Day 74: In Myth

As I mentioned on facebook, I spent a long night sitting at the port in Athens. I spent most of the time reading halfway through a spare book I had on my tablet, and was left alone for the most part. In the morning I caught the metro to where my bus tour departs, and took off with it around 8am. I slept through much of our guide's opening background on Greece - but the bits I did catch were nothing new for me. I haven't found the guide the best so far. Her english isn't the best, and she's said some things that to me are suspect at best. I questioned her about a few of the things that disagreed with what Ì'd been taught - not to be that jerk that questions the "expert", but because I was genuinely curious if Greeks had a different view of things than outside teachings. In general I just found that she was probably wrong, and so I'm taking some of what she says as a bit suspect. Going forward I'm not going to question her anymore I think, just do my own thing.

The first stop was the Corinth Canal, which creates a water connection across the Peloponese.


Next was a drive into the hills to visit the ruins of Mycenae. This part was particularily exciting for me, as Mycenae was such an important city in history and myth. There was a small museum and all the ruins, as well as an absolutely pitch black cistern that I insisted on climbing to the bottom of in the dark. I would take a picture with my flash and then memorize the layout as best I could and take a few more steps -eventually working my way to the bottom.



We continued our tour with a visit to the acoustic marvel that is the amphitheater at Epidaurus. I didn't try any singing, but the sound was pretty amazing.


The last stop of the day was the seaside city (and former capital of Greece) of Nafplion. We had some free time to wander around the city, and it had some pretty cool streets and shops. Our hotel was a short drive away and it's a very classy place. White marble everywhere, a huge pool, a private pianist, etc. Dinner was a huge greek buffet at the hotel, and have a room to myself (with 3 beds) for the night. The contrast is even bigger for my night sitting outside on the docks last night.