PS: The marriage is still intact

You may have been wondering if, after 3 weeks of intense traveling involving scary, dirt roads, a complete lack of knowledge of the language, and no real plan or itinerary from day to day, whether we would come through this adventure unscathed emotionally and mentally, as well as physically.

We are pleased to report that we are still married (today is our anniversary), still laughing and still planning our return to Greece!

Last Day in Greece

In all of our wanderings in all the other cities, towns and villages, nearly every museum we visited had a reference to some artifact "currently housed in the National Archeological Museum".  Given the number of times we had seen this statement, we knew that it would take the whole day to thoroughly explore this museum, or at least until 3:00pm, when they closed.

When we arrived around 11:00am, there were at least 3 cruise ship tour groups, so we naturally started where they weren't, and as it turned out, the museum is organized counter-clockwise chronologically.  We, therefore, were traveling back in time over about 2000 years worth of sculpture and bronze work.  I'm not sure I can completely describe the difference between early and late steele relief carving (even after having seen several rooms of this), but then I also have a hard time in the MET after staying too long in the Romantic wing.  It all starts to blur.  Still, we learned a lot, and we won't bore you with it here.

However, we will note that, if you are going to see a lot of ruins in other parts of Greece, it is best to see the ruins first, and then this museum last as it really was the coalescent of our trip and our understanding of these ruins.

As the perfect end to a perfect trip, we had dinner in the only Michelin rated restaurant in the city, Varoulkis--a small place in a not obvious part of town for such a restaurant, particularly one boasting a view of the Acropolis. The attire is casual, which is great since I didn't bring anything fancy.  The hostess directed us to the elevator, and said to go to the third floor.  Had I been thinking a bit more, I would have remembered immediately that the first floor in all European buildings is "0", and realized that this was the roof! 

There was no menu.  It is only what the chef prepares based on daily fish.  We had sea bass carpaccio marinated in lemon and olive oil, smoked eel in a tomato/egg foam (which we could have eaten a dozen more!), breen with toast points on an eggplant puree, crayfish and risotto, and finally grouper with celery and pumpkin purees.  And for dessert they had chocolate mouse with olive oil.  I have never tasted anything that creamy.  The whole meal was delightful and decadent, and during the course of it, we started laying plans for our return.  The places we missed because of time, the areas we deliberately did not explore, and the cities where we must return.

We thank you for sharing this blog with us.

Thermopylae Revisited

We visited Thermopylae much earlier in the trip, but didn't get a chance to say much about the beautiful Thermopylae museum we saw there.  It was closed when we got there (thanks to the ubiquitous 8:30am-3:00pm opening hours here in Greece), but we were able to take a picture of the outside.  It's actually a good thing we didn't even know the museum existed, because if we had, we probably would have tried to have made it there in time....and that would have been a mistake.

The Museum at Thermopylae

Why a mistake?  Well, from the outside the museum looks rather nice.  But take a look at the aerial view of the site, thanks to Google Earth:

Thermopylae from above.  Museum is in top right, Kolonis Hill (where the final last stand happened) is in the bottom left.  Top left is a memorial to the battle.

As you can see in the picture, this is a small museum.  Peering in all the windows, we were able to determine that the entire glassed in area is open.  The left-half of the glassed area is the cafeteria, the right is the entrance foyer, including ticket sales and a hilariously small gift shop.  The entire area to the left of the glassed-in area (where the building narrows, as you can see in the aerial shot) holds two offices -- the Director's office we guessed, and a secretarial office.  The tiny separate building you can see in the left side of the aerial shot is actually where they keep the janitorial supplies.  (As Lauren points out, this must be where any flammables are stored to avoid another Parthenon-type problem.)

So, that leaves just the right third of the building, which we were able to see is largely open, probably for some sort of video presentation about the battle.  Which makes sense, because, well, Thermopylae was just the site of a battle.  It wasn't a town with buildings and temples, it was just a good place to have a really big fight between a large army and a small one.  What do you have left after such a battle?  We finally saw the answer when we visited the National Archaeology Museum in Athens:

Arrowheads from the Battle of Thermopylae

So why build a museum in Thermopylae?  Probably because it sounded like a great proposal on paper and after you get the funding, you just go ahead and build something...

Last cat pictures

There were a couple of girls that I got cozy with that we haven't posted, plus a few adorable ones we saw when walking from the Acropolis to dinner last night that I couldn't resist.

We ran into this darling two nights in a row in Elefsina.  We tentatively made a date to meet at 10am before we left, but she was delayed.  We have video, too, for later!

