Last weekend was my first trip to a Cycladic island. The Cyclades are a major chain of islands in Greece, (their shape forms a rough circle, hence Cyclades) famous for their beaches and parties mostly, but also for simple, beautiful towns. Mykonos is no exception. When i first arrived in the main town, i was struck with how different a feel the town was. No cars (with the exception of taxis and the delivery bikes) are allowed in the town, making it a strollers paradise. The streets are so narrow i can hardly think of how cars could even fit through. There were a lot of small shops, mostly selling touristy stuff, but a handful of private jewlery and such shops existed. Walking around, shopping in these shops was an easy way to spend an afternoon/entire day. There were enough coffee shops and bars and tavernas and all sorts of food places to keep one well fed and occupied for a long time.
The most interesting part of town is known as Little Venice. Here, the buildings jut out over the water and a number of expensive resturants/bars have opened up shop. I didn't eat here due to the fairly high prices, but i can imagine watching a gorgeous sunset over the water from here would be spectacular. Another fun place to watch from is where the old windmills are located. I can't remember what this is called, but there are about 5 old windwills still standing on a promentory looking out over the water. From here you can see some of the nearby islands and it's really impressive.
Our hotel was located next to one of the famous beaches on Mykonos, Paradise Beach. The hotel itself wasn't bad for the price, but sadly it was low season so nothing in the area was open. The place was getting ready to fully open, but wasn't quite there yet. One could easily go back into town and bar hop all night, but considering the public transportation wasn't fully operating, doing so was expensive. I therefore remained in my room reading, but did make it out onto the beach at night, which was pretty cool.
On Saturday, we went to Delos. Wow. If you are ANYWHERE near there, go. The amount of ruins and things to see is spectacular. Sadly, i was limited to only 4 hours given the boat schedule, but i could have easily spent another 2 or 3 hours without a problem. The nicest thing about the site is that there are practically no guards, meaning you can go anywhere on the island, and as nobody can stay here but guards/excavators, the island is empty. This provides for a really cool experience of walking around in hallways and rooms that the ancient Greeks and Romans did.
The site map wasn't much use as practically nothing was labelled. It did provide a good overview of the remains which was extremely necessary. My best bet is just go and get lost. Meander around, you'll discover some really neat things. Like in the public bathhouse, i found a toliet still intact with the cistern beneath it. You don't see that every day. Also, the number of mosaics is truly extraordinary. I love mosaics, so i was in heaven!
The museum was pretty cool, though some of it was roped off for some reason. It's definetly worth a detour through, with some more mosaics and wall paintings. My personal favorite was one of Hermes and Athena. Truly exceptional work. Another fun place is the theater on the south side of the island. I really wish i'd gone here first, as by the time i got here i had to rush through. Behind the theater is the ancient cistern which is uncovered now and a number of houses with more mosaics. You literally could get lost around here very easily and quickly. On the way up the big hill, there are temples to the goddess Hera and the "foreign" gods, not quite sure what that meant. At the very top was a shrine to Zeus. I managed to sprint my way up to this in about 10 minutes, so climbing it would prob. take about 30 or so. It's worth it though. The view of both the site and the nearby islands is magnificent. I loved it, totally worth the hot and sweatiness that ensued. Plus, the breeze was nice :-). On the way down, i went hunting very quickly for the Grotto of Heracles (Hercules), but couldn't find it. The grotto is inside the mountain a bit, with the doorway formed naturally by stalagmites/stalagtites. Wish i'd found it, but alas, the ferry was about to leave. You see why i could have spent a great deal more time here.
After some more wanderings around Mykonos Town, we went back to the hotel, slept, woke up the next morning, enjoyed the beach (which was very nice), then caught our ferry home. Long trip (5 hour ferry ride) but it could have been worse. The weather was at least nice. On the whole, a very very very good weekend, a nice change from Athens.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Aegina
Aegina. It's the closest island to Athens and is the first island that i visited here in Greece. It's very easy to get to, you just take one of the many ferries they have per day to there and it's lots of fun. There's not a lot to do, making it really only worth a day trip in my opinion.
You arrive in the main port and you immediately you see that the feel of the town is much different then Athens. There's no cars running by at high speeds, no honking, not as many motorbikes, making it fairly quiet. It's a nice little town, aptly named Aegina town. Those clever Greeks, they're so original :-). On the island there are two main places to go. One is the Temple of Apollo, the other, the Temple of Aphaia. Both are really impressive. Aphaia was my favorite personally. The bus station hardly deserves the name. It's literally a shack with a guy selling tickets. They barely spoke any english, making it difficult to figure out where to go/what to do. Not my idea of fun. We ended up having to take a taxi to Aphaia, which only cost 15 Euros, which isn't bad split 2 ways, but more expensive then the bus which was 1.20 Euros. Oh well.
The Temple of Aphaia was built by the Aeginatians (sp? the people of Aegina) around the 480's BCE. This temple is remarkable as it has two stories of columns, which i've never seen before in a Greek temple. You start to see it later when the Romans develop the arch, but not at this time. It was a beautiful temple, heavily restored to give vistiors an idea of the temple. The museum houses a large number of the finds, including some very helpful historical information on Aphaia/the area and the excavations. While some of the building was carted off by a guy from Bavaria (i think it was Bavaria), it was actually a good thing, as the locals were using the limestone in their kilns to make paint. So he in fact saved the temple, or at least the important stuff. Not bad.
The Temple of Apollo is in a far less well preserved state. Instead of a number of columns, there is only one. This one column is badly damaged, the rest were all melted down (again i think) by the locals. There are also remains of a Byzantine church built in the same area which is always cool, but all the signs were in German/Greek which made figuring out what things were a little difficult. Seeing as it's so close, it's not a bad idea to visit, but it's certainly not the most spectacular place in Greece.
The rest of the time we wandered around the town, visiting shops (most of which were tourist oriented) and enjoying the town. I wasn't overly impressed with the town or island, to be perfectly honest, but it's certainly worth a day trip. It also would work well as a jumping off point to get to other islands.
