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From: damag@bigpond.net.au
Cc:
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2001 3:32 AM
Subject: A week with the Gods
The old addage of "The Gods Must Be Crazy" has
sometimes come into our thoughts this week. We have really spent a
week with the Gods - of all sorts!
Last Sunday we drove from Alexandropoli to just south of
Thessoloniki - a place called Methoni (Camping Agannis - little backwoods
camp but with a good restaurant, reasonable facilities - although the hot
water is intermittent - and is about the best place we could find for going
to the sites we wanted to go.) Pella & Vergina were the first
places of interest that we sought. Both sites have great museums and
the Pella archaeological site has some wonderful mosaic floors in situ.
The tombs of Philip
II, father of Alexander the Great and also of
Alexander's son, Alexander are at Vergina. The tombs are in a burial
mound and, although you can't actually go inside the tomb, you can go right
up to the front door so to speak. The wealth of treasure from these
tombs is phenomenal. Much of the treasure from the tombs we had seen
previously in Thesoloniki. The ivory carving and gold boxes etc were
pretty stunning.
Not quite gods but that was soon to be remedied. Dion -
a whole city uncovered with huge public bathing areas, mosaic flooring, 2
theatres (at which plays are still performed) and sanctuaries to the gods
Zeus, Isis and Demeter. Isis was the goddess of new mothers and her
sanctuary was extremely peaceful/tranquil. Many replicas of the
original statues are standing in amongst the ponds and fallen columns in
this archaeological garden. Apart from the mosquitoes, it was great.
Here also was the Villa of Dionysus - a large house in which the wonderful
mosaic floor has, again unfortunately, been cracked - it is all earthquake
territory.
Our visit to Dion was on our way to the foot of Mt Olympus.
Here, as many will know, is the home of the Gods! Well, Thor and Zeus
decided that it would be a good time to throw around some thunder and
lightening and let us know just exactly whose home we were invading.
We had a spectacular thunder storm and, true to form, the top of Mt Olympus
did not come into view. (Camping Mt Olympos Beach - shingle beach but
good clear water, good facs, wonderful looking restaurant - but we didn't
eat there - menu catered more for German travellers, a bit boggy when wet.)
Having been given a good shake by the local deities we moved
on to Meteora, a very strange place indeed. Translated, the word
meteora means "in the air". This is where the Greek Orthodox
monasteries literally are. The caves of Meteora first attracted
religious hermits in the 11thC. By the 14thC these hermits had been
forced to live together and had started to build monasteries on the tops of
the strange grey precipitous columns of rock. These strange pinnacles
have been formed by river erosion. Some are up to 300m high and the famous
cenobitic monasteries, known as Meteora, still exist on the tops.
There used to many of them but now only 5 or 6. We climbed 100's,
Arnold will say 1,000's, of steps to the top of 4 of the best of them.
The frescoes within the
monasteries date from about 14thC. The ossuary
(bone house) in the largest of the monasteries (megalo Meteoro) is somewhat
gruesome and contains shelves and shelves of skulls and a stack of femurs in
the corner. Another bit of entertainment for us was watching the buses
at the top of one of the mountains. We had to wait at least half an
hour while the buses jostled for position to get in and out to load and
unload their passengers. At one stage a motor bike policeman came up
the hill and we thought - things will get better! Ha ha ha. He
took one look, got on his bike and disappeared. Oh well! We had
an iced coffee in the van and waited for the crowds to disperse. Moral
of the story - get there even earlier in the morning than we did.
(Camping Meteora Garden - not as good as the Caravan Club guide makes it out
to be - our adjustment will go into the next edition we hope - but still
okay. Good pool, reasonable though somewhat wet underfoot facilities
and well shaded. Road noise is very bad though).
