really didn't expect to see was though this town is small and in the middle of nowhere and the tourist season was low it was really bustling. Shops were open, people were in the streets, traffic was thick.  It was a really nice atmosphere. We would have stayed out late, but our tour the next day was starting really early.

We woke up in time to grab some breakfast (and quickly make some lunch from the breakfast buffet because we are cheap...LOL).  We caught the bus and made our way up to two of  the monasteries and got to see some great views. Have a look.
Meteora rock formations, Kalambaka Greece.

To enter the monasteries women need to wear these if they didn't have skirts
Mountain top monastery (St Stephen) in Meteora. This monastery was easier to get to than others.
Entrance to one of the other monasteries

V&M in Meteora


You need a zip line or the stairs carved in the side of the rock to get to this one.
Enjoying the view

Another monastery at the back

Our bus
Our last day in Greece we spent in Athens.  Next up TURKEY!!! SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Must See Greek Island

All aboard
One other thing we had to be sure to do while in Athens was get our ferry tickets so we could go to Santorini. That's probably the best known of the Greek islands... (it's the one you see in magazines - white houses with blue roofs that sit on the side of a cliff). We definitely wanted to go there.  So we went to the ferry operators office and found out that the ferry workers were going on strike! "Oh no! But Santorini? When else would we be able to come all the way to Greece to see Santorini?!" They said that we could leave Athens on the ferry to Santorini, but for us to come back we'd have to either come back the very next day, or wait till later in the week for the ferry workers to resume work.  That was bad news for us since we'd already booked a hotel for 3 nights and we purchased a tour back on the mainland for the day after we were to leave the island.  But we decided "Okay, we'll take the ferry there and then find a flight (though it's like 10 times the cost of the ferry) to come back to Athens."  We REALLY wanted to see Santorini.

We got to the port the next day and bought our tickets.  The ferry had WiFi so while cruising for 9 hours we checked the flights for our return trip.  "We're sorry, all flights for your selected travel date are booked, please make another selection."  NOOOOOOOO!!!  (Only two flights leave Santorini each day and it seems that everyone else heard about the ferry strike and booked a flight.) How are we going to get back?  Just cancel our tour and stay in Santorini until the strike is over?  Take a flight a day too early?  So we began to pray...

First island the ferry stopped at to drop off some passangers - Paros.
Next Island - Naxos. After this was Ios but we missed taking pictures.
and then...Santorini
We arrived in Santorini, on the Aegean Sea, and waited for the ride provided by our hotel.  Maria, owner of the Villa Rose Hotel in Fira, took our bags, put them in her Volkswagen and took us to the hotel.  She gave us a tour on the ride there and told us all the great places we should see.  We talked a lot about the economy of Greece and the island of Santorini.  Despite how hard things have been in Greece and on the island Maria was soo sweet.  When we checked into our hotel we were soooo surprised, amazed, and happy.  The room was so nice... and only 30 euros a night. (We were in Greece during their winter season so every hotel has reduced rates.)  The place was clean, the bed was so comfy, the fridge was stocked with all sorts of goodies and they offered us a complimentary bottle of wine.  They even offered to wash our laundry... wow!    Yep, staying at Villa Rose was wonderful.

Our Awesome Hotel Room
The next day we continued praying for a miracle so we could leave the island and God provided! Sweet! We called the airline and they said, "Yes, we have seats (expensive seats) for you." Either way, thank you God.  From then on we were able to get on with our travels without stressing about our return to the mainland.  We rented a car for the day (25 euro) and drove from one end of Santorini to the other... Please enjoy the pictures, though our point and click camera could not do it justice :)

On our way to Ancient Thira. This town, Kamari, and other towns on the east side of the island have black sand beaches.
Great Thinker

Ancient city of Thira, archeological site.


Guard shack?

View of Southwest Santorini from Ancient Thira.

Town of Ia



We didn't eat here :)
Traditional narrow streets

A few of these houses are hotels.  The view of the caldera is amazing from here.
View of the caldera from one of the many churches.

Public Toilet - Vernon's camera tricks makes them look fabulous.

If you travel to Santorini, you want to stay at a hotel here in Ia overlooking the sea.
Ammoundi Beach. Imagine taking those steps everyday... ouch!

Red volcanic rock

Yet another Greek Orthodox Church


Sun was setting

From the previous pic, doesn't this looks like a toy  (like Barbie and Ken's Greek Island Home?)



We went to a winery to watch the sunset. Santorini is part of the Cyclade islands and is a result of a volcano that occured many centuries ago.

What's on the other side?

Enter... if you dare.

