Spring Break: Classical Greece

I have to preface this post by saying that the majority of the activities and the accommodations in their entirety were pre-planned by George Mason University. Evan and I are independent travelers but in these economic times group travel can be a good option for saving money.  That being said, based on this year's experience we will not be traveling with Mason next year.  Further details to follow...  

Our Itinerary (March 10-16, 2012)

Saturday, March 10

Pre-planned:

-Arrival at Titania Hotel in Athens

-Welcome cocktail party and dinner

Our arrival in Athens was a little rough-going.  First of all, we had a long trans-atlantic flight into Frankfurt and then an almost equally long layover before we even got on the plane to Athens.  Then we got to Athens and our chartered bus was nowhere to be found.  We had to wait an additional 45 minutes to an hour before we could breathe in fresh air for the first time in more than 20 hours.  Not a good start!

When we did check into Titania Hotel we were hungry and ready to get the evening started and over with so we could get some sleep.  It seemed like a popular hotel for businessmen and a hang out for locals.  We could easily see the lit-up Parthenon in the distance and Titania's within walking distance to the Archaeological Museum and Parliament (where some of the most fervent recent protests have taken place). Still, we never had time to walk around the area. It was decent but that would be too generous a word to apply to the dinner buffet.  The selection was limited and I didn't get the feeling that I was consuming authentic Greek fare.  It felt more like we were eating dumbed down or Americanized versions of Greek food.

The quality isn't great but here's the picture that marks the beginning of our Greek adventure (the view from the hotel rooftop):

Sunday, March 11

Pre-planned:

-Acropolis
-Acropolis Museum
-Agora
-Kerameikos (public cemetery of ancient Athens)
-Bus tour of Athens landmarks
-National Archaeological Museum

Today was our first taste of what the week was going to look like.  As you may or may not know Greece is going through very serious economic difficulties.  We didn't witness any violent protests the week we were in Greece and on the surface, it seemed as though everything was business as usual.  Well, that couldn't be further from the truth.  On our first day of touring we had to skip an entire site because it closed at 2:30pm and we ran out of time.  Then we started to notice a pattern of sites closing at 2:30pm and learned through questioning our local guide, Kostas, that the early closings were a result of the austerity measures. The entire afternoon staff of all ancient archaeological sites have been laid off.

...

The day started in a different order than originally planned.  We also noticed that scheduled sites got shuffled around a lot throughout the trip.  We piled into the bus and took a very short drive to the National Archaeological Museum.  When there Kostas gave us a very thorough and interesting introduction to the evolution of sculpture in Greek history.  Evan and I left the camera on the bus so we could focus on what was being said.  I'll get more into this later but we definitely visited way too many museums during the trip.  It got to be overwhelming and mind-numbing especially when most of us just wanted some free time to absorb the local culture.  That being said, I think the National Archaeological Museum was one of the best museums we visited and a must-see if you're an ancient history buff.

Our next stop was the Acropolis.  I have to say, I had really built it up in my head and was mildly disappointed when I found myself face to face with it. Its remains are deceiving.  I've always thought it was so well-preserved but it wasn't nearly as intact as I expected it to be.  The weather didn't help much to lift the group's spirits.  It was windy and cold and later in the day, rainy.  It certainly wasn't the kind of weather we had all hoped for. Still, it's an important site and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it.

I made a complete fool of myself at the foot of the Parthenon.  I thought I should try to take a picture that captured all of the scaffolding and in the process lost my footing and fell on my butt.  Evan was 20 feet ahead of me.  A very sweet Greek teenage girl came over to make sure I was OK and I was but my ego was certainly bruised!

Then we made our way down to the Agora, which is just a few steps away from the Acropolis.  

Next to that was the Stoa of Attalus, which has been turned into a museum.  In all honesty, I barely remember anything I saw in there.  At this point in the day the group was getting hungry and losing steam.  

We started to make our way to the public cemetery of ancient Greece but were cut short by the foul weather.  It started to rain in earnest and when Kostas gave us the choice of continuing (the site closed at 2:30 and it was already 1:00 or 1:30) or breaking for lunch, lunch was the unanimous winner.  

