The Argolid

I just chased a bus all the way from the Argolid, and boy am I exhausted.

No, wait, that's not how that joke goes. But anyway, I am back from our school trip to the Argolid (if the school decamps to the Argolid, does it recamp to Athens? I'm not sure what the proper terminology is for that, if indeed there is one) in one piece, but definitely tired. So...

Day one (Saturday, 11 October):
-Bus B leaves the Kallimarmaro at 8 in the morning. Again, this bus is full of people from the two sections of Aegean and Ancient Greek Art and Archeology classes, so archaeological sites are primary on our itinerary. On my bus, my friends sitting behind me are conducting a read-aloud of the Agamemnon in Ancient Greek. I'm paying somewhat attention to this as I'm knitting my scarf, which I finish relatively early on in the day today, leaving me without something to do on the bus for the rest of the trip.
-First stop of the day was at Eleusis. This was where the Eleusinian Mysteries, dedicated to Demeter, were celebrated, and as this cult was one of the most popular in the ancient world, the site was pretty big to accommodate all of the initiates. It was also continually used from Classical times to about the 3rd century AD, when all pagan cults were abolished with the establishment of Christianity as the state religion, so there were remains of stuff down to Roman times, including a very nice (huge) sculpture of Marcus Aurelius from a triumphal arch that the Romans erected. This also meant that there were some inscriptions in Latin, and it was very nice being able to read the inscriptions for a change, because my Greek isn't good enough for epigraphy yet. There were also sanctuaries for deities other than Demeter at this site, including a very nice Pluterion (makes sense that there would be a sanctuary to Hades here, doesn't it) with a really deep well that would make a great entrance to the underworld if you used your imagination a bit.
-Next, we climbed back on the bus and continued our journey towards the Peloponnese. When we got to Corinth, we all got off of the bus so that we could gaze in wonder at the canal there. It connects the Corinthian and the Saronic Gulfs, which are only about 8 km apart at the narrowest point (well within seeing distance of each other), but several hundred kilometers of treacherous sea apart if you have to sail around the Peloponnesian peninsula. It was pretty cool to look at. Our professor told us that it was 8 m deep underwater, 63 m from the top of the cliffs to water level at the deepest part, and 10 m wide. There were also signs around advertising how you could sail through the canal, or, for the more adventurous among us, bungee jump from one of the bridges. Needless to say, I passed on both options.
-After this short stop in Corinth, we had officially left Attica and entered the Peloponnese. The major stop for today was Mycenae. Before lunch, we visited the Treasury of Atreus, which is this huge tholos tomb. If you have ever seen a picture of a tholos tomb before, this is probably the one that you saw. It was awesome, even though there was this annoying guide from another group that kept telling us to be quiet and that only guides were allowed to talk there. We also got to climb up on top of the tholos, and the view from up there was amazing.
-After that, we crossed the road and had a picnic lunch on the hillside, also with an amazing view. It was really windy, and all of our stuff kept trying to blow away, so we had to keep a close watch on all of our stuff.
-Then we visited the main citadel of Mycenae. My half of the group visited the museum first, which was a small museum that held some of the finds from the site. We got to look at the museum in terms not only of what was in the collection, but also from a museum studies point of view, looking at how the museum was designed to be accessible to different audiences and present its collection and how the collection was arranged and stuff like that, which was neat because we don't normally look at the museum as an artifact in itself. After we got out of the museum, we had a bit of time before we were supposed to meet up with the other group to switch, so our professor took us over to look at a small tholos tomb right next to the museum. This tholos tomb didn't have its roof still on it, so you could look down the inside. We were heading back to the museum when these two men came along talking in English in the thickest Southern accents I have ever heard. The exchange between the two of them: "There's a few hundred square feet in there" "Pretty big cistern. That's what it is, right?" "I think". My friends and I waited until they were out of earshot to collapse on each other laughing. I really hope that they figured out that the tholos tomb wasn't a cistern when they saw the gaping hole in the downhill side of it.
-We met up with the other half of the group and switched leaders to visit the actual Mycenaean citadel. Key term for Mycenaean architecture: Cyclopean masonry, which refers to walls made out of really big stones. I'm talking about stones that are probably twice the size that I am. The entire outer fortifications of Mycenae are constructed in such a fashion. And, of course, approaching the main citadel, we got to walk through the famous Lion Gate, which was just terrific. From the citadel, there is an amazing view of the Argive plain, and at the end of our tour of the citadel, we got to walk down a set of stairs to the water cistern. It was completely dark, except for our flashlights (those of us that had flashlights. I had one of sorts, but it was really pathetic. I want a Maglight for Christmas...) and the flashes of people's camera's as they took pictures to try to illuminate their way. The tunnel was made of corbelled vaulting, and there were two turns in it as it descended. It originally led to a really deep cistern that could supply Mycenae with water for about six weeks, I think, in case of a siege, but it's been filled in to prevent tourists like us from falling in and hurting ourselves. It was a really neat experience, and I can't imagine having to go down that passage with the aid of only an oil lamp (although lamps do throw out a surprising amount of light, especially when it's the only source of illumination around instead of being presented in contrast with electric lighting).
-After this adventure, the group of people who had been conducting the read-aloud of the Agamemnon on the bus had to try to finish their reading at Mycenae itself, because that's what kind of nerds they are. They got to do the part where Cassandra and Agamemnon die before we had to leave. It was amazing amounts of fun to watch and take pictures of, and I wish that I'd been able to be involved in a more active way, but I don't know how to read Greek in scansion and I didn't know about this adventure until it was already well underway.
-[An aside: Mycenae as a whole was terrific, and the whole time I was there I was thinking to myself, this can't possibly be happening, I can't possibly really be here. The first time that I heard about this site, I was a junior in high school in AP Art History, and I never would have dreamed that I would be seeing the Treasury of Atreus and the Lion Gate in real life in person. So actually seeing Mycenae in real life was just so cool, I can't even explain it.]
-After we left Mycenae, we went on to Nauplion, which is the city where we were going to be staying for the next two days. After a siesta, we went out to a taverna to have dinner, then went and got gelato at this place one of the professors swears has the best gelato outside of Italy. After tasting it, I have to agree that it was really good.