Stairs coming up from the old port... accessible only by foot or donkey



Greece... need I say more

Ok, first can I say that after almost 3 months of travelling, I am tired of carrying backpacks. I will probably dislocate my shoulder by the time this trip is over. Either way, we arrived in Greece without any hastles. This country has ancient history I remember studying from middle school to college. You know, Zeus and the Greek mythological gods and heros, Plato and Aristotle's phylosophy, the many wars and stories we read about and watch like "The 300" and "Clash of the Titans".  Not sure why in America there's so much emphasis on Greek history, but it's great to see it in person.

Our first stop in Greece was Athens.  Athens kind of caught us by surprise.  It is a bustling, busy metropolis. Buildings everywhere, motorcycles everywhere you turn, people walking up and down the streets, a stark difference from what we saw in Cyprus.  What was really great is how in the midst of all the modern advances in technology and architecture there were a lot of historical ruins sprinkled throughout the city. You could be walking along, passing by some shops, then the next plot could be a fenced area filled with ancient columns and beams. Pretty cool.


When we arrived we immediately went to our hotel, SOHO Hotel (which we found was in the hood - lots of police activity), we dropped our bags, had some lunch and ran straight for the Acropolis.  We got there pretty late so we only had an hour to walk the site. (Aside from the cranes and all the scaffholding it was Awesome!)

One of the many paths we took that lead to the Acropolis.
The Acropolis sits on a hill in Athens and was the center of worship in the ancient times.  It comprises several archaeological structures all of which were constructed with marble mined from Mt. Penteli.
The Erectheion which was used as a temple.
The Porch of the Caryatids

Temple of Athena Nike to the right (goddess of victory)
The Parthenon - A UNESCO World Heritage Site
This is the entry way to the Parthenon.  We took the picture from the back.  This entry way is called Propylaea.

The Parthenon - The temple of Athena (daughter of Zeus, goddess of widsom and war).

View of another theater, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, from the Acropolis.
To think that these structures that were built thousands of years ago could still be standing (yes, there were some restorations but a good amount of the Parthenon was standing when they started restoration back in 1800s).  All the artifacts found in the Acropolis are in the New Acropolis museum which is not too far from the site.
View of the Temple of Olympian Zeus from the Acropolis
View of the city of Athens from the Acropolis. The dominant hill is Mt. Lycabettus.
View of the open air Theater of Dionysus from the Acropolis.
This may look photoshoped but we were there. The Acropolis behind us.
The next day we wandered all over the City.  We saw some cool temples and more archaeological/anthropological sites. For people who like that kind of stuff, Greece is the place to be.  We on the other hand, got kind of tired of seeing old stones and rocks. We walked and walked and walked all over Athens and praised God that at least the sun was out (the Mediterranean has had an uncharacteristically cold winter).  Athens is really easy to navigate and public transportation is adequate. The people are generally friendly and the food is great.

We also had lunch at a place that was fast becoming our lunch hangout. 13-14 euros for us to share a plate of fries and enjoy some scrumptious kebabs on pita bread... mmmm mmm!


Juicy!

Our lunch spot.
Almost 95% of the historical site in Athens are within walking distance from each other (if you like to walk).

Library of Hadrian built by the Romans in about 130 AD.  It was also a social meeting place for people at the time - like the mall? lol!

The Roman Agora (marketplace) built around the 1st century BC.
Athenian Agora - Ancient central marketplace. This area at one point was the center of the city. Officials came to deliberate on political and religious matters. The area was used as a market for all sorts of commodities.  The structure in the picture was destroyed and rebuilt using some of the stones that remained. If you are standing in front of this structure, you will see the sites in the pictures below.



Temple of Hephaestus - Greek god of fire, metal work, masonry and the art of sculpture.


Inside Hephaestus' Temple
A few other sites in Athens included Hadrian's arch which was constructed in honor of the Roman emperor.

Arc of Hadrian

Temple of Olympian Zeus.

Street in Athens lined with orange trees. We picked some oranges and ate them - very bitter, actually quite disgusting.  Good from far but far from good.

Hilly, narrow streets in Athens.

We were lucky to catch this interesting ceremony.  Changing of the guard in front of the parliament buildings in Athens.  The guards wear these skirts with 400 pleats that represent the 400 years they fought the Ottomans.

The economic crisis in Greece is really bad.  There are not as many riots as they make it seem on TV but people are very disgruntled with the government. Taxes are very high and workers in the public sector had their salaries cut by 40%. We talked to a number of Greeks and they all said the same thing - no jobs available, life is too expensive, taxes are too high. They claim that many of them are just hanging on and really hoping that things will change.

So, all in all, Athens is a city with a lot of energy.  We were happy to have seen it but we were happier to head out to the islands.  Stay tuned :)