Hello all! So, seeing as today was the last official day of my Greece adventure, I figured it was about time to catch you all up on the last handful of days before I prance off to Germany. So I left you with Olynthos, I do believe...

The day after that we went to Pella and Vergina, which were pretty cool. Pella has a pretty new museum, and they are working hard on the site to make it visitor friendly, and I can only imagine in a year or two that it will be totally awesome. Vergina has, hands down, one of the coolest museums I have ever been into, but they don't allow you to take any pictures in it, sadly. Vergina is the site of Macedonian tombs, and (probably, maybe, some people say) of Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. The tombs were built into the ground and then covered over with a giant burial mound. Today, the museum is under a mound, and the tombs have been left where they were found - so you go into this giant mound, walk around and see the finds, and can walk a bit further down to the tomb faces. It's totally awesome!

The day after that we went to Dion and then Dimini. Dion was a really pretty site, where they had a collection of temples and sanctuaries outside the city itself, right near(ish) the foot of mount Olympus. Besides that, it was very wet and green and park-like, quite unlike most of the sites we've seen.

Dimini was also pretty cool, it is a neolithic site, and so one of the oldest on Greece. It is kinda small, just a little hilltop settlement in that time, but way nifty to look at. There is also a Mycenaean something or other there, but they are still excavating that and we couldn't see any of it, so hopefully there will be more about that coming about later!

The day after that we just went to the Volos museum, which was very nice, mostly because it has these amazing painted funeral stele. It isn't often that the paint survives so well, and they have more than a dozen  fabulous examples. After that we stopped by Mitrou, which is a little island site, but currently is all backfilled to protect it while they are having a study season. And then we drove back to Athens.

The next day we visited the Kerameikos in the morning, and then had a free afternoon. The Kerameikos is a rather fun site, it is the location of two gates of the city, one of which is the Dipylon gate, where the procession for the Panathenaic festival begins, winding up the sacred way and all the way up to the Parthenon. This is also where the dining, that followed the sacrifices at the festival would take place. Outside the gates are the potter's quarters, and the Street of Tombs, since it was against the law to bury anyone within city limits.

The next day we took a day trip to Aigina to see the two big temple complexes there - one to Apollo, and one to Aphaia. They were both pretty cool, the one to Apollo because there are a bunch of bronze age remains under it, and the one to Aphaia because the current temple standing there is pretty well preserved/restored. The day was a long one, though, because of the way the boats and buses worked out, which meant a lot of sitting around. It was still pleasant, though, the islands are mostly breezy so that was nice!

Today we went to the Agora and saw a little of that, and peeked in on all the excavations going on now, and then talked a little about Monastiraki and Plaka, neighborhoods in the shadow of the Acropolis and on top of the ancient city, and the Lysikrates monument. And ... that was the last of it! We had this afternoon free and tomorrow we have all day free, too, until we have our farewell party in the evening. And then off to Germany!

For some reason I cannot get pictures to upload today, so I will try and come back and add them in tomorrow and hope it works then. Love you all, hope everything is going well! <3

Hi guys! A general combo of lack of internet and laziness has kept me from being productive in updating you all, but I promise you something soon! ^^ <3

Hello all! So, first, catch-up time! So yesterday we went to Meteora, and then stopped by Aiani. Unfortunately the site at Aiani was closed when we go there, but we did get to poke around their museum, which was pretty cool. A lot of things were unpublished there, so I can't share pictures of the nifty vases they have there on the internets. But! I do have lots of pictures of Meteora. Meteora, in short, is a huge outcrop of these big limestone and composite stones, which are way cool and way tall, and have some 24 monasteries perched on and around them. Rocks:

 One of the monasteries:

 And the modern city below them:

 It was a rather cool site, to say the least ^^ And then today we went to see Olynthos, which is -the- city for domestic architecture in the ancient world. There are more than 100 houses excavated there, which is by far the most from one site and gives us a lot of information about how the regular people were living. Then we came back to Thessaloniki, and went to see the Mausoleum, Arch, and Palace of Galerius, who was one of the later rulers in the ancient world, after the Roman Empire had begun to fracture. This is his tomb (which he never got around to using because he died in Serbia):

 And his arch (or at least a fraction of it. It was a biiig arch thingy):

And that's about it for today. More tomorrow! Love you all! <3

Hi Guys! Still alive, but I didn't have the time to get any pictures uploaded today, which means that you get a double dose tomorrow, be excited! ^^ Today we went up to the monasteries in Meteora, and then stopped by Aiani before driving up to Thessaloniki where we are spending the night. The sites up north have been awesome so far, but they are a lot more spread out than those in the south, so we have spent a lot more time driving here and there than before. Which is... interesting. Today it was like 104, I think they said, so bus time was a bit warm. Hopefully it will be cooler tomorrow, though! Love you all! <3

Hello all! So my evening last night was spent places besides the computer, but yesterday was a good day! We went to see Delphi, which is one of my favorite sites ever. Actually, it is my favorite site ever. The site is beautiful, the town more so, and the valley and mountains most of all. If you only ever go one place in Greece, this would be the spot to visit.