We broke off into little groups to eat in the Plaka, one of the most vibrant neighborhoods of the city.  We picked the most convenient place to eat called Efxaris.  We ordered the house white wine to share, which was delicious.  I had more alcohol on this trip than any other in my life.  Read into that what you will!  I had the chicken souvlaki, which was tender and juicy.  All in all a good experience.  And one of the very few, as in one of three, authentic able-to-choose-for-ourselves meals during the trip. 

Our afternoon was spent at the Acropolis Museum.  While I found the second museum of the day to be mostly forgettable (probably because my hunger was making me grumpy), I thought the Acropolis Museum was world-class.  It's modern and the layout is very aesthetically-appealing. Apparently, the Greeks have been trying to get back the Elgin marbles and other relics Elgin took from the Parthenon and carried off to the British Museum for years.  The Brits have said to the Greeks, well, you have nowhere to display them.  Well, now they do, in the form of the Acropolis Museum but there's been no movement on the British Museum's side.  Sad.  

We spent our evening at the hotel eating lackluster buffet food.  The following day would mark the beginning of a very long and sometimes tedious five-day road trip.  

Monday, March 12

Pre-planned:

-Corinth

-Mycenae

-Epidaurus

Today started at the "legendary" canal of Corinth.  I put legendary in quotations because it was anything but legendary.  This was kind of a dark point in the trip for me.  My very limited time in Athens had been underwhelming and this first stop on our tour of Classical Greece was next to a gas station. When I went out onto the bridge to take a picture of the canal of Corinth, I grew increasingly concerned that we had wasted our money and that this trip was potentially unsalvageable.

And the weather proceeded to deteriorate throughout the day.  It started out cloudy and drizzly and then began to downright pour by the afternoon.

Our second stop was Epidaurus.  At first, when Kostas showed us the ruins of the theatre I felt sure that  the trip had been a tremendous mistake.  I hate to compare, but I couldn't help but stack the ancient sites we had seen in Turkey against the ones we'd seen in Greece thus far.  And Turkey was way in the lead! We also discovered that the museum attached to the sites was closed.  This struck all of us as odd because, well, why would the tour company schedule a visit on a day when a site was half-closed?  Later I realized it probably had to do with austerity measures.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the one or two people scheduled to work that day just didn't show up.  Either way, Kostas tried to sugarcoat it.  I noticed that Kostas had a way of omitting unpleasant truths.  I don't know if that's a cultural thing or a personality trait specific to Kostas.

I was more impressed with the ruins of the healing center section of Epidaurus.  I remembered seeing a similar site in Turkey and being fascinated by the inspiration behind it.  I guess these places were sort of like what a modern-day spa is but that's probably oversimplifying it.

Our last stop of the day was at Mycenae.  The Mycenaeans were around way before even the ancient Greeks so I was really looking forward to seeing these ruins.  Like the Acropolis, I was a little dismayed at how little there was so see.  I think something I learned toward the end of the trip is that a lot of these sites are works-in-progress.  There is so much more left to unearth.  There are even sites that are still buried underground and have yet to be discovered. Unfortunately, who knows the fate of these projects with the current economic troubles.  

Then we visited the nearby bee-hive Tombs.  Unfortunately, I missed a lot of the background information because I wanted to get a picture without human contamination.  

We ended the day at a sculpture workshop for all of the shoppers.  We saw a brief demonstration on the pottery wheel and then the group was let loose to flush their money down the toilet.  Haha.  Needless to say, we didn't buy a thing.  The entire trip, I only got a bracelet and a pair of earrings - all for under $100. 

How cute is this guy?:

I didn't mention lunch.  We stopped at Kolizeras Restaurant, which is specifically outfitted for groups.  The staff was very friendly and the food was decent but more of the same generic fare.  I ordered pastitsio (a dish recommended by Michael Symon of The Chew) but it didn't taste nearly as good as his version looked.  

We arrived at the Amalia Olympia fairly late in the evening.  Amalia is a hotel-chain we were to stick with for three nights of our road trip.  We were served a three-course dinner vs. a buffet, which was eagerly gobbled down by the group.  The food was pretty spectacular - tomato soup, stuffed tomato, lamb, etc.  

Tuesday, March 13

Pre-planned:

-Olympia

-Delphi

Today we felt and saw sun for the first time in our travels.  It was so welcome.  This was the first day of the trip I started to really appreciate my environs and the historical significance of what we were visiting.

