Meet Me Halfway

"To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world"

What happens when you combine Bronze Age civilizations and Iron Age settlements with the Roman State, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetian Occupation and the Ottoman Rule?

Just another week of a semester abroad in Greece. The week focused on travelling to many sites to learn about the history of the Greek region, from forever ago till today. A week of lots of learning, a week of lots of reflection and a week of extraordinary stories and memories. No surprises as to how long the bus ride took to reach our destination. Although, this time around, five and a half hours seemed significantly less than the six hours we are accustomed to.

They tell you it never rains in Greece. Maybe a slight drizzle here and there, but not enough to bother about it too much.

Psemàta. Such lies.

In the midst of torrential downpour, we stopped at the Isthmus of Corinth for a quick photo opportunity. It is the narrow bridge of land connecting the Peloponnese with the rest of mainland Greece. The point where, weather permitting, the most epic bungee jump would (should) have happened.

Imagine bungee jumping off that?!

In any case, we lumbered on and arrived that evening at Nafplion. The first capital of Greece, this seaport town has hosted everyone from the Ancient Greeks to the Romans, the Byzantines, the Venetians and the Ottomans. We were introduced to the city in its Archeological Museum by our accompanying professor. A PhD professor in too many universities around the world, this Turkish delight entertained us to no end throughout the trip, with awkward yet hilarious references and comments. With long hair in a ponytail and a cigarette eternally alit, he showed us around the town afterwards.

While wandering the narrow streets that evening, we discovered steps that lead up to a Venetian fortress on a hill. It was a spectacular view, allowing us to chance upon an Orthodox Church built originally as an Ottoman Mosque with French engravings inside that honor the Greeks who fought for the nation’s independence. The more we discover about Greece the more diversity and syncretism it reveals. It is slowly becoming impossible to pinpoint with certainty its ‘cultural essence’. Lastly, the best part of the night was discovering Nikitas Stamatelopoulos – also known as the ‘Turk Eater’. A Greek revolutionary, he was admired for his fighting prowess and manifest patriotism; he is said to have once used all of five swords in one battle because they all each successively broke from excessive use.

Never mind, there was another best part of the night. After a delicious taverna dinner with engaging company, we made a beeline for the ‘best gelato in Greece’. So much so that a professor at our institution drives all the way up there – from Athens – just for a hearty scoop of goodness. Full though we were, we were no match for such irresistibility: chili dark chocolate, hazelnut, fig, lemon lime, raspberry, mango, stracciatella, coconut…the list was endless. After tasting every single one, we gravely decided which one to bestow the honor of our preference. We left before we could gaze any longer and regret not getting the extra-large serving. It was perfectly creamy, sweet, smooth and slurp-worthy. Italy now has a hard act to follow.

The view of a castle down below from our castle up above

The next day was a busy one. First was the site of Epidavros: a brilliant sanctuary dedicated to Asklepios (Greek God of healing). His popularity earned him a collection of large structures and a flock of pilgrims eager to witness miraculous cures. To the north of the main temple and the Tholos tomb is the Abaton: a building where the sick were required to go to sleep so that the God could appear to them in a dream and heal them (or rather, the ancient medical experts could “interpret” their dreams and recommend surgeries or procedures that “God had revealed would work” – and which, in most cases, did work). To cope with such large numbers of people, they constructed huge athletic facilities, accommodation centers and theatres for leisure. These were to ensure the entertainment and pleasure of the visitors. Also because it is a truth universally acknowledged that wholehearted dose of good food, music and sleep can usually cure even the most potent of illnesses.

The rest of the day was spent at Mycenae. The main center of the Mycenaean world, it is characteristic for its HUGE structures, including an impressive Lion gate, tombs that rivaled pyramids, and thirty feet wide defensive stone walls. The Mycenaeans are said to have been a tad bit obsessed with displays of material wealth and culture. It seems that bigger has always been better through the course of history. They are not really noted for their administrative style or economic proficiency; they are however, known for the sheer quantities of gold and bronze artifacts as well as the extremely hierarchical social organization. In the largest Tholos (round) tomb, when raiders looted all the gold and grave goods, they missed a secret inner lair with riches upon riches. Whoever was laid to rest there was clearly the most important – and being Mycenaean, liked to show off. We got to go inside the inside and get a good look around, and observed all the recovered objects in the museum afterwards.
Another night was spent in Nafplion to explore the pier and the castle on the water. Even now it still feels like late summer, with the days being warm and the nights chilly enough for long walks. We attended an elegant wine tasting and learned about wines and spirits from different regions in Greece. Usually partial to red wine, I ended up buying a large bottle of the excellent Mantinea white wine after knowledgeably assessing its color, smell, acidity and smoothness. Accompanied with olives galore and cheese to pair with each, it was a delightful event and at least for a short while creates the feeling of being a wine connoisseur. If all else fails…
To complement the visit to the site of Thermopylae where the battle between the Spartans and the Persians was fought, we finally got to visit the actual site of ancient Sparta itself. Specifically, we climbed the enormous hill that is the fortified town of Mystras. It was the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and experienced cultural flowering through the Venetian conquest, and enjoyed a period of prosperity up until the end of the Ottoman reign.
It was a steep hike up, but the spectacular view of the world from the top more than made up for it. It was breathtaking to look one way and see the modern town of Sparti built over ancient Sparta, look the other way and see the plush valley and olive trees down below, and look yet another way and see the vast expanse of plains basking in the Mediterranean sun. Along with the fortress stands a monastery still open to the public today with beautiful daisies aligning the perimeter and terra cotta tiles adorning the roof. Inside the main catholicon, the four marble pillars have engraved ancient Greek words of wisdom which we tried to decipher, with minimal success. The nuns who still live there sell hand-woven lace effects reminiscent of traditional Eastern European lace designs in antique stores.