The main attraction, of course, of the archaeological site is the temple of Apollo, where the pythia would answer questions 9 months out of the year about anything and everything, supposedly being inspired by Apollo to do so. Some of the most famous events in history have been impacted, or at least commented on, by the oracle at Delphi, and two of the most famous phrases of the ancient world ('Know thyself' and 'Nothing in excess') were carved on this temple. Ta-da: You can perhaps catch of a glimpse of how amazing the scenery is behind the temple foundations here:

The other cool thing is that there is a little tunnel beneath the temple which you can crawl through. This is me, absolutely blocking it. It is a wee bit tight, to say the least, but totally doable!

Alright, so that was Delphi day. We spent the night there and then made three stops today on our way to Kalabaka, where we are spending the night tonight. Our first stop was in Orchomenos in Boeotia. (In Boeotia, because there is, oddly enough, one in Arcadia, too.) This is a pretty cool site, though we couldn't see too much of it. It has a hypothesised Mycenaean palace, unfortunately a church still stands today on the site where it might or might not be. And also a massive tholos tomb, which is almost an exact copy of the tholos tomb of Agamemnon, which is the most famous one. So, it's big:

But the fantastic thing that makes it so unique is that the round tomb also had a side chamber, and the ceiling is intricately carved in relief allll over. This is just a piece of it:

From there we moved on to Chaironeia, which is where the famed battle took place between the Macedonians (supposedly this was Alexander the Great's first battle) and the Sacred Band of Thebes, which was a group of about 300 elite fighting men. Unfortunately, the Sacred Band was defeated for the first time ever here, and died to a man. Two funeral mounds were erected, and atop the one for the Sacred Band, this monumental lion was set up:

Our last stop of the day was at Thermopylai. >> Hopefully you have all at least heard of the 300 and know why that was cool, if not, go watch it right now! In short, the site, in ancient times, was a narrow path between the mountains and the water (which is now much further away because the shore line has silted up). This has caused a number of battles to be held here, but the most famous is when the Spartans and allies faced the Persians in 480 BCE. They did lose, but they fought valiantly and have been remembered for it ever since. This is the monument set up to that battle there today:

With a nice fancy, heroically nude spartan in the middle:

And that was it for the day! We have made it to Kalambaka, which is right near the site we are going to see first tomorrow: Meteora. We can actually see Meteora from our balcony:

That's the view from our balcony, and our next top is right atop those awesome rocks. More about it tomorrow! Love you all, hope all is well!

Hello all! So we've departed to the north, and so far we're got good internet, at least for the two nights we are going to be in this hotel, so yay! So let's see... today we started out stopping in Thebes, which was fun. We got a tour of the sites which are scattered throughout the modern city, since it is built right atop the ancient one. Unfortunately, as that is the case, there isn't too much to show in the way of pictures of things, so I shall spare you my square piles of rocks ^^ We did get to go into the museum there, which was fabulous, because the museum is actually closed for renovation and revamping, so it's entirely in pieces and scattered about, but we did see a few cool things. They had this nifty grave marker:

It's pretty cool because it is a dark stone with incised decoration that can only be seen from a certain angle. It's most likely that it would have been then painted in antiquity to bring out the image that had been incised on it. Also this snake: I don't know much about him, I just thought he was awesome ^^

So after that we went on to see the Trophonius oracle at Herkyna springs. We didn't actually make it to the oracle, but we have lunch by the springs, and they were way pretty (and nice and cool!)

And then our last stop of the day was at the monastery of Hosios Loukas, where we wandered about a bit. I bought delicious delicious honey (or so I assume, I haven't tasted it quite yet!) and got to wear this oh-so-fashionable outfit, since we had to have our knees and shoulders covered ^^

And then we headed off to Delphi, where we are now, with a fabulous mountain view and two nights to spend here. Hope all is well, love you!

