Argolid and Mihalis Mou

So last weekend was a first for me: I traveled outside of Athens overnight for the first time. I went on an organized class trip to the Argolid, which is an area in the Peloponnese named for the largest town in the area, Argos. We left early on Thursday morning and first stopped at the Corinthian Canal, which connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf, on our way to ancient Mycenae. It was built in the late 19th century and effectively makes the Peloponnesian Peninsula an island.

Then we continued onto ancient Mycenae, which was basically one of the most exciting events of my life up to this point. Everything that I had read about in books for years, including Grave Circles A and B and the Lion Gate were right there in front me. In addition, my professor is essentially an encyclopedia so he was spitting out fascinating information faster than you can say "Agammemnon." Just to give a quick overview of the site of Mycenae, it was occupied from around the 5th millenium BCE until around the 3rd millenium BCE in the Argolid Plain. Legend goes that Atreus and all sons thereafter (including Agammenon and Menelaus) were from this area, but that has clearly not been proven through archaeological evidence. Besides this myth, the site is probably most well known for its "Cyclopean architecture," so called because only the Cyclops could have handled rocks this large. And let me tell you, in person I find it just as equally difficult to imagine these ancient peoples lifting 120 ton pieces of limestone as those early Greek settlers who first used the term. (You can see said piece of limestone here across the doorway of a tholos tomb.) We walked into a few different kinds of tombs, stood on top of the fortification walls, and climbed down into a pitch black cistern. I could not have enjoyed myself anymore at this point. Although the weather was awful for the majority of the weekend, it didn't not tarnish my resolve to see some awesome ancient stuff. I am seriously in my element here as everywhere I turn, there is a reminder that I am living among history and anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for history. Of course, I had to take the obligatory "I am a son of Atreus" picture (under the Lion Gate) shown here.

After we left Mycenae, we rode the bus back to Nafplion which is where we stayed in a hotel for the next two nights. This is a quaint little town based on the city plan of Venice because the Venetians ruled here for many years in the Middle Ages. It is also the site of the first capital of Modern day Greece, so I got to see some important monuments to the Greek independence struggle as well. They were no Lion Gate, but they were still cool. That night we went to a delicious taverna, where I shared many traditional Greek dishes with my friends...mousaka is quickly becoming my new obsession. And then we went to a bar around the corner called Agora (see, history around every corner!) for a few drinks.

The next morning we woke up early to visit the site of Epidavros (Epidauros in English). This is the location of the sanctuary of Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing. Hippocrates, the so-called father of western medicine, was a priest of Asclepius as a matter of fact. People came from all over the world to this sanctuary for a type of spa treatment based on faith healing - and it is not difficult to see why; the setting is the true meaning of peaceful. Most of the buildings are not in the best condition, but they are slowly being reconstructed so it is possible to have some idea of what the sanctuary looked like at the height of its influence, in the 4th century BCE.

In the afternoon, we walked along the coast of the Peloponnese to Francthi Cave, which was a site of Pelolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic occupation from 30,000 to 3,000 BCE. My professor actually was on the excavation team for this site in the late '60s-early '70s and wrote his dissertation on it, so his passion for the subject was invigorating. Although there was little left in terms of standing structures or archaeological finds, we did get to see the trenches dug during the excavation and the pure size of the cave, which was enormous. I'm not even going to post a picture because none of the pictures I took could do it justice. Eventually, we trugded back through the rain and road home to Nafplion soaked to the bone. Later, we went out for delicious Greek food and drinks that night; always the perfect way to end an exhausting day.

On Saturday morning, we woke up for our last day in the Argolid. First we visited the site of Lerna, which is a site contemporaneous to Mycenae, but it was not under Mycenean control. There were some interesting structures, most of which are believed to be domestic structures and one even still had mudbrick walls, fully intact from the 3rd millenium BCE. Lerna is also known for the House of Tiles, which is the first appearance of public architecture in the Aegean.

Next we drove to Tiryns, which was another Mycenean fortification. It had equally impressive architecture as Mycenae, with a 30 foot defensible wall surrounding the "palace." Also the view from atop the fortification was incredible, as with most of the sites consisting of an acropolis. And I thought New Yorkers knew how to build real estate with a view!

Finally, we made our way back to the town of Nafplion and drove up - key word: drove as there are 1000 steps leading up - to Palemidi castle. This is a medeival castle from the Venetian era - again not ancient but still pretty cool. I felt like a little kid playing princess again standing atop the castle and looking out over the domain. I realized this weekend that anyone can feel like a king or a queen with the right views. Afterwards, we walked down the thousand steps and ate lunch before boarding the bus back to Athens.

Once we were back in Athens though, the fun didn't stop there. Oh no, my friends and I had tickets to a Mihalis Hatziyannis concert - think of the Greek version of Justin Timberlake plus a few more sparkly shirts and a few less funky dance moves. It was a really fun time even though we had no idea what was going on during the entire concert - with the exception of Nelly of course who basically worships the guy. My friends and I just enjoyed making fools of ourselves as "those Americans," but I still felt cool because I felt like I was doing something truly Greek - unlike when I travel with the other 170 CYA students and it's impossible to be inconspicuous no matter where you go. This is also why I love my dance class here, which I went back to again last night. The class is all in Greek so I'm sometimes a little lost, but it feels nice because I am immersing myself.

Anyway, on that note, I must go immerse myself in sleep. I need to rest up before going to Meteora this weekend! This is a town in central Greece where there are 24 medeival monastaries sitting high in the cliffs. It is supposed to be beautiful and enlightening so I am very excited. I will definitely update again after my trip this weekend!

Filia polla,
Mollie