I'm almost caught up with my trips. Myknonos/Delos were this past weekend, and then i'll be caught up, till my next trip :-).
You arrive in the main port and you immediately you see that the feel of the town is much different then Athens. There's no cars running by at high speeds, no honking, not as many motorbikes, making it fairly quiet. It's a nice little town, aptly named Aegina town. Those clever Greeks, they're so original :-). On the island there are two main places to go. One is the Temple of Apollo, the other, the Temple of Aphaia. Both are really impressive. Aphaia was my favorite personally. The bus station hardly deserves the name. It's literally a shack with a guy selling tickets. They barely spoke any english, making it difficult to figure out where to go/what to do. Not my idea of fun. We ended up having to take a taxi to Aphaia, which only cost 15 Euros, which isn't bad split 2 ways, but more expensive then the bus which was 1.20 Euros. Oh well.
The Temple of Aphaia was built by the Aeginatians (sp? the people of Aegina) around the 480's BCE. This temple is remarkable as it has two stories of columns, which i've never seen before in a Greek temple. You start to see it later when the Romans develop the arch, but not at this time. It was a beautiful temple, heavily restored to give vistiors an idea of the temple. The museum houses a large number of the finds, including some very helpful historical information on Aphaia/the area and the excavations. While some of the building was carted off by a guy from Bavaria (i think it was Bavaria), it was actually a good thing, as the locals were using the limestone in their kilns to make paint. So he in fact saved the temple, or at least the important stuff. Not bad.
The Temple of Apollo is in a far less well preserved state. Instead of a number of columns, there is only one. This one column is badly damaged, the rest were all melted down (again i think) by the locals. There are also remains of a Byzantine church built in the same area which is always cool, but all the signs were in German/Greek which made figuring out what things were a little difficult. Seeing as it's so close, it's not a bad idea to visit, but it's certainly not the most spectacular place in Greece.
The rest of the time we wandered around the town, visiting shops (most of which were tourist oriented) and enjoying the town. I wasn't overly impressed with the town or island, to be perfectly honest, but it's certainly worth a day trip. It also would work well as a jumping off point to get to other islands.
I'm almost caught up with my trips. Myknonos/Delos were this past weekend, and then i'll be caught up, till my next trip :-).
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Delphi
Alright, so now that i've atoned for my sin of forgetting about Thessaloniki, here's my opinon/rant about Delphi.
Delphi was amazing. Hands down. No questions asked. If you even have a small chance to go, go. It's not only a breathtaking site, as it's perched on the side of a valley about 1,000 feet in the air, the ruins are equally impressive. There's so much history here that i could go on for hours, but i'll keep it brief.
So, other than the fact that the site closed insanely earlier than it was supposed to (2:45 when it was supposed to be open till 5:00...Greece....), we spent the first afternoon admiring the lower site from up high. The lower site was mainly comprised of the gymnasium for practicing athletic events, and there was a temple to Athena lower down on the site. I went and saw this the next day, and it was pretty cool. Worth the half hour of meandering around that i did. We also looked at the Kastalian Spring, the holy spring that those who wished to see the oracle bathed themselves in before going into to see her. Sadly, it's been blocked off and now runs down modern pipes, but part of it was exposed so i got to use the water to wash myself a bit. Pretty cool if you ask me (but i'm just a big dork).
Afterwards, a few friends and i decided to climb to the top of a hill (a couple hundred feet or so) to watch the sunset. This was pretty fantastic. Yes it was cold, and we decided in our brilliance to leave the path and climb straight up through the middle of a briar patch, but it was still pretty cool. I at least enjoyed it. The climb down was a little treacherous as we waited a bit too long so we were climbing down in darkness, but the stars were REALLY clear and it was very worth it. I recommend sticking to the path though ;-). We could also see Mt. Parnassus, one of Greece's more famous mountains, behind us. The sunset was pretty amazing to watch as well.
The next day, we did the upper site of Delphi and the museum. So...amazingly...cool!!! There were ruins from the Greeks, the Romans, and the Byzantines, pretty impressive. My favorite (little bit of sarcasm) ancient author, Pausanias, provides a brief description of the path up the Sacred Way to reach the temple. In in, he tells us of all the large and impressive statues, dedications, and treasuries that city states from around the Ancient Greek world had dedicated. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have looked like. On the way up, you can see a reconstruction of the Treasury of the Athenians. Pretty cool, but def. lacking in what it would have looked like in ages past.
The highlight was next, the Temple of Apollo. Here is where the famous Pythian Apollo priestess who was an oracle, would deliver the oracles. There's not a lot left of the temple, but it's foundation is impressive. It was a large terrace that had to be extended to allow for the temple to be constructed. It's believed that the Oracle would wait inside in the middle and deliver the answers to questions from either individuals or city states. What's interesting about her is this. She was most likely high and competely out of her mind. Scholars/scientists have discovered that there is a fault line running underneat the temple which released noxious fumes which can make a person in an enclosed space have an out of body experience. Crazy, huh? So, what's likely is that the oracle would say something completely crazy and the priests would "interpret" what she said into an answer (predetermined, of course) and give that to the person who asked the question. Or, she might have NOT been high, and the answer would be given to her in advance to tell. If you read some of the oracles we have, they are SO vague that they can fit almost any circumstance. My favorite is this one.
Before the Persian Wars, the Persian Empire was trying to seize Greek city states along Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). One of the kingdoms in the area, Lydia, had a famous king named Croesus. He was fabulously wealthy and tried to oppose the Persians. He was trying to decide whether or not to attack the Persians, so he sent a messanger to the Oracle at Delphi. The response he got was "If you go to war, a great nation will fall." Croesus figured that this great nation would be Persia, so he launched his attack and was soundly defeated by the Persians. Having been captured, he asked permission to send another messanger, and this messanger told the oracle that she was wrong. Her response was that he had misinterpreted the oracle. This just shows how vague and funny some of the oracles are.