This cutie was on our last night in Nafplio.  Action shot!

And this little sweetheart made the trip to Aegina worthwhile, even before we got to see Aphaia.

Posing on the Parthenon.

Playing on the north side of base of the Acropolis.

Two perched on a wall.

Two napping on a roof next to the Tower of the Winds.

Acropolis reprise

We decided before we left Athens on our country drive that when we returned to Athens at the end of our trip, we would return to the Acropolis, and go at the end of the day to catch the different light.  We were even more fortunate that the Acropolis now posted hours until 8pm, and it was a beautiful clear day.

(11:20am, 5/9/12 - clear skies)

(7:10pm, 5/28/12 - under impending rain)

(7:40pm, 5/28/12--after the sun broke through the clouds)

Ultimately, I think it is impossible to take a bad picture of the Erechtheon, but I know which one I am voting to put on the wall.

The good, the bad and the weird

We have 1.5 days left in Greece, and we have begun compiling our best/worst lists.  Not wanting to fixate so much on the worst, we have come up with a few other "est" categories for our amusement (at least).

Second best archeological site:  We all know the Acropolis is the best, but the second best was a split.  Randall voted for Sounio, and I thought Aphaia.  It may just be a tie because I don't think either of us disagree that both were phenomenal, but Randall voted for Sounio because he thought with the location there was never a chance not to have a good view and a good picture.  I went with Aphaia because of the level of detail on the structure.

Best Museum*:  Randall votes for the New Acropolis Museum; I thought it was the Ancient Olympic Games Museum.  But we are both leaving the possibility that the National Archeological Museum may trump both of these--after all, this is where everything that wasn't taken by Lord Elgin was whisked away, and the local museums would like their artifacts back!

Silliest Museum:  Thermpoylae.  Hands down, this is the silliest museum we have seen anywhere in the world!  The only things recovered at Thermopylae were a few spear and arrow heads, yet the museum was 3x the size needed to display such nominal artifacts!  In fact, one third of the museum was an entrance area/ticket/concessions and trivial gift shop, one third was administrative, and one third was the display which appeared to be a big room with nothing inside, which we suspect was for a video representation of the battle.  

Weirdest thing we saw: wild boar.

Best cat: Pythia, Delphi 

Runners up:  kittens on "cat alley", Nafplio

Best Hotel: Mirtali Art Hotel, Dodona

Runner-up: Grand Sarai, Nafplio 

Best town: Nafplio

Runner-up: Elefsina

Best Shopping:  Nafplio

Runner up:  none. Although there was one shop in Athens for decent jewelry, much of what we saw everywhere else was kitsch for tourists.

Weirdest delay:  bicycle race

Scariest road:  down from the Temple of Zeus in Messini

Best road:  A8 from Megara to Athens, even with the tolls

Best Beach:  Pylos.  It was in fact the only beach where I got my feet wet.

Best River of Hades:  Acheron.  Again, the only river where I got my feet wet.

Best story we really can't explain:  Where we thought Lethe was before we found it.

Best archeological site staff:  Temple of Zeus, Nemea.  They let us in without charge because the museum wasn't open, and we got to wander around past 3pm, because the site was listed to be open until 5pm normally.

Worst archeological site staff:  Kolonos, Aegina.  They claimed that because the museum was closed on Monday that the whole site was closed, even though there were clearly at least 6 individuals working there that day.

Best Restaurant: Mirtali Art Hotel, Dodona - hard to beat home cooking to order

Runner-up: Alalou, Nafplio

Honorable Mention: Taverna Platanos, Athens

Best Souvlaki: Lada Souvlaki, Elfesina

Best Breakfast: Mirtali Art Hotel, Dodona - the owner's mother just kept cooking and cooking

Runner-up: Grand Sarai - eggs made to order

Most unusual eating experience:  gyro place in Chalkadia that only had one item on the menu, and then only one type of gyros. Still don't know if it was lamb or pork...

Best Food Discovery:  saganaki.  How can you beat fried cheese?  Even better than mozzarella sticks.

Runner up:  house wine.  11% alcohol by volume means you can drink a half a kilo (yes, that's how it is measured) without really getting drunk.

Best Latte:  The New Acropolis Museum cafe

Runner up:  Mideia cafe, Livadia

Best day:  tie. Alifira and the day we got 4 our of 5 waters.

