Corinth, Mycenea and Epidaurus

Today we took a tour bus to the Peloponnese areas of Mycenae, and Epidaurus, passing through the Corinth Canal.


The isthmus of Corinth separates main land Greece from Peloponnese, now that there's a canal technically the Peloponnese area is now an island. I bet the ancient Athenians would have appreciated that.
You always think that seeing a canal will be impressive and cool, incredible - feats of engineering...blah,blah,blah...This one looked like a really big trench. Actually, it's too narrow for most modern boats (used for trade transport) so it's useless in that capacity these day and is only used for ferrying tourists.


The ruins of Mycenae were found by a dude called Heinrich Schlieman, he was Greek. (haha kidding!)
Anyway this guy was from a poor family and struggled in early life, but was very much intrigued by the tales of Homer. After a series of Joe jobs he went off to find his fortune in Russia where he became quite successful. He then went off to California to become a banker for the gold rush days, then back to Russia where he cornered the indigo market. By 36 he was very, very wealthy. So what did he do with his fortune? He decided that he was going to find the lost city of Troy. And that's exactly what he did using the tales of Homer to guide him in his search. He did the same with the Mycenaean ruins and those of Tiryns.
Anyway, back to Greece and the ruins of Mycenae. It is believed that this place has been inhabited by humans from the 3rd millennium BC, but the civilisation of Mycenae evolved between 16 and 12 BC. Schlieman was specifically looking for the grave of King Agamemnon who was murdered by his wife and her lover after being absent for 10 years during the Trojan war (they got theirs in the end too, don't you worry).

The grave pit

Schlieman did find a golden death mask at the site, as well as 19 other pit graves with men, women and children wearing golden clothing, jewels and weapons. This was clearly an elitist grave site - no rif-raf here.

The outside walls of Mycenea

The graves were found in a fortified citadel surrounded by walls 900m long, 12m high and 5-7m thick...amazing for something built in the 1300- 1200 BC! Legend has it that it was built by the Cyclops himself.

The entrance - I have people in this
photo so you can see the scale

Like I said, Schlieman found this golden mask and declared it to be the face of Agamemnon, but today's scholars aren't convinced. Not too far away they found another grave site, which was built a little like the ancient Egyptian tombs (Mycenaeans and Egyptians were tight, yo). They believe that Agamemnon was buried there. Regardless, this tomb was impressive. It's called the Treasury of Atreus (no, not the guy from the Neverending Story). The lintel stone alone weighs 120 tons and is the largest in the world. Did I mention that they built this in 1250 BC?

This semi subterranian tomb was used for an unknown length of time and it's built like a giant igloo: 13.5 m tall in the middle and 14.5 m wide. Wow.

Afterwards, we stopped for the obligatory shopping opportunity (none of us bought anything) and then we went to lunch in a ''family run'' restaurant. Turns out it was a giant hall with banquet tables. We suspect that this is where all the tour buses stop. As this is the shoulder season we six were the only ones there.


Onwards to Epidaurus - the very famous theatre with fantastic acoustics.
Turns out that at Epidaurus there is not only a theatre but it is part of an ancient sanatorium. A sanctuary of healing. Legend has it that Apollo had a son from a mortal. A boy called Asclepius. His mum died when he was a baby so Apollo gave him to the centaur Chiron so that he might learn the arts of healing. Well he did and he surpassed his teacher. He decided that he should open a special place where people could come and be healed. So be built Epidaurus. He believed that for perfect health you needed to heal the body and the soul (psyche). So there's a theatre and a gymnasium at the complex. They believed that the laughter from the comedies and the tears from the tragedies were necessary to treat all individuals.
In the clinic, which is now a museum, there are the surgical instruments that they used in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. They look remarkably the same as they do today.



The theatre is truly a work of art though. Marianna, our guide, stood in the sweet spot in the middle as we stood in various places in the audience (the theatre seats 1400 people, btw). We could hear her whisper, sigh, crumple paper, drop a coin...you get the idea. I was at the very top row and could hear every thing. Even when Dominique asked her to face the opposite direction - we could still hear her perfectly. The mathematics involved in this is staggering. This was my favourite du jour.

So whatever happened to Asclepuis the doc with mad healing skills? He became so good at healing and stopping death in its tracks that Hades, the god of the underworld complained to Zeus that Asclepuis was taking away all his business. So Zeus had to kill him. This pissed off Apollo so he killed....ah, but that's another story.

The Acropolis and Beyond

We had a really big day today and my legs are very sore, but OMG the things we saw.


We set out at 8 so it was still nice and cool. When we got to the gate there was already a queue - lucky we bought our tickets the night before.
The complex of temples is built on top of a huge rock outcropping called the Acropolis.
 