There's a lot more about the oracle, but i'll just stop there. The 2 other major buildings at the site were the theater and the stadium. The theater was large and impressive, providing a great view of the area and it also was well preserved. The stadium unfortunetly you were not allowed to go into due to the "chance" of a "mudslide." Pah. in any case, it's a fair hike up the hill (takes about 10 minutes) but it's definetly worth it. You get a realllllly nice view, and then the stadium is also not half bad.
We then got on the bus, drove to a town called Arachova, which is famous for its wool (sadly it was low season so not much was open) and then straight home to Athens. All in all, combined with Olympia, this was a spectacular trip!!
Delphi was amazing. Hands down. No questions asked. If you even have a small chance to go, go. It's not only a breathtaking site, as it's perched on the side of a valley about 1,000 feet in the air, the ruins are equally impressive. There's so much history here that i could go on for hours, but i'll keep it brief.
So, other than the fact that the site closed insanely earlier than it was supposed to (2:45 when it was supposed to be open till 5:00...Greece....), we spent the first afternoon admiring the lower site from up high. The lower site was mainly comprised of the gymnasium for practicing athletic events, and there was a temple to Athena lower down on the site. I went and saw this the next day, and it was pretty cool. Worth the half hour of meandering around that i did. We also looked at the Kastalian Spring, the holy spring that those who wished to see the oracle bathed themselves in before going into to see her. Sadly, it's been blocked off and now runs down modern pipes, but part of it was exposed so i got to use the water to wash myself a bit. Pretty cool if you ask me (but i'm just a big dork).
Afterwards, a few friends and i decided to climb to the top of a hill (a couple hundred feet or so) to watch the sunset. This was pretty fantastic. Yes it was cold, and we decided in our brilliance to leave the path and climb straight up through the middle of a briar patch, but it was still pretty cool. I at least enjoyed it. The climb down was a little treacherous as we waited a bit too long so we were climbing down in darkness, but the stars were REALLY clear and it was very worth it. I recommend sticking to the path though ;-). We could also see Mt. Parnassus, one of Greece's more famous mountains, behind us. The sunset was pretty amazing to watch as well.
The next day, we did the upper site of Delphi and the museum. So...amazingly...cool!!! There were ruins from the Greeks, the Romans, and the Byzantines, pretty impressive. My favorite (little bit of sarcasm) ancient author, Pausanias, provides a brief description of the path up the Sacred Way to reach the temple. In in, he tells us of all the large and impressive statues, dedications, and treasuries that city states from around the Ancient Greek world had dedicated. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have looked like. On the way up, you can see a reconstruction of the Treasury of the Athenians. Pretty cool, but def. lacking in what it would have looked like in ages past.
The highlight was next, the Temple of Apollo. Here is where the famous Pythian Apollo priestess who was an oracle, would deliver the oracles. There's not a lot left of the temple, but it's foundation is impressive. It was a large terrace that had to be extended to allow for the temple to be constructed. It's believed that the Oracle would wait inside in the middle and deliver the answers to questions from either individuals or city states. What's interesting about her is this. She was most likely high and competely out of her mind. Scholars/scientists have discovered that there is a fault line running underneat the temple which released noxious fumes which can make a person in an enclosed space have an out of body experience. Crazy, huh? So, what's likely is that the oracle would say something completely crazy and the priests would "interpret" what she said into an answer (predetermined, of course) and give that to the person who asked the question. Or, she might have NOT been high, and the answer would be given to her in advance to tell. If you read some of the oracles we have, they are SO vague that they can fit almost any circumstance. My favorite is this one.
Before the Persian Wars, the Persian Empire was trying to seize Greek city states along Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). One of the kingdoms in the area, Lydia, had a famous king named Croesus. He was fabulously wealthy and tried to oppose the Persians. He was trying to decide whether or not to attack the Persians, so he sent a messanger to the Oracle at Delphi. The response he got was "If you go to war, a great nation will fall." Croesus figured that this great nation would be Persia, so he launched his attack and was soundly defeated by the Persians. Having been captured, he asked permission to send another messanger, and this messanger told the oracle that she was wrong. Her response was that he had misinterpreted the oracle. This just shows how vague and funny some of the oracles are.
There's a lot more about the oracle, but i'll just stop there. The 2 other major buildings at the site were the theater and the stadium. The theater was large and impressive, providing a great view of the area and it also was well preserved. The stadium unfortunetly you were not allowed to go into due to the "chance" of a "mudslide." Pah. in any case, it's a fair hike up the hill (takes about 10 minutes) but it's definetly worth it. You get a realllllly nice view, and then the stadium is also not half bad.
We then got on the bus, drove to a town called Arachova, which is famous for its wool (sadly it was low season so not much was open) and then straight home to Athens. All in all, combined with Olympia, this was a spectacular trip!!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Thessaloniki/Northern Greece (Macedonia)
Ok, well, oversight aside, Thessaloniki was pretty cool. It was worth the trip, as i would have gone anyway, but in truth it wasn't fabulous. The city is definetly different and has a unique feel compared with Athens, and the harbor is also very interesting. What's more is that there is a lot more in the way of Roman and Byzantine ruins instead of Classical Greek, which is mostly what Athens is, providing a nice change.