Olympia is the site of the very first Olympic Games.  Kostas, our guide, explained that the Olympic Games were a way to unite the Greek city-states. Whatever disagreements they had at the time, they were all set aside to compete in these physical challenges.  

We started our visit with a stop at the Museum attached to the site.  I found this museum to be one of the most interesting we toured.  Kostas specifically showed us a Persian helmet used in combat and talked about the battle of Marathon as the beginning of the war between the east and the west - the most recent skirmish being 9/11.  I thought that was such an insightful way to bring perspective to the situation we now face.  In many ways we see it as an isolated attack but it's a challenge and conflict that started long ago.

After the museum we proceeded to the physical site of the ancient Olympics.  I can say for myself and I think for many of the group that this was the first of three highlights of the trip.  The trip had a rocky start and end but the middle couple of days were pretty magical.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I included the picture of the puppy dog because I was surprised to find that there were far more stray dogs at the ruins than cats.  Fortunately, most of them looked healthy but we also saw some that were worse for wear.  

After the ruins we stopped in town to load up on cash, get drinks, go to the bathroom and then we made a previously unscheduled stop at an olive oil "workshop".  I put workshop in quotations because we didn't see any work being done.  We were given a sales pitch and then the shopping frenzy ensued. 

Our day was rearranged to put off Delphi for the following day because the distance between the two sites was too great to manage to do both back to back. Again, I assume this was a result of the 2:30pm site closures. 

We had lunch at a place similar to the one the day before except it was a buffet instead of ordering off a menu.  It was decent and we ordered wine to accompany the food...

We crossed over the bridge in Patras that connects the mainland to the Peloponnese and of course, we stopped to get out and take pictures.  It kind of reminded me of the Oresund bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden although, much shorter.

On the way to our next hotel we stopped at a carpet co-op for the shopaholics in the group (MOM).  

Afterward we passed through an upscale ski town to arrive at Amalia Delphi.  The buffet here was pretty decent and there was a large selection. After dinner, while waiting in line to use the Internet Evan and I met and talked to an older Asian couple from our hometown.  Small world! 

Wednesday, March 14

Pre-planned:

- Meteora

As I mentioned in the previous day's summary of events our visit to Delphi was postponed for today.  We got to Delphi bright and early just in time to beat the crowds.  It was perfect planning on our guide's part so that we could get in some good pictures before the place was swarming.  

Delphi is one of those ancient sites I've always wanted to visit because I was fascinated by the mystery behind it.  Kostas explained that the ancients consulted with priestesses that were changed out every ten years.  Why were they replaced every ten years?  Well, part of what helped the priestesses foretell were the toxic fumes they were inhaling.  In other words, they had pretty short life expectancies.    

Like Olympia, a lot of the Delphi ruins are in fairly good shape.  I was disappointed that we passed the Temple to Athena, which is the image I had in my head of Delphi, on the way up the mountain to the main site.  In my opinion, it would have been worth skipping our very short 30 minute visit to the museum to take some photos at Athena's Temple.  I doubt I'll ever get there again...

Still, here are pictures of the main site and the Temple to Apollo, which really showcase the beauty of the area:

After visiting the site, we very briefly toured the adjacent museum.  We saw the highlights and took a few pictures but I can't say I got much out of it. As I mentioned earlier, I would've preferred putting this time toward seeing the Temple to Athena. *pouts*

We had lunch somewhere on the road.  Yet again, we didn't have the free time to waltz into a local taverna as our Mason professor suggested we should do during our pre-trip orientation.

Much of the afternoon was spent on the bus while we made our way to Meteora to visit one of the five (or six) operating monasteries there today. The town is called Meteora because of the shape of the rocks, which seem to have fallen from the sky.  The closer we got to them the more exotic and alien they appeared.

For popular culture purposes, For Your Eyes Only, one of the Roger Moore James Bond films, has a scene in one of Meteora's monasteries.  It's supposed to take place in the one that is only connected to the main mountain by a cable. Kostas explained that there's a net attached to the end of the cable, which is how they get their food once a week.  I think they also transport people back and forth that way...yikes!

