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Published: September 6th 2009
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Aegean Sea
Although not technically the Aegean Sea, this water eventually will get there. View from road to Mt. Olympus. Road trip! On our way to Mt. Olympus, birth place of 12 of the “more important gods and goddesses” of ancient Greece.
Not sure about the others, but I had envisioned a place of stark beauty, craggy sides of a single mountain, a vehicle road to the top, where we would all get out of the van. There would stand a partially crumbled altar where modern pilgrims still left offerings, even a stray bar of chocolate.
Obviously I didn’t research Mt. Olympus before going up there; my fantasy was not even close to reality. It’s in a range of mountains (I need to look up the name of that range of mountains.) I’m not sure we even saw Mt. Olympus; no big red arrow pointed the way.
There was a vehicle road to a small cafe and forest service shack with information about “the park.” Actually, the information dealt more in depth with the flora and fauna of the Olympus National Park than the ancient gods and goddesses. The road was blocked by a gate and if you wanted to get to the top, you had to hike up six miles. We learned that people have lost
Plateau of Muses
Unfortunately we didn't go up this way so not sure what is up there., their lives hiking/climbing the mountain. We passed,
We scattered this way and that after we parked. A few hardy souls walked a ways up the mountain. Perhaps if we’d had six extra hours to hike to the top we might have found an altar. Lots of trees; no animals to speak of. Cool pictures to take and another path to walk while Lee, Tdom Bah, Mariah and Jackie sat and drank their coffee. Wil, David and I walked along a path that supposedly led to an old monastery. The woods were only lit by the filtered sun light struggling to make its way through the canopy of hardwood trees which in turn fought for each patch of dappled light.
Lions, tigers and bears. Oh my!! Clunk. Noise to the right of us. Clunk. Noise to the left of us. We stop. Look. Listen. A few more tentative steps. The path begins a rapid descent. Crap! If we walk down, we gotta walk back up. It’s not that cool in these here woods. And we have discovered that Tdom Bah is time and distance challenged. His five minutes has been timed at three hours. Taking all these facts under
Mt. Olympus
On the way to Mt. Olympus. advisement: rapid descent of path, no end in sight, time of day, time challenged people, clunks, and lions, tigers and bears, oh my! We give up this little adventure. It didn’t help that David hid behind a tree and scared the bejeebees out of Wil.
My toilet observations so far, just in case you are starved for these details:
On the autobahn there are spiffy, clean toilets. It costs 50 cents Euro to use them. In the fraulein bathroom (as I haven’t visited the men’s room), after you figure out how to flush the dang thing, the toilet seat actually rotates/ungulates while an arm juts out and I guess cleans the toilet. Freaky the first time. In Yugoslavia we were introduced to our first Turkish toilet, a porcelain square with hole that is affixed to the floor, standing room only. Equal opportunity toilets for both men and women. And this type of toilet, I mean square with hole, is also popular in Greek public bathrooms. I’ll cease the detailed description now, except to note that the square type was also installed at the Mt. Olympus café site.
After many photo ops, we headed back down the mountain,
Beautiful Scenery
Pretty but not sure what I took a picture of! stopping for a rushed souvenir shopping spree in Katerini. Off to Thessaloniki, a bustling metropolis an hour or so from Mt. Olympus. It sits on the Thessaloniki Gulf, which runs into the Thermaikos Gulf and on south to the Aegean Sea.
We’re walking. And walking. And walking. After driving and driving along narrow streets looking for a parking place. Lucky us, I think. Spot found, wheelchair out, lost Jackie for a few moments which gave me time to take pictures of a fountain with colored lights -- haven’t seen that since I lived in Naples as a kid. Awesome.
Regrouping, we headed on another adventure, Tdom Bah in the lead. The rest of us had no clue where we were going. Down to the gulf as it turned out. A stone tower stood strong in the night sky. Knock-off purses and sunglasses vendors littered the walkway off the water. Back towards town, we stopped and rubbed Aristotle’s big toe, took pics and … we’re walking!
Oh goody, dinner! A cute little outside restaurant on a side street. Real Greek food. Greek salad, grilled meats, garlic bread, meatballs with Roquefort dressing, tsaziki, seafood salad. The van was parked
As Far As We Can Go
No vehicles past his point. close to the restaurant and we were off to Veria for a good night’s rest.
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