Third place: Livadia-- the day we got the 5th water

Best conversation with someone whose native language is English:  the archeologist completing her degree at IU who was conducting a tour of archeologists at Mykini about the site.

Best conversation with someone whose native language was not English:  the taxi driver on our second to last night who told us a real impact of the Greece austerity reforms and the taxation issues.

Best Greek word or phrase to know:  efcharisto.  Thank you (formal). 

Worst Greek word to learn:  chromatodromos (dirt road)

Best new lingo created:  straight-ish, which could describe any road which had less than a 45 degree turn from which in the turn you could see the next stretch of read for at least 50m.  Randall loved straight-ish roads.

Runner up.  Hairpin, grade 1.  These were less beloved.

Best TV stations available:  Fashion TV.  Great music, easy to pay attention to or ignore in the background while blogging.

Best TV show we watched:  Eurovision finals.  The voting was a veritable political analysis of which countries hate each other and which are still afraid of being invaded.

Most Awkward Moment:  Buying groceries in a market in Nafplio because there was a Roma in line in front of me with barely enough money for the soda that her children had attempted to steal (quite obviously to us and everyone else), and were now begging for money.  The store clerk obviously did not want to sell to them, and tried to wait on me even though I was waiting for the mother to finish her transaction.

Most useful item brought:  me:  Mythological Atlas of Greece.  Randall: MiFi.  I think I may have to agree with Randall's pick, but since we were in this together, without the two, we could not have accomplished this trip in any meaningful way.

Least useful item brought: me: sneakers.  I really should have known that I wasn't going to wear them.  Randall: shorts.  Traipsing through the Greek countryside really does require long pants.  

Contributing to the delinquency of minors

Another poor naming choice that gave us many openings for rifts.  ...do they encourage beer, or just wine?  ...little Bobby didn't make it back from the girls dorm last night--another one ripped to pieces.

Feel free to add your interpretation.

Aegina - we couldn't leave without seeing one island

Remember my post about ruin porn?  This is what it looks like at the site.  It did not disappoint!

(Entrance (east) and west side)

(west and south sides)

You can clearly see the upper level columns, the inner and outer peristyles, spaces for the metopes and part of the slope of the pediment, and even, what looks like stairs!  Yes, ruin porn.

After that, we walked from this site into the next village.  If you go back to the Google satellite view of the second link, to the east of the site and below, you can see a large washed out river bed (light brown) which travels west-southwest down the mountain.  At the bend to the right where the river bed starts, however, is another smaller river bed which travels due south.  We walked down that.  It was marked as a short cut:

The neighbors don't like the path and have posted this special sign (as well as some personal instructions for drivers).

In town, we were able to coordinate a taxi to take us around the island to another site, and then back to the port.  The second site paled in comparison, and the site at the port will be the subject of a letter, with different pictures, to the Greek Tourist Board. 

But we did meet this little girl, who was SO affectionate to both Randall and me, while we were documenting the issue at the gate.

Car stats

Now that we are once again reduced to foot and taxi (and a ferry tomorrow), we have been able to calculate what we did in the intervening 16 days with the car.

First off, we drove 3083 kilometers.  That translates to roughly 1927 miles, or about 2/3 of the way across the US, but driven entirely in a country the size of Louisiana and with the terrain of Hawaii.

On our travels, we spent about 40 euros in tolls, which were divided nearly equally on the interstates north of Athens, west towards the Isthmus, and crossing the bridge into Patra (which alone cost about $18.00!).

We filled up the tank approximately 3.5 times, with about 210 litres of gas (about 56 gallons) at a cost of approximately 360 euros or about $470, which makes 34 mpg, even with all that mountain driving!

We washed the windshield before we returned the car, but left the mud as a badge of honor for all that this car did for us to make this such an incredible journey.

We whole-heartedly endorse the 2012 VW Passat with manual transmission, and believe that not even Top Gear could have put it through a better test than we did.

Goodbye to the car - a tribute from Cape Sounio

On today, our last day with our long-suffering, reliable, and remarkably robust VW Passat, we went from Elefsina around Athens to Sounio to see the Temple of Poseidon, and a bonus Temple of Athena.  The incredible beauty of the cape of this peninsula can only be expressed with pictures, and the impressive remains of once great temple are still imposing on the horizon.

