Nafplio and the Pelopponese

Continuing on with the semester break trip!  After Athens, Nate and I took a bus to Nafplio, a charming little town in the Pelopponese.  The main sightseeing attraction in Nafplio is the Venetian fortress on the cliff that faces the sea, called the Palamidi fortress.  We walked up the 999 stairs to the top to explore the gigantic structure.

At the beginning of the hike up....

All those steps were worth it for the views on the Palamidi.  It was really fun walking and poking around all the different parts.  We saw a church, prison cells, towers, walls....it was like being in one of those castles in Game of Thrones (sidenote: I got hooked on the GoT books on this trip!).

Neat spot to enjoy views of the old town part of Nafplio

First courtyard of the fortress

One of the prison cells of the fortress that held the hero of the Greek uprising

The fortress just seemed to keep on going

Another bastion of the fortress

The day was an absolute beaut!

While staying in Nafplio, we rented a car and drove to some of the historical and touristic sites in the area.  As I mentioned before, most of Greece is covered in mountains, so this made for some windy and slow-going roads.  The road signs were also in Greek (of course!) so they were impossible for us to decipher.  Luckily, the very nice Greeks who owned the little hotel we stayed at were able to give us some maps and Nate was able to figure out GPS.  So we didn't end up getting (too) lost and it was actually really fun zipping around and enjoying these spots at our own leisure.  The first spot we went to was Mycenae.  These were by far the oldest ruins we saw in Greece.  The Myceneans ruled what is now Greece and beyond around 4,000 years ago.  So while they don't look quite as majestic as some of the other sights we saw, they are just really frickin' old and it's impressive that they could build anything at that time that could survive for 4,000 years.

The Lion's Gate entrance to the city

Circle burial rounds

Foundations of the ancient city

The ruins of Mycenae

Just down the road, there was a king's tomb open to see.  This was definitely the most jaw-dropping part of Mycenae.  The tomb was MASSIVE.  It's incredible to think that somehow they were able to build this so long ago.

Massive King's tomb

Some perspective with Nate in the entrance, just enormous!

From Mycenae, we drove to the theater of Epidavros.  This is considered one of the finest preserved Greek theaters in the world.  It was nearly perfectly preserved because it was buried for hundreds of years before being uncovered.  The acoustics in the theater were incredible and fun to play around with. There was a spot in the middle where you could stand and speak, and the people at the very top would be able to hear you.  Epidavros was also known for it's healing center, but the theater is the best preserved part of the ancient city.

Epidavros theater

When Nate spoke directly into the center, I could hear him from the top row of seats!

Pretty neat theater!

We kept the car a second day and drove to Mystras, a Byzantine city on a hill with many monastaries, churches, a cathedral, and a palace.  It was an important place for the Orthodox church, second only to Constantinople (not Istanbul yet) at the time.  We drove up the hill and walked around the bottom part of the fortified town amongst the monastaries and churches.

The cathedral up on the hill

One of the churches, built around the 12th century

Walking around felt like stepping back in time!

One of the monastaries of Mystras

Palace up at the top of the hill

A donkey!  One of the monasteries is now used as a convent.  We saw a nun with her donkey, pretty cute!

After walking around the lower part of the town, we were excited to go up to the top to see the palace and cathedral.  Unfortunately, fog and rain rolled in.  By the time we got up there, we couldn't see anything.

Proof that at least we tried!

We had planned on also checking out Monemvasia as well, but with the rain and fog we decided to head back to Nafplio.  I guess that's what second trips are for :)  Mystras was the last major spot we checked out while in Greece.  On our last day, we hung out in Nafplio and went to a wine tasting to learn about Greek wines.  Before we knew it, it was back to Athens to go our separate ways.  Even though there were times the weather was a buzzkill, I am still glad we came to Greece for this trip.  It was nice to see these famous historical places without an insane number of tourists clogging up your photos.  If I ever make it back to Greece, I'd love to go to Santorini and Crete...but I'll definitely book that in the summer.

Good job driving Baby Blue Fiat around the Pelopponese!

Gorgeous sunny last day in Nafplio

More Athens and a few Greek islands

After Delphi and Meteora, we spent a few more days in Athens, including a day trip to a few Greek islands.  I had planned a day trip to Delphi, not realizing that it was already included in the Meteora trip.  Make sure to read the full itinerary when you book a tour, lesson learned!  The company was able to offer us a boat ride day trip to Hydra, Aegina, and Patra.  This day trip ended up being somewhat underwhelming, because as it turns out, the islands are not that exciting in the winter.  Plus it was kind of a cloudy rainy day, plus we couldn't go to Patra because of a shipwreck.  The boat ride was pretty cheesy.  It included a dance show featuring "traditional" Greek dances.  They invited all of the tourists to join (Nate and I were amongst the few non-Asians on this tour, so we really stood out and didn't join in.  We're boring).  It was pretty entertaining to watch Greek guys twirl tiny little Asian girls around in circles--over their heads even.  It still makes me laugh, actually.  But we did enjoy ourselves, nonetheless.  Here's a few pictures from the boat trip:

Little port of Hydra

Hydra is so small, no motorized vehicles are allowed.  Donkeys are one way to get around!

