Day 4

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Day 4: Nafplio and Tolos

8:30am my roommate and I headed down for breakfast, provided free of charge at our hotel in Nafplio. Closer to 9 I went back upstairs to grab my bag and head out for the day. The bus first took us to Mycenae where the Mycenae kingdom and treasury of Atreus is found. Atreus is believed to be the father of Agamemnon; so the kingdom belonged to both father and son who ruled it one after another, and Perseus (the man who slayed Medusa and had relations with the Cyclops). It was an amazing place, with the famous lion’s gate guarding the entryway into the castle, and, what is believed to be, Atreus’ tomb about 200m away from the kingdom. The tomb is, according to my prof, one of the best preserved tombs in all archeological sites to date, along side with Tiryus. We saw the bathroom area where Agamemnon was brutally killed by his wife in the bathtub; but the bathtub was unfortunately removed recently and is probably in a museum. About half of our group, including myself, also traveled down this dark and deep cavern, which supposedly lead to a water well during the Mycenaean period; there was no external light, so those with lighters lead the way for us. A friend and I stuck together, as we used our cameras to help light our own way and each other to help and stay on the right track.

After that, we headed down into town to grab some lunch. We ate, as with all our meals so far, outside under big umbrellas at a Greek restaurant. I had spaghetti with meat sauce, but it was a special Greek-style dish; they didn’t have too much tomato sauce with the meat, but had olive oil! It was delicious, but too filling so I shared some with my roommate and anyone willing to try some.

Once we were fed and hydrated, we got back onto the bus and headed for our second destination: Tiryus. We visited the remains of the town, caught some hints of goat smell (since some of the caverns were made to hold livestock). This was the quickest of all visits, and took only about an hour or a little less.

Finally, our last stop before heading back to our hotel and for dinner was the beach in Tolos. It was breathtakingly beautiful; it was everything I dreamt of when I think of Greece. The pristine, clear blue, and warm waters, the clean sands and the warm breeze as the sun blazed above. If you’ve ever seen Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie or My Big Fat Greek Wedding, then you know what I’m talking about. It was amazing; I even bought a souvenir towel to use on the beach and bring back home with me. A few people grabbed food and alcohol (yes drinking in public is legal here!); and then we headed back to Nafplio.

3 of us decided we’d rather do some shopping and grab a quick and cheap dinner, rather than showering as soon as we got back to the hotel. So we unpacked our day’s bags and ventured back into town; we grabbed philo pastry goods for dinner. I had a sausage roll and it was so fresh!! It was really cool, cuz this one guy pulled up with his motorcycle onto the side walk, grabbed his meal and sped off back into the streets; that’s meals on wheels for ya! After that we tried to look for some good shopping, but then found out from our prof that shopping in Nafplio is meant for the upper class Athenians who visit on weekends. So instead we wandered over to the “best gelato place in all of Greece”, according to my prof, and I had a melon gelato: 1 scoop and I was stuffed!! All in all today was a long, tiring and amazing day! I wish you could have been there with me!

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