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