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27-Jun-1998 to 4-Jul-1998
Kas, the Kids and I in Greece
My travels and the journeys of Kas, Jordan and Connor finally coincide in Greece, and we spend a really hot week in the town of Tolo. We get out and about a couple of times, but in general we spend the whole week by the ocean.
I caught a plane from London to Athens, and was there to meet Kas, Jordan and Connor at the airport. They were full of stories about their adventures in Italy over the last week. I hadn't seen them since early March!
We caught a taxi to where we were staying for the night: the "Economy Hotel", which seemed to be right in the middle of a red light district!
We caught a bus from Athens to Nafplio (in the Peloponnese), and then a taxi to our destination, Tolo. I think I can see why so many Greek people end up in Australia. The climates and a lot of the landscape seems similar; they even have eucalypts!
Our hotel rooms were a bit of a dump. No air conditioning (it was hot!), and lots of mosquitoes at night.
We all went to the beach, but I was so worried about the German lady on my left and the French lady on my right getting sunburnt that I got sunburnt myself! :-(
We went in to Nafplio to see what was there. It was very hot. Connor and I climbed around some ruins on one of the hills to find a good vantage point to see the town. After running for the bus that went back to Tolo I was so flustered that I left my wallet on the bus. :-(
We took a tour to two of the nearby sites: Mycenae and Epidaurus.
Paraphrased from "Greece - The Rough Guide":
Mycenae was uncovered in 1874 by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (who also excavated the site of Troy), impelled by his single-minded belief that there was a factual basis to Homer's epics.
The region is one of the longest occupied in Greece, with evidence of Neolithic settlements from 3000 BC, but it is to a period of three centuries from around 1550 to 1200 BC that the citadel of Mycenae and its associated drama belong.
We saw the place where the famous burial mask of Agamemnon was dug up. Apart from seeing the mask in books as a child, the only reason I had heard about Agamemnon was from the movie "Time Bandits", where he was played by Sean Connery. :-)
Paraphrased from "Greece - The Rough Guide":
Epidaurus is a major Greek site, visited for its stunning ancient theatre, built by Polykleitos in the fourth century BC. With its backdrop of rolling hills, this 14,000 seat arena merges perfectly into the landscape, so well in fact that it was rediscovered and unearthed only last century. Constructed with mathematical precision, it has an extraordinary equilibrium and, as guides on the stage are forever demonstrating, near perfect acoustics - such that you can hear coins, or even matches, dropped in the circular orchestra from the highest of the 54 tiers of seats.
The theatre, however, is just a component of what was one of the most important sanctuaries in the ancient world, dedicated to the healing god Asclepius, and a site of pilgramage for half a millenium, from the sixth century BC into Roman times.
We walked along the road into Tolo to see more of the town we'd been staying in. I went to visit the local police to get some kind of official document about my lost wallet, but they spoke about as much English as I spoke Greek, so that ended up being a waste of time.
On four of our five nights in Tolo we ended up having dinner in the same little restaurant on the beach. The kids could go swimming and Kas and I could watch from the shore.
Back to Athens, via taxi and bus. When we got there, I figured there was enough time to go to visit the Acropolis (I hadn't realised we were so close to it on the day we arrived). Kas thought it was too hot to cart the kids around (and it was! It was 42º that day!), so I headed off by myself, through the markets near the hotel and the Plaka district and up the hill.
The Acropolis was closed! Due to the heat!
I had to content myself with the view from a hill next to the Acropolis, which I have just discovered is called the Areopagus, or "Hill of Mars". It turns out that it is a famous place, used as the site for the Council of Nobles and the Judicial Court of ancient Athens; used as a campsite by the Persians during their siege of the Acropolis in 480BC, and the place where Saint Paul preached the Sermon on an Unknown God. I just knew it must be a place of history and reverence. That's why I remarked to one of the other people shut out of the Acropolis "I bet a lot of bums have sat here, eh?"
We were up before the sun to catch our flights to England, Kas and the Kids via Rome and me via Thessaloniki. I came very close to causing a diplomatic incident in Thessaloniki going back through customs to make a phone call; on the plane I had decided to make a list in my diary of all the things I had lost in my wallet when I realised that I had left my diary back in the hotel room in Athens! :-( I was pretty sure I could actually fix this mistake (unlike my wallet), so I was keen to do so (and I did, eventually).
Next stop, Heathrow.
| Last updated 25-Jul-10 | email: Kirk.Davies@pobox.com |