Day 5. Thursday. Mycenae and the Fortress at Nauplion

Lovely, simple table settings greet you after climbing the stairs

Thursday. To Mycenae.

We got started relatively early today. It was hard to leave the rooftop terrace at the Mariana but it helps to be motivated by returning to this magical place that is Myceane.


Here’s a few photos from the rooftop terrace at the Mariana. Breakfast is SO good and they do NOT rush you to finish. Fresh boiled eggs, yogurt and honey…it’s just such a peaceful start to each day.

This photo is after all the food has been cleared.

So—Mycenae. Once again, it leaves me speechless and unable to describe. However, if you want to try to imagine any number of scenes from Greek literature or mythology, this is a good place to imagine it.



Here is a copy of the mask of Agamemnon from the museum at Mycenae. The real thing is in Athens. Imagine being the one to find this artifact!







Just beyond the entrance gate, walking up the hill. Doesn’t look like much from here. But those stones are COLOSSAL!! How did they do that?






Need some perspective to see how huge these stones are? Here is a really awful picture of moi.


I’m sacrificing my dignity to show you the size of these things. I think I’m squinting into the sun. Even the sunglasses don’t help!



On the right, Elena is walking up to the Lions Gate entrance.

The Lion Gate

Mike and Elena under the Lion Gate.

This is a "grave circle." Looking down from just after passing through the Lion Gate.

You can see the tour buses in the upper left corner.

The back of the Lion Gate, below.

I don’t remember walking back so far when we came in 1988. Maybe it wasn't open.

Here, we are on the "back side" and you can see the building below which is the museum and gift shop.

We walked up to the top, and then around and down and around some more and came out at a gate at the back.





Mike and Elena went exploring up and down and around to places I wasn’t brave enough to go. Below.

Some sort of passageway.

More very large boulders. How did they do this?







When we came back around near the entrance, we went down to see the “beehive tombs”—Elena is taking a picture at the entrance to one of them.











Mike is on the inside, taking a picture of us! It’s VERY cool inside, but pretty creepy.

I’m not sure how Mike got these—it was so DARK!




Right: Elena and I are peering into a very dark side room that appears to have some excavating work going on inside.






Below: Looking up, from the center of the floor.



It was cool inside the tombs, but getting hot outside so after we wandered around some more, we decided to go see the museum and see some artifacts.



We bought a few things at the gift shop but they had no stamps so we stopped at "post office" at the bus parking lot to get stamps to mail a postcard to Jesse and Adam. We thought they would appreciate the "Lord of the Rings-ness" of Mycenae.




Then it was time to leave...mostly because we were getting hot and hungry (and when I say we, I mean "I") and so we moved on--back to Nauplion.


This photo looks UP the hill at the fortress. One last look before we left.

But wait! Before we leave this little narrative, let me share these 2 fun pictures. I was trying to recreate a picture I have from our trip in 1988.

I should have looked at this 1988 photo before we came to Greece. This is my sister Marian along with cousin Michelle's foot. I'm not sure exactly where we were standing...it was pretty open then, so we really wandered all over. (Though as I said before, I don't remember going as far back into the ruins as we did in 2009.)

Below is a photo of Elena, posing, per my request to try to reproduce the photo of Mar in 1988.



I wish I had looked at the 1988 photo before we came…but you get the idea..










Driving back from Mycenae, we tried to see Tyrns. But we were pretty hungry so we kept driving. Then we couldn’t figure out where to eat and nearly had a 3-way meltdown about finding an ATM and a place to eat.

Meanwhile, while we drove around looking for an ATM and a place to eat, we took some pictures of the buildings!

.

However, we didn’t take pictures of the place we ate or write down the name. We did, of course, take pictures of our food! As usual, it was amazing.

Giant white beans—Elena keeps looking for the perfect replication of her white beans from Rhodes.

Also dolmas and fries; and stuffed red peppers

It probably doesn’t look like much food for three hungry people…somehow it was and we weren’t sure we had the “get up and go” enough to do anything else!

But we really wanted to see the Palamidi Fortress that sits above the city. We knew we would have to drive so we started up the hill and then decided to drive down the other side---thinking we might drive to Tolo, where we stayed in 1988. But it was late in the day so we turned around to go to the fortress.

From the Mariana, we have seen people climbing the 800++ steps to the fortress. We did not do that!

Palamidi Fortress.

This fort was built during the Venetian occupation in the early 19th century and consists of eight bastions, each was self contained, ensuring that if one bastion was breached the others could still be separately defended. The bastions were built one on top of the other and they all connected with one wall.

