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