Epidaurus & Mycenae (July 14)

Today did not start out favorably, from the moment of the 6:45 AM wake up call. It was so early, I felt as if I’d just fallen asleep and couldn’t pry myself from the bed. Sarah’s phone said it was only 5:45 AM, so we weren’t quite sure what to think. After a few minutes of debate, we decided to trust the hotel. We threw on our swimsuits and sneakers, and headed down to breakfast. It was a pretty good array of morning foods, but not as exciting as dinner. I had Greek yogurt with honey, some eggs, a piece of crème pie (yes, a breakfast food…), and best of all, a croissant with Nutella (so Italy 2006)!

We got onto the bus about 8 AM and drove 30 minutes to Epidaurus. And that’s when the day went a little sour. Almost all of us fell asleep on the way, but were woken unexpectedly to the voice of Demetra, our tour guide, over the bus speaker. Not only had she scheduled an unnecessarily early wake up call, but we had to listen to lectures on the bus!

Despite the facts I’m going to pass on to you readers, I’ll preface by saying that today was the most boring so far and could turn out to be the worst of the entire trip. So “practically” (the word used most often by our guide and incorrectly; I thinks she means “basically”), Epidaurus is an ancient healing site dedicated to the god Asklepios. (I asked the healing gods to cure my sore throat)

It’s most famous for the theatre, built in 4th century B.C. with a capacity of 14,000, known to have the best acoustics in all of Greece. We tested this out by having four students from our group get up on stage and sing “In the jungle, the mighty jungle…” I personally didn’t hear anything too special, but I guess it was impressive for the time period in which it was used. Demetra did rip a piece of paper and drop a quarter and we could hear both of those more loudly than normal. The theater is still used in festivals every weekend for the three summer months. We also saw the old hospital grounds where surgery was performed, the hotel, stadium, and temple dedicated to Asklepios. And of course the museum.

Everyone had already been dragging, but by this point we were starting to get hungry and bored as well. We hopped back on the bus for a 40 minute trip out to Mycenae. All of us slept the entire way, which was especially surprising because Demetra again took to the microphone. There was much rolling of the eyes.

Mycenae is the ruins of the ancient Mycenaean civilizations. The first attraction is the Treasury of Atreus, a large dome built without any mortar. The name is only attributed to Atreus, but thought to have served as the tomb of king Agamemnon. We then walked up through the famous Lion gates, into the palace ruins, with lots of royal tombs. Demetra stopped every 50 feet or so to explain the significance; she’s a very nice, intelligent lady, but between the exhaustion, heat, and hunger, we were all really struggling – it all just looked the same. But the most adorable stray dog found its way to us so that kept us busy.

However, I think the ultimate low-point came afterwards when she guided us through the museum, explaining all of the old artifacts – which were indistinguishable from every other pot I’ve seen in the past week. I reminded myself that this was the “8 credits” part of the month. I guess we are at school, but I’d so much rather walk around and explore a site on my own than be on someone else’s agenda.

Finally at 1:45 PM we got back on the bus and everyone was so crabby because we hadn’t eaten since 7:30 this morning. We drove back to town in Nafplio for the afternoon and split up for lunch. I went with three girls to a café next to the one we ate at yesterday. It actually had wireless internet, so I was able to get a signal on my iPod and checked my e-mail. Nothing exciting. I had another Greek salad, but it just doesn’t get old! We grabbed gelato afterwards and it was amazing – I had a really rich, dark chocolate and crème caramel in a cone.

Next up was the cliff walk and beach, which was so awesome I almost forgot about the miserable morning experience. When I say cliff, I mean flat, paved path along the water. It was once again the Aegean Sea and just a sparkling, clear blue with huge mountains in the background. The walk was very nice, but swimming was even better. It was a little painful because we went to the “rocky beach.” When they said rocky I just thought the coast was rocky with sand by the water. I was wrong. It is literally rocks on the ground without any sand, so kind of tricky getting in and out. I really stubbed my toe getting in the water, but got over it pretty fast. The swim was so refreshing and there were bigger waves than at the Athens beach. We hung out in the water for a solid 45 minutes, until my hands got all wrinkly.

At 6 PM, it was time to head back to the hotel, but we stopped at the local supermarket to pick up wine, water, and/or snacks. I think the one cashier was a little overwhelmed by a line of 22 Americans, but they sure did make a killing on alcohol sales. We came back to the hotel and I claimed the first shower because the Aegean is so salty I felt like I grew a layer of salt on my skin. Dinner was at 8 PM and just as fabulous as last night. We had some quality girl time over wine in the courtyard and then called it a night.

More bad news arrived tonight: We will be waking at 6:45 AM as long as Demetra the tour guide is leading us. We think she is here another week. Oh dear, the lack of sleep is killing me. But we are all excited that tomorrow’s bus trip is two hours each way. Today I really enjoyed looking out as we drove through the Greek countryside – I’m sure there’s more of that to come.

I don’t mean to sound unappreciative, because I am thrilled to be in Greece and learning so much, but just by reading this, you pretty much got exactly what I did out of our morning experience. It was a bunch of rocks. Just rock … after rock … after rock. Even the beach was rocks! Pictures would have been sufficient for Epidaurus and Mycenae. But the beach was amazing – I can’t wait to post some pictures.