Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/zyhEjMKyyFvYBh7WA
After Iraq, I flew on out to Greece to meet my high school buddy Steve, who is also Greek. We had already roadtripped through Arizona and Utah last summer together, and since he is also a huge history nerd and has never traveled through his motherland, he decided to meet me here. Started off in Athens for a few days before renting a car. Honestly, Athens was great. I have only ever heard bad things about Athens, like how it is dirty and grimy and unsafe. The Americans who say that are the types who have only ever traveled to resorts in Mexico/the Bahamas and like London/Rome/Paris. Athens was a great city that did not feel like a generic European old town, which I really liked about it. While it had narrow cobble stoned streets and Mediterranean architecture (stone buildings, red roofs), there was just enough imperfection (which I guess the aforementioned Americans would refer to as being dirty) to give it a unique flair. And despite what people say about Greece not being worth visiting in the “off season”, Athens was packed with tourists. We had to wait in line numerous times which was a first for me post COVID. One interesting thing about Athens is that it’s probably overtaken Marseille as the most anarchist city I’ve ever been to. Just tons and tons of ACAB and related graffiti everywhere.
The food was very good, and while the sights were solid, I definitely thing they were overpriced. The Parthenon was 20 euros (!!!) and while obviously I had to see it, it was absolutely about 15 euros too much. I’ve seen more impressive Greco-Roman ruins in Turkey, and would see more impressive ones later on in Greece. Honestly, the most impressive part about the Acropolis was the view you could get from climbing the nearby hills, where it did admittedly look really cool, especially with the sunset light shining on it. The sightseeing highlight of Athens for me was the Athens Archaeological Museum, which had a really cool collection of Ancient Greek sculptures that were really impressively done, and in shockingly great condition given their age.
The real highlight of Athens happened on our second night. Steve and I had slowly been drinking from the evening onwards, but it didn’t seem too bad at first. We both remember showing up to dinner at around 7:30pm, but both have zero memory of our 1 hour dinner (Google Maps says we were there for a little over an hour). Neither of us had credit card charges, and I didn’t spend any cash while Steve said if he did spend cash it wasn’t much since he his wallet seemed to have the right amount in it. But I don’t think we dined and dashed since we both remember leaving the restaurant and immediately starting wrestling in the streets of downtown Athens, surrounded by locals and tourists. Figured the restaurant would have flagged us for not paying by then. But it was just amusing how we remembered getting seated at dinner and leaving dinner, with that one hour window just blank. We also got dinner the next evening with his cousin, which was arguably the best food of the entire trip. It was an obnoxious amount of food…the waiter had to bring a stool to hold additional dishes.
The next day, we got a rental car to start our one week roadtrip around the mainland. The first stop was Corinth, which is probably most famous for being the city whose Christian leaders St. Paul wrote some of his letters to (Book of Corinthians) and for the fact that Greco Roman columns are called Corinthian columns. I actually really enjoyed the site – it was in a very ruined state with overgrown sections. Obviously nowhere near as extreme or cool as Termessos in Turkey (which is still easily my favorite Greek or Roman ruin, though maybe Pompeii/Herculaneum can change that?), but along those same lines. Quick aside – obviously the history behind the Greek sights, like those of Iraq, was out of this world. But again, like Iraq, strictly from an aesthetic point the ruins here were “just” good, and I think Turkey (and even Jerash in Jordan) was far more impressive. But the history definitely makes up for that.
Anyways, after Corinth, we drove further south to the Bronze Age sight of Mycenae. This city was ~3500 years old, which is absurd. And yet, it is still a good deal newer than the sites I have seen in Iraq or Egypt, which really put those two in context. Mycenae was neat, though obviously no intricate carvings like you see in the Hellenistic ruins of Greece as it was an earlier society that wasn’t quite as advanced with their sculpture and carving work. Highlights here included the Lion’s Gate, which was the entrance to the city/palace area and featured a 3000+ year old Lion carving above the gate (like the 3000+ year old Lion statue I saw in Babylon!), and Atreus’ Treasury, which was this giant domed tomb that actually had a legit hill growing on top of the tomb dome. And obviously, it was the Mycenaeans who are the protagonists in the Illiad. The rocks used for the walls in Mycenae were actually pretty large, and the Hellenistic Greeks (who would have encountered a less ruined site, but one that was still in ruins) thought the walls were built by Cyclops due to their size. We ended the day by arriving in Nafplion, which was a stereotypically pretty Mediterranean coastal town, with colorful houses, narrow streets. and nice sea views. Reminded me of the many like-wise towns my dad and I saw in Turkey, like Side, Cesme, Antalya, and Alacati, or even like the towns of the French Riviera – though I don’t know if I’ll see anything in Europe prettier than the French Riviera. I guess it is sort of a generic Mediterranean look.