What next - Delphi! Well, this is certainly a jewel in
the crown of Greek tourism (Delphi
views). The siteof the temples is, in itself,
spectacular. Huge rugged, stony mountains fall dramatically into a
valley lined with olive trees that sweep all the way down to the the Gulf of
Corinth. To quote the Michelin guide ('cos I can't do it better)
"Even now an aura of mystery invests the sparse ruins exposed on the
rocky slope where the trees - olive, pine, cypress and lentisk - struggle for
a toehold." According to legend, Delphi was founded by the god
Zeus. To cut a long story short he wanted to know where the centre of
his universe was and so he sent two eagles out to reconnoitre. They met
at Delphi which was to become the centre of the then known universe.
Many many more stories of the gods and the goodies and the badies of Greek
mythology are rooted in Delphi and the buildings that remain (and the really
good bits that are in the museums) are a tribute to the abilities of people
at least 2,500 years ago. The "Charioteer"
bronze statue (in
the museum, dates from 478BC) is stunning. The eyes, made of enamel
and coloured stones seem to follow you and even have eyelashes. He is
180cm tall and his feet are so realistic they seem to have been mouded from
nature. What could be done with bronze that long ago WOW!
The Temple of
Tholos, just down the road is a soft, feminine
temple that is graciously circular with Doric columns and was probablly
built to the earth goddess Ge in 4thC BC. Near Thosos is the gymnasium
with a very obvious swimming pool and a covered way for races. Also at
the Apollo site is a huge 5,000 seat theatre and a sporting stadium that
seats 6,500. The Pythian Games were held here - not so much sporting
games but poetry and music. Nero once competed in these games at
Delphi.
The beauty of the site, the relics, the statues, gold, ivory,
bronze, silver etc etc etc left us believing that Delphi had it all.
The Gods had smiled on us and all was right with the world. Well, we
went just a little further east (only about 20kms) to a place called Ossios
Loukas, a 9thC AD monastery with the most amazing mosaics. Again
a stunning sight with a dramatic backdrop of stony ground, olive groves and
rugged mountains, this mid-Byzantine monastery was just the icing on the
cake. (By the way we stayed at Camping Apollon 1.5km from
Delphi - crowded but adequate facs if you shower at night - morning brings
tepid water. Good restaurant - we ate out near the Ossios Monastery
though. Pool a necessity after a hot dry dusty visit to the sites.)
We have not bought many souvenirs on our travels but we
have succumbed to the charms of a Grecian Urn. A wonderful replica of
one that was in the museum, it will soon be going to Australia to spend its
life. All we need now is a house to put it in!
Our week with the gods has been great. Tomorrow we are
off to Athens. Talk to you all post-Athens.
Deb & Arnold
To:
Cc:
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2001 10:03 PM
Subject: Acropolis Now!
Dear All
The subject matter will mean a little more to Australians who
saw the show by this title several years ago. It was written by young
Greek comedians in Australia, really making fun of themselves and their
still Greek attitudes in their new country. For a short time is was
very successful and made the writers/actors famous (well, Australia famous
but don't ask me what their names were except Nick and Effie!).
We are now post-Athens and in many ways quite thankfully so.
The drive into Athens was not quite as bad as we thought it might be but not
a lot of fun either. The polluted haze hung over the city as we had
expected but our campsite was easy to find which made the day a little less
stressful. (Camping Athens - crowded, dusty, hot water supply
inadequate for number of people jammed in - may be better out of season.
Bus across the road straight into the city.)
The Acropolis is really an amazing place and it would have
been wonderful to have seen it in all its splendour. A the moment the
Parthenon is covered in scaffolding as it is being renovated as best they
can. In fact, the whole city seems to be being renovated, to a certain
extent. With the Olympic Games being held here in 2004, tidying up has
begun and the walkways up to the Acropolis are now well paved and signs are
good. It is very hard to gather the atmosphere of a place with
literally hundreds of tourists around but inside the museum the remaining
statues, caryatids, etc talk loudly of its former glory. (Acropolis pictures)
Because of its size, the Acropolis gets all the glory in
Athens. The Roman Agora, however, with the remains of its huge Odeon
(theatre) was also impressive, as was the complete reconstruction (by
American Archaeological School) of one of the large buildings. This is
now the Agora Museum with some of the oldest artefacts we
have seen.