So, the trip up to Thessaloniki was LONG, and i mean LONG with pitstops at Platea, Leuctra, and Chaeronea. Each of these is a battle site from three distinct periods in Greek history. Platea is the famous site where the Greeks in the Persian Wars defeated the Persians for the final time on Greek soil (see the end of 300 if you want more details, it's all there). I'll spare you the long and dry account that the historian Herodotus gives us, because honestly that actually puts me to sleep (i've tried reading it 3 times now). There's not much there, but it's a cool place to look at and think that the Greeks won their freedom at that spot. The next place was Leuctra. A cool battlefield for historian geeks, but otherwise not much there. There's a reconstruction of the monument built by the Thebans afterwards, but that's it. Leuctra basically was where Sparta was defeated (yes, Sparta wasn't invincible) by the Thebans, who took over control of Greece. After the Peloponnesian War (the one with Sparta v. Athens), Sparta had power throughout the Greek world, but this was unpopular and the Thebans threw off this Hegemony and replaced it with their own brief Hegemony. Basically, the Spartans were drunk at the battle and got defeated quite soundly. The final battlefield, Chaeronea, is where Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) defeated the Thebans and Athenians and essentially took control of Greece. A pretty cool place, there's a monument dedicated to the Theban Sacred Band (elite troops) who were killed to the man at the place where the monument stands. Not bad.
We then continued our sojourn up to Thessaloniki, finally arriving around 6pm (we left at 7am). The hotel wasn't bad, minus being on the 7th floor and the 2 elevators only able to take 3 people at a time. I went out to dinner and pretty much passed out afterwards. The next day, we went on to Pella and the birthplace of Aristotle. Pella was disappointing. It was the capital of Macedonia and supposedly one of the greatest cities during the time after the death of Alexander the Great. They were excavating, so there wasn't much to see. This left you with little idea of how large and impressive the site was. There were some very impressive mosaics left on site which were remarkable, but that was it. The palace was closed due to the excavations, so that may have made it more impressive, who knows. The museum had a lot of material in a very small space, with some more impressive mosaics and a number of statues in bronze and marble. In the end though, not very exciting if you're not a history person. The birthplace of Aristotle was pretty fun though. It's a trek to get there, but it has a bunch of hands-on models of some of the ideas that Aristotle came up with, like the tornado tubes and sundials.
When we got back, i went to dinner and had a gyro with not tsatsiki, the cucumber/dill yoghurt that is normal, but ketchup and mustard. An interesting combo to say the least. I then walked along the waterfront of the entire port, which is long, but also very pretty at night. The next morning we did a walking tour of Thessaloniki. We went in and saw the Palace of Galatin, one of the Roman Emperors in the 4th century CE (AD), as well as his Victory Arch and a building known as the Rotunda. They were all pretty cool. The palace had a lot of bricks still standing, and some of the original flooring, and the arch had a lot of detailing, despite it's poor state of preservation. The Rotunda was being rennovated/restored, so it was hard to tell how impressive it would be, but it seemed nice. It got turned into a church, then a mosque, then later a church again. That happens a lot around Greece.
The last day (i think i may be missing something or have done this all incorrectly, but i think you get the idea) we went to Vergina, Dion, Nymphaeon, and Thermopylae. Vergina was the site of the ancient capital (before Pella) of Macedonia. Here were a number of tombs of the kings of Macedonia, as well as another palace/theater. Unfortunetly, both the palace and theater were closed. The theater is famous as it was the place where Philip II was assasinated, leading to the rise of Alexander the Great to the Macedonian throne. The tombs/museum were the highlight in my mind of the trip. There was a large number of cases housing a lot of the artifacts, and the coolest part was the tombs themselves. They were all in-situ (in location), so you walked down a flight of stairs to see them. There are 2 really good ones, one believed to be of Philip II himself, the other of Alexander IV, the son of Alexander the Great. Both of these are in doubt for reasons i won't go into, as they are still pretty impressive regardless. There's a lot of impressive stuff in here and it's well worth the trip.
Nymphaeon was another site with some famous tombs. These were very pretty and interesting to look at, but again, unless you're a history person, they just aren't that impressive and worth the trip. There was another site that i can't remember the name of which had more tombs, but again, not worth it really unless you have a love/passion for such things.
Dion was the last major site we visited. This was a sprawling site at the foothills of Mt. Olympus with a number of Roman and Greek buildings. The theater was well preserved and i think performances are still done every now and then. The rest of the site was enormous, full of ruins of all shapes and sizes. The best preserved sections are Roman, with impressive baths and houses at one end and some temple foundations in another. I really don't remember too much because the weather got so bad trees were falling and it was very very very cold.
Thermopylae wsa the final site. This was little more than a truck stop. The shape of the region has changed dramatically since the 5th century BCE, so there is little to see and you can't get an idea of how the battle took place. The only monuments are a recent one built in honor of Leonidas, the king of Sparta who died there, and the burial mound of the Spartans who died. Not very much for such a cool spot. The battlefield took on a symbolic role in the coming centuries, as other groups have made last stands there. In the 3rd century BCE, the king of the Seluccid Empire, Antiochus III, stood here against the Romans, but was defeated in EXACTLY the same way as the Greeks were 2 centuries earlier (they found a path leading around the pass and attacked the Seluccids from behind). Even in the modern day, during WWII when the Germans invaded Greece, the British made their last stand at Thermopylae, and got utterly creamed. So, Thermopylae has a record of no wins and many losses for those who stand there. I wonder why people keep fighting here??
Anway, we got back to Athens, and I passed out from exhaustion. A long weekend with a number of disappointments, but some highlights. Overall, I'd say that unless you truly enjoy/know Greek history and have a LOT of time on your hands, Thessaloniki is prob. not worth someone's time. Better off going to the Islands or some of the more famous, closer ancient Greek sites.
So, the trip up to Thessaloniki was LONG, and i mean LONG with pitstops at Platea, Leuctra, and Chaeronea. Each of these is a battle site from three distinct periods in Greek history. Platea is the famous site where the Greeks in the Persian Wars defeated the Persians for the final time on Greek soil (see the end of 300 if you want more details, it's all there). I'll spare you the long and dry account that the historian Herodotus gives us, because honestly that actually puts me to sleep (i've tried reading it 3 times now). There's not much there, but it's a cool place to look at and think that the Greeks won their freedom at that spot. The next place was Leuctra. A cool battlefield for historian geeks, but otherwise not much there. There's a reconstruction of the monument built by the Thebans afterwards, but that's it. Leuctra basically was where Sparta was defeated (yes, Sparta wasn't invincible) by the Thebans, who took over control of Greece. After the Peloponnesian War (the one with Sparta v. Athens), Sparta had power throughout the Greek world, but this was unpopular and the Thebans threw off this Hegemony and replaced it with their own brief Hegemony. Basically, the Spartans were drunk at the battle and got defeated quite soundly. The final battlefield, Chaeronea, is where Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) defeated the Thebans and Athenians and essentially took control of Greece. A pretty cool place, there's a monument dedicated to the Theban Sacred Band (elite troops) who were killed to the man at the place where the monument stands. Not bad.
