OCTOBER 13 - ANOTHER DAY IN GREECE

Wednesday, October 13 – We have a group wake up call at 7 AM, but I set my alarm earlier. Up and shower and shave (I am most definitely still NOT used to this idea of pulling a piece of sharpened metal across my face first thing in the morning.) And down for breakfast. Breakfast is a very nice spread – Five buffet tables of food – cold cuts and cheeses, lots of different kinds of rolls and bread and spreads and fruits and yogurt – lovely yogurt – and four or five kinds of eggs, and sausages and bacon and pastries and potatoes, five kinds of juice, coffee – hot chocolate – tea – and so forth. One can definitely eat. None of our group was there when I arrived, but shortly one showed up, then two more, then two more, then two more – as I was leaving, one of our group arrived who told me that one of the women was sick, so I called and talked with her sister. Probably just time change (and perhaps a little bit of taverna?) so she was going to stay in.

The day was dark and overcast, but no rain. We had very good luck – although it rained occasionally, only when we were in the bus. I keep saying – if you want good weather, invite the priest. We met in the lobby at the prescribed time and walked over to the cathedral of St. Dennis (St. Dennis? Yup, the first person baptized when Paul came to this area.) The sacristan didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Greek – but he speaks French, so we got along fine. Nice Mass – lovely church. Back to the hotel, where we discovered that, because of the fear of strikes, the tour folks had decided to go to Corinth because of the concern that streets in Athens would be closed with protest marches. (They do that a lot here – since September, there have been 72 permits granted for marches through the streets. Almost two a day.) I went to check on our sick lady, and found her and her sister having a light breakfast in the dining room. They decided to come with us – there is, after all, a bathroom on the bus – and our merr4y group gathered together and off we went.

Corinth is about 85 kilometers from downtown Athens, and our guide for the day is Mrs. Mara. She embodies the tradition of story-telling, and throughout the day, we were regaled with Greek legends, Most I had heard – but for some of the group, they were hearing stories for the first time.

Odd bits about Greece picked up along the way – Greece has a population of around 11 million, and something like 4.5 million live in Athens. In area, it’s about 1/3 the size of Texas. It has been an occupied city for over 6,000 years. Yes – six thousand years. I think that wins the prize.

Do NOT eat olives straight off the tree. Not only nasty, it will paralyze your taste buds for hours afterwards. Nasty doesn’t begin to describe just how bad the taste it. Olives need to soak and be cured for a LONG time before they are fit to eat.

Acro – means high. Acrocorinth – the fortress on the mountain above the three cities of Corinth (ancient Corinth, old Corinth and present Corinth). Acropolis – high above the people. Acrobat – high above something.

When you think of Greek ruins, we always think of the standing pillars – and nothing else. When the barbarians ravaged Greece, they took the marble walls and burned them in kilns, so they could get the marble dust,. The pillars were harder to fit into the kilns, and in later construction, they had been fastened with metal rods down the center, so the columns were left standing. (I had never realized that marble could burn!)

On the way, she told stories and discussed the political situation in Greece, the role of refugees and socialized medicine and other support programs. We did a detour to view the canal – the notion of building a canal through the isthmus went back before Julius Caesar. Caesar wanted to build a canal but died – Nero started one – at one point 6,000 Jewish slaves from the Galileean revolt came to work (also adding to the Jewish community). It is a straight canal, no locks – there is a small bridge at each end that blocks the canal, which helps control traffic. When a boat is cleared, the bridge drops into the water, the boat passes through and the bridge comes back into position. At which point, small children dash onto the bridge to retrieve the fish that have been caught on the bridge.

We had lunch at a small restaurant along the side of the canal and watched boats going back and forth.

And on to Corinth. We spent some time at the current archaeological site. Some of the group spent more time at the museum, because they could not deal with the walking. We saw the Bema, where Paul preached, and was most probably judged by Gallio. OIne of the buildings that remains was a public lavatory – think out house, with multiple holds. And learned where the expression “the wrong end of the stick” comes from. Has to do with the stick with a sponge on the end that was used for cleaning oneself at the public lav. (There was a running stream underneath the facility.) I assume you can figure it out from there, and that a more detailed explanation is not necessary. If you look carefully you can figure out the architecture.

I knew, but was reminded, that Greek statues and buildings were, in there days, highly decorated, with many colors and paintings. The materials used were naturally based and so over time faded and were washed away. It was not until later excavations, when statues buried deep in the earth were uncovered, that scholars realized the extent to which this decoration had been the norm.

There is never enough time. At least for me. I suspect some of our group had been ready to leave before we did, but I could have spent hours more. On the way my heart gave a little tug as we passed the sign for Epidaurus, where one of the great Greek theatres exists. Not on our tour list, and I’m probably the only one in the group who even knows it is there – to be so close. Ah well.

Back on the bus to head back to Athens. The guide had been on the phone, and the concern over street strikes for the next day was high, and so the plan was to do the bus tour of downtown Athens when we returned rather than the next morning. Of course, in the desire to show us everything about Greece, the powers that be managed to arrange a traffic jam. Sitting on the highway with traffic not moving for around an hour. At one point an ambulance sneaked past on the shoulder – and after a bit we started to move, and we never saw anything about what had held everything up. Back through downtown Athens, and finally back to the hotel around 6:e30. People went to their rooms to freshen up, and the guide from the agency was in the lobby to make dinner suggestions – we were on our own.

I went up to the roof, where there is an outdoor patio, with a breath-taking view of the Acropolis all lit. Drinks with some of the group – and then some ate in the restaurant, some went other places, and I went with two to a little restaurant around the corner – where we ran into some other members of the group. They would have walked passed it, but although much of my Greek has deserted me, I could at least read the name of the place. Nice food – good prices – lamb again (what can I say, I’m a sucker for lamb.) Back to the hotel, and discovered the internet was out. Grumble, fratsis. Read for a little and bed.