Ston Nafplion

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Nafplio is gorgeous. Being able to walk right down to the shore of the Aegean is such a lovely thing. But the architecture here is the my favorite thing about, perhaps. The streets are small and steep and the buildings are old and close together. It's a wonder that cars can get through at all.

The word that everyone on the trip has been repeating has been "surreal." The castles, the smells of the Meditarranean, the cute shops, the palm trees and cacti and citrus trees all flourishing side by side and the ever-present mountains in almost every direction- none of us can even believe that he's here.

We got into Nafplion yesterday from Athens. It took about 3 hours to drive by bus, with a pit stop near Corinth (The Corinth Canal is beautiful!). It's pretty warm still for January (nearly 70 F), but it's supposed to cool down some tonight and get to be more like a real winter. I think we're going up to the Palamidi- the fortress on the hill here in Nafplion. It's big and medieval and I'll bet the view from the top is great.

Last night about 8 of us sat in the hotel room I'm sharing with Luke and drank the cheap wine from the supermarket. You can always find large bottles home-made wine at supermarkets for about a euro and a half, or 2 dollars. This wine is strong and cheap. I suppose it's not cheaper than American boxed wine, but it's a LOT stronger. If I'm going to drink it the way Greeks do, which is constantly from about 9 PM until midnight, I'm going to have to start mixing it with water, since an evening of drinking 12.5% alcohol krasi ends up hitting pretty hard.

Time to go eat a little breakfast before storming the 13th century castle!

Geia Sas!

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Photos

The Bourtzi
This is the lovely little fortress at the mouth of the Harbor in Nafplion. An old guy who sells earings there told me that it was built under the leadership of Saint Dimitrios to keep pirates out in the 13th century.

Palamidi Nafpliou
This fotress at the top of the Nafplion was built on top of ancient walls from about the 3rd Century BCE in the 13-14th centuries CE. It was used off and on Venetians, Ottomans and Greeks up until the Greek Revolution in 1821.
You get a fantastic view of Nafplion and its gulf from the top.

Palamidi Vista
Nafplio is tucked into one armpit of a small peninsula. You can see the whole peninsula here. There's a footpath and a beach on the South (left) side and the old town on the North (right).

Palamidi Interior
It's hard to believe that this fortress was built in the 1200s and was used consistently, through the 1800s! Some of the national heroes of Greece were imprisoned here. There's also a small chapel of Saint Andrew on the top.

The Steps to Palamidi
According to the locals, there were once 999 steps to the Palamidi. When I told them that we counted only 910 (well, 2 of the girls in my program did), they explained that a road was built recently that cut it down to exactly that number.
I tell you what: it's a lot of steps either way.

Comments

[anonymous]

I'm really loving your travel journal, amigo. (I know you're all inundated with Greek, but I have to keep a little Spanish in your life.) Cuidate y diviertate, Kate

[Rainkkite]

Nice Pictures
I'm really digging the use of pictures here. They all look wonderful, though given what I've heard of greece its pretty hard not to take good pictures. Have you started classes yet? or are you still in the honeymoon part before the hard workload of classes sets in? Oh yeah, I forgot, there is no part of study abroad where the classes get hard. How is your ancient greek holding up there?