We then continued our sojourn up to Thessaloniki, finally arriving around 6pm (we left at 7am). The hotel wasn't bad, minus being on the 7th floor and the 2 elevators only able to take 3 people at a time. I went out to dinner and pretty much passed out afterwards. The next day, we went on to Pella and the birthplace of Aristotle. Pella was disappointing. It was the capital of Macedonia and supposedly one of the greatest cities during the time after the death of Alexander the Great. They were excavating, so there wasn't much to see. This left you with little idea of how large and impressive the site was. There were some very impressive mosaics left on site which were remarkable, but that was it. The palace was closed due to the excavations, so that may have made it more impressive, who knows. The museum had a lot of material in a very small space, with some more impressive mosaics and a number of statues in bronze and marble. In the end though, not very exciting if you're not a history person. The birthplace of Aristotle was pretty fun though. It's a trek to get there, but it has a bunch of hands-on models of some of the ideas that Aristotle came up with, like the tornado tubes and sundials.
When we got back, i went to dinner and had a gyro with not tsatsiki, the cucumber/dill yoghurt that is normal, but ketchup and mustard. An interesting combo to say the least. I then walked along the waterfront of the entire port, which is long, but also very pretty at night. The next morning we did a walking tour of Thessaloniki. We went in and saw the Palace of Galatin, one of the Roman Emperors in the 4th century CE (AD), as well as his Victory Arch and a building known as the Rotunda. They were all pretty cool. The palace had a lot of bricks still standing, and some of the original flooring, and the arch had a lot of detailing, despite it's poor state of preservation. The Rotunda was being rennovated/restored, so it was hard to tell how impressive it would be, but it seemed nice. It got turned into a church, then a mosque, then later a church again. That happens a lot around Greece.
The last day (i think i may be missing something or have done this all incorrectly, but i think you get the idea) we went to Vergina, Dion, Nymphaeon, and Thermopylae. Vergina was the site of the ancient capital (before Pella) of Macedonia. Here were a number of tombs of the kings of Macedonia, as well as another palace/theater. Unfortunetly, both the palace and theater were closed. The theater is famous as it was the place where Philip II was assasinated, leading to the rise of Alexander the Great to the Macedonian throne. The tombs/museum were the highlight in my mind of the trip. There was a large number of cases housing a lot of the artifacts, and the coolest part was the tombs themselves. They were all in-situ (in location), so you walked down a flight of stairs to see them. There are 2 really good ones, one believed to be of Philip II himself, the other of Alexander IV, the son of Alexander the Great. Both of these are in doubt for reasons i won't go into, as they are still pretty impressive regardless. There's a lot of impressive stuff in here and it's well worth the trip.
Nymphaeon was another site with some famous tombs. These were very pretty and interesting to look at, but again, unless you're a history person, they just aren't that impressive and worth the trip. There was another site that i can't remember the name of which had more tombs, but again, not worth it really unless you have a love/passion for such things.
Dion was the last major site we visited. This was a sprawling site at the foothills of Mt. Olympus with a number of Roman and Greek buildings. The theater was well preserved and i think performances are still done every now and then. The rest of the site was enormous, full of ruins of all shapes and sizes. The best preserved sections are Roman, with impressive baths and houses at one end and some temple foundations in another. I really don't remember too much because the weather got so bad trees were falling and it was very very very cold.
Thermopylae wsa the final site. This was little more than a truck stop. The shape of the region has changed dramatically since the 5th century BCE, so there is little to see and you can't get an idea of how the battle took place. The only monuments are a recent one built in honor of Leonidas, the king of Sparta who died there, and the burial mound of the Spartans who died. Not very much for such a cool spot. The battlefield took on a symbolic role in the coming centuries, as other groups have made last stands there. In the 3rd century BCE, the king of the Seluccid Empire, Antiochus III, stood here against the Romans, but was defeated in EXACTLY the same way as the Greeks were 2 centuries earlier (they found a path leading around the pass and attacked the Seluccids from behind). Even in the modern day, during WWII when the Germans invaded Greece, the British made their last stand at Thermopylae, and got utterly creamed. So, Thermopylae has a record of no wins and many losses for those who stand there. I wonder why people keep fighting here??
Anway, we got back to Athens, and I passed out from exhaustion. A long weekend with a number of disappointments, but some highlights. Overall, I'd say that unless you truly enjoy/know Greek history and have a LOT of time on your hands, Thessaloniki is prob. not worth someone's time. Better off going to the Islands or some of the more famous, closer ancient Greek sites.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Olympia/Pylos
So the final school sponsored trip that i went on was to Olympia, Pylos (just my class) and Delphi. I'm going to cover Olympia/Pylos first, then Delphi seperately. There's just so much to cover!
So the bus ride to Olympia took about 5 hours. Not the worst ever, when compared with the trip to Thessaloniki. Which whoops, i forgot to talk about!!! Yikes. Next thing to get done! So we arrived and the weather looked downright grim, all weekend. But thankfully it didn't rain for much of the time. We checked into the hotel, which was verrrrry nice, but the staff was soooo mean/inpolite, it wasn't even funny. They always gave us this cold stare of...not hatred, but annoyance. But we weren't even doing anything wrong! Whatever.
