My Weekend Excursions in Ruins

First and foremost, I apologize for the inconsistent and infrequent blogging this past week. Classes started last Monday which has thrown my schedule through a loop and I haven't managed to carve out a block for blogging, but this week that shall change! Now on to the good stuff...

This weekend was dedicated to a group trip and there is so much to share! We piled onto a smallish bus that had exactly as many seats as we needed at 8am on Friday with enough luggage to last us the weekend (so basically two bags for every girl, and a backpack for me). Friday we were probably the most busy, hitting Corinth, Mycenae and Palamidi Castle before settling down in Nafplio. We learned a fair amount of history about each site which would take up too much space here so just ask if you want to know more! On here it may be easier to share my opinion on the sites. So far in Athens, I have been disappointed by the sites like the Parthenon. Seeing it surrounded by cranes and scaffolding and knowing the important parts of it are replicas really took the wind out of my sails. But on Friday we saw less popular sites that were closer to their original condition which made for a more authentic experience. In Mycenae, for example, we wandered among the towering fortification walls and speculated on how they would get water if the city were besieged. The answer is a spring, and the Mycenaeans had thought of this by cutting out a somewhat hidden passage down into the rock that led to an underground spring. By this time the water table has dropped and the spring is dry, but the experience of going down those steps into the damp darkness made me feel more awe inspired than the sanitized Parthenon that is presented to tourists in Athens. 

Okay, back to the sites. Mycenae was my favorite archaeological site, and Corinth was interesting as well. Palamidi Castle had the best views of the trip so far, and that is saying something. Nafplio was most of our group's favorite city so far with a small town feel despite the obvious western European influence on the architecture. All in all, Friday was a great success. Saturday we all begrudgingly departed Nafplio and made our way toward Monemvasia which is famous for its castle ruins and monasteries. On the way we stopped at a lovely beach, took twisty back roads that cut through rural parts of Greece that tourists rarely see, stopped in a very cool mountain village that was destroyed by the Germans in 1944, and finally made our way out of the mountains down into Monemvasia. Once we reached our destination we discovered the castle and monasteries were closed up for restoration on top of the giant rock formation there. Grrr! We still made the best of our time there by wandering the shops and eventually finding a place to eat by the water. Sunday we knew would be about making our way back to Athens, a long bus ride even by highway. However, we stopped in a small harbor town for lunch before heading to the extensive site at Mystra that is dominated by a large ruined Frankish castle at the top of the hill and several other neat buildings down below. Two hours at Mystra tired us out, and so we only stopped briefly in Sparta to pose for a picture with the statue of Leonidas. Our long trip from Sparta to Athens was broken up by an unscheduled stop for dinner near Corinth that had a gorgeous view of the sunset. Afterwards, our tired group wearily made their way back in to the dorms around 11pm last night, all of us satisfied with the hectic but worthwhile weekend excursions.

I promise there will be more frequent blog posts as I settle in to a routine here, and then before I know it I'll be back in the States! That's a scary thought. I'm definitely not ready to go home yet, Greece is too beautiful and has too much good food to pass up on. My plan to be adopted by a goat farmer and live my days out here is still a work in progress, but I hope it'll come to fruition soon!