Greece: Part 2 - Corinth, Epidaurus, Nafplion, Mycenae

As noted in a previous post, Jessica and I spent the first two days of our trip in Athens and then the remainder of our trip on an epic road trip through the Greek mainland. We were lucky enough to find a rental company that would rent to us at 22 and would also drive us out of Athens, because Athenian drivers are absolutely outrageous. So on our trusty Hyundai Accent, Jess and I departed for Corinth, the first stop on our Greek road trip extravaganza.

As soon as we got on the road, we found Greek driving to be both manageable, and extremely different. Almost all roadsigns were in English and Greek, which saved our lives on several occasions. The major difference in driving was that unless you were passing, it was expected that you would literally drive on the shoulder. While strange at first, it was actually kind of nice on roads with only a single lane each way to have a pseudo passing lane in the middle of the road. The Greek drivers however sometimes took this to extremes. On one instance, we were passed by a car that was simultaneously being passed by another car, putting the three of us abreast (hehe) on our single lane, while oncoming traffic raged toward us. It was pretty absurd.

Against all odds, we made it to Corinth safely and enjoyed some delicious lamb and pita. The site there was very impressive and fairly expansive. The Temple of Apollo, while having none of the grace of later sites and styles, was impressive in the shear scale of the columns and of the original site. It also brought me back to Mr King's 7th Grade class where we played City States! Represent Corinth!

On a whim, I convinced Jessica that we should drive to the Acrocorinth. I would highly recommend this site to anyone traveling in the region. However, I would advise you to attempt the slop with more than a gallon of gas in the tank. Possibly not one of my smartest decisions, but we made it to the top safely... barely. Jess would've thrown me off the mountain if not for her fear of heights. The view from the top was absolutely amazing, and the Acrocorinth itself was a favorite of mine. Not kidding. Straight out of Lord of the Rings.

Alex, I feel like you may have glossed over the death defying drive that was the acrocorinth. Let me just reiterate that we had NO gas, that there was NO RAILING or gaurdrail and it was a steep and treacherous drive to the TOP OF A MOUNTAIN and we almost died. DIED! We almost plunged to our death in the funny smelling Hyundai Accent! Thank goodness you were (seemingly) calm under pressure, because when we were driving down a 100% steep grade and were looking at the prospect of losing power steering and breaks in our car, I almost flung myself off the cliff just to get it over with. Seriously, lots of death.

But yes the top was very beautiful, straight out of LOTR.

From the Acrocorinth, we coasted the car to the nearest gas station and then proceeded for the Theatre of Epidaurus. Having seen a handful of theatres in both Greece and Italy, our expectations were somewhat low, but they were more than surpassed by the scale and preservation of the site. The legendary acoustics were as impressive as claimed. This was one of our favorite sites, and also one that definitely has to be seen in person.

From Epidaurus we drove to Nafplion, which just might be the cutest city in all of Greece. We stayed at the Hotel Aetoma and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in the morning. The Greek yogurt with honey was my personal favorite. If we had an extra day in Greece it definitely would have been spent in this charming little town. This was the Greece that we were hoping to see!

From Nafplion we drove to Mycenae where Agamemnon was king. Myenae is amazing on many levels. It's importance to Homeric Greece of course adds to the site, as does its age, being from an entirely different period than the rest of the sites that we viewed. To put it in prospective, it was ancient when Jesus walked the earth. The was a very raw power and energy at the site. Needless to say, I spent the majority of the day replaying scenes from the Illiad.

After checking out the Tomb of Clytemnestra, we ate a lunch of pita, olives, humus and apricots and proceeded on the most dangerous drive of our lives to Olympia.

Greece: Part 1 - Athens

For the past two years Jess and I had been talking about some of our dream vacations: Turkey, Croatia, China, Antarctica, Mars, etc. More than any of the others though, we always talked about going to Greece. Thanks to Jess' study of Greek theatre, and my love for the classics, we were both dying to get over there and see firsthand where it all took place.

Long story short, we decided to ignore both our lack of linguistic skills and our monetary situation and to go ahead and do it. There were a lot of things that we wanted to see, so we debated the merits of seeing the islands, northern Greece, etc. but finally settled on spending two days in Athens and four days driving the following route through the Peloponnesian Peninsula.

We spent our first full day in Athens doing the obligatory exploration of the Acropolis and the National Archaeological Museum. Luckily, both sites happened to be free that day, so we saved a solid $60 in entrance fees. The views from the Acropolis were absolutely breathtaking, as was the sheer scale of the Parthenon, though we were disappointed to discover that, in typical European fashion, a large portion of the site was covered in scaffolding, though no actual repairs appeared to be taking place. As such, I found the Erechtheum (God Bless you!)with the Porch of the Caryatids to be much more impressive. Even with some construction, however, it was a gorgeous site, and one can only imagine its magnificence when it was constructed.

From there we headed to the National Archaeological Museum, which housed an absolutely incredible collection of art, sculpture, and artifacts. Being able to see the evolution of art from the archaic Kouros to works like the Epehebe was amazing. I might have been most excited about seeing the Mask of Agamemnon, because I fully accept all of Schliemann's findings to be factual. Haters can hate.

One day down! The next day we proceeded the Roman Agora, Ancient Agora, and the Temple of Hephaestus, which was incredible but doesn't get enough credit, despite its state of preservation, because of its low elevation.

From there we utilized our only marginal knowledge of the Greek script to get on a bus to Sounion to see the Temple of Poseidon and to celebrate the day of my birth. While we were there, we enjoyed a breathtaking sunset and a glass of wine. Romantic indeed.