Day two (Sunday 12 October):
-The first thing on the agenda for today was a walking tour of Nauplion, which was Greece's first capital during and after the Greek war for independence. Said walking tour consisted mainly of following our professor around to the various statues of heroes erected around the historic district and listening while she told us about who they were and what they did. It was still pretty neat though, and Nauplion is a nice city to walk around and look at.
-Then we made a brief stop at the Folklore Museum, which houses a collection of traditional costumes from various parts of Greece. I thought that it was really cool to look at, but others of my acquaintance were not so convinced. Then again, I dragged my friends to see the First Ladies' inauguration dresses when we visited the Smithsonian in eighth grade, so this isn't exactly a new phenomenon.
-Our first real stop of the day was in Agia Moni, which is a small monastery (well, convent, I guess, because it houses nuns, but monastery is what our professors called it. Maybe in Greek Orthodoxy, they're monasteries regardless of whether they have nuns or monks in them), located on a spot where an ancient tradition has it there was a spring that Hera visited on an annual basis to renew her virginity before she returned to Zeus. It was really beautiful and quiet and calm and peaceful.
-Next we were on to Epidaurus, the ancient sanctuary to Asclepius. It's also the site of one of the best preserved ancient theaters, which has also been heavily reconstructed so that it can actually be used for performances now. It has incredible acoustics, and to prove this, our professor had most of the class spread out all over the theater, and then three volunteers singing on the stage at the bottom at three different loudnesses to see when the people in the seats could hear them or not. Of course, I volunteered to be one of the singers, and so I and my two friends made fools of ourselves on an international stage by singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" at the Theater at Epidaurus. I suppose that we could have done something a bit more classy like "Mary Had A Little Lamb," or "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," but it was the first thing that we thought of that we all knew. It was terrific. And then, as we were leaving the theater, we passed by a group of German students. One of them was giving a presentation, and my friend who knows German tells us that the presenter was saying, "This theater has excellent acoustics, as you can tell from those Americans who were singing." It was great.
-After that, we went back to Nauplion and explored the Palamidi, another Venetian fortress on the highest point in the city. It was extremely windy up there, so strong that we were given specific warnings not to be climbing on top of ledges or along the edges of the cliffs for fear that we would be blown away. But of course the view from that high up was amazing, and I love exploring old fortifications. After about an hour up there, we were given the option to either take the bus back down to the hotel or to stay up there for longer and walk down ourselves. My friend who explores fortifications and I elected to explore more and walk down. We saw the prison that Theodoros Kolokotronis, who was one of the heroes of the Greek Revolution, was kept in. It was a really small room in one of the bastions with no windows and that you had to enter by means of this small tunnel you had to crouch over double to go through. It would have been pretty bad to have had to live there. I know that that's kind of the point of prisons, but still. Then to get down, we had to walk down all these steps on the outside of the fortress, which was cool because we got to see parts of the fortress you couldn't see or get into from the inside, including one set of rooms that I'm pretty sure we weren't actually supposed to go into, but since the gate blocking it off was not only unlocked but almost halfway open, I figured that it was fair game.

Day three (Monday 13 October 2008)
-First stop for the day was at the Argive Heraion. This is the temple associated with the story of the two young men pulling their mother's chariot to the temple so that she could perform the rites of Hera and them dying after performing this feat. (I've only had to be told that that story is associated with this temple about four or five times this year. Maybe now that I've been there it will finally start to stick). Anyway, as always, the temple was in a beautiful location with a terrific view. We could see across to another Venetian fortification about 13 km away and all the way to the Argolic Gulf, that's how clear it was.
-Next up was visiting the site of Tiryns. We were really lucky for this stop. One of our group leader's colleagues is the assistant to the site director for Tiryns, so he gave us the tour of the place. This was terrific for two reasons. One, since he works there, he knows absolutely everything known about the site, and so he was able to give us a really interesting and informative tour. Two, because he's really high up in the administration of the site, he was able to take us to parts of the site that aren't generally open to the public. There are portions of the site that are roped off with signs saying No Entrance, and he pulled barrier down temporarily and waved us through. So we got to go down the West Stairway and into other parts that we wouldn't have been allowed into if he weren't leading the tour. So that was pretty cool. There was a lot more Cyclopean masonry at this site, with even larger blocks than were found at Mycenae.
-One last stop at Nauplion for lunch (gyros for me. Gyros in Nauplion are tiny compared to the ones in Crete, or even the ones in Athens, and so I ended up eating two before I felt full. They were good, just "unfortunately minuscule," as one of the people I was with put it). Then we were back on the bus and on the way back to Athens. I spent the entire bus ride back to Athens sleeping on my friend's shoulder. It's been a long, but fun, past few days. Now I get to catch up on all of the work left undone over this trip, plus prepare for midterms, which are nearly upon me.