Day Four
(Transcribed from notebook)
Mrfle. Looooong day. I think we've driven about 360km today. Started out at 7.20am, which was....interesting. *props eyes open with matchsticks* Drove down from Athens to the isthmus of Corinth (the narrow bit in the middle of Greece), and took in the Corinth canal, which was an eye-opener to say the least. 80m deep, 6km long, cut through sheer rock - yeah. It's impressive.
Thence down through the Peloponnese. The look of this part of Greece doesn't seem to have changed much in the last few thousand years - all dusty roads, red rocks, rows of olives and goats roaming over the hillsides. Okay, so it sounds something of a cliche, but when you get here it's really *true*. Someone herded a flock of sheep across the road in front of the coach, it's worse than being in Wales.
Next stop was Epidauros, where there was a major temple of Asklepios (the cult god of healing) of which very little is