The next day, we drove over to Sparta. The drive itself was nice and reminded me a ton of California or South Africa, two other spots I’ve been to with a Mediterranean climate. Nice coastal drive interspersed with green but rocky mountains. Sparta itself was both a pleasant surprise and a disappointment. There was this really cool ruin of a medieval Byzantine city called Mystras there which I honestly wasn’t expecting (Steve planned the whole trip…last time I was on a trip where I did zero planning was like back in middle school. Even from high school my parents began delegating things to me). It was spread out over like a 300 meter high hill so we got a good hike in as well, but just cool to see various churches with decaying yet colorful Byzantine art inside, and the ruined state of the walls as we went up and down the hill. Since this was about 2000 years newer than Mycenae, (which was similarly upon a hill, but a much shorter one) the walls here were in much much better shape. After this, we went to the city of Sparta itself, where there was a pleasant park developed around the remains of the Hellenistic ruins, which were very eh. Bit dissapointing given Sparta’s history (THIS IS SPARTA and all). But the museum was short and decent, cool to see a marble bust of a figure wearing a Spartan helmet.
The following day was a longer drive, and our last day in the Peloponnesian Peninsula. Drove over to Olympia, site of the ancient Olympics, before leaving the peninsula and spending the night in Nafpaktos, formerly known as Lepanto (one of the two big battles, along with Vienna, where the Ottomen lost momentum for a European invasion). Unfortunately nothing of note in Nafpaktos, it was basically a far, far, far less pretty version of Nafplion. So for Olympia…probably my least favorite ruin site, though obviously the history behind the location is awesome – origin of the ancient Olympics, as well as the location of the Statue of Zeus, one of the original seven wonders of the world. Steve was able to translate and we saw numerous carved marble on site that were dedications to the victors of certain competitions. Doubly cool because it shows how consistent Greek has been for the past few thousand years…really puts into perspective the history of the current culture. This is due to the Bible codifying Greek almost 2000 years ago. I’ve gotten OK at reading Greek myself – it’s similar yet different to Cyrillic. We also walked around the location of the original stadium, which apparently had a capacity of 40k people which is a ton for that age. Unfortunately the stadium now is just a flat rocky plain surrounded on three sides by a small inclined hill, which has since grown over the seats. Beyond that, they had a pretty decent museum – one of the biggest surprises for me was learning about the Mesopotamian and Hittite influence on Greek art before the Hellenic golden age, as they displayed many artifacts from those regions found in the Delphi region here.
After a night in Nafpaktos, we drove over to Delphi before continuing on to a small town just outside Meteora. Delphi might have been my favorite “traditional” ruin site in Greece. Like every other ruin besides Corinth and Olympia, it involved a nice uphill walk. And this was far and away the most crowded spot we saw after Athens. Tour busses full of Israeli tourists, tons and tons of French families (some of whom we saw in Corinth/Mycenae/Sparta). Really was a shock to my system since I at least thought the non-urban spots would still be empty because of COVID. But seeing the ruins of the giant Temple of Apollo where the Oracle of Delphi was based was pretty awesome. Had a couple of other cool ruins but the overhead view of this temple as you climbed up the hill was the definite highlight. I had always thought that the Oracle got high off natural gas before blabbering the Will of the Gods indecipherably, but I guess it was just good old fashioned mushrooms because there was no vent in the temple and nothing of it was mentioned in the museum nearby.