Because of the heat, and because we wanted a night out in
Athens, we stayed a night in a hotel (Lonely Planet is good for recommending
good yet inexpensive hotels - Hotel Athos) in the Plaka district.
This is the old Turkish area of Athens and in the early 1900's, when lots of
"finds" were being made in this area, the archaeologists wanted to
knock down the whole district. Although very touristy in some places,
it has a wealth of restaurants and we enjoyed wandering around its narrow
streets and eating and drinking here and there.
We spent nearly the whole week in Athens but it is hard to
say just what we did other than see ancient sites, eat and drink. Many
and oft were the times we had been warned about Athens in summer but this
was the way it panned out and so I think our view of the place was somewhat
struck with heat stroke. We both agree though, that you can see just
so many archaeological sites before you say - enough.
This is why Corinth received scant attention on our way out
of Athens on our way to the best kept Roman Theatre in Greece - at Epidavros.
(Camping Nikolas I&II - very shady, reasonable shingle swimming beach,
hot water supply good, busy but not over-crowded, san-facs ok.) We
have had a couple of days here now just recovering from Athens and planning
what is next. A ferry has been booked for 4 Sept to take us back to
Italy so we have only a couple more weeks left in Greece - it will have been just
over two months here by that time.
I think the heat and the constant "tourist" nature
of the last few days have left us a bit flat. By that I don't mean we
have not been enjoying ourselves but the old brain just doesn't seem to want
to apply itself today. So, on that not so up beat, let's say tired
note, goodbye till next week - have no idea where we will be - Arnold's
working on that now - if his brain is in any better form than mine.
Hope you are all well.
Deb & Arnold.
To:
Cc:
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 12:37 AM
Subject: A Spartan Existence
Hi All
Don't know where this week has gone - the time, like miles
beneath our tyres, just keeps slipping by.
We are currently in the southern Peloponnese (still Greece).
We drove from near Korinth to a beach resort town called Tolo. Along
the way - for the medically inclined to note - we stopped at the Sanctuary
of Asklepios (the God of Medicine), in Epidavros. Asklepios got his
thrills from healing people by way of herbs, surgery and the application of
"licking snakes" to his patients. It is believed that licks
from snakes were one of the curative practices at the sanctuary.
Asklepios is usually shown with a serpent which, by renewing its skin,
symbolises rejuvenation. Whether to entertain the sick or to keep the
medical gods happy, I am not sure, but there is also a brilliantly preserved
theatre within the Sanctuary. It is the best preserved classical Greek
building, renowned for its amazing acoustics. I climbed up the 55 rows
to the top of the theatre and Arnold got his big chance at centre stage.
In a normal conversational tone, Arnold pronounced "All the
world's a stage" and, despite the clatter of the stage crew
setting up for the weekend performance and the hundred odd tourists who were
climbing in and around the place, I heard him as clear as a whistle.
During summer the Greek classics are performed here once or twice a week.
I wonder if they ever get a full house (the place seats 14,000 and the seats
are a bit hard!)?
Tolo is a lovely beach resort. The water is clear, the
town jumping and the food great. (Camping Lido II - sandy beach
adjacent, good facs, easy walk into town.) From here we took a cruise
around a couple of islands - Hydra and Spetses. Both of these islands
made their money from piracy and the famous Bouboulina lived on Spetses for
many years. Bouboulina is a very colourful character who was shot in
a family vendetta in 1800 (& something). She was much married,
each time to a sea captain, and when each of her successive husbands died
she inherited ships, ship works etc and used her money to build her own
ship, the Agamemnon, which she captained for both good and evil - piracy and
independence.
Both islands are very touristy now and the harbours are full
of restaurants and souvenir shops. We had lunch on Hydra, watching the
stray cats begging for food, even jumping up onto tables at times, whilst
waiters were trying their best to keep the cats away. Actually
very sad but amusing watching the ingenuity of the cats and the lack of it
in the humans. Donkeys and mules (and on Spetses, motorbikes) are the
only forms of transport on the islands and the poor sad donkeys and mules
looked very miserable. I am just too much of a soft touch when it
comes to animals I am afraid. The actual cruise and time spent on the
islands was great and we returned to Tolo tired but having had a wonderful
day. We then sat at a waterfront tavern and had a cold beer as the sun
set behind the many islands just off the coast, in front of us.
