Greece, Part IV

Well, I had an absolutely wonderful day yesterday. It started early, leaving the hotel at 8:00 AM, and the tour guide gave us much information along the way. The traffic out of Athens was murder, but soon we were in the countryside, going towards the Peloponnese, which is a peninsula separated from the mainland of Greece by an isthmus. This isthmus is cut by an incredibly cool-looking canal, which we stopped to see. I loved the way all the layers of the rock were visible.

The next stop was the ancient city of Corinth. As far as ruins go, these weren't the most impressive, but still rather cool. Corinth's ruins are, essentially, the remains of an ancient shopping mall, in a sense. Another important part of the Corinth site is the platform from which Paul defended himself when the Jews put him on trial there. He had lived in Corinth for 18 months before the pressure was just too much, and he moved on. He had quite a job to do there, as it was a very materialistic city--only the wealthy lived there, and those who visited were mostly wealthy traders as well. From the Corinthian Acropolis, both the Aegean and Ionian seas are visible--unfortunately, we did not get to see that view, as it would have been a rather nasty long hike to do so.

The bus trip to Mycenae from there was so beautiful--the Greek countryside is beautiful, like the Napa Valley, but with more of the silvery leaves of the olive trees than anything else. When we got to Mycenae, the view from their acropolis was almost more impressive than the ruins themselves. However, the ruins in this case were actually impressive, as was the story behind them.

If the names Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, or Iphigenia ring a bell at all to you, then the significance of the ruins of Mycenae have extra meaning. In fact, the Mycenae site was excavated by a man who wanted to prove their existence, since he loved the Greek tragedies so much. What's historical fact, at least, is that Agamemnon was king of Mycenae during the Trojan War--both the height of the Mycenaean civilization, and the beginning of its downfall. There, in Mycenae, are the graves of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, or so they claim. The walls of the city are massive and really impressive, and the Lion's Gate leading inside is really cool, too.

I know I'm using and re-using words here, but it's sort of the way the ruins there leave a person thinking about them. I guess the only way I can really describe it is through pictures, and we'll see how much luck I have with that. . . the connection is still patchy here. My favorite part of the site was actually the abandoned cistern, which had a very well-preserved staircase leading down to it. The way the light shone from the top of the passageway onto the stairs was like a digital blasphemy wallpaper, if any of you are familiar with those.
The tomb of Agamemnon, in particular, was really cool--a high dome that did not photograph well, but had excellent acoustics. Again, very hard to describe, and very cool.

We had lunch at a hotel by the sea, after which many swam in the ocean or the pool. I just sort of chilled. . . needed to, being bummed about my grades. When I got back to the hotel, I studied for a little, than started watching the Little Mermaid, needing a picker-upper. As I listened to the glorious Ashman score, I got an idea. Cackling gleefully, I soon produced my very first recorded silly Greek Study Aid song. It sounds terrible, but the process of making these songs to study helps almost more than listening to them. I'm thinking, eh, this can work. Already I have personally destroyed several great works from the stage and screen, my favorite so far being the Accusative Song, based off of the song "How Does She Know?" from Enchanted. It's enough to make any music teacher's ears cringe, but oh, it was so much fun to make.

Amazingly, this unconventional study method worked for me--I did better on this morning's quiz than any other so far. Coming out of this (and I can't use that phrase without thinking about its participle-ness now), I had the adventure of finding the post office. I got off a stop too late, and had to walk several blocks before a nice person at a newsstand gave me directions. After I found it, I thought to myself, "Wow, there's much easier ways of describing where this is," and was shocked at how much less time it took me to get back to the correct station. . .but hey, that's life. It was good exercise.

May the rest of you have much greater senses of direction, and not get lost in the great city of life. And if you do. . . embrace the adventure!