The drive up was a little precarious but the views were spectacular.  By the time we got to the top of the mountain there was only one monastery still open for visiting.  We went to St. Stephen's.  Kostas took us inside the chapel on the grounds and explained some of the differences between Eastern Orthodox symbolism and other Christian symbolism.  It was really fascinating.  And the murals on the walls of the chapel were absolutely stunning. They were done in the "old" style but they looked like they had been completed yesterday.  That's how vibrant and bright the colors were. Kostas explained that the monastery suffered severe damage in World War II and so, the murals are fairly new recreations.  

St. Stephen's:

After Olympia, I would say this was the second highlight of the trip.  It's such a unique experience from anything else in this trip or from any other trip I've taken.  There are ruins all over the place but there's only one Meteora.  

Afterwards, we went to an icon workshop where we saw the process of making new icons in the old style.  I wandered around while the shoppers tried to boost the Greek economy.   

On the way to our hotel we stopped in Kalambaka and were given (it really was a gift) an hour of free time.  Evan and I walked the main drag with some shoppers until we couldn't keep up (a blessing in disguise) and found ourselves in a gyro shop.  We ordered one to split and my God, it was heavenly!  It reminded me a lot of the sandwiches at Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh because he put the fries right in the gyro, which consisted of pork meat, lettuce, tomato, and tzatziki sauce.  It also happened that the couple sitting next to us were American and once we got to talking we had another small world moment. They're graduate students studying abroad in England with the University of Maryland and happened to be in Greece on their spring break trip. 

Later we checked into Amalia Kalambaka, our third Amalia hotel of the trip.  All three were pretty nice.  We were served dinner tonight just like at our first Amalia hotel in Olympia.  

Thursday, March 15

Pre-planned:

-Vergina/tomb of Philip II 

-Pella

-Leftkadia

-Thessaloniki 

Today was all about the land formerly known as Macedonia.  Our very first stop of the day to Vergina and the tomb of Philip II (Alexander the Great's father) was the third highlight of the trip.  Unfortunately, I can only talk about it because pictures are strictly forbidden.  

I bet you never knew (I didn't before this trip) that the second greatest archaeological discovery after King Tut's tomb is Philip II's tomb.  I didn't know that this place existed much less that it was famous in archaeological circles.  All I can say is that it's an absolute must-see.  There are four tombs in all. One is confirmed to be Philip II's and they believe that one of the others belongs to Alexander the Great's son or Philip II's grandson.  In addition to the tombs themselves, the excavated treasures are so opulent and ostentatious, it's almost unfathomable.  

We had yet another group lunch at cafe across from the tombs.  Nothing special.

And then we continued on our way to Pella, which was the birthplace of Alexander the Great.  We visited the museum first, which was a bit of a snooze. By this point in the trip I think we were all sufficiently sick of museums.  Then we ventured out to the site, which was left pretty defenseless. Again, I assume this has to do with austerity measures.  I'm not even kidding, I'm pretty sure we walked through a part of the site that was not open to visitors. We probably walked on pottery shards from BC times and sullied the evidence.  

Our final destination for the day/night was Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece.  I have to be honest, I wasn't very impressed with Athens and I was almost as unimpressed with Thessaloniki.  To be blunt, they're ugly cities.  They're very busy, there's lot of traffic, they're dirty, there's graffiti, etc.  With that said, both cities had their redeeming qualities.  In Thessaloniki's case, it's right on the water and the city is buzzing with energy and youth. When we were told we had free time (a precious commodity in a very tight-leash schedule) Evan and I were off and running.  Our little group decided to hell with the already paid for hotel dinner buffet.  We decided to eat out!

Incidentally, we stayed at the Capsis Hotel which might have been the nicest/cleanest hotel our entire stay.    

The shoppers went their way and Evan and I went ours.  We prearranged to meet at a restaurant at 7:30pm.  We went straight for the water to get a glimpse of the White Tower and then proceeded toward the ancient Roman Agora for pictures. On the way, we saw parts of the old city wall.  I liked the juxtaposition of the old against the new.

It got dark and cold pretty quickly so we decided we should stakeout the restaurant where we were meeting my mom and friends.  We got there about an hour early so we went into a bakery and got some hot chocolate and light snacks before dinner.  The hot chocolate at Stratis Patisserie was absolutely delicious.  It was the best I had the whole trip and maybe...ever!

We met for dinner at a trendy place recommended by the hotel concierge.  The ambience was really nice and cozy.  The appetizers were great, the entrees just so-so, but the complimentary dessert - donuts and vanilla ice cream - was the best. It was also just nice to be independent of the larger group.  