So we went to the Olympia site that afternoon and quickly went through the site. There's mostly ruins here, but it's a rather large site with a lot of buildings. Many of them are gyms, where the atheletes would train to compete in the games. To compete, a person had to be the son of free parents, meaning that he was free, be a Greek (though this would change), and come to Olympia one month before the games began to train/learn how to properly take part in the games. Once their training was complete and the games began, people from ALL over Greece (and i mean ALL over) came to Olympia. Crowds of 100,000 people were not out of the realm of possibility. There were no hotels, so people lived in tents on marshy fields for about a week while the games took place.
All these buildings were built outside of the Sanctuary wall. What's important to know is that the Olympic games were considered to be a sacred tradition. There was a peace imposed two weeks before and after the games to allow travellers safe passage to and from the games. This peace (over the course of close to 1,000 years) was only broken a few times, so highly did the Greeks view the Olympics. The gyms were not the only type of buildings at Olympia. There were also a number of temples dedicated to the various deities. The most famous was that of the Temple of Zeus.
This temple was a massive Dorian (simple column type) temple constructed around 470-450 BCE was a predecessor to the Parthenon. The same guy, Praxidalis (don't worry, you don't have to remember his name, i'm just enlightening you with facts you can pull out at dinner conversations :-)) later went on to build the Parthenon itself. The temple was massive, the column drums easily were as tall as I was (so 6-7 feet wide and tall), so you get an idea of how big they were. The friezes above depicted famous scenes from Greek mythology which i won't bore you with. The highlight of the temple was the famous statue of Zeus. It was one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World. The statue itself was over 20 meters (65 feet) tall SITTING DOWN, and supposedly if it stood up, it would break a hole through the roof! It was covered with ivory and gold, but was not solid. Instead, it had a wooden structure around which the ivory and gold were inlaid. Below was a pool of olive oil which reflected light up up onto the statue, making it a truly impressive sight.
Sadly nothing remains of this statue, and the temple itself was destroyed in the 5th Century CE (AD) by the dirty-good-for-nothing Theodosius II, a Christian emperor of Rome (rather Constantinople at the time) who ordered all Pagan practices to end and all Pagan temples/relics to be destroyed. Hence, all the columns of the temple were pushed/pulled down and much of what was there was destroyed. Thankfully not everything was destroyed, but he sure caused a lot of headaches for modern historians.
The final building we went to see was the Stadium. This was where most of the action during the Olympic Games took place. The most famous races consisted of foot and chariot races, though there was also discus, javelin, wrestling, and my personal favorite, the pankration. Here, the only rules were, 1) no poking of the eyes, and 2) no biting. Other than that, anything went, from breaking arms to choking, whatever you needed to do to get your opponent to submit. There were no built seats at Olympia, rather you sat on the slope. The highlight of the games was the stade, which was a sprinting race similar to the 100 meter dash in today's games. This race varied in length, as the runner ran the length of the stadium once. Some were longer, some were shorter, Olympia's was 200 meters. After running that, let me tell you from personal experience...not fun. You get about 100 meters in and realize you're only halfway there.
Once you won your event, you recieved a laurel crown and made sacrifices to Zeus in the temple. When you returned to your city-state, that was when the real celebration began. A section of the citiy's wall was ripped down for the victor to endter through and he recieved free meals...for life. That, and a lot of attention. Not bad.
On the next day, we went to Pylos. Pylos is best remembered for it's Mycenaean (remember them?) palace that appears to have been a immensely important palace. it controlled a large area and had many of it's remains preserved due to the fire which destroyed the complex. I won't bore you with another long summary of the Mycenaeans, but what's notable was that some of the original painting/carvings were still visible, an impressive fact considering it's about 3,000 years old.
We then went down in Pylos town to have lunch. There was a cool Venetian castle on top of the hill which provided an excellent view of the town. It also provided a nice view of Sphacteria, the island off the coast which creates a nice sheltered port. Without going much into detail, Sphacteria was the location of major engagements in two sepearate time periods. During the Peloponnesian War, some Spartan hoplites got trapped on the island by the Athenians. They managed to hold out for a while on the island on very meager rations while the Sparatans back home sued for peace. It's a long section in Thucydides, our source on the war, but i won't go more into detail. Essentially, the Spartans surrendered in the end. The other major engagement was during the Greek war of Independence. Here, the British, French, and Russian navies met the Ottoman and Egyptian fleets in the last major battle of the Age of Sail. The Ottomans and Egyptians were SOUNDLY defeated by the others, leaving the door open for Greek independence to begin. Kinda crazy.
On our last day in Olympia, we went to the museum, which had a lot of bronzes and sculptures and such, which again i won't bore you with. I couldn't do half of it justice, but essentially it houses the remains of the pedimental sculpture of the Temple of Zeus. The other major work was the sculpture by Praxidaleis of Hermes and Dionysus, which is supposed to be the most perfect representation of the human form (sorry David, not quite realistic there ;-)). I had my problems with it, but it was overlal pretty impressive.
We then went on to Delphi, after passing over a cool bridge between the Pelopenesse and Central Greece which is designed to withstand a tsunami, yup, a tsunami, and to expand as the tectonic plates seperate in the region.
On to Delphi, after i post about Thessaloniki (d'oh!)
So the bus ride to Olympia took about 5 hours. Not the worst ever, when compared with the trip to Thessaloniki. Which whoops, i forgot to talk about!!! Yikes. Next thing to get done! So we arrived and the weather looked downright grim, all weekend. But thankfully it didn't rain for much of the time. We checked into the hotel, which was verrrrry nice, but the staff was soooo mean/inpolite, it wasn't even funny. They always gave us this cold stare of...not hatred, but annoyance. But we weren't even doing anything wrong! Whatever.
So we went to the Olympia site that afternoon and quickly went through the site. There's mostly ruins here, but it's a rather large site with a lot of buildings. Many of them are gyms, where the atheletes would train to compete in the games. To compete, a person had to be the son of free parents, meaning that he was free, be a Greek (though this would change), and come to Olympia one month before the games began to train/learn how to properly take part in the games. Once their training was complete and the games began, people from ALL over Greece (and i mean ALL over) came to Olympia. Crowds of 100,000 people were not out of the realm of possibility. There were no hotels, so people lived in tents on marshy fields for about a week while the games took place.
