We made 4 stops in Greece on our cruise of the eastern Mediterranean. Our first stop, Katakolon, was a short drive from Olympia, the home of the first Olympic games. The second stop, Santorini, was very possibly one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. It also was home to some of the most delicious food. Greg still claims he is going to take flight to Greece some time just to eat lunch and fly back home.
Before diving into our exciting culinary adventures in Santorini, we took an excursion into mainland Greece to visit the home of the ancient Olympic games. We were worried that the distance from Katakolon to Olympia would be difficult to navigate, so we signed up for an organized tour of Olympia through our cruise line. This wasn't really necessary. Local tour companies charge a very cheap fee to ride a bus from Katakolon to Olympia. It's also only a few euros to get into the archaeological site and the museum. It would have been less expensive to explore the area ourselves. You live and you learn. We still had a pretty good time, though.
Olympia was discovered and excavated by the Germans. Actually, it's still being excavated. Because of this, everything is displayed in three languages: Greek, German and English. There are maps that show you exactly what you are looking at. The first games took place in the 8th century BC, but most of the remaining structure is from the 5th Century BC. It is pretty impressive how much of the structure is still remaining. You can even see the former running track and starting line complete with markers as to where each runner would stand. In the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the running track in Olympia was used for the shot put competition.
Our tour guide did provide some pretty interest background on the games and explanations as to how extremely important it was to the Greek city-states to have an Olympic victor. They even kept detailed records of all of the winners of the games and where they were from which we still have to this day. For this reason, we know that more Spartans were Olympic victors than any other location in Greece. They didn't give out medals in ancient times, but would create statues of the victors in an area near the track. Winners would be allowed to drink all the wine they wanted. Only first place received any recognition.
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| Floor of the former bathhouse. |
During the Olympics, all city-states were required to sign a peace treaty by the Olympic Committee. No wars could continue or begin during the games. If one city-state started a war with another, the Olympic Committee would impose heavy fines and the city-state would be shamed during the games. If a competitor was caught cheating, they would not be allowed to return to their home city-state.
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Greg was about to get whistled at
for touching the ruins. |
Sadly, most of the statues and monuments in Olympia were destroyed by the Christians who felt that the statues represented false idols. In the museum, you can see some of what remains. A lot of the museum includes armor from the warriors and decoration from the Temple of Zeus and other monuments. There is also one very famous statue which was spared by the Christians. Hermes of Praxiteles was already buried under the earth with the temple of Hera by the time the Christians came to destroy Olympia. The statue shows the messenger god Hermes carrying his infant brother, Dionysos, the god of wine, to the nymphs in order to save him from his mother.
I've always loved Greek mythology so it was pretty cool to see Olympia and hear the history of the city and the games. The Olympic torch is still lit by the sun in Olympia before being transported to the location of the games. They also make the Olympic medals in Olympia to this day. A few days later, when in Athens, we got to see the location of the first modern Olympic games in 1896. Couple that with living in Atlanta in 1996 and visiting Centennial Olympic Park, I feel like I have officially seen all there is to see when it comes to Olympic history. Interestingly enough, I'm not even a huge fan of the games.
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| Former running track thought to be the oldest area of Olympia |
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| Hermes of Praxiteles |
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| Anciet Greek armor found at Olympia |
That evening on our ship was Gala night. (Which, by the way, my husband pronounces "gay-luh", which confused the hell out of our Australian friends.) We dressed up and took some pictures of each other before searching the boat for other people to take our pictures together. Luckily, we found a nice couple from Bern who were willing to help. They also wanted to tell us about all of the great places we should visit in Switzerland.
The next day, I woke up to the sun raising over the island of Santorini as we entered the caldera. Santorini and the surrounding islands are the remnants of a massive volcanic eruption which destroyed what was once one single island and created several smaller islands forming a circle around the caldera. Only two of the islands are now inhabited, Santorini and Therasia. Historically, Santorini was named Thera or Thira but was renamed Santa Irini by the Holy Roman Empire. In English, it's still called Santorini although other languages have different names for the island. No matter what you call it, Santorini is well known as being the most beautiful island in the world. I'm not even kidding, multiple British and American travel programs, magazines and news outlets have consistently listed it as the best island travel destination in the world.
There are two ways into Santorini. There is a small airport that is open from mid-May until October. Otherwise, you have to take a cruise. There is no official dock on Santorini, so ships anchor in the caldera and passengers must take a tendered boat to a small dock. I won't lie, the tender boat ride was miserable and I thought I might throw up at any moment. We took an organized tour through the cruise line in Santorini as well, which I am extremely happy we did.
Because our tour was organized by the cruise, we were given priority to get off of the ship so we were on one of the first tendered boats. We were also taken to all of the main areas to see without having a guide telling us what to do. Our "tour guide" only provided us with information while on the bus and allowed us to explore on our own at all the sites we visited. He was actually a German living in Santorini. One thing we have learned from this whole experience is how extremely efficient Germans are compared to other cultures. To some people, this comes across as rude, but once you've lived in Germany you catch on pretty quickly to their culture.
Our first stop was the picturesque town of Oia (pronounced E-Yuh). We spent a little over an hour just walking around, taking pictures and buying souvenirs. Words cannot describe how beautiful Oia is and pictures only barely give it justice. Several areas had signs from the locals requesting not to take pictures because it was their private homes. Only around 15,000 people live in Santorini, but I'm sure they get exhausted of appearing in every tourist's pictures. Our tour guide explained that while no one is certain of the reasoning for the white and blue color scheme, the belief is that after Oia was destroyed by an earthquake in the 50s, around this same time Germans were conducting excavations on the former Spartan settlements on top of the island's mountain, Saint Elijah. The whites and blues seen on the buildings of Oia and throughout Santorini and it's neighboring islands are the same as the traditional colors of Bavaria. Some belief the German settlers influenced the traditional architecture of the islands and encouraged the color scheme as a homage to Bavaria. No matter where it came from, the colors are beautiful.
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| Oia and the caldera |
Another cool bit of information from our tour guide regarded the 450 Orthodox churches of Santorini. Apparently, it's a historical marker of rich Greeks to afford their own family churches on their property. Around the time of the Ottoman Empire and the crusades, the inhabitants of Santorini were afraid that Muslims would take over their island, so they began erecting as many churches as possible to prove their Christianity and discourage the Muslims. I swear you see more churches in Santorini than houses.
After Oia, we headed farther south on the island to a beautiful black sand beach. We had our own umbrella and lounges reserved for us right by the perfectly clear water. This was the first time we had ever been to the beach in our 5 years together. Greg really enjoyed filming underwater with his GoPro. We even rented snorkels from a stand on the beach to get better video of the fish. Maybe once he has a minute after completing his class for this semester, he'll edit together an awesome video of our trip.
Lunch was served at a restaurant on the beach. The provided us with white and red wines made on the island and some local delicacies that included mostly lamb, tomatoes and feta cheese. They have a type of food that is kind of like a tomato falafal that is only made in Santorini. I don't remember what it is called in Greek, but if you ask for a tomato roll, they will know what you are requesting. Greg is still telling me how the meal that we were served was the best he had ever eaten. He even has pictures of it to show everyone who asks.
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| Fira from the tender |
Once we were done at the beach, we went back to Fira, the capital of Santorini, to take the cable car back down to the ship. There are 3 ways to get to and from the dock from the city of Fira. You can take a cable car, walk or ride a donkey. The cable car was terrifying because of the steep cliff dropping off into the caldera, but only took about 3 minutes after waiting in line for your turn. The walk back and forth is also along the donkey path, so it's basically covered in donkey poop the entire way. We were given advice from our favorite bartender on the ship to take the donkeys going up the hill, but never down because they donkeys will slip and fall down the cliffs. We didn't take the donkeys either way.
Our tender back to the ship was actually a life boat, which was hot and smelled like donkey poop on the inside. We again ended up sitting by a bunch of Americans. I don't think I like being around American tourists outside of America. They tend to act like stuck up know-it-alls when it comes to Europe.
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| My personal favorite picture of us all week. |
Olympia and Santorini were definitely highlights of the trip, but Athens was also pretty cool. In my next post, I'll cover our exploration of the capital city of Athens, Greece and the minor disappointments we faced in Corfu, Greece.
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