It has been inhabited by humans since the 4th millennium BC, but was put on the map by a fellow named Pericles in the 5th century BC. It was at the height of Athens' power and he decided that a complex of Temples honouring Athena (the patron goddess of Athens) was in order. (Re-)Construction began in 460 BC and was pretty much completed by 430 BC. When you see the sheer size of these things, you wonder how they managed it without all the fancy equipment that we have today - all in a matter of just over 30 years.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We're still at the bottom of the Acropolis (Akron = highest point, polis = city).

Theatre of Dionysus

At the base, the first thing you encounter is the theatre of Dionysus. This amphitheatre could hold up to 17 000 people and they say that this is where theatre began. A little farther along there's another amphitheatre, but its a smaller by comparison and built somewhat later in 161 BC.This is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It seats 5000 and they still use it today for performances.

The difference between the two, apart from size? One is a Greek amphitheatre and the other is a Roman amphitheatre. Can you see what the differences are?

 

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Propylaea

Up and up we continued to the Propylaea - the grand entrance to the Acropolis. I find it funny that it, as well as the Acropolis are named that way, because really those are generic names for those things. In Athens there's THE Acropolis and THE Propylaea (pro = before, in front of + pylaea = gate), but there are heaps of acropolises (acropoli?) and propylaea around Greece. Weird. Anyway, there were a lot of people there already (the views are magnificent) so we didn't linger too long.

Parthenon

 As you pass through the Propylaea you get your first glimpse of the Parthenon directly to your right. It is huge, magnificent, and awe-inspiring. My grade school learning kicked in and I recognised the Doric columns; 8 in the front and 17 along the sides. It was built to hold a massive 12m statue of Athena (that is no longer there). But the fact that this (these) structures are still standing over 3000 years later is truly staggering.

Erectheion

On the opposite side is the most holy site: the Erechtheion. This is where the goddess Athena planted her spear and up grew an olive tree. Its a smaller temple, but equally as beautiful and as impressive as the Parthenon. It was built a little bit later; completed in 405 BC. The temple is built on a slope so the west and north sides are lower by 3m than the east and south sides! On the south side of the structure is a kind of balcony which has 6 Caryatids (maidens) holding up the roof with their heads. Its absolutely stunning.



From the Acropolis you can see more ruins below. This is the Agora, and that's where we headed next.


The Agora (Greek for gathering place) is a complex built between 19 and 11 BC. This was THE place to be back in the day. It was the focal point of administrative, commercial, political and societal life. Socrates hung out there and so did St.Paul - trying to get converts for this crazy new religion.

When you first enter the complex you see a 
wonderful little church; Ayioi Apostoloi (obviously not built at the same time as the Agora, more like 1000-1025 AD). Inside there are some beautiful and colourful Byzantine frescoes.





Truth be told we had been drawn to this place by a temple situated on a small hill overlooking the Agora. This is the Temple of Hephaestus, the god of the forge. Compared to the Parthenon its small, but I really loved this one. You can look up and see the Acropolis and below is the Agora complex. It was my favourite du jour.




There were other ruins in the Agora, including a gym (gotta look good for the sculptors!), they were all very impressive, and old. I shan't go into detail on all of them.






After the Agora we were starving so the mission was find food. We wandered about an old quarter with ye olde narrow streets and found a buzzing little area full of restaurants. And we ate like Kings...er Queens.
The problem after walking for 5 hours and then sitting down for one: your muscles tend to seize up! Getting up was quite difficult.

After lunch we had one more mission - to see the Acropolis museum. By the time we got there we were quite leg fatigued and brain fatigued. We did go in and have a look around, but I must admit that much of what we saw was lost on me. The one thing that I did retain was that the statues that look so beautiful today, all in plain marble, were originally garishly painted. In our tired state, this made us giggle.

We decided then that we would call it a day and go home to eat our leftovers from the night before.

Athens!

Greece!

I finally made it! After over a year of planning I'm in Athens!
The trip out of Australia is always a long one - this time it was wet and cold as I left Canberra on the Murrays bus. Initially there was no heat on the bus and I thought that I would never be warm again. This too shall pass.

The flights were long and mostly uneventful, although there was a lot of turbulence from the Sydney to Doha (14 hours). I gotta say though that the landing was the smoothest one I have ever had. I actually asked the lady next to me if we had touched down yet...so bravo to the pilot.
Once through the mostly non-existent customs I went in search of my very dear friend Dominique who had arrived shortly before me from Canada (so when I start referring to ''we'' you know I'm not having delusions of grandeur). I've gotten used to walking out of airports with out any one there to greet me, but geez it was nice to see a friendly face in a sea of strangers!
 