Temple of Aphasia on Aegina, a goddess later associated with Athena.  This is one of the temples of the holy triangle, the others being the Parthenon and Temple of Poseidon

Sunset at the Temple

Monastery of St. Nectarios, now the seat of the Greek Orthodox Church

A tiny little Greek Orthodox church right on the harbor

Nate and I also visited the National Archaeological museum, with another handy audio guide from our travel buddy Rick Steves.  The Greeks are very proud of their Classical history, and the museum had many artifacts and sculptures arranged in chronological order.  It was interesting to see some of the statues housed here that once were at the temples we visited or would visit while in Greece.  

The oldest little Kori statues in the exhibit.  They were used as little offerings when the Greeks visited the temples

Mycenean gold burial coverings for an infant.  We got to see a Mycenean ancient site later in the trip.

Bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon...no one is sure if he was throwing a lightning bolt or a trident.  But if you try to pose and take a picture, you will get scolded (I know this because of a sign, not because I actually posed like Zeuseidon).

Small scale replica of Athena the warrior holding victory in her hand.  The actual statue doesn't exist anymore and was originally at the Acropolis.

We also went to the new Acropolis museum on the same day.  The new museum is really interesting because on the top floor there is a full scale replica of the Parthenon, with some original pieces and some replicas.  Some of the pieces were not-so-nicely stolen from a British guy in the 1800s, and the Greeks won't let any visitor to their museum forget that.  For years, the Brits said that Athens didn't have the proper space to store those pieces, so they built a brand new, state of the art museum to house those pieces once they are returned.

On another day, we visited the ancient Agora and Temple of Poseidon.  The Agora was the city center of ancient Athens, where the philosophers, thinkers, and government workers all hung out.  Here people came to vote and established one of the earliest democracies. Thanks again, Rick Steves, for the handy free guide! 

The ruins of the city center, settled beneath the Acropolis

Temple of Hephaestus at the Agora

View of the agora from a hill that the apostle Paul preached from in Athens...that guy made it everywhere!

In the afternoon, we went on a little tour to the Temple of Poseidon just outside of Athens.  I had read amazing reviews of the Poseidon temple, with people saying it was one of the most beautiful places in Greece and the sunsets are to die for.  Unfortunately, it was a cloudy (and freezing cold!) afternoon, so we didn't get to catch this amazing sunset.  But it was still a beautiful temple right on the sea, where people made sacrifices to Poseidon for safe maritime travels.

Bundled up at Temple of Poseidon

The temple facing the Aegean Sea

There's a little of that famous sunset...pretty cool anyway!

That evening, we enjoyed a nice dinner at a taverna on the Acropolis stairs.  Part of what enticed us to try this place was the nice Greek man promising music and dancing.  Nate and I were the only ones in the restaurant and beginning to think this guy pulled one over on us, when suddenly about forty lively Greeks came in.  Then the music started as well as Athenians dancing and letting loose on a Friday night.  It was a great little dose of local flavor :)

Love how into it the singer is!

For our final day in Athens, Nate and I saved the big sight for last...the Acropolis.  We had more help from our pal Rick to orient us around the big Acropolis rock that is steeped with history.

Greek theater carved into the side of the rock

The entrance to the top.  The nice thing about going in the off-season is way fewer tourists.  The bad thing is scaffolding and a rainy day now and then.

The famous Parthenon Temple dedicated to Athena, patron goddess of Athens.  Besides a temple, this place has also been a sight of an Orthodox church during Byzantine rule and a mosque during Ottoman rule.  Now Greece is painstakingly renovating their beloved temple.

The elegant Caryatid columns of the Erechthion temple 

What remains of the ancient Acropolis citadel.  *Right after I took this picture, I took a HUGE tumble on the Acropolis that will forever go down as The Great Acropolis Tumble.  Always graceful :)

The Acropolis was the final place we saw in Athens before taking the bus to Nafplio.  I really enjoyed our first week in Athens and beyond.  It's very clear that the Greeks are proud of their ancient ancestors and the contributions they made to democracy, medicine, architecture, philosophy....pretty much everything, really!