After Delphi, we drove over to our hotel in Meteora to spend the night before checking out the monasteries the following day. Meteora was really really cool. The natural environment itself was nice but I have been spoiled by all my travel so it wasn’t necessarily “WOW” for me – tons of narrow stone spires. But what really made it was obviously the monasteries built on top. They all looked like impenetrable fortresses while driving around the mountain roads to get overlooks of these buildings upon their rocks, with the valley far below. Just an incredible site. The monasteries themselves were pretty cool. We visited 3 of them – they had quick informative museums with nifty displays like medieval manuscripts (I am a sucker for old books and libraries, simply from an aesthetic standpoint), along with old robes worn by the archbishops, medieval woodcarvings, and other artworks. The churches here also had crazy interior artwork – all very dire stuff involving beheadings and torture and the devil, which apparently is more common in monastery churches. Obviously no pictures allowed but I managed to sneak one with my phone, of the devil riding his beast on a flame shot out by some creature. One interesting thing for me here was that the nun outfit basically looks identical to the hijab in Islam. I suppose this is quite obvious but I never really noticed this, but I guess coming straight from Iraq and then visiting a monastery 10 days later kind of made that clear to me.
Regarding the drive from Nafpaktos to Meteora – the scenery was great. Another thing I’ve always heard about Greece is that, beyond to only visit in the summer, it’s only the islands that are worth visiting. I’ve never really paid attention to that since my extensive travel has taught me that I easily get bored in even “the best” tropical environments. Tulum and Goa are only fun for the bars, but the beaches themself are meh despite being globally famous. Mozambique has probably the prettiest and most “picturesque” beaches I’ve ever seen but still, 100% not worth it to go there unless you’re a beach bum because it’s still just a beach. Zanzibar is world famous but I got bored after a couple of days there. Bali is great for bars and scuba diving but otherwise thankfully never even went to a beach there. And the less said about the beaches in Honduras or the Red Sea resorts of Egypt, the better. Besides diving (and I guess other water activities like jet skiing) I just don’t get beaches really…I remember my dad saying as a kid that if we wanted a beach vacation we could just stay home and crank the heat up, and I’m thankful that we actually took cultural trips to Europe instead. But yea, basically have zero interest in the islands of Greece since it’s one of the few (or the only?) thing that I really am not interested in while travelling, guess I am just too restless. But anyways, Greece had fantastic weather our entire trip, and the drive from Nafpaktos to Delphi along the coast was stunning. Basically rivals any coastal South African or California drive with the landscapes. Greece is severely underrated as a destination outside of its’ islands (and probably severely overrated for its’ islands), and the mainland is definitely worth checking out for more than just the history. Nafplion and some of the coastal drives honestly rival any of the more famous Mediterranean spots in Europe and at a fraction of the cost and crowds too.
After Meteora, we had lunch in the nearby town which was quite easily the single best dish I had in Greece (I don’t say meal because the dinner in Athens with Steve’s cousin was like 10 dishes in total. Can’t really compare). It’s this Italian-influenced dish called Pastitsio, which is basically baked pasta and mincemeat with bechamel sauce on top. The pasta itself was good quality, but that bechamel sauce…it was basically like having an excellent biscuit on top of the paste. One of those dishes that just stands out. The restaurant was called Taverna Panellinion, which we funnily enough found on Lonely Planet for the region. In general, I love the whole concept of tavernas that exist in Greece – basically like an old school restaurant with (as a Google review for a spot in Thessaloniki succinctly put it) “Mamma Mia” vibes. They all have excellent food, and great local drinks as well – basically only drank tsipouro and ouzo the entire trip, both of which are sort of like Raki or Arak but much better tasting.
So we drove a couple of hours north from Meteora to Lithochoro, which is at the base of Mount Olympus. Olympus itself looked a bit underwhelming from the town, as it is “only” ~2900 meters tall. But still, it is the home of Zeus and company. Lithochoro was a really charming village that is exactly what I picture a Balkan village to look like, having never been to the Balkans. We stayed at this awesome local guesthouse, Kallisto, run by a German-Greek and French-Montenegran couple. The breakfast was great (especially the homemade jams), and they offered us shots of a great homemade tsipouro multiple times.