We found our bus to town and then to our AirBnB without much trouble. We were greeted by our hostess Eleni and she showed us around. Our apartment is just above her place, there's a black iron wrought corkscrew staircase that leads you there. It's a great little place with an outdoor terrace overlooking the garden below.  Once we got the low-down from our lovely hostess and a much needed shower we were off on re-con missions: First, supermarket for provisions and second to the Parthenon...did I mention that our apartment is located just behind the Parthenon? Bloody brilliant.

Our neighbourhood is a very old one (duh!) and there are no skyscrapers around here. There's a mix of ye olde Europe, with stone buildings and wooden shutters and some newer homes and apartments. The sidewalks are narrow and uneven, interrupted with Oleander and Olive trees. The multitude of  balconies are filled with a profusion of plants, and even in the middle of this big city you can hear the cicadas singing. Fantastic.

As we made our way toward the Parthenon, we moved from residential neighourhoods to more tourist orientated areas replete with hotels, expensive restaurants and of course the ubiquitous gift shops filled with statues of Athena and Spartan masks.

There's a pedestrian area at the base of the Parthenon and a very modern museum just across the (pedestrian) road. There were some people there but not the massive throngs that you see during high season at any big tourist attractions. I'm not going to talk about the Parthenon here because that is our plan for tomorrow.

By this point wee were both a little hungry and starting to get tired. We headed to a little take away place mentioned by Eleni (it's a local place, she said, not touristy), and back home to eat on the terrace and make our plan for the upcoming adventures.

Dominique ordered grilled calamari and I got a salad with potatoes and sun-dried tomatoes. I say now that there was no mention of feta on the menu - that's why I chose it.
We got home, cracked open the wine and our food. My salad consisted of 50% feta and Dominique was surprised to find a rather large, whole calamari, not the dainty, bite sized pieces most of us are used to.

Eat like the locals! 

Well, I wasn't going to subject myself to days of lactose intolerant gut rot for the sake of going native so I spent the next 5 minutes picking cheese out of my salad, and thinking that my son would lament the waste.
By 9 I was barely keeping my head up I was so tired. I had barely slept on the planes and god only knows how many hours I had been awake. Off to bed.

Lake Narracan aka Lake WhatthehellwasIthinking

Ok. Let me start by saying that this post is going to make me sound like a right bitch and somewhat elitist. I say somewhat coz, well, I AM camping after all.

This leg of the journey was the one I was dreading the most: Driving through Melbourne. It was Saturday of a long weekend and it had the potential to be a nightmare. But let's start from the beginning.

As you may have guessed from my last post, the road was long and winding. Yes, the scenery was lovely but I could hardly enjoy it due to all the bloody turns. I know I should have slowed down and enjoyed it all, but honestly I hate having that guy in front of me so I wasn't ready to be that guy.

(there see I did stop once to enjoy the scenery)

We did stop for a walk and a wee to see the Split Point Lighthouse...because you know that was my career of choice (after astronaut); to be a lighthouse keeper. What a fabulous job that would have been...sigh. If anyone hears of any openings...just sayin'...

(built in 1891, automated in 1919)

As I said, it's now Saturday: long weekend; end school holidays. There were people everywhere. Felix was doing remarkably well for a dog who is uncomfortable around people. I was not. Luckly, most people were headed in the other direction - towards the Great Ocean Road. There's an arch that indicates it's official beginning and there were at least 10 busses and all the people therein. Thank god I missed all that!

I shan't rant again about the winding roads and I shall spare you the rant on driving through Melbourne (it was almost as bad as I thought it would be, but I only got turned around once...not too bad). Once back onto the wide open road I began to relax. We were stopping just outside of Moe (pronounced Mo-ee...don't ask me why) at Lake Narracan. Lake Narracan Campgrounds. Sounds placid, no?

(Lake Narracan)

The Lake Narracan campground is a trailer park. There were two spots available for camping: One right next to the other, right next to the toilet block...and in front of a caravan with 8 children. No, I'm not exaggerating. There were 8. And their (here's where I become the elitist bitch) bogan parents who let them run rampant.

Kill me now.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Google maps gave me the wrong directions and it took some doing to find the place?

I thought I'd walk Felix and calm down first, and then I'd ask if there was another place available. There wasn't.

I stoically began setting up my tent - children screaming and running about...have I mentioned that Felix is freaked out by people and their sudden movements?

They thankfully went swimming after a while and only the dad was left with his glass of wine. I walked over to the toilet block to plug in my phone and he smiled and said "Ahh peace and quiet!" 

I had heard him speaking to the kids before and thought he was Eastern European, but he was Japanese. He was speaking in hushed tones - cut me some slack ok? We started chatting and well, he was a nice guy. Turns out only 4 of the kids were his, he was watching the other 4 as a favour. He asked about Felix and wanted to know if he could pet him. I told him (honestly) that Felix would probably bite him if he tried.