(View of the inlet as we climbed to the temple)

(Rock islands near and far in azure water from the fortress wall at the top of the hill)

(Deep blue waters on the rocky shores directly below the temple hill)

(And finally, no better place for a temple to Poseidon)

Restaurants in Elefsina (Eleusis)

Both of our guide books have recommended Elefsina as a great place to visit, but surprisingly, there were absolutely no restaurant recommendations, even from a basic Google search.  This was a silly oversight.  There were plenty of good restaurants that were friendly to English-speaking tourists and which were frequented by the locals (a sign that the restaurant is actually good, as opposed to surviving solely on the ignorance of the itinerants), all located on the main pedestrian street east of the archeological site.  So, here they are:

Great souvlaki and gyros in chicken, pork and beef (seasoned patties)--and that's all they serve.  Value, convenience and speed--what more do you want?

When we tried to go back to our first place (above) for lunch and they were not open, we kept walking down the main pedestrian street almost to the shore, and we found this other souvlaki/gyro place.  Here, we got a delicious skewer of pork kebabs that were juicy and tender, inexpensive and easily enough for two!

Our first night, we found this local restaurant on the main pedestrian street where we were blown away by the Cretan pork appetizer which was easily an entree all by itself.  I will have to spend some time trying to recreate the flavor of that marinade!

Anecdotal observation: My iPhone is still attached to my hand

Yes, even as we approach the 3 week mark of this journey through Greece, my iPhone has been attached to my hand.

Mostly, as my camera, which has exceeded my expectations.  I'm normally a 35mm, 1600 speed film aficionado for my other trips.   But I took enough test pictures at day, night, distance, close up, and decided that I would do this trip entirely digital, and effectively "low tech" (e.g., no zoom lens or exceptionally fast shutter).  As a result of "film being cheap" being replaced by "bits are even cheaper", I have taken over 1500 photos.  And no, no one is going to look at all those, except me.  I'll get it down to 50 or so that matter and then from there, we'll pick the 3 (or possibly 6) for the wall.  Maybe we'll even post the contenders for comment.

But we have also had a personal MiFi, a portable internet service provider through XComGlobal, which has been amazing.  We can sit in a restaurant or drive to our next destination or hike in the mountains and get wifi (and email, not that when we were endlessly climbing to the acropolis of Alifira, I cared about my email as much as Google satellite maps).  Our next international trip is going to involve another personal MiFi, as I can't imagine traveling without, plus it has saved us so much time and aggravation that I can't even begin to express.

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Anecdotal Observation: Learning from the Cars of Greece

We've done quite a bit of driving all over Greece by now, and have made a number of observations about what it means to be able to drive here:

• Gas is about 1.7 euros/liter. Since there are ~3.785 liters in a gallon, and one euro is about $1.25, this corresponds to just about $8/gallon.  Translation: Gas is expensive, at least twice what it is in the US right now.
• Driving in the mountainous areas can be tricky stuff. A small car that gets good gas mileage might not be able to make some of the more 'robust' slopes and certainly wouldn't be my choice.
• Northern Greece is typically more mountainous and less wealthy than the coastal Peloponnese regions.  More generally speaking, the mountainous regions inland appear to be poorer than the coastal plains, based largely on the villages and especially the "houses" we've seen.  Some houses are just stone walls with corrugated steel roofs weighed down by stones, and there is no plumbing.

Somewhat surprisingly, though, was the fact that practically all the cars in the mountain areas are high-end!  Audis, BMWs, Mercedes were all common, and usually late model; our VW Passat was a bit low-rent.  However, in the wealthier coastal and plains areas, the cars get older and decidedly less fancy (e.g., Smart cars and Fiats).  The only conclusion we could draw is that in the mountain areas, gas is so expensive and driving using affordable cars so tricky that the local people keep their driving to a minimum, in town and perhaps to the next village.  Therefore, the cars we did see on our mountain treks must belong to people coming from places like Athens or Patra, and travelling for business or to second homes or suchlike.  Then, in the coastal/plains areas, where average folk can actually afford gas, a small cheap car is adequate to get around, so the roads are more crowded and BMWs aren't the standard.

There isn't significant bus or train service in Greece (at least, that we've noticed).  It's not even clear how kids get to school in the mountain; Lauren hypothesizes a lot of home-schooling, which seems plausible as the villages there tend to be small and remote; it would take a lot of driving around the place to pick up a full schoolroom.

Still unsolved mysteries: Elefsina (Eleusis)

Well, this was by far the most unusual archeological site we visited.  There were no obvious ancient ruins.  In fact, the information about the site indicated that it had been built, rebuilt, modified and expanded for over seven centuries, well into the Roman period of occupation, and so it was complicated and rather confusing to parse.