All these buildings were built outside of the Sanctuary wall. What's important to know is that the Olympic games were considered to be a sacred tradition. There was a peace imposed two weeks before and after the games to allow travellers safe passage to and from the games. This peace (over the course of close to 1,000 years) was only broken a few times, so highly did the Greeks view the Olympics. The gyms were not the only type of buildings at Olympia. There were also a number of temples dedicated to the various deities. The most famous was that of the Temple of Zeus.
This temple was a massive Dorian (simple column type) temple constructed around 470-450 BCE was a predecessor to the Parthenon. The same guy, Praxidalis (don't worry, you don't have to remember his name, i'm just enlightening you with facts you can pull out at dinner conversations :-)) later went on to build the Parthenon itself. The temple was massive, the column drums easily were as tall as I was (so 6-7 feet wide and tall), so you get an idea of how big they were. The friezes above depicted famous scenes from Greek mythology which i won't bore you with. The highlight of the temple was the famous statue of Zeus. It was one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World. The statue itself was over 20 meters (65 feet) tall SITTING DOWN, and supposedly if it stood up, it would break a hole through the roof! It was covered with ivory and gold, but was not solid. Instead, it had a wooden structure around which the ivory and gold were inlaid. Below was a pool of olive oil which reflected light up up onto the statue, making it a truly impressive sight.
Sadly nothing remains of this statue, and the temple itself was destroyed in the 5th Century CE (AD) by the dirty-good-for-nothing Theodosius II, a Christian emperor of Rome (rather Constantinople at the time) who ordered all Pagan practices to end and all Pagan temples/relics to be destroyed. Hence, all the columns of the temple were pushed/pulled down and much of what was there was destroyed. Thankfully not everything was destroyed, but he sure caused a lot of headaches for modern historians.
The final building we went to see was the Stadium. This was where most of the action during the Olympic Games took place. The most famous races consisted of foot and chariot races, though there was also discus, javelin, wrestling, and my personal favorite, the pankration. Here, the only rules were, 1) no poking of the eyes, and 2) no biting. Other than that, anything went, from breaking arms to choking, whatever you needed to do to get your opponent to submit. There were no built seats at Olympia, rather you sat on the slope. The highlight of the games was the stade, which was a sprinting race similar to the 100 meter dash in today's games. This race varied in length, as the runner ran the length of the stadium once. Some were longer, some were shorter, Olympia's was 200 meters. After running that, let me tell you from personal experience...not fun. You get about 100 meters in and realize you're only halfway there.
Once you won your event, you recieved a laurel crown and made sacrifices to Zeus in the temple. When you returned to your city-state, that was when the real celebration began. A section of the citiy's wall was ripped down for the victor to endter through and he recieved free meals...for life. That, and a lot of attention. Not bad.
On the next day, we went to Pylos. Pylos is best remembered for it's Mycenaean (remember them?) palace that appears to have been a immensely important palace. it controlled a large area and had many of it's remains preserved due to the fire which destroyed the complex. I won't bore you with another long summary of the Mycenaeans, but what's notable was that some of the original painting/carvings were still visible, an impressive fact considering it's about 3,000 years old.
We then went down in Pylos town to have lunch. There was a cool Venetian castle on top of the hill which provided an excellent view of the town. It also provided a nice view of Sphacteria, the island off the coast which creates a nice sheltered port. Without going much into detail, Sphacteria was the location of major engagements in two sepearate time periods. During the Peloponnesian War, some Spartan hoplites got trapped on the island by the Athenians. They managed to hold out for a while on the island on very meager rations while the Sparatans back home sued for peace. It's a long section in Thucydides, our source on the war, but i won't go more into detail. Essentially, the Spartans surrendered in the end. The other major engagement was during the Greek war of Independence. Here, the British, French, and Russian navies met the Ottoman and Egyptian fleets in the last major battle of the Age of Sail. The Ottomans and Egyptians were SOUNDLY defeated by the others, leaving the door open for Greek independence to begin. Kinda crazy.
On our last day in Olympia, we went to the museum, which had a lot of bronzes and sculptures and such, which again i won't bore you with. I couldn't do half of it justice, but essentially it houses the remains of the pedimental sculpture of the Temple of Zeus. The other major work was the sculpture by Praxidaleis of Hermes and Dionysus, which is supposed to be the most perfect representation of the human form (sorry David, not quite realistic there ;-)). I had my problems with it, but it was overlal pretty impressive.
We then went on to Delphi, after passing over a cool bridge between the Pelopenesse and Central Greece which is designed to withstand a tsunami, yup, a tsunami, and to expand as the tectonic plates seperate in the region.
On to Delphi, after i post about Thessaloniki (d'oh!)
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Istanbul
Ok, well, minus the whole getting a major stomach virus thing and not sleeping on Friday night, Istanbul was pretty amazing. Here's what i did.
We arrived on Thursday night. The ride to the hostel was not bad, nor were the accomidations. We were right next to all the major sites, which was pretty sweet, and it was inexpensive, making it a real bonus. We checked in and then walked up to see the Agia Sophia and Blue Mosque at night. They were gorgeous, and made me excited for seeing them in the light the next day.
Friday, we woke up early and did the Blue Mosque, the Cistern, and Agia Sophia before lunch. The Blue Mosque was my favorite. It it a really impressive building inside. The architectural style is nothing like the Roman or Greek stuff I've seen while i've been here, but i can see the influences. There were arches and columns, and instead of mosaics or paintings, it was all simply decorated with floral designs. But they were EVERYWHERE! The columns themselves were equally enormous, dwarfing anything i have yet seen. And to think this was a place of prayer blew my mind. The next stop was the Cistern. This was built by the Byzantines to supply Byzantium (as it was called then) with a water supply. i believe it was fed by an aqueduct nearby. In any case, it was an gigantic underground structure. I think there were something like 400 columns supporting the roof. There wasn't much light, but you got the impression of how big the place was immediately. There were even fish swimming around in the water. There also were some colums with interesting designs, one with circular spirals and another with 2 Medussa heads (why, i just don't know).
