Greece has been unbelievable - the mountains and islands alone have been breathtaking. There are so many picturesque places to see, and everywhere you turn you want to take pictures LOL. On our first day of touring we went on a cruise to visit three islands - Poros, Hydra and Aegea. The islands were amazing, though Greek cuisine and services, leaves something to be desired... on the islands, Mom and I walked, shopped, and sat in a café to have some Greek coffee and people watch. It was everything you see in pictures and more. Although the Greeks say times are hard and tourism is their main source of income, there were a lot of wealthy Greek people on the islands with a ton of ships and boats in every port. The prices for souvenirs, coffee and food is reasonable though despite the conversion from dollars to euros.
Archeologically, we’ve been to the Acropolis/Parthenon and Zeus’s temple. The Acropolis was magnificent, though not as large as I expected from pictures. Our group got there early and I went on ahead and had the opportunity to sit beside the large temple and imagine the Greeks coming and going through this site more than 2000 yrs ago. There was a lot of construction happening around the temples and the hosts of the sites are very aggressive about not touching or stepping anywhere near the sites. I appreciate their concerns but some of them took their jobs a bit too seriously and startled some of the older tourists LOL - after about 20 minutes of being alone, waves and waves of tourists began approaching and I decided it was time to bolt :)
Zeus’ temple was everything I saw in pictures LOL - knowing what it looked like in antiquity made it really interesting for me - as you can see from the pics it isn’t much to look at, but if you Google what it used to look like you’ll see why I love it.
In the afternoon we went to see Asclepius’ Sanctuary - he is the god of healing and the place where his temple and sanctuary is has an energy that is evident even if your not sensitive to such things. And in this sanctuary, I found A SMALL TEMPLE TO ARTEMIS! A temple to Artemis in Epidaurus, Corinth - I found it by fluke and couldn’t believe it :) there isn’t much left but as many of you know, Artemis is my obsession, so seeing one of her places in this sanctuary was really significant.
Every night Mom and I go for a walk with some people from our group, and either get some coffee or ice cream... the group is great - there is one Canadian woman with us from B.C., Silvia, a young guy from Malaysia, Ken and a really nice couple from California, Romeo and Juliet (for real LOL) - there are lots of Brits, which have been great and a few other Americans.
Today we are in Mycenae where we’ve visited Agamemnon tomb (hypothetically, its very likely he wasn’t buried here, but, as Barrie says, “If not here, then somewhere nearby” LOL). What was it about this site that made me feel like I was really here? I don’t know... I don’t even like Agamemnon and couldn’t be happier that Clytemnestra killed him, LOL. Maybe it was actually seeing all those goddess statues and figurines... maybe it was walking among the tombs, alone, in silence... maybe it was finally standing in the places I’ve seen in documentaries and books for so many years... whatever it was, I felt ‘here and now’ and I haven’t felt that way in a long time... maybe since Costa Rica...
Mom has been really great about leaving me alone to walk among ruins and into museums. I cant thank her enough both for the trip and for her continuous attention to my needs. Since I’ve been here I have been told 6 times that I look like Drew Barrymore LOL - and today, in a fabulous ceramic shop a ‘beautiful Greek’ as the ladies called him, asked for my room number at the hotel LMAO - so, aside from ruins, there are other things to see and do in Greece, hahaha hahaha.
Tonight we are staying in Sparta, and I am told that the Artemis temple is close to our hotel, so myself and a couple of our group members are going to hike over to the ruins and I will stand where the Spartans worshipped before every battle...
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