The Venetians named the bastions by ancient Greek names, such as Leonidas, Miltiades, Achilles, Themistocles, to give emphasis on the strength of the castle. The struggle for liberation from the Turks began at Palamidi fort.


Palamidi was also used as a prison for a period of time. In 1833, Theodoros Kolokotronis, one of the Revolution leaders was imprisoned here, charged with high treason. Prisoners were made to do physical labor and the 999 steps leading up to the fort were in fact built by the prisoners under the supervision of the Bavarian army.



I have no idea where we are standing, but Mike is looking down at us from somewhere above! Below us is more of Nauplion--suburbs!

This place is so amazing! We just kept walking around from one building to another. Mike was exploring in his own way and taking pictures of us!

Looking down at Nauplion from the fortress:
The long rectangular, yellow building with the red roof that sits in the center of this photo (vertically) is the building of the Mariana where we stayed.

To the left and up just a tad is the (square) building with the breakfast terrace. The building in the lower left is another hotel.

We had to rest for awhile when we got back from the fortress and then decided we would just walk until we found a place to eat.

From the Mariana, we walked down the stairs and down the alleys.

We just wandered around, checking shops, looking at menus, and finally stopping at a small corner place with tables on a side alley



"Small Fish, Fried." Perhaps the best menu description ever!

Also, tomato salad, beet salad, bread, and I think octopus again!

















Walking back to the Mariana, Elena insisted we needed to try gelato! She was right of course.

Tuesday. Day 10. Leaving Greece

Tuesday. Eat. Pack. Leave.

Well, just because I've written about every day of the trip, I'll include this last day. Unfortunately, we don't have any photos! We didn't take many, but then Elena lost most of hers when her hard drive died. She had taken a few from the airplane as we took off and were leaving Greek airspace.

It was a travel day, so all we did was finish packing, eat a little breakfast, then drive to the airport. The rest of the day was spent in planes and airports!

I'm going to post some more of my favorite pictures later, including the stairs at the Mariana in Nauplion. Also the video of Sotirios telling the story of "stand up."

In spite of the sad ending, this trip far exceeded any expectations I had for it. I didn't get all the honey I hoped to bring back. That's probably good, because it actually takes awhile to finish off a jar of honey. We still have one jar we haven't opened.

I have much more to say about the trip, and plan to tell you about Betty's funeral, and then maybe I'll just keep writing...til who knows when. In any case, this brings us to the end of this part of Honey Lights!
γνῶθι σαὐτόν
Know Thyself!

Monday. Last day. Trying to shop

Monday. Last full day.

To be perfectly honest, I don't think any of us remember much about this day. It seemed like such a good idea to save the last day for shopping and not have any plans. I guess it was...we probably weren't capable of much.

As we did everyday...we got up and went down to a breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was simple, but somehow perfect. How can you go wrong with yogurt, honey, fruit, a little pastry, a boiled egg, and of course, coffee.

We walked the few blocks to take the tram into Athens for shopping at Plaka. We took the tram to Syntagma Square and then walked to Plaka. We managed to get a few gifts but our hearts were no longer in it. We spent nearly an hour in a leather shop trying to pick leather bags for the girls. We couldn't even make that decision! Well, we did, but it took almost an hour!!

We ate lunch and then took the tram back to Glyphada.

We needed some internet so we went to Starbucks where we knew we could get internet (Elena’s ticket was messed up, thanks to my error, and we had to get a new one. Also, we needed to check emails about the funeral plans.)




It was pretty late (but normal dinner time in Greece!) and we walked around looking to find a restaurant for dinner—checking menus—and finally ended up at “Georges and Zachs”.

One more amazing meal before leaving Greece. The waiter let us go back and pick our food...they didn't have all the menu items left! There was a large group of some sort, so we figured maybe they had eaten all the food!!

This group provided us entertainment....it was two long tables full of Greeks celebrating something...They were singing and having a grand time. Should have taken a video but we were really kind of out of it.
















I don't think we were rushed through any of our meals in Greece. This night was no exception. We really just wanted to sit around and stare into space! What better place to do that than in Greece!



Finally, we went back to the hotel to pack, check emails, talk to Amelia, sleep a little.

Sunday. Goodbyes and Back to Athens

Sunday, May 17.

We got up and went downstairs to eat some breakfast. We didn’t want to show up hungry at Georgia’s! We packed up, checked out, loaded up the car and then drove to Episkopi to see Georgia and Soterios again. I wish we had pictures of us loading the car – or should I say attempting to load it! Or even a picture of it loaded! Oh well.

We didn’t go to Georgia & Sotirios’ right off, but made a small detour through the village.

We had seen the sign for this temple (Temple of Alea Athina) and wanted to check it out.