Enough lounging around the beach - time for some more old
ruins. This time Mycenae (Camping Mycenae - quaint little family run
site (20 pitches). We were greeted with homemade sweets, figs and
basil. No restaurant but "Mama" will cook you dinner and
deliver it to your van on request. Their own wine is also
available - "very cheap". OK for 1-2 days. Facs clean
but old. An entertaining stay).
The Lion gates at Mycenae and the
"Tomb of
Agamemnon" were, to say the least, spectacular. Mythology has it
that the giant builders, the Cyclops, helped with the creation of this site.
The sheer size of the stones used (some blocks of stone weigh up to 120 ton)
is quite impressive. We had seen previously the gold, death masks and
various works of art that had come from these tombs (in the Athens Museum)
and remarked that it would be more advantageous to have these items in a
museum on site. It would make the now empty tombs seem more alive.
Nevertheless, the whole Mycenae site was one with atmosphere and the views
out over the valley were special. ( I particularly liked the funery chambers
which resembled giant beehives made from slightly overlapping stones
arranged in a conical fashion - 25 metres high! - Arnold)
Not satisfied with one old ruin (?) we moved on to near
Sparta. We did not go into ancient Sparta as everything we have read
indicates that there really isn't very much left to see. We did
however go to the ruins of Mistras. Whereas Mycenae is about 4,000
years old, Mistras is only about 600 years old! Byzantine churches, a
huge palace and castle and many monasteries make up this mountainous
site.
Forever climbing up - this time not many stairs, just the remains of what
were once very good footpaths. In 1953 the last of the priests left
this site but there are still a few nuns left in one of the restored parts.
They spend their life doing embroidery for alter clothes etc. We saw a
small black flash disappear down the stairs at one stage but they are very
much in isolation up on this huge mountain and the only transport we saw for
them was a donkey.
(Camping Mystras, about 6km from the site. Swimming
pool, ok facs, expensive for what is there, not close enough to walk to
archaeological site. There is another camp a bit closer - Camping
Castle View which was about the same quality but still too far to walk to
site - up hill all the way and uphill even more when you get there.)
Today has been a short, very hot, drive to just south of
Gythio. Another string of beaches and an electrical storm about to
happen - power keeps going on and off. Had a swim, a sleep
and tonight will sit by the seaside bar and sip a chilled Retsina or two
(storm permitting). A few lazy days are in store to recover from all
of our uphill climbs before heading off to Kalamata and Olympia.
Hope you are all well and that winter is not being too unkind
in Aus.
Til next week
Deb & Arnold.
To:
Cc:
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 11:56 PM
Subject: A reflective week
Dear All
Well the storm that was about to break as I was writing last
Sunday really was a beauty. Within a very short time the wind was
howling, the pine needles (ugh!) were flying and then the heavens opened.
Thunder and lightning crashed and flashed simultaneously and the water
sheeted down. The ground was so hard and compacted that it did not
absorb the water. Fortunately for us we were well above the ground on
rubber tyres but many of the tent dwellers were not so lucky. They had
nowhere to put all their gear and one poor family was almost literally
washed away. The campsite staff were prepared for this sort of event
and before long, with power restored, they were using huge vacuum pipe
"things" to suck up water and dispose of it onto the olive
orchards. Several hours "entertainment" was had both
watching and helping people try to restore their belongings and dry things
off before sunset.
Because power was intermittent and because - well no reason
really except, perhaps, laziness - we decided it was too wet to possibly be
able to cook dinner and so instead of a drink at the seaside bar, we had
dinner. The menu was also limited because of the power failure etc but
we got the last of the stuffed tomatoes and also meatballs along with the
ubiquitous Greek Salad and home grown retsina. A walk along the storm
damaged beach afterwards, big icecream in hand, ended an entertaining day.
