Best and Worst

Best and Worst of this Trip

Most Organized Site – Dion

Most Confusing Site – Korinthos – just too much going on there to process

            Runner up – Isthmia

Most Unexpectedly Fantastic Site – Heraeon of Argos

            Runner up – Lykosura

Worst Maintained Site – Piraeus.  Everything was behind an iron fence, overgrown not just with weeds but volunteer trees!

            Runner up – too many to name

Best Archaeological Site Staff – Amphipolis.  We would never have found the site under the museum or elsewhere in town if our friend hadn’t guided us and/or pointed us in the right direction

            Runner up – Piraeus.  Not sure if the person we spoke with actually worked for the site or the exhibit, but he was friendly and fascinating, and we could have chatted with him for another hour.

Worst Archaeological Site Staff – Sikyonas.  Closed due to understaffing, but the one person who was working there came out only to tell us that the site was closed.  Surely, he must have had the keys just to let us into the site; we didn’t want to see the museum.   

Best Archaeological Museum – Isthmia (in a stunning contrast to the organization of its site!)

            Runner up – Piraeus exhibit on “Unearthed”

Worst Archaeological Museum – Avdira, because I so enjoyed being told that I was “confused” because the label was wrong, but no one was ever going to do anything about it.

Best Tale About (Not) Getting In – Amycles

            Runner up – Lykosura

Most Dangerous Thing We Did – Climbing a volcano

            Runner up – Changing a tire on the side of a Greek highway.  Even on a 3-lane highway, the breakdown lane is still active for driving.

Worst Injury to Lauren – Phillipoi, when I heard my ankle pop as I slipped on the descent

            Runner up – Amycles, for what I didn’t do to my left hand.

Weirdest thing we saw:  

            L – hedgehog

            R – marble catapult balls

Worst Google misdirect – the start of the trail for the volcano at Methana is not easily identifiable on Google maps, but there is a “location” that when you arrive you can see the only sign for the volcano indicating that it is 5km off in another direction.  If you count exactly 5km, and make all the right choices at the various Y-splits all on narrow mountain roads, then you come to the trail. 

Worst Error between Google Maps and Waze – not realizing I had “no tolls” toggled on Waze as we were returning home from Sparta, at 8:00pm, now through the winding mountain passes…

Best Drop In Café – Phidaraki, Kavala--chef/owner made everything fresh, especially the seafood

            Runner up – To Tavernaki Tou Gamprou, Korinthos (server there is from Toronto!)

Best Food Discovery – Pistitso (Greek lasagna!)

Most Useful Item Brought (Other Than Technology) – Excerpts of the Atlas.  Cringe if you must, but I took the book apart at the binding and only brought the relevant maps.

            Runner up – Wegmans Baby Broad Spectrum SPF 60.  It has an applicator like miniature stick deodorant, and was, therefore, SO easy to apply and carry in my pocket.

Most Useless Item Brought – the MyFi.  In a staggering fall from “best” last trip, this piece of equipment proved utterly useless to us, and we won’t be using it again

            Runner up:

                   R, a long-sleeved Orvis shirt, which proved too thick

                   L, the V-neck shift dress I brought last time that I also didn’t wear last time because of the tan line I got in the first 2 days.

Most Annoying Question We Were Asked – in a surprising revelation, the same question was asked by everyone regardless of nationality.  “What islands did you visit?”  The question would be asked even if we tried to pre-empt the question by saying we had visited no islands, because the question is so routine that no conversation is complete without asking.  Kind of like saying “how are you?”  You don’t care about the answer, but you have to ask, and the answer should always be “fine” or some equally innocuous variant.  Here, the answer is “Mykonos and Santorini”.  Anything else just confuses people.

Most Interesting Greek Word We Learned: 

       R, Iphaistos for volcano, derived directly from the God’s name

       L, Ilithios for idiot/stupid.  I got to use it on a shop girl who didn’t want to work, barely helping the customers before us before they left, and dropped the ceramic ornament I was going to purchase and then tried to explain that because of some firing process that it couldn’t possibly be damaged.  When I tried to tell her the English words (fired, kiln), she became annoyed at me.  I told her I was only trying to help her so that she could try to explain to the next customer why the thing she dropped wasn’t damaged.  At the point when I didn’t want to buy the thing anyway just because of her, she claimed she didn’t want to sell it to me anyway.  After Randall had already left the store, I turned around and called her “ilithios”.  Her jaw dropped that I even knew the word, and she protested in Greek and English that it was not her but me…  Whatever.  I bought the ceramic the next day from the owner, who didn’t drop it and actually wrapped it properly in bubble wrap.

Most Underestimated Hub – Sparta.  Who would have expected a centrally-located military power might be a good place to use as base camp for exploration?  Not sure about accommodations (a 5-star hotel in Sparta would be anathema), but the suburbs could be nice for future visits.

Most Unexpected Change from Last Trip – More dogs, fewer cats.

Best Cat – the girl outside the Temple of Zeus in Athens.  Even got a flop from her!

Most Unexpected Change from US Life – We never turned on the TV!