"Do You Speak Greek?"

 Sunday November 20th, 2022

After a roughly 12 hour sleep, I am feeling considerably better. Thank Asclepius! (Greek God of Health and Healing). Still not 100% but at least I can look at food and not turn green. Plus we have a long drive ahead to Olympia this morning and I don't want to hate my life the entire way.

Our driver came to get us at 9am for a roughly 2.5 hour drive across the Peloponnese peninsula to take us to Olympia - the site of the ancient olympics. Anyone who knows us knows that Scott and I are both Olympic nuts and so this has been pinned on the itinerary as one of the most anticipated stops. I of course packed and am sporting my Olympic gear for today's affair - because, why not.

The drive at first seemed random and aimless taking us through all kinds of towns, this way and that and I'm thinking to myself - is there no main road or highway that we can just catch? This seems very roundabout... but eventually we did hit a major highway and that took us through a lovely part of the country with mountains and tunnels. That lasted about an hour and then we were back to wandering through random side roads and towns. One thing to mention about Greece is the curteous nature of the driving. Most roads are only one lane in each direction but they have fairly wide shoulders. The expectation is that if you want to drive slow and someone wants to overtake you, you simply drive straddling the shoulder and the lane, giving the taker-over-er more space (as there are no passing lanes - ever). And everyone does it! Imagine that! (Although with all the mini chapels all over the place I'm thinking the driving may not be so great really...but it in interesting to experience).

Olympia is in the middle of nowhere. Or at least it seems that way. There is a little town where we will be staying but not much else. It is very much out of the way and so one does have to make a point of coming out here if they do want to see it. But let me tell you - TOTALLY WORTH IT!

At the site we meet our first lady guide - Zoe. As with our other tours - we will go through the site and then through the museum. All of the major sites here have the museums on site with many of the excavation pieces inside. At first glance I'm blown away by the size of it. It's massive! Much much bigger than I expected and again most is still rocks and pillars, because this was an Olympic facility it's easier for me to imagine what all this spaces and buildings etc would have been used for (versus a palace for example). After we walk in, a lady from the site asks Zoe something... Zoe then turns to me and laughs - apparently she asked if I was an athlete or if I lifted weights. Zoe is like "that was a weird question"... I just laughed. I'm not an athlete, but I do lift weights! (Sort of...)

I could write out all of the things we seen and learned but likely boring if you weren't there and well it would take a long ass time. But a few really interesting things (to me at least). The games were part of a four city festival/circuit of games but the Olympic Games were the most prestegious. They were to honour Zeus and so had a massive temple constructed in the middle of the santuary to honour him. There was also a temple for his wife Hera and one for his mother Reia. His father didn't get one but that's because the hill overlooking the santuary is named after his dad. 

As we know the games were only held every four years (as do ours... again sort of) and ran as far as we know, consecutively for nearly 1200 years (from approx 775 BCE to 400 AD). They would draw crowds of 50,000 men (only men were allowed to watch) and only free greek men could participate. All athletes were naked during the sporting event (regardless of the event) and only the first place winner won a crown of olive branches/leaves. It was the highest honour an athlete could acquire (again similar to today). Multi-olympic winners would even have statues made and there was a "hall of fame" and the cheaters were also forced to get a statue made, but of an angry Zeus with their name, event, city etc. labelled on the stone. The "walk of shame" lined the way to the stadium entrance to remind all of the athletes to play fair.

The stadium itself was only impressive for it's history. There isn't much there. But the start and finish lines are! 192m was the "stade" distance for the sprint. And then would multiply that for longer distances. Zoe I think wanted us (or at least me) to run it, but given I'm still not 100%, haven't eaten barely anything in a few days... I don't think it's a great idea. But I'll happily walk it. So Scott, Moo and I walk it...taking it all in. Trying to imagine running this naked with 50,000 screaming and cheering men watching! One thing that is still sort of there is the judges booth - right in the middle! And of course a grand tunnel entrance for the athletes to emerge from (simlar to stadiums now).

On site there was a gymnasium/training area that is still only partially excavated. That would have been used for track and field events and another area used for boxing and wrestling type events. There was a hotel type building for guests but most people would have just camped out. There was a women's games but it was held separately and no time near the "Olympic Games" and they were clothed haha.

The last building I'll talk about is the temple of Hera which is famous today as that is where they light the Olympic flame every two years. A ceremony is held and filmed where a series of priestesses enter and the high priestess lights the flame using only the light of the Sun and a mirrored bowl to emulate fire from the Gods or an eternal flame. 

The museum was really interesting because it had alot of the pieces of the temples and other buildings that were excavated and had replicas of what the entire sanctuary would have likely looked like back in those times.

The rest of the afternoon we had to roam around the town, but unfortunately it's a very sleepy town and there is literally no one around. Most shops are closed, only a few on the main street are open. A handful of restaurant/cafes are open, but otherwise - ghost town. We did stop in to a cute museum of ancient technology and seen some early alarm clocks and alarm systems, "movie" theatres and other tools and systems to measure things like distance by land or sea. There was also a replica of what they believe to be the first Greek "cruise ship". The Syracuse. 