There was no obvious temple to Demeter (or Persephone).  Instead, there were temples to Roman emperor's wives!  That's just wrong.  There was no stoa for obvious commerce, but there were two different housing areas for priestesses and a hotel-like structure.  There was only one known treasury, but now several silos for grain storage.  It was very strange, and even with maps, architectural mock ups and the plaques, we were still left just wandering for a couple of hours.

I could show you pictures of the site from the highest elevation, but it wouldn't make it any better.

In the center of the picture is the lesser propylae (entrance) behind that is the greater propylea (bigger entrance, although it looks smaller).  To the right are spare parts of several structures.  To the left are the housing ruins.  In the very back are two random fallen columns which do not appear related to either propylea.  All clear now, right?  No?  Ok.  Moving on.

What was interesting and unique about the site were the carvings which we had not seen elsewhere:

Sheaves of wheat and cylinder on the triglyphs and rosettes for the metopes

Cistern covers

And a series of other decorative carvings.  Its like staring at pieces of a masonic building...

Anecdotal observations - Building blocks of Greek architecture

With the exception of museums and governmental buildings, nearly all basic contemporary Greek architecture is based on the cube:  a slab of concrete, rebar reinforced columns, and a slab ceiling which overhangs the lower cube and with the rebar sticking through the "roof".

There may be multiple rooms or floors working off the same cube design (see above), but we have seen hundreds of empty open structures like these.

Comparing them against houses and commercial buildings in use, it seems clear that the eventual owner can design any interior walls, exterior windows and doors, and add handrails to stairs or balconies.  Thus, the standard floor to ceiling opening can house a garage door, a series of decorative and/or display windows, sliding doors, or a fill of concrete wall.

(6x6x2 design filling in second floor openings for windows and doors)

(an eight cube design - 2x3, with 2x1 on top)

(a series of upper and lower level cubes in both directions)

Many residences may leave part of the house unfinished, usually the roof, but it could also be the entire second floor.

(first floor commercial businesses; second floor/roof unfinished)

In other European countries, we are aware that taxes are not paid until the construction is finished.  We think this may be the reason why they are left "unfinished".  This is not to say that we haven't seen our fair share of stone cottages with corrugated steel roofs weighed down with rocks, and wonder whether these are "finished" or merely grandfathered into some kind of historic construction.

We have also seen only about a half dozen "for sale" signs, although we have probably also seen at least a half dozen "ReMax" signs.  Obviously, the concept of an "open house" would be a bit redundant, at least for new construction.

Perhaps we'll explore this more in a few years.  For now, we have enjoyed chatting with ex-pats from Norway and South Africa.

Anecdotal Observation - Passing in Greece: The Video Game

Over the course of two weeks, we have made some fairly odd observations about driving in Greece, and more importantly, about the art of passing other vehicles.  I have reduced this to the newest idea for a video game.

This is your typical three-lane highway.  Yes, there are only two actual defined lanes, but the breakdown lane on either side is enough pavement for another whole lane if you drive over the double line in the center.  And yes, that is a double white line, not yellow.  It makes no difference to the game, or to actual driving.

Now, follow the red car as it passes the SUV which has graciously moved over partially into the breakdown lane to allow the car to pass.

And then as the red car continues to pass on a blind curve.

And then as both the red car and the green car pass the trailer truck in the face of oncoming truck!

Both cars made it safely past, and now you can see the line of cars behind the oncoming truck.  Despite the lack of a clear view, everyone made it safely past.

In another example, we see a truck with 5 cars lined up and one SUV already passing.

Passing one car and then another, fully across the double line.

Now, you can imagine that if there are two trucks, one behind each other, that passing is nearly impossible.  It is one thing to leap frog another car to get behind the truck and then get around its 3-5 axles, but another when two slow-moving and large vehicles are effectively barricading the way.  Game over.

As a further aside, motorcycles, like in the US, follow no rules.  The center line is their lane.

It should be noted that none of this was at all unusual; this kind of thing happens every time we go out driving.  We just happened to take pictures today so we could write about it.

So, as navigator, I have the job of not just calling out distance, turns and the quality of the turns, but also assessing when passing is required, when it is possible based on the relative straightness of the road, and assisting observing and assessing oncoming traffic.

Randall keeps talking about how he will need to rein in his newly acquired driving skills  Personally, I think it would be fun to pass slow traffic in Cambridge.


Now, as a video game, imagine that you are the thirteenth car behind a tour bus on a two-lane winding highway from Epidavros to Napflio.  Begin.