Because the storm caused people to move around the campsite a
bit, we lost our personal space and decided to move on. The plan was
to go to Areopoli, see the tower houses and then go part of the way to
Kalamata. The tower houses were not really worth the drive but the
local stone from which they are made is certainly still plentiful and the
harshness of this part of the Peloponnese is daunting. The amount of
human endeavour (no doubt at the time lots of donkey, mule, horse etc effort
as well) to clear the zillions of rocks (boulders) to plant olive
trees makes my back hurt just thinking about it. Many of the sites are
terraced and the work still involved to grow olives here has caused many of
the small towns to become almost ghost towns. People have left this
area (the Mani) in droves.
We drove all the way to Kalamata - a whole 80km. Gosh
you say, how difficult! Well it took 4 hours!! The road was
murderous, the scenery stunning. Often, particularly in the villages,
the two way road was only as wide as the van with buildings obscuring
anything that might be coming in the other direction around a completely
blind bend. There were very few passing places for traffic to get by
us and a couple of times we were so close to the edge of the mountain that I
could visualise the van over the edge without too much difficulty at all.
No such thing as safety rails along this road. As you can see,
however, this didn't happen and my blood pressure has now come back down to
something like normal. It was really a strenuous drive and we were
indeed glad to find Camping Marias Sea and Sun (4km south of Kalamata,
pebble beach, good restaurant, fresh bread daily, san facs good for Greece,
motorvan waste dump - unusual for Greece, chem disposal - specific point -
also unusual for Greece - but expensive for what it is.)
It is here that we have spent most of the week. The
town has been useful for an internet cafe (we are trying to plan a few
things for early next year) and they have great olives here. The town
of Kalamata itself isn't worth writing home about - so I won't. The
port area contains the largest number of restaurants we have ever seen all
in one place. The foreshore is absolutely littered with them and the
waiters have to cross a very busy main street in order to take and deliver
your order. I wonder if they get paid danger money?
The campsite has its own private beach and we have taken
chairs down to it (the pebbles are too hard to sit on) and watched the moon
on the water and the constant play of lights from the harbour. The
huge mountains that took us so long to pass through look unexpectedly
brilliant at night. Obviously not all of the villages are deserted
because the village lights dot the slopes and make them look like giant
Christmas trees.
Just relaxing and reflecting over the 2 months we have spent
here in Greece has been very rewarding. So many wonderful
archaeological sites and museums, harsh, rugged, unforgiving country, dirty
cities, abominable roads, simple but tasty food, good wine (if you like pine
resin -which we do. Not fair, they do have other white wines and also
some reasonable reds.) We feel privileged to have been able to
experience all of these things and it isn't over quite yet. We still
have Olympia and a few other stop off points on our way to Patras to get the
ferry back to Italy. So, this is the penultimate Greek epistle.
Also, as we leave Greece, we notice the nights starting to close in earlier
than when we first arrived. The temperatures have moderated a little
(still nothing below 32-33oC) and the evenings are getting cooler. Sad
to think that summer is nearly over. We understand that Sicily (where
we are heading) doesn't give in to winter quite as readily as some of Italy
so hopefully there will still be more pleasant days and nights before the
feather quilts need to be dragged out of their hiding places.
T'will do for now. Til next week
Deb & Arnold
To:
Cc:
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2001 2:00 AM
Subject: An Octopus's Garden - not quite what the Beatles believed it
to be.
Only two more nights in Greece. We have eaten our last
Greek restaurant meal at lunch time today and Tuesday it will be Buon Giorno
Italy.
This week has been a mixture of sitting by the pool, reading
by the seaside and clambering over old ruins, yet again.
The little town of Koroni is on the south coast of the
Peloponnes and is said to be "one of Greece's oldest towns" -
those of you who know anything about Fowler's Dictionary of Modern
English Usage will know what he thinks about that!. Nevertheless, it
is a quaint old place with lots of lovely white buildings, many with the
traditional blue trimmings that you see in postcards. It also has the
remains of Venetian fortifications and is called, one of the "Eyes
of Venice". (Camping Koroni - san facs basic but clean, great
swimming pool, easy walk into town where atmosphere is the name of the
game.)
