Scoutmaster trip to Eurpoe 2007

Europe 2007 2008

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Athens is the city of “Men in Black” and “Women in Black.” By that I mean that a great many people dress in black: black pants, black shirts, black skirts, black blouses, black sweaters, black jackets and black shoes. Age doesn’t seem to be a discriminating factor. Young and old alike seem to prefer dressing in black. Sometimes people break the monotony by wearing a white shirt or blouse with their otherwise black vestments. However, people cover their white shirts and white blouses with black jackets, black vests, and black sweaters, so only a hint of the white shows through. Even shoes and socks are black. Some of the black outfits are quite stylish, and worn by very sophisticated looking men and women. Younger people wear black jeans and black T-shirts. If you are not wearing a black outfit, chances are you are a tourist.

Occasionally, I see Greek Orthodox priests. They too wear black. The typical priestly garb is a long dress-like garment covering the entire body from the neck to the shoes. Just peeking through the collar and the sleeves is a white shirt. On the metro, I noticed a priest sitting across from me. He had jeweled cufflinks. They were in the shape of a Christian Cross, and were quite elegantly made of a black shiny onyx surrounded by diamonds. The Greek Orthodox priests wear a distinctive cylindrically shaped hat with a flat plate-like top.

Greek music is quite special. Do you remember the movie, “Zorba the Greek?” It won several Oscars in the sixties I think. The score was written by M. Theodorakis, and is haunting. I bought a few CD’s featuring traditional Greek string instruments, including one album of Theodorakis’ “best” works. The other popular Greek singer in the sixties was Melina Mercouri; she sang, “Never on a Sunday.”

I caught the train to Corinth at 9:00 a.m., and had to take a taxi to bus station as I had just missed the public bus and would have to wait an hour and a half for the next one. Since the bus station is not too, far from the train station, the taxi ride was not too expensive. Then I caught a bus to Nafpoli. The part of Greece I am traveling through is called the Peloponese. The bus drove through the towns of Argos and Mycenae, and I will return to visit both in the next day or two. My destination, Nafpoli, is the kind of place I could stay for a month or two. Its picturesque old town is small and compact, clean, on the ocean, and the pace of life moves very slowly. It just seems to offer the most relaxing atmosphere.

My guidebook recommended the Marianna Pension, and I checked it out along with several other places, but the guidebook assessed it correctly. The Marianna is fairly high up the hillside, and the rooms with the enclosed terrace has a commanding view of the harbor, the mountains, the forts and the castles. You can’t drive to the Marianna Pension; you must walk, but it is worth every uphill step.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween! Today I toured the ancient cities of Argos and Mycenae. Argos, perhaps the oldest place in Greece, may have been around six thousand years ago. The best artifacts are in the archeology museum in Argos. They include a well-preserved bronze helmet and bronze body armor. Argos also has some well preserved mosaic tile floors and walls. However, the Citadel at Mycenae really has much to see; it’s a World Heritage Site. In the 9th century B.C.E., Homer talked about Mycenae as “well built and rich in gold.” In the Iliad, Homer tells us that the King of Mycenae, Agamemnon, led the Greeks in the siege of Troy. Good old Schliemann, the German amateur archeologist who uncovered Troy, also “rediscovered” Mycenae, and he unearth (stole) a lot of gold in the 1870’s. According to legend, Perseus, the same fellow who beheaded Medusa, founded Mycenae. The huge building blocks that form the walls of the citadel weigh six tons each, and legend has it that the Cyclops, Homer’s one-eyed giants, built the walls of Mycenae with these formidable blocks of stone.

The entrance to the citadel is through the Lion’s Gate, so named because there are two lions carved in stone in the lintel over this portal. As you continue walking just beyond the Lion’s Gate is a Grave Circle where Schliemann found the gold; in the museum, a gold death mask is prominently displayed along with quite a few other objects made of gold. Schliemann thought the gold mask belonged to Agamemnon. However, it did not. The mask belonged to someone who died three hundred years before Agamemnon. I explored some of the other parts the citadel; these included the royal palace and the secret cistern. Then, before returning to Nafpoli, I walked down the road to see the “Treasury of Atreus,” also known as the “Tomb of Agamemnon.” This structure is shaped like an inverted cone with the pointed end up, and is accessed by walking down a long path to the entrance into the tomb. It is a very eerie structure; there’s nothing inside, but darkness. The Mycenae royalty was buried in places like this, but since these tombs were not hidden nor covered with earth, they were robbed centuries ago. Nothing has been found in any of them.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

My destination today is Sparta. I caught the early bus out of Nafpoli to Tripoli, and changed to another bus in Tripoli that took me to Sparta. The ancient Spartans did not believe in building great structures like the Athenians; they were warriors who spent their time training for combat. Modern Sparta is an ordinary town without great ancient monuments. However, nearby is Mystras, a Byzantine city of great interest. I got to Sparta about 1:00 p.m., checked into a nice place called the Hotel Lakonia, and grabbed a taxi to the fortress gate at Mystras. However, by the time I got there, it was around 2:30 p.m., and they close at 3:00 p.m. So I left and will have to return tomorrow morning. At least, now I know where I am going, and the fortress of Mystras offers an incredible sight as it sits on the top of a mountain peak.

Back in Sparta, I had a cup of coffee in an outdoor café and noticed a movie theater close by. El Greco was playing, and given my recent experience with some of his works at the Cycladic Museum in Athens, I decided to see the movie tonight. Based on my experience, I would urge everyone to see the movie; it’s good, although in my opinion, the Inquisition did not get an adequately bad rap! The painting of the evil Inquisition cleric in the movie was one that I got to see in Athens. Seeing all of this in Greece seems special too. In the credits, I read that the movie is based on a novel, and perhaps the historical events may be embellished.