Whoo! So, today was a good day! Mostly partly because I got my kindle back! And also my paper submission to the CAMWS Southern Section was accepted! Yay! Alright, but aside from that we did do a half day trip down to Piraias. First we stopped in the museum there, which has some amazing bronzes. This one's Artemis:

It's an awesome statue, not only because it is well preserved, but also because the inlaid eyes are still extant. There are two other awesome bronzes, but I won't flood you with too many pictures! Then we peeked at the arsenal, where they stored the movable ship parts when they weren't in use (oars, ropes, sails, and such) and the ship sheds, where triremes were pulled up out of the water to preserve them when they weren't in use. Unfortunately, not too much of those structures actually remain intact these days. Our last stop of the day was to look at a reconstructed trireme, which is a miracle of scanty clues and experimental archaeology. It turned out pretty cool, and though it is dry docked now, it was taken out and a bunch of silly college students and archaeologists proved it worked!

Triremes were sturdy, amazing ships. It took about 200 people to row each one, and they were mostly used as rams in order to sink enemy ships during naval encounters. And our last stop of the day was right next to that, a American become Greek ship from WWII that played a part in the anti-dictatorship protests during the years of the Junta in Greece when it fled to Italy.

It's name is Velos, which means arrow. ^^ And... that's it for today really! Now we're all scurrying about preparing to leave tomorrow. Tomorrow is our last big trip up North for a week. Hope all is well, love you all! <3

Hello all! So today was a reasonably laid back day. We went to two museums, the Byzantine and Christian Museum which was... well, a museum. I'm not too fond of that time period and stuff, so it was a long tour. But the museum itself is pretty cool. It's on the grounds of the winter residence of a princess, and the museum has been built entirely underground so that it would not disturb the appearance of the estate above. And... it was fabulously air conditioned. Yay!

After that we went back to the National Archaeological Museum one more time to look at Roman sculpture, and then I spent a bit of time wandering about the museum and taking more pictures to make up for the day I didn't have my camera. Yay pictures!

Tonight we are going to the Dora Stratou Theater to see folk dancing, which should be fun, and then tomorrow we are doing a half day trip to Peiraias to see the museum there, which should be fun. (And hopefully I will get my kindle back!) Anyways, all is well other than the atrocious heat. Love you all! ^^

>> What's that?   <<   Another update? The day after the last one?!? Indeed it is, yay me! So today was a pretty short day, short in that it was not as long as some of the days we have had! Today we went first to Marathon, site of the great battle between the Athenians and some of their allies and the Persians. The Athenian's inferior forces managed to stave off the Persians, which was a great victory not so much because it was militarily important, but because it was psychologically important. It was the first time that Athenians had been able to beat the Persians in such a situation, and it boosted their confidence in further dealing with the Persians. The story goes that thousands of Persians were killed, but only 192 Athenians were. After the battle the Athenians were all buried together in a burial mound that is still there today:

After Marathon, we went to Ramnous, which is not too far away. The site has a temple, a tomb monument-lined road, and a fortress and little town. The town was probably the coolest part, because so much has been uncovered and it is so clearly defined. Of course, we had to hike down the tomb lined road towards the city below:

And then step through the giant fortress walls:

And then we could wander among the houses inside:

This was near one of the doors of the house, and it was really nifty to see it there! These things are Herms, which are pretty much pillars with the head of Hermes on top and a set of genitalia on the pillar below. They were found everywhere, because Hermes, and thus these Herms in particular, were guardians of boundaries. Most houses would have had one outside the door, like this one, though it's unlikely they were all so large and thus expensive. It was nifty to see one set up in place, though, to get a feel for what it would have been like walking around a city with these in them everywhere. And after that we had a swim stop before heading home.

;.; Unhappily I left my kindle on the bus today. Hopefully it will still be there when we go on our next trip on Thursday, otherwise I shall be most unhappy and very much bored!

Hope all is well at home, though, love you all! <3

Alright! Update time! I'm still not all sorted with my pictures, but I figured I would try to catch you all up first. So I left you off with our day trip to Eleusis, and then the Epigraphical museum and the agora visit. So after that we set off the next day on our Peloponnese Trip. Our first day we drove over to the Corinth Canal, which actually entirely separates the Peloponnese from the rest of Greece.

Tis a pretty nifty little thing. After that we moved on to the site of ancient Corinth itself and saw bunches of things! The site itself has a temple to Apollo and a bajillion other things, so we could only see a little. The lower part of the site is excavated to the Greek or Roman levels. (See a temple! This is the one to Apollo)

Oh! And you'll never guess who our guide for this site was: Guy Sanders. Here's him explaining a nifty secret passage to us.