"In Japan everyone knows that dogs bite. He's a dog. It's ok" 

...and he proceeded to sit in front of Felix and PLAY with him. No growling, no hackles raised. Nothing. WTF? I'd met the Japanese dog whisperer. No only that, when all 8 children came back, with his direction, they sat down quietly around Felix and he let them toss the stick with him. Un-freaking-believable.

All this to say that, well, don't judge. People are sometimes not what you think they are. Yeah, the were still noisy that night, but seriously it was only 1 night. And I met someone with an interesting story.

Johanna Beach

It's Friday night of a long weekend and the end of school holidays. I was lucky there weren't more people than there were at Johanna Beach. It's a beautiful spot in the middle of a beautiful stretch of coast. Night fell quickly and since there's not much to do in the dark when you're not allowed to have a fire, so we retired to our tent. I could hear the sounds of the other folks around me, but there was enough space that it wasn't annoying. 

Being so close to the beach made our night a little damper than other nights and a little colder, but thanks to lessons learned in the past, I had brought extra blankets.

An a side on sleeping bags' comfort ratings: My sleeping bag has a rating of 7 degrees. I foolishly       thought that this meant that you would be comfortable in that sleeping bag down to 7 degrees. Oh no, that isn't the case at all (yes, yes I do realise that I am cold blooded and that I'm always cold anyway...that is beside the point). The "comfort" level indicates the temperature that the sleeping bag will keep your body ALIVE so that you don't freeze to death. Hardly what one needs for a good night's sleep. 

 

We woke up as the sky was turning pink with the dawn and we went for a stroll and a play on the beach. There was a group of young folks there who had spent the night on the beach with a fire and lots of beer (judging by the cans strewn about). They were awake and quietly contemplating the strong surf...or something

Felix and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll - well I was trying to, he kept wanting me to throw the damn stick. 

After we got all that out of his system, it was breakfast time and camp breaking time...there was a hellish road ahead of us

The Long and Winding #@!&ing Road

<rant>

In this post I shall reveal a little something. I HATE driving winding roads. 

There. I said it. Yes, yes, I know its supposed to be thrilling and fun but I can't stand it. They shit me to no end. Give me a straight road any day of the week - where I can go fast...um, I mean do exactly the speed allowed by law.

I mean, yeah the speed limit sign says 100, but every 5 metres is a bloody turn with warning arrows and signs that recommend 50kph. Where's the fun in that?? AND every frikken turn there's some moron towing a boat or motorhome coming in the opposite direction who thinks it's OK to drive on your side.  Had I been behind said moron I would have cursed his slowness...ya can't win. Stay off the roads during school holidays and long weekends Nora.

The winding began on the Great Ocean  Road, but I didn't notice it too much since I was stopping here and there. Getting to Johannna Beach involved a lot of to-ing and fro-ing...that started some twitching, but I got to my destination rather quickly so it wasn't too bad.  But an entire day??? Ugh! Ohh and throw in a trip through Melbourne while we're at it - in the middle of a hot day. Nora's frustration level was going into the red zone. (you can tell coz she's referring to herself in the third person)

</end rant>

The Great Ocean Road

Driving along the Great Ocean Road can be quite dangerous - you're driving along and then suddenly, wham! a beautiful vista to your right (or left depending which direction you're going). You can't help but look. Unfortunately the road is not straight...bad design, clearly.

 (Bay of Martyrs)

We were enjoying some of the many little pit stops that offer spectacular photo ops but when we stopped at the Bay of Martyrs I realised that it was quickly approaching 4:00. I needed to get a move on to get to the campsite and I wasn't sure how much farther it was. But not before we went for a stroll down a secert path that no one else seemed interested in. 

It brought us to a beautiful cove called the Bay of Worms, and it had a staircase down to the beach. Bonus! Felix and I had a little play and just enjoyed this beautiful, peaceful spot. After a little while though, I reminded myself of the time and reluctantly we headed back to the car.

(Bay of Worms)

"I'll stop at the 12 Apostles, no other stops" ...well, I said this to myself after stopping a couple of times after the Bay of Martyrs. When I finally got to the 12 Apostles, it was a complete circus! There were bus loads of people (literally) and you had to get a ticket and wait for a mini bus which brought you to the site. I despaired, and then got back on the road. I didn't have the time for that, nor was I going to leave Felix in the car alone for that long. So, I missed out. I'm sure Google has heaps of photos.

We finally got to Johanna Beach at around 5. What a fantastic spot! There were already quite a few people there, but no where near the throngs I can imagine here during the warmer months. After dinner we strolled to the beach and caught the last vestiges of the sunset. Magnificent.