Later, Georgia & Sotiros showed it to us as well. I still wonder if this might have been a place my father ran through as a child! They didn’t excavate it until fairly recently. That bell tower is at the church in Kerasitsa.






(a few more pictures are below)




We made our way to the house—I took pictures so that next time, I’ll be able to find it on my own.







It was a beautiful morning, but VERY windy. We all commented on the wind while we sat at the table drinking our coffee.

Our visit is hard to describe, but even though it could have been really awkward because of the communication gap, it wasn’t at all uncomfortable.
Or at least I was not uncomfortable.

Here’s a photo of us—we had all the dictionaries out!



Here is one of my all-time favorite photos.

Elena and Sotirios laughing over an inside joke.







After “visiting”---i.e. sitting around table smiling at each other while drinking coffee and eating pastries---I asked Georgia if we could go to the cemeteries so Elena could see where relatives are buried. She seemed to think it was a strange request, but maybe she was just surprised.

Looking from the porch of the new house across the yard to the old house.
This patio is where we had an incredible pig roast feast in 1988.

During that 1988 visit we all sat out on the balcony which overlooks the driveway--the scene of our tearful goodbyes that summer.

The old kitchen where we "helped" Georgia prepare that amazing feast. Now, Georgia stores her cherry cordial here. The jar with the red top made it all the way home in my suitcase!








I wanted Elena to see this old house where her grandfather had once visited his own grandmother. He used to tell us that he would run across the fields from one grandmother's house to the other. It's the house that all my siblings visited over the years. Now Georgia uses it for storage and had gone over to get get me some of her cherry cordial!

So we went to the cemeteries in Episkopi and Kerasitsa and lit candles and walked around looking for names we recognized. First we went to the church in Episkopi. This is my paternal grandmother's village.
Soterios leading the way.

We saw a few Andreanopolis names. Georgia’s family is also buried here.









This is Georgia's mother's headstone.



Then we stopped at the temple or the Sanctuary of Alea Athena – they seemed very proud to have these ruins to show us. Of course, we had no idea what they were trying to tell us…and we didn't know how to tell them we had seen it already. Actually, we were excited to have another few minutes to see what we could and take a few pictures.





Then we went to the cemetery at Kerasitsa which is where my Grandfather’s (Adamopoulos) family would be buried.

Once again we noticed the WIND!
You can see Elena's hair blowing. You probably can't see Mike's shirt billowing. He's standing at the end of the walkway on the right.













Then we went back to the house and took pictures. There were lots of hugs and trying not to cry.
Luckily, the one thing I can say with assurance in Greek, is I love you.

With great difficulty, I hugged them, touched their faces and said I love you very much.

This was probably – no, it was in fact, the hardest place of all to leave. As we pulled out of the driveway, Elena turned around and reported that Georgia was standing there sobbing. Then we all really fought to not cry! We were all a mess. There was a lot of sniffling in that car. Then to the highway and back to Athens. Driving through these mountains....I really understand my Grandmother's reaction to the moutains in southern California. They brought tears to her eyes. She must have spent her whole life dreaming of returning to Episkopi!


Just as we got to Athens, my brother Mark called with news about Mom. I’m not even sure how we navigated our way—for me, it felt like we were driving blind through the streets. Somehow we made it back to the hotel. Lilly called to make sure we had made it back from the village OK and I told her the news and asked her to let Georgia & Sotirios know about Mom. Lilly said we should come over there to eat later.

Now we needed to accomplish even more difficult communication—all the way from Greece to California! Oh and with Amelia and Jennifer in New York! The internet at the hotel was awful so we finally decided to find internet service and went to Starbucks! We paid for some internet access, bought some coffee and sat down to figure out a plan. This was Sunday and we were leaving Tuesday so that was not a problem. However we still needed to get from Maryland to California in time for the funeral.

We were waiting to hear back from Lilly and finally, we went over there for the evening after walking back to the hotel to get the car. We ending up staying until after midnight. We ate some dinner—delivered from a restaurant down the street instead of home cooked by Lilly. But look how good it was!





























(Laki says goodnight to his youngest)


It sure did help to spend the evening with family—even though we barely knew them. It was a comfortable way to spend an evening after hearing such heartbreaking news! Lilly understood very well because she had been through it too.

At the end of the evening, more photos and another bittersweet farewell.






The question remains: What was the deal with the wind? Even Georgia and Sotirios thought it was weird. Later, I decided it was my mother’s spirit. I know it doesn't make sense....she wasn't even Greek! But she did have some good times in Greece! And it's not that I think I'm so special that she came all the way to Episkopi to let me know she was leaving...but still....
Now, looking back, I am sure it was her. Some people call the wind Mariah. Now I call the wind Betty.