The final stop of the morning was the Agia Sophia. This building i found to be a bit disappointing. I've heard so much about it, how amazing and immense and grand, and maybe it was the fact that it was being restored, but i wasn't that impressed. I'm not saying that it wasn't worth the trip, but it was a let down given how built up it was. Parts of the paint were pealing and the dome was being repaired, (and there were pigeons flying around) which is not a good sign. Other than that, i enjoyed it. The architecture was superb, and seeing a Christian church/Islamic mosque rolled up into one was interesting. A lot of both survived.
After lunch/wandering around a bit, we went on the Palace of the Sultan. This was the highlight. We could have easily spent another full day in here without any problem. There were several small collections within the Palace structure itself. Each one was interesting in its own right, but the obvious highlights were the jewels and treaure. Holy cow was this stuff impressive!! Remember how i didn't like the Habsburg crown jewels? Well, the Sultan's put the Hapsburgs to shame. Ornate swords, immense diamonds/gems, and huge golden thrones, to name a few. There also was an interesting collection on the religious iconography of Islam, such as the footprint of i think John the Baptist and Moses' staff. I doubt the veracity of these items, but they were still interesting to look at.
The last place inside the palace we went was the Harem. Unfortunetly, you have to pay another 10 Turkish Lira (about $7) to enter, but it's totally worth it. The architectural detailing and simplicity of it all was unbelievable. The Sultan and his harem women sure lived well. It's good to be the Sultan :-).
This was when i got sick, unfortunetly. So Friday night and most of Saturday i spent recovering. I did manage to get up and do a cruise along the Bosphorus, which if i hadn't fallen asleep during i think would have been pretty cool. Oh well, what i did see was pretty awesome. Then on Sunday, we went to the nearby Aqueduct (which i've never seen one that i can remember, gasp) and then just wandered around the Sultanplatz for a little bit, through the Hippodrome and such. We did see the Tripod which the names of all the Greek city-states who opposed the Persians in the Persian Wars were inscribed, which was pretty awesome. Too bad the names have worn away. It was still cool.
We flew back into Athens on Sunday, and found out the number of people who had been sick. Then it was off to classes on Monday.
Next up, Olympia/Pylos/Delphi...yay!
We arrived on Thursday night. The ride to the hostel was not bad, nor were the accomidations. We were right next to all the major sites, which was pretty sweet, and it was inexpensive, making it a real bonus. We checked in and then walked up to see the Agia Sophia and Blue Mosque at night. They were gorgeous, and made me excited for seeing them in the light the next day.
Friday, we woke up early and did the Blue Mosque, the Cistern, and Agia Sophia before lunch. The Blue Mosque was my favorite. It it a really impressive building inside. The architectural style is nothing like the Roman or Greek stuff I've seen while i've been here, but i can see the influences. There were arches and columns, and instead of mosaics or paintings, it was all simply decorated with floral designs. But they were EVERYWHERE! The columns themselves were equally enormous, dwarfing anything i have yet seen. And to think this was a place of prayer blew my mind. The next stop was the Cistern. This was built by the Byzantines to supply Byzantium (as it was called then) with a water supply. i believe it was fed by an aqueduct nearby. In any case, it was an gigantic underground structure. I think there were something like 400 columns supporting the roof. There wasn't much light, but you got the impression of how big the place was immediately. There were even fish swimming around in the water. There also were some colums with interesting designs, one with circular spirals and another with 2 Medussa heads (why, i just don't know).
The final stop of the morning was the Agia Sophia. This building i found to be a bit disappointing. I've heard so much about it, how amazing and immense and grand, and maybe it was the fact that it was being restored, but i wasn't that impressed. I'm not saying that it wasn't worth the trip, but it was a let down given how built up it was. Parts of the paint were pealing and the dome was being repaired, (and there were pigeons flying around) which is not a good sign. Other than that, i enjoyed it. The architecture was superb, and seeing a Christian church/Islamic mosque rolled up into one was interesting. A lot of both survived.
After lunch/wandering around a bit, we went on the Palace of the Sultan. This was the highlight. We could have easily spent another full day in here without any problem. There were several small collections within the Palace structure itself. Each one was interesting in its own right, but the obvious highlights were the jewels and treaure. Holy cow was this stuff impressive!! Remember how i didn't like the Habsburg crown jewels? Well, the Sultan's put the Hapsburgs to shame. Ornate swords, immense diamonds/gems, and huge golden thrones, to name a few. There also was an interesting collection on the religious iconography of Islam, such as the footprint of i think John the Baptist and Moses' staff. I doubt the veracity of these items, but they were still interesting to look at.
The last place inside the palace we went was the Harem. Unfortunetly, you have to pay another 10 Turkish Lira (about $7) to enter, but it's totally worth it. The architectural detailing and simplicity of it all was unbelievable. The Sultan and his harem women sure lived well. It's good to be the Sultan :-).
This was when i got sick, unfortunetly. So Friday night and most of Saturday i spent recovering. I did manage to get up and do a cruise along the Bosphorus, which if i hadn't fallen asleep during i think would have been pretty cool. Oh well, what i did see was pretty awesome. Then on Sunday, we went to the nearby Aqueduct (which i've never seen one that i can remember, gasp) and then just wandered around the Sultanplatz for a little bit, through the Hippodrome and such. We did see the Tripod which the names of all the Greek city-states who opposed the Persians in the Persian Wars were inscribed, which was pretty awesome. Too bad the names have worn away. It was still cool.
We flew back into Athens on Sunday, and found out the number of people who had been sick. Then it was off to classes on Monday.
Next up, Olympia/Pylos/Delphi...yay!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)