The morning after getting to Lithochoro, we woke up at 5am, and left at 6am for a 45 minute drive to the Prionia trailhead to climb up Olympus. The trail started at 1100 meters and the highest walkable point in Olympus was ~10km away at just under 2900 meters, Skala Peak. This almost 1800 meter ascent and then descent would be the most I have ever hiked in a day, elevation wise. Honestly, I found the hike up super easy and straightforward despite the distance, but this was due to a couple of factors – wasn’t carrying 10+kg of weight like I was in Georgia or Kyrgyzstan for overnight treks (clothes, toiletries, laptop for reading ebooks, small things I’m too lazy to remove from my backpack but build up), and we were going at a slower pace than usual because Steve wasn’t as experienced a hiker as me. But this was good, since I have a (bad?) habit of pushing myself too much when solo, so going with a friend slows me down to a comfortable pace where I barely broke a sweat – sort of similar to how I found my Yosemite hike with my cousin and his wife super easy when I was there last summer. That said, the last ~300 meters of elevation over 1km was really tough…just a steep uphill ascent over a rocky path, with no switchbacks or anything to make it easier. But that made the hike that much more enjoyable once getting to the top. The views itself were decent, but I’ve definitely seen better (again, spoiled from too much travel). But still – on the top of Mount Olympus, home of the gods. Just really cool.
A couple of stray dogs found us at the parking lot and literally walked with us the entire time. One of the strays stayed back at a bench area just before the final 300 meter ascent with another hiker, but the second dog ran along with us, ignoring the other hikers. We even fed the two dogs some scraps of our food. I would like to think that this was Zeus reincarnated as a dog, guiding us there. Zeus also blessed us with good weather for the hike, as it was clear skies, with just enough clouds to make the temperature nice and cool once we cleared the tree line, and minimal wind once on top. While walking back down the mountain, we saw Zeus chase a pack of mountain goats for what must have been over half a kilometer. We figured he was just playing around, but he then caught a baby goat by the neck, vicously threw it around and slammed it to the ground, and then started eating it. Never in a million years did I think I would see a wildlife kill in Greece of all countries. And this wasn’t some wild dog but a domesticated/wild mix that knew how to be docile and subservient to humans! Just an insane experience.
Anyways, a combination of Steve’s boots completely wearing out (his soles disappeared and he had no traction), plus me overestimating how quickly a non hiker could do a 20km roundtrip, 1800 meter up and down hike (honestly 100% my fault here), meant that the hike down took a lot longer than my estimated 3-4 hours and we wound up hiking the last 2+ hours in complete darkness. This was honestly the highlight of the entire Greece trip for me (with apologies to our blackout dinner and subsequent 9pm street wrestling in the bustling streets of Athens). I had only ever done pitch black night time walking in the wild in the El Mirador trek in Guatemala, but that was with guides while this was just solo, so totally different experience. Though Guatemala was definitely cooler because of the roar of the howler monkeys plus all the sounds of wildlife – the forest around Olympus was weirdly quiet, we literally didn’t hear a single other animal. Obviously I had my headlamp which I thankfully brought just in case, but just so cool to walk on our own for a couple of hours, dropping ~1000 meters over like 6km in the pitch black. And the night sky was amazing too – such a clear view of the stars from here, with thankfully no moon to pollute the sky. My body was obviously a bit sore the next couple of days due to the sheer elevation gain and drop, but overall I would say Olympus was maybe slightly more difficult than my Georgia trek? Absolutely a good deal easier than Acatenango in Guatemala, my Kyrgyzstan trek, or Kilimanjaro in terms of hikes I’ve done this year (and obviously harder than any hike I did in Glacier/Yellowstone/Tetons but those were all joke hikes in terms of difficulty). I still maintain that the hardest hike I have ever done, by far, was the brief ~1 hour foray into the wild in Bwindi in Uganda after we saw the gorillas JUST outside the technical border of Bwindi in a buffer area. If we actually had to hike hours in that mountain jungle hunting for gorillas it would have been beyond brutal (but obviously still worth it).