Not much else going on and for the first time all trip, it's going to rain. So we head back to the hotel and settle in for a long night. Lucky for me - the Patriots game is on and unfortunately for me - it was the WORST GAME EVER!!! SO BAD! I mean... painful to watch for 59 minutes and 55 seconds, but there was literally nothing else to do but suffer through it. And well, the last 5 seconds made it worth it, ending the 3-3 tie a magnificent 80 yard punt return, by us to win the game and NOT send us to OT. PHEW...to sit through that and lose or tie, I would have been in a very bad mood. But at least I didn't have to suffer through it alone (and at least my feed didn't cut out in the last 10 seconds of the game)!

Monday November 21, 2022

We've only been here about 10 days or so if you count Cyprus and already I'm impressing the Greeks with my Greek speak! A few times now I've been told I have a very good Greek accent when I speak (one of the 5 words that I know lol). A man working at the market was both confused and impressed when I said something to him and he said something back in Greek and I clearly looked puzzled so he repeated in English and said, do you not speak Greek? I said, no sorry, I don't. He said "well you definitely have a good Greek accent when you do!" Zoe said the same thing when she heard me say hello or thank you to someone. I'll take that as a compliment. I try my best to pronounce appropriately in different languages - glad to know I'm not butchering it. It is an interesting sounding language but has absolutely no link to any languages I'm used to hearing so even if I try I can only pick up the handful of words that I now know. 

On to Delphi. After a full night of rain, a bit of thunder and lightening, it was overcast when we headed off on the next leg of our road trip. Today would be a longer drive - about 3.5 hours from Olympia. Our driver I don't believe speaks strong English or is just very quiet, so today - headphones! The drive today brought us along the coast of the peninsula and then we crossed a big bridge and then followed the mountains and the coast almost the rest of the way to Delphi. Unfortunately we did meet some pretty heavy rain for a good hour or so - going over the bridge which is a bummer because we couldn't see anything. BUT - the Greek Gods are shining down on us and about 45 min or so before we got to Delphi is started to clear, we could see the mountains and the coast - AND by the time we got there : SUNNY!!!

We got dropped off at our hotel first today - luckily were able to check-in as it was only about 12:15pm and settle before he came to get us around 1 for our tour. Again, what a nice spot. This time a "real" hotel. A big one. Lots of rooms, a pool (but it's empty), restaurant, lounge etc... the room is cozy but again a balcony with a view! 

Our guide today is Georgia. She brought us through the site and museum and gave us the history and significance of this site. First, even if you didn't care about ancient greek history or archeological sites, it would be worth it to come here just for the geography and the views. It's breathtaking! And the site of Delphi is built into the side of the mountain overlooking the landscape. Anyways, Delphi is famous for several things, one being that it is the centre of the ancient world. As Greenwhich is today. It is also famous for being the site of the temple of Apollo (God of Sun and light) and where an oracle could be visited who would provide "advice" from the Gods. Basically an ancient greek forture teller.  

The site isn't as large as the others we've visited as it's built upwards but there is a theatre and a stadium (as this was one of the other 3 cities that have "games" like the Olympics). And unlike the Olympic stadium, this one actually had seating! Fancy! This was likely because Delphi was a more lucrative sanctuary as the oracle drew alot of "donations" and "gifts" from the wealthy and powerful who wanted answers to their problems. 

The oracle was simply a girl or woman who sat on a stool over a crack in the mountain that released gasses (methane, ethane etc...). She inhaled those fumes and would transmit the message "from the gods" via weird sounds and screams and so a priest would be responsible for translating and providing the message to the querant. Although often vague in her responses, the oracle was apparently never wrong and people kept coming to Delphi for hundreds and hundreds of years. (Yes, the girl who was the "oracle" changed over time). Unfortunately not much to see other than the stone that would have been on the ground that held the tripod stool and the hole where the gasses came out.

Another interesting thing to see was all the inscriptions all over the stones at Delphi. Full ancient Greek text all over the stones. Most is still very well preserved to this day and has most, if not all been translated. In the museum we even seen what is considered to be likely the oldest written song in the world, chiseled into the stone and only identified as such due to different symbols between the lines that aren't ever used anywhere else. It's assumed that they are music notes and that that is the Hymn to Apollo.

More interesting things in the museum relating to the site. Including the two fun guys featured in the first photo of this post (HAHA), the two metre high sphinx that sat atop a 12 metre pillar that was a gift from a wealthy visitor of the oracle and some carvings from the buildings that date back 2500+ years that still have colour on them! And the detail is unreal, you can see the flexed muscles and the veins and the feet even have toe wrinkles!

Another very sleepy town - if not more sleepy that Olympia. But this one is quite scenic so we stroll for a bit. AND it's decorated for Christmas! There are a few group tours in town so more people, but almost nothing is open. We did find a cute spot for dinner (might have only been 2 or 3 options at most) and before we know it, it's 10pm. Another one down. Road trip continues tomorrow, even further North, to Meteora.