So this is Sparta...

It's been a while since I last updated...

After we left Olympia, we went to Pylos. On the way to Pylos we stopped at the ruins of an ancient palace which is thought to be the palace of Nestor, who is a famous character in the Illiad and the Trojan War. The archaeologist who found the palace found it on his first day of digging and was pulling up tablets by lunchtime!

Pylos was a quiet non-touristy town. It was situated on the sea and some of the rooms at the hotel had large balconies right on the sea. I had quite an experience the first night at the hotel. At about 2 in the morning, my rommmate gets out of bed turns on the light and says "Stephanos, we've got huge rats in our room!" I'm like still half asleep, and say something like your crazy go back to sleep. Then he tells me how he's been hearing them and thought he saw one on the window ledge. He goes to talk to the hotel desk and i'm still in bed not completely convinced he knows what's going on. Then someone from the hotel comes in, Clay points at where he thought it was. And a giant rat runs out from behind the closet across the ledge and leaps onto the floor and under the bed!!! Hahaha. Somehow I managed to get all my stuff out of the room and into a new one the hotel gave us; it was just too much to deal with...

In Pylos there was a nice square in the middle of town that some of the group hung out in often especially lunches and desserts. The sights we saw were large fortresses. The first was a Venetian fortress where people lived when under attack by the Turks. It was a massive complex and it was fun to explore the whole thing from top to bottom. The other fortress was more modern but was used for the same purposes, defense, and weathering seiges. It wasn't as big but it had a very nice view of the sea, and we saw several nearby islands.

After Pylos we made our way to Sparta. The impressive thing about Sparta is Sparta is separated from the peoples it ruled by a huge mountain range. But with the incredible power of the Spartan army they were still able to control these lands. We made a random stop in the mountains to see a cave. This cave is where Spartans would throw their enemies, or weak children. We explored it some but we couldnt go too far back because of the giant dropoff of death... The archaeologists who have explored it have found so many bones; it was obviously a place many people died.

As for Sparta itself much of the modern city is built over the ancient city. The spartan acropolis still stands but is not near as impressive as the Athenian acropolis and parthenon. However, even an ancient writer recognized that 'if Sparta were ever deserted, it would be hard to recognize it for the incredible power it was.' We hiked up a small mountain to get a view of the entire city and see the reamins of a temple to Menelaus and Helen (more Trojan war characters). The city nowadays is not too impressive, but still nice.

The 300 quotes have been endless, and we've deperately been searching for a giant well to reenact Leonidas' dramatic kick of the Persian messanger but no luck so far...

We've been assigning Greek gods to people on the trip based on their personality and what they offer to the group. I have been deemed Helios because of my ability of brighten the day and my ability to run (Helios would run across the sky). Tomorrow we are leaving for Nafplion our last stop before our last three days in Athens. I'm caught in between being ready to be home and not ready to leave yet... I'm hoping this last week goes slowly, I definitely will be enjoying the little time I have left.

Olympia - and the Peloponnese

After we left Delphi we went to Olympia. Olympia was similar to Delphi in that there was only one attraction, and it makes a lot of money from tourism. The sight I'm referring to is the sight of the original Olympics. At Delphi we saw a stadium but were only allowed to look in from the outside. At the stadium in Olympia we were allowed to walk all over the stadium. We even got to race down the length of the stadium!! Soo much fun, especially when you win :)


Also on this sight were the remains of the Temple of Zeus, which housed one of the seven wonders of the world, a giant ivory a gold statue of Zeus. As part of the class and my grade I had to give a presentation on this part of the sight. It went fine, and the professors I did a good job.

After Olympia I traveled toward the coast of Southwest Greece, on the way we stopped at the palace of Nestor, a famous character in the Illiad. It's interesting how archaeologists and historians try so hard to tie sights into literature and mythology. If a palace shows similarities to a description or a myth, everyone wants to think that they've made an important mythological discovery. I've seen this several times but especially the palaces of Nestor and Minos (and the labyrinth).

Now we are in city of Pylos. I dont know anything about it yet. Though we saw an amazing Venetian complex, and it's on the sea again :)