So after getting back late, we got dinner and then slept in late before leaving the next afternoon for the final day of the roadtrip. Stopped by the town of Vergina to see the tomb of Phillip of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father. This tomb was only discovered in the 80s and was not found by looters, so was totally untouched. Definitely my favorite thing that I saw in Greece, over any of the other Hellenic ruins or Meteora (obviously Meteora was way more picturesqe). The whole layout was also super cool – they found the tomb under a hill, preserved it, and built a museum around the tomb, so the entire thing is in a complex that is under a hill (almost a bit like the tomb we saw in Mycenae). The tomb was so well preserved that you could even see the painting on the top of the exterior entrance! Beyond that, because the tomb was untouched, there were tons of cool artifacts they found in the tomb, which were all in display in the museum (the tomb itself was sealed shut again and you could just see the outside entrance). The gold here was particularly extravagant – tons and tons of intricately carved pieces. Not to mention intricately carved bronze vessels and ivory pieces, along with an impressive display of swords and shields. Like I said before, it was by some distance the coolest historical thing I saw in Greece. One dumb thing that sort of struck me here, as a culmination of all the museum sculptures and art we saw in Greece, was how I took for granted the impact of Greece on World History. Greek art and culture has a direct and obvious link to Roman stuff, which (this goes without saying) has a strong and indirect impact on modern Western culture. But even these Hellenistic artworks are just as good as the stuff you see from the Renaissance.
This was the site of Aigai, which was the original Macedonian capital before moving to Pella. Alexander the Great himself ran his father’s funeral after his assassination, so it was apparently some big spectacle. There was also a slightly smaller tomb, also untouched, in the same museum complex for one of Alexander’s sons, and when Alexander died in Babylon (been there done that), he apparently was supposed to be interred here but got diverted to Egypt where his tomb has yet to be found. Also in Vergina was Phillip’s palace, which would have been awesome to see, but this was under restoration and renovation work by archaeologists and the government so was closed to visitors. But apparently the mosaics here are pretty good and the walls still sort of intact, so that was a shame.
We then drove over to Thessaloniki, where we dropped off our Fiat rental car and checked into our AirBnB. Stayed 3 nights and 2 full days here. Thessaloniki is definitely a city that grew on me. Definitely not as nice as Athens, despite what Greek Americans say, but it was definitely a “vibrant” city, for lack of a better word, largely due to the large undergraduate population there. It seemed like everyone we saw on the streets was either a college kid or a retiree. Definitely up there with Athens in terms of the leftist and anarchist graffiti as well. The food here, was as everywhere else in Greece, excellent. Having a native Greek speaker like Steve really helped with enhancing the food experience – I still would have enjoyed the food had I been solo but I think he made a big difference in knowing what to order. There was this really really good dessert dish, a deep fried pastry filled with thick creamy custard and topped with cinnamon powder. Tasted like a much better version of funnel cake almost. Sightseeing wise, the couple of museums there were obviously not as good as Athens, but easily the 2nd best in Greece after that in terms of the quality of sculptures, mosaics, and pottery. And there were a few cool Byzantine churches that had a decent amount of mosaics left in them. Overall, it was a “nice but forgettable” city, but a good way to end Greece. I would say that Greece is definitely an upper-tier European country for me. Honestly probably on par with Turkey – the food here was slightly better, and the antiquity history was also probably better (minus Istanbul of course, but that is an almost incomparable city), and the mosaics here were also better – though Jordan still has by far the best mosaics I have seen. But Turkey definitely had better quality ruins in a vaccum, and the Islamic stuff was obviously absolutely fantastic there.
So Steve and I are flying to Rome tomorrow, and meeting up with Martin and a bunch of his LBS friends. The plan is to spend 5 days in Rome before Martin flies out, then 3 days in Naples (with day trips to Pompeii and Herculaneum) and a couple of days in Florence (with a day trip to Pisa). Steve is planning on flying out from Florence, so I’ll probably spend a few more days in Bologna/Ravenna/Venice/Milan, before flying to France. My sister is “working from home” for a week in Paris in early December so I’m meeting her then, and figured I might as well travel around France before and after that.