Friday, March 16

Pre-planned:

-Archaeological Museum

-Thermopylae Pass

We visited the Archaeological Museum in Thessaloniki first thing in the morning.  As I mentioned earlier, most of us were pretty much checked out by this point in terms of museums.  We saw some cool things but it was the end of the trip and we had a looong drive ahead of us to get back to Athens.  

Most of the day was spent on the bus with some quick stops for lunch and then we paid a visit to Theromopylae Pass, which is where the battle of 300 took place.  The Persians with an estimated army of 1.5 million came to invade Athens but not without resistance.  300 Spartans with the help of 700 Thespians from Thespia sacrificed their lives to hold them off.  It's because of their stand that the citizens of Athens had the time to evacuate and preserve Athenian or western culture as we know it. 

The Pass and a monument to Leonidas, the Spartan leader:

We arrived back in Athens around 7:45pm.  Our little group decided that we didn't want to spend our last night in Greece at yet another buffet (paid for or not) so we hopped into some cabs and went to Plaka.    

We ate at Maiandros, which was in the same strip of restaurants we were introduced to on our first day in Athens.  They had amazing musicians playing traditional Greek music on guitar, the wine was flowing, and we had some delicious food.  It was probably the best meal/most authentic experience of the trip.  It was the first time I felt like I had a real taste of Greek culture. They're such fun-loving, friendly, proud people.

Unfortunately, Evan and I felt like we had to cut the evening short because unlike everyone else on the trip we weren't headed home the next day. (Germany blog entry coming soon.)  The others had the luxury of staying up all night and sleeping on the way home but we wanted to be fresh for a full day in Munich.  So we left Plaka around 10:30pm and returned to the hotel to get a couple hours of sleep.  

...

What do I have to say about the trip in its entirety?  I certainly don't regret going on the trip.  The good definitely outweighed the bad but the bad was bad enough to keep us from going on another group trip with Mason anytime soon.

Kostas, our local guide, was a gem!  I think he provided excellent service especially considering the time constraints he was working under which were only exacerbated by the austerity measures.  He's a good man and I hope he continues to be a successful tour guide despite the economic downturn.  

I blame Mason and specifically, the Mason "leaders" traveling with the group, for the trip's failures.  There was a real lack of communication and transparency. First of all, I didn't get into this in my daily entries, but there was WAY too much time spent on the bus.  Had I known, for example, that we'd be spending 4-5+ hours on the road for a majority of the trip I might not have gone.  There were days that we spent more time on the road than at the sites.  We were also led to believe prior to the trip that we would have free time, specifically for lunch.  We had ONE free lunch and that was on our first day in Athens.  I also think the number of museums was overwhelming.  I barely remember two of the 7+ we visited.  This, in my opinion, is entirely Mason's responsibility.  They had the itinerary months in advance and presumably, plenty of time to review the schedule and make sure it met the group's expectations.  

It became obvious during the trip that the Global Ed representative was flying by the seat of her pants.  She would become visibly irritated when members of the group asked her questions or expected her to step up and take charge.  She expected information to trickle down as opposed to just telling everyone what they needed to hear all at once.  The accompanying Mason professor was also a disappointment.  Last year's professor worked in tangent with our local guide, filling in holes with his own knowledge.  This year's professor uttered not ONE WORD until our last day when he recommended two books for us to read that would provide context for what we saw on our trip. 

As I mentioned at the beginning of the entry, we will not be traveling with Mason next year based on the  complete lack of organization of the Greece trip. Generally speaking, we're not group travelers anyway so it's probably for the best.  Still, I will miss the camaraderie of some of the people we've met on the trips.  There were people on this trip that I've traveled with three times and only met because of this program.  Just as before, we had a nice time sharing the experience with our friends.  

I also enjoyed Greece but can't help but think that my experience there was tainted by Mason's mismanagement of the trip. I left Greece with a fondness for the people, food, and history.  I've loved Greek mythology since I was kid and I first heard the stories.  That love will never change.  But I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with the reality.  Greece is going through a very difficult time and my sympathy is with the Greek people.  I hope that a solution can be found to get them back on firmer financial ground.  As amazing as some of the sites were, I don't think I'll be returning to mainland Greece as a tourist.  If I return to Greece, I imagine it will be to visit the islands.