Last Monday we were able to buy the Sunday Times and we
sat at a cafe on the sea wall, drinking a frappe (iced coffee) for several
hours. Not only was this a delightful pastime, not having seen an
English paper for ages, but it also enabled us to watch the local fishermen
catching from the wall. Not only were fish being caught but one wily
old guy was catching octopus. The octopus was clever, escaping from
the jetty, over the wall and back into its "garden". Sadly
for the octopus, the human endeavour was greater and once again the octopus
found itself up on the jetty. It certainly put up a good fight though.
The fish were thrown the bread not eaten by the customers at
the foreshore restaurants and it was fascinating to watch them totally
devour huge hunks of bread. The water is crystal clear and small
schools of fish attacked the bread and had it bouncing all over the water's
surface as it gradually dwindled in size.
Not satisfied with one "Eye of Venice" we also went
to Methoni (Peloponnese) and saw the other Eye. Both sets of
fortifications were built (and rebuilt) over the centuries and were used as
security against invading forces (both successfully and not). The
castle at Methoni was atmospheric and climbing up inside the round tower at
the end of the spit of land on which it sits was a bit spooky. Stairs
are not lit and precious little light plays down the stairwell. Worth
the climb though because the round tower is in very good condition (with a
little help from restoration) and Arnold had a feeling of belonging there
(even though he doesn't believe in all that stuff). (Municipal Camping
Methoni - very old san facs kept as clean as they can be. New shower
block, very very dusty and lacking shade.)
Little things stay in your mind and we will always remember
sitting at a beachside cafe watching the sun setting over the harbour and
the shadows playing on the castle. We had ordered a beer and the next
thing you know, around the corner comes a tractor pulling a huge
semi-trailer type tray of hundreds of boxes of beer - Greek, German and
Dutch - we got the giggles.
An olympic type effort was required to reach Olympia.
The road, so beautifully marked on the map as a "major road" was
probably one of the worst kept roads we have travelled on here.
Signage was atrocious and dropping off the edge of the road would have been
quite easy. Nevertheless, its not easy to get into the Olympics so I
guess it shouldn't be too easy to get to its place of origin (those coming
from Patras to Olympia had good road all the way - we cam up from the
south). Camping Diana is only 250m from the new town of Olympia and
the archaeological site and museum are only about 900m away. It is a
pleasant site, good san facs, swimming pool, friendly staff but the most
expensive we have stayed in in Greece (6,600 dracma - 10% reduction CCI.)
We had thought that the Olympia site
may have been an
anti-climax after all the sites we have seen but it was great and together
with the museum on site the atmosphere is captured (despite the bus loads of
tourists). Good old Hercules and Zeus get the credit between them
(Hercules being one of the many sons of Zeus) for starting the games in
776BC and the Roman Emperor Nero did his best to make them more literary and
musical than sporting. Women were not allowed to watch the men compete
(they were thrown off a mountain if caught trying to enter the stadium).
Slaves were not permitted to watch the games either. All in all we
were much more impressed than we thought we would be with Olympia.
Today we have just come back from a ride on another rack
railway. We travelled from Diakofto (just north east of Patras) to Kalavrita, about 30km through a very steep gorge with sheer cliff face
exposed almost all the way. The rack railway was built in the late
1800's and was steam trains were originally used. Although not as
breathtaking as the Swiss rack rails, the beauty and austerity of the
mountains was something to be remembered. The town of Kalavrita is,
unfortunately, famous for something else. On 13 December 1943, all the
men and boys (over 11 years of age) of the town were killed by the Nazis.
We climbed the hill to the site of the massacre and there is no doubt that
there is an aura around the place. A simple memorial white cross
adorns the hilltop and a small underground church holds an incense burner
for each of the over 1200 who died. Literally a haunting place.
A day to relax tomorrow (or clean the van and do the washing
if you really want to know the truth) and then off to Italy on Tuesday.
So, for the final time from Greece
Gia Sas
Deb & Arnold
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