Fusion-style monastery at Mystras

In the bus again and off for more adventures. That night was spent in Kalamata, home to the Kalamata olives. Also a seaside town, it was as metropolitan as Athens, although with tourist season being nearly over, our group was fawned over everywhere we went. We landed up in a small restaurant where you can create your own dish. They list their ingredients and what they purchased that week; you do the cooking, without having to do the cooking. It was ingeniously delicious. Of course we hunted down the best recommended place to taste Kalamata olives and olive oil fresh from harvest earlier that day. Green and black, pitted and stuffed, they were silky and the perfect balance of salty and sour. Talk about developing a refined (and expensive) sense of taste.
Only halfway through our week, yet there was still so much more to do and too much more to see. The next morning we had the chance to visit the site of Pylos: specifically, Nestor’s palace. It is a central building of a fortified Bronze Age ancient settlement. What was even more special was the fact that our lovely Turkish professor was one of the lead excavators there, so we had back stage passes to see the latest finds they were digging right in front of us. To get there we had to pass the central throne room that possessed a hearth spanning ten feet in diameter – it supposedly paralleled the might and extent of the colossal Mycenaean territory – and is predicated to have been painted extravagantly with all sorts of colors and gold leafing. It was fascinating to observe how some in the team used digital software and futuristic tools to create an accurate virtual representation of the entire site; right next to another group that was almost buried eight feet deep in the manually dug trench sifting away the layers of Earth and ‘material cultural layers’. Archaeology is a complex science – of technology and accuracy, but also of uncovering the depths and intricacies of human life in a time long-forgotten. What they find and how they interpret it has immense implications for our understanding of what it means to be human.
That evening we drove to the historic site of Olympia: home of the real Olympics. The first games, held in honor of Zeus, have always taken place every four years in this sanctuary. To enter the site itself requires wandering through botanical gardens and walking through a gate that slowly leads into the first few buildings. It is very well maintained with grass everywhere and monuments and half reconstructed temples nonchalantly strewn all over the places. With reconstruction, it is hard to decide if it is ethical to reconstruct the entire building to look like new or to leave it as it is found. To find middle ground, it was pleasing to note that the site was reconstructed enough to get a sense of what ancient Olympia was like, but still rendered a feeling of antediluvian tranquility. The rush of walking upon a site where you know people did the same such a long time ago begs the question of how much we really understand of life from what we found. If the same scenario was applied to our civilization as we know it, would hypothetical future archaeological evidence do justice to our conceptions of culture and our worldviews?
The past and the present fuse together at the site. Interestingly, the Olympic flame of the games today is lit using a mirror in front of the temple of Hera at the site. It is then transported – still alit – to wherever in the world the games are taking place. Right outside the stadium are ruins of statues dedicated by previous athletes – as penalties – when they were caught cheating during the games; they each were fined a Bronze statue of Zeus with their name carved below it for all the world to heckle at their disgrace. After passing by these Zanes, we bravely entered the stadium and ran the Olympic track. It was a close race, but the victorious ones have now found their claim to fame: they conquered The Olympic Stadium. Does that qualify us for tickets to the next Brazilian games?

And the glory of Olympia shall be ours for all eternity

After that exciting moment, the last and final stop for the group was Delphi. The sanctuary extends over a series of terraces in the foothill of Mount Parnassos. It used to be the religious and spiritual center of the ancient Greek world. According to legend, it is the geographical omphalos (navel) of the world: it was discovered by the meeting of two eagles dispatched by Zeus from the ends of the universe of find the center of everything. The cult of Apollo was established after He killed the Python snake that guarded the oracle Ge (who was the site’s previous chief deity). To follow the Sacred Way, one had to undergo purification in the Kastalia spring and offer a sacrifice on the altar of the God Apollo. Pilgrims then eagerly sought the advice of the oracle that was uttered and interpreted by the Pythia: the priestess of the shrine. We never had a chance to do so ourselves; the Oracle was on strike…along with the rest of the country. It was probably frustrated with the austerity measures.
The night at Delphi was a relaxing end to a week away from the classroom. What we really needed was a round of drinks at a cool café-bar from our Grad-student-genius-professor-tour guide. That was exactly what we got. Here in Greece where the professors are really just glorified best friends and the cocktails are cheaper than food, we ended the week with a bang and partied till we could no more (really, it was not that long). The week was exhaustively gratifying, and opened up the discovery of the diverse world of the Mediterranean. The microcosm that is Greece is a network of rich tradition, history, and religion just waiting to be taken advantage of.

A place of Oracle...and a stunning view, as always

When everything you see implores you to return again, when every new location urges you to explore deeper to unearth its hidden mysteries, and when living in the present leads to effortless enchantment – that’s when you know you’ve found yourself. Your heart is in the right place; you'll know because you put it there.