Greece Travelogue, Part 4
Jul. 4th, 2010 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michiexileThere are more pictures. Alas, though, there is much less free time and much more Awesome Things To See, so editing and uploading of my pictures from Delphi, from Mystras, from Mycenae, from Epidavros and from Athens will all have to wait until I'm no longer in Greece.
There will be an epic pictorial epilogue to the travelogue however.
Just as you might have divined from the above list of places I have yet to upload pictures from, the last few days have been epic. Fantastic. Intense. Amazing. We've seen the ruins of Delphi, and failed to find the crevice with the noxious fumes. We've seen the Byzantine city of Mystras - well, about half of it, because they closed down and I had to be fed (URGENTLY!)... We've seen the ruins of Mycenae with the lion gate, and the gate that Oresthes fled through and the site of the throne that Agamemnon sat on and... We've seen the ancient site of Epidavros, and sat in the gigantic amphitheatre as a greek theatre group put on Ἱππῆς by Ἀριστοφάνης. We read most of the play in translation in advance, so we could follow along in the somewhat physical comedy even as the actors spoke a language most of us knew nothing of at all. We've also seen Old Epidavros - a gorgeously cute little seaside resort that is everything Nafpaktos fails to be: quaint, cute, cuddly, inviting. And driven through New Epidavros, a much more garish and neon-coloured seaside resort. And we've seen Athens, the Acropolis museum, the odd and friendly Spanish Pirates themed Rock Bar out in a weird corner of the city.
Along the way, I'm convinced of several things. One of them being that I actually am a better driver now than when we got here. After all, I've survived on roads filled with greek drivers!! Key things I have learned include "Ignore road signs!" - everyone else does. If I were to drive at the speed limit, say, I'd have an annoyed greek driver glued to my rear bumper within minutes. Driving 10km/h above? Same thing. 20km/h above? Now we're talking - as long as this translates to something under 100km/h total, I'm pretty much fine, and driving at traffic speed. If the road is marked 80km/h and up, however, traffic flow ranges all the way up to 50km/h over the limit. And this includes the 130km/h freeways.
Unrelatedly? It's FUN to drive an Alfa Romeo.
There will be an epic pictorial epilogue to the travelogue however.
Just as you might have divined from the above list of places I have yet to upload pictures from, the last few days have been epic. Fantastic. Intense. Amazing. We've seen the ruins of Delphi, and failed to find the crevice with the noxious fumes. We've seen the Byzantine city of Mystras - well, about half of it, because they closed down and I had to be fed (URGENTLY!)... We've seen the ruins of Mycenae with the lion gate, and the gate that Oresthes fled through and the site of the throne that Agamemnon sat on and... We've seen the ancient site of Epidavros, and sat in the gigantic amphitheatre as a greek theatre group put on Ἱππῆς by Ἀριστοφάνης. We read most of the play in translation in advance, so we could follow along in the somewhat physical comedy even as the actors spoke a language most of us knew nothing of at all. We've also seen Old Epidavros - a gorgeously cute little seaside resort that is everything Nafpaktos fails to be: quaint, cute, cuddly, inviting. And driven through New Epidavros, a much more garish and neon-coloured seaside resort. And we've seen Athens, the Acropolis museum, the odd and friendly Spanish Pirates themed Rock Bar out in a weird corner of the city.
Along the way, I'm convinced of several things. One of them being that I actually am a better driver now than when we got here. After all, I've survived on roads filled with greek drivers!! Key things I have learned include "Ignore road signs!" - everyone else does. If I were to drive at the speed limit, say, I'd have an annoyed greek driver glued to my rear bumper within minutes. Driving 10km/h above? Same thing. 20km/h above? Now we're talking - as long as this translates to something under 100km/h total, I'm pretty much fine, and driving at traffic speed. If the road is marked 80km/h and up, however, traffic flow ranges all the way up to 50km/h over the limit. And this includes the 130km/h freeways.
Unrelatedly? It's FUN to drive an Alfa Romeo.
