YOB: International Adventure 2010 (Part 3) Olympia/Mycenae/Athens

By Lara

We woke up in Olympia in order to see the site of the ancient Olympics... and the former site of one of the ancient wonders of the world. There isn't really much left of Olympia. There are ruins of gymnasiums and bathhouses. The famous temple of Zeus and the temple of Hera. The remains of the Olympian stadium comprise a patch of dirt and a stone gate. Several members of my group took the obligatory crossing the finish line photo. I did not. Pshf. I don't RUN. Not even for pretend in pictures... Unless I was running for my life, but even then...

Karen had promised us that Olympia was flat. I seem to remember walking uphill for quite some time to get back to the bus. It wasn't "the sheer cliff on a mountain" steep, but it was not flat. Olympia was nice, though. I have some lovely "ruins" pictures. We also saw a lizard. He ran away before I could photograph him, but he was very cute.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful. We drove along the coast again. It made me almost wish I'd brought a bathing suit. The water was stunningly beautiful. Apparently, the Aegean Sea does not have high and low tide, so the beaches are strips of sand on crystal water. When we stopped for lunch, and after we finished making fun of the English translations on the menu, I had the best lunch EVER. Chicken souvlaki with french fries and tzatziki. Heaven. I also got baklava. SO GOOD.

After lunch, we went to an ancient but still used theater. The acoustics are superb. We convinced several members of our group to demonstrate them for us. Grace and Aine sang. Gabe tap danced. Michael recited Shakespeare. A french-language tour guide sang and crumpled paper. It was pretty cool.

Our destination town is shrouded in mystery. The way that it's spelled in my American tour book (Nauplia) is VERY VERY different from the way it is spelled in Greek (Nafplion). I rather prefer the Greek spelling. The town is pretty. It's a harbor town with an old Venetian fortress. Karen took us for a forced march around to see the attractions. The center courtyard is made entirely of marble. Also, we ate the best gelato that I've ever eaten anywhere EVER.

While we were with the group, I had chocolate and pistachio. Keep in mind that it actually tasted like pistachio nuts instead of cheap imitation American pistachio flavoring. When Mandi and I went out the second time, I got white chocolate and pistachio. So good.

We eventually wandered back through the fragrant bougainvillea-lined streets to our hotel. I got something to snack on at the grocery store, and Karen forced Mandi to go outside to see the fortress all lit up. Good times.

The last day of the Greek portion of the tour, we went to the ancient ruins of Mycenae. We started with the beehive tomb of Agamemnon. Then we took the bus to the Mycenae Museum. I was a little bit disappointed to realize that the "Golden Mask of Agamemnon" was not the actual mask referred to in "The Iliad." However, the lion gates were the actual lion gates referred to in "The Iliad. Unfortunately, the lion heads were made of a different material than the rest of the wall and have not survived. We walked through the decapitated lion gates and enjoyed the view.

I climbed half way to the top. I got more lovely pictures of ruins and well as pictures of my tour friends. A good time was had by most.

The bus ride back to Athens was mostly uneventful. We drove past the ancient city of Corinth, and stopped to walk across the Corinth Canal. The Canal was actually much cooler than I had anticipated. The water was the loveliest shade of green. We ate lunch on the water and fed the kitties and fish that we saw there. We also used the sketchy meat locker restrooms...

Once in Athens, we all said our goodbyes to Spiros the bus driver, and Karen hosted a "farewell" event in the hotel lobby. Mandi and I went to the Acropolis Museum with Jane, Grace, Gillian, Gabe, and Anne. It was a neat museum. The floors are all glass, so you could see the excavations going on beneath the building. We also watched a video about the Parthenon.

We started walking through all of the shops in the plaka. Somewhere along the line, we lost Anne. The rest of us settled on a little place to eat that sold gyros. My chicken gyro was so good. Lots of tzatziki. There was last minute shopping to be had by all. Everyone protected me from robbery while I got some more cash out of the ATM. Then we walked back to the hotel.

I was exhausted by that point. I caught up in my journal, repacked my suitcase for the rest of my adventure, and went to bed. I said goodbye to the half of our tour group that was not going on the cruise as well. It was another lovely day.