Above this lower part of the city is Acrocorinth, the equivalent of the Acropolis for Athens, more or less, save in Corinth instead of a little hill they have this:

A big giant mountain! But we bussed/hiked our butts up it. The top would have had classical and Roman remains at one point, but they are mostly gone now, and have been covered over with this complex:

That's a huuuuge Frankish/Venetian fortress. See that little red dot in the gate? That's a person. It was really cool to see though. So that was Corinth! One day I'll have to go back, I feel like it would take multiple days to explore the whole site well!

Then the next day we visited Isthmia and then Nemea. Unfortunately there isn't much actually preserved at Isthmia. The Greek stuff is little more than ankle high, and while there is an interesting Roman bath, that's probably the only thing that is reasonably well preserved. Nemea had a bit more to offer. They're doing a bit of reconstructing, but have this lovely temple:

And also the stadium where the Nemean Games were held every two years. In recent times the games have been revived and are held every four years. They were actually held a weekend or two before we visited, and so the track was still nice and neat and run-able. So...

We lined up for a race, of course. Nemea (along with Olympia, Isthmia and Delphi) are where one of the big four games of the Greek world were held. (The stadium at Isthmia, like much else, isn't in good shape anymore.) So it was a lot of fun to run there. I even got third, whoo! And then that afternoon was a lazy-sunset-full one:

So the next day we went to a couple museums and then explored Palamidi. Palamidi is a big old Venetian fortress on the highest hill behind the city of Nafplion. And wouldn't you know! There are stairs up to it, from the bottom of the city! Some 800 plusish of them. Here's me on step one:

Laura and I hiked the whole way up together, which was fun. You can see our awesome zig-zaggy path up:

 And here's the view from the top: That little white patch on the right side is the modern city below.

 Then that afternoon we went to see Epidaurus. It is probably most famous for having a giant theater, which is way cool. And very giant:

The theater is still used today for modern performances, and had amazing acoustics. Standing right in the center of the stage, you can speak and be heard anywhere in the theater. Even the drop of a coin is audible on that spot, no matter where you sit. The site also has sanctuary buildings to various deities, including Asklepios, and a fabulous stadium.


The next day was a big one: Mycenae, Lerna, and Tiryns. Mycenae was first, and is a Mycenean culture, bronze age palace site. It is probably most famous for the Lion Gate, which is the main entrance into the city:

 It might not look like much in the picture, but the lintel above the doorway weighs more than 20 tons.
There is also this nifty cistern, that you go down these stairs to:

 But you have to take a light, as it gets pitch black after a couple turns. That was fun to go down to.
Oh! And on the way to our next site, we stopped by this thing:

 I must say, I'm not entirely sure what it is. It is called a pyramid or a tower, and there are multiple ones scattered about, but no one had really written about them it seems. It's got a triangular shape outside, but inside, after entering through that doorway, you go down a hall to a big square room. If anyone has any ideas, do share them!
But after that it was on to Tiryns. Tiryns, like Mycenae, is a Mycenean Bronze Age palace site. It's well known for this corbelled corridor that has store rooms off of it.

 And for being big. Most of the Mycenean palaces are huge, built with this cyclopean masonry, and highly fortified, and Tiryns is no exception.

We also stopped by Lerna that day, though I didn't really get any good pictures of the site. It's pretty small, and famed for a corridor house called the House of the Tiles. Which... well, it's famous for things, and if you reaaally wanna know ask me some time. ^^

So the next day we started out with Mantineia,  which is where a big battle took place, but we couldn't get to the site. There was, however, this amazing church across the street instead:

 It's called Agia Foteini, and is the most awesomest ecclectic building that ever did exist, and had these two little other buildings floating about, for what we couldn't decide, but they were cool:

 (Hee... I'm goddess sized in this!)
But anyways! After that we went to see the Menelaion, unfortunately there's not too much to see of it now. I think the upper parts are in Germany somewhere... or maybe I am thinking of a different something, but there it is!

 And out last stop for the day was the Spartan Acropolis. There were some excavations going on, but nothing really labeled, save for the theater down there below me. Sparta was one of the nicest stops, because it was tucked up in the mountains, and the breeze was actually almost cold! It was a fabulous thing, though we didn't get to stay long.

So the next day began with a museum, and then the temple of Artemis Orthia. This was a temple which, during roman times, was apparently built into a theater so that the spectacle of the rituals carried out there could be watched by an audience. Then we went to Mistra, which was this huge site occupying a good bit of the side of the mountain. It is this giant complex where there was a palace and a town and many many churches in the time... uh... after ancient Greeks >> I forget what time period, so lets go with the Frankish-Venetian and maybe also Byzantine stretch. We wandered about for a bit and saw some cool things: This was the entry way into the site.

 This little thing was interesting, but I still haven't decided exactly what it was, really...

 And this was a fun fancy gate with arrow slits and space for a portcullis and everything.

But! This was the bestest part. I found the cutest, tiniest spiral staircase ever. It was about as wide as my shoulders and about as tall as me with absolutely no room to spare. It was adorable!

 Later that day we also stopped by another fortress, but it had already closed, unhappily. So we settled in at our hotel in Pylos, which was absolutely fabulous. How fabulous? Fabulous enough that this is, literally, what was on the ground beneath our balcony:

 But let's see. On to the next day! We went to see the island of Sphacteria, where the elite Spartan troops camped out for 72 days before being taken by the Athenians. It was fun to hike up to the top (that's what my current picture on facebook is) and we saw a couple walls there still, plus the view was fabulous!
The rest of the island:

 The crew who made it to the top, and the walls:

 And after that, we went to see Nestor's palace, another Mycenean bronze age palace. It's a beautiful site, and the palace is mostly roofed, which is awesome, because it is so well preserved. It was beautiful, and we got to see the throne and the mysterious depression beside it:

No one is really sure what the barbell-shaped thing is for, but there has been much, much debate about it.

The next day was Messene and Mt. Lykaion. Messene was an interesting site, but one of the coolest parts was one of the gates in its fortification wall. I believe it was called the Achaean Gate. And look at the size of that lintel block!

 It was this big round space between two actual gates with these little niches for statues. Which, of course...

 Means someone should scramble up there and be a statue. Whoo!

 After looking about, our bus then proceeded to drive through the gate, which was even cooler. I should say a word on our bus driver. We have had the same one for both our long trips so far, and he is, hands down, the best driver in the whole entire world ever. His name is Spiros, and you would not believe the tiny spaces, tight turns and impossible spaces he goes with a big huge bus. He's just amazing!
But back to the antiquities! Mt. Lykaion was our next stop, which is a sanctuary site with a stadium, and some other things, but it is mostly famous for the huge ash altar to Zeus on top of the mountain. This was a place where offering were burned and left, dating back into the Neolithic period. And when I say it was huge, when we climbed to the top, (and when I say climb, I mean scrambled up the huge, steep slope:)

 We were actually standing on the expanse of the altar instead of the bedrock. There was an awesome view from the top in all directions, though!

 That night we headed to Olympia, and in wandering around, I met a shop owner whose brother had run part of the Olympic torch bit for one of the previous Olympics, and she told me to take a picture with it, so I did! Look fun! ^^

Right then, so the next day we did the site of Olympia, and boy was there a bunch to see there. Let's see about the highlights. First, the huge temple to Zeus. Unfortunately, because of Christians and earthquakes, the temple has been effectively leveled. This one column, though, was reconstructed for one of the previous Olympic games, and it's a biggun:

 And of course, I suppose the other big thing is the stadium, as this is, after all, the site of -the- Olympic Games. These statue bases are one of my favorite little random details of the site. They are called Zanes, and lined the path that the athletes would have taken to enter the stadium. Each base would have held a statue of Zeus, erected with the fines paid by previous athletes who had been caught cheating at the games (and an entire bronze statue was -not- cheap). Each base had the name of the person and what they did inscribed on the base in the ultimate warning to present athletes.

 And then into the stadium! Where, of course... we raced. Again. Because it's Olympia! You can see here our weird positions, but that's how it would have gone in antiquity. There was none of this crouching on the ground bit. The stone starting line we are standing on is engraved with two lines, one for the toes of each foot. You start with your left foot forward, and your arms kinda out...

 

And then away you go!

 

 Aaaaaall the way down to the end...

Whoo I got second! It was fun, hehe.

The next day we did another museum in Patras, which has this huge, fabulous new museum. (New in that it was built threeish years ago.) Which looks all awesome and modern on the outside. The inside is amazing, too. Their displays are beautiful and the information they provide is complete and educational. It was one of the best museums we've seen, for sure. Here's the outside:

And then we visited the tiny site of Perachora, which is tucked away on a little bay, and then back to Athens! Our next day was a free one, and then today we did some more of the agora and the National Archaeological Museum. Unhappily I had a dead camera most of the day, but I do think I have pictures of all these somewhere, so yay!

Whoo. I think I am caught up now. I shall try to be more on top of things while here in Athens, and depending on the internet when we head north on Friday. Til later, love you all! <3