Sparta was the number-two city-state of ancient Greece, and unlike democratic Athens, the number-one city-state, Sparta was a totalitarian regime. Male children underwent grueling physical and military training almost from birth. Children deemed unfit, were left on the tops of mountains to die and to be eaten by vultures. Children deemed fit to undergo training were brutalized, and all Spartans stayed in the army until age 60! Soldiers ate in communal dining halls. Married soldiers, spent little time at home. The life and loyalty of a soldier were always to the army. I have read that the Spartan motto in battle was, “return with your shield or die on it!” The Spartan lockstep military unit was called a Phalanx, and phalanx discipline in battle was renown in the ancient world. Since Spartan men trained continuously, they had slaves, called Helots, who, without any rights whatsoever, did all the work.

I learned that after the demise of Greece, the remnants of Sparta’s civilization moved into the central mountains of the Peloponese, an area called the Mani. The people of the Mani region have a reputation for being formidable fighters, and they claim that they are the only part of Greece to have never been conquered, not even by the Ottoman Turks. Stories abound that the Maniots fought internal feuds between rival family and clans through much of their history, but they are peaceful today, I think. The town of Lakonia is in the central mountains of the Mani region. I plan to drive carefully down Laconia Road in Alexandria, Virginia, my hometown.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Mystras, the massive Byzantine Citadel and town, perch on a mountain overlooking the town of modern Sparta in the valley below. I spent the entire day hiking here. There are no flat paths; all the paths and trails go steeply up or down. The surfaces of the paths are rocky cobblestones. The elevation change is at least 2000 feet, and good exercise for me. This formidable place held power between the 13th and 15th centuries C.E. My guidebook says that the Byzantine Empire made its last ‘stand’ here. Many monasteries and churches dot the lower parts of the mountain. These ecclesiastical buildings have magnificent paintings and mosaic tile tapestries. The stone and brickwork show intricate and elaborate craftsmanship. Additionally, the Palace of Mystras stands midway up the mountainside; workmen are restoring the buildings of the palace. The ruler of Mystras, called the ‘Despotate of Morea’ in the various information signs, belonged to the ruling family of the Byzantine Empire. Eventually, the Ottoman Turks overran Mystras, and the decline started. Forty thousand people once lived in Mystras.

Atop the mountain, at the very pinnacle, stands the medieval Citadel Fortress. I would not want to try to attack the place. The city is laid out in three levels: a lower town, an upper town, and the Citadel Fortress. Invaders would have had to fight through two levels of defenses before reaching the fortress. In both the lower and upper towns, I visited many churches and monasteries. Religion must have been very important in Mystras as there seems to be a church around each turn in the path. My understanding is that site-restoration of Mystras has been going on since the 1950’s, and it continues today.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

I traveled to Delphi today. The way I chose to go via Corinth and along the Gulf of Corinth, as opposed to going back to Athens. This was certainly the more interesting route. On the map, the Gulf of Corinth separates the Peloponese from the mainland of Greece. There’s a ferry from the small town of Egio that crosses the gulf to the smaller town of Nikolaos. I took a bus to the town of Egio from Corinth, and there, I caught the last ferry across the Gulf of Corinth to the Greek mainland at Nikolaos. I arrived in Egio around 2:00 p.m., but the next, and last ferry of the day left the port at 5:00 p.m. So I settled in to read the International Herald Tribune at a peaceful café along the waterfront. I also had an excellent seafood risotto dinner at the café. By the way, I have decided that I like the International Herald Tribune; it’s a New York Times publication, but the Tribune contains more world news than we normally get in our papers back home. The paper also has good coverage of US national news and politics.

The ferry to Nikolaos took only around thirty minutes, and there was a crowd waiting at the dock to board the ship back to Egio. The bus to Delphi was scheduled to arrive at 7:30 p.m., so I had to hang around another two hours. In total, I cooled my heels for about five or six hours today as I waited for connections on the journey to Delphi. It gets dark around 6:00 p.m., and the bus from the port at Nikolaos went up into the mountains on some very steep curving roads. To my surprise, I had to transfer to another bus in the town of Amfissa, but I finally arrived in Delphi. Today travel became quite a trip; it took about twelve hours, and involved riding on four busses and a ferry. I arrived in Delphi about 10:00 p.m.

Delphi is a small town; everything is on a couple of streets. I had no problem checking into a fine hotel. The view from my window is that of Mount Parnassus directly ahead, and the Gulf of Corinth off in the distance to left; the view is spectacular.

Sunday, November 3, 2007

I started out early to visit the ancient site of Delphi. In the 4th century B.C.E., people came to Delphi to seek advice from the oracle. Philip of Macedon took control of Greece in the 2nd century B.C.E., and the oracle to told his son, Alexander the Great, that he was invincible; that is all he needed to hear, because afterwards Alexander conquered the world. Imagine the power of that old lady! There were other oracles in Greece, but Delphi was the greatest. Poor Oedipus got the bad news from the Delphic Oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. The actual physical place, a crossroads near Delphi, is where Oedipus unknowingly killed his father, King Laius.

The site of ancient Delphi is on the side of Mount Parnassus; there are several temples and sanctuaries, an ancient theater, a treasury, and a sports stadium. The oracle was supposed to get her inspiration from Apollo, and Delphi has the remains of a temple to Apollo. There is an adjacent site with a sanctuary for Athena. The museum on the site has a nice collection of valuable objects, including some gold. Ancient Delphi maintained a large treasury.

Tomorrow, I plan to head north to Meteor, another Byzantine site in an area of unusual geologic formations. Then I will go further north to Thessalonika, Greece’s second largest city. Although there are only about a thousand other places worth seeing, it’s time to move on. After Thessalonika, I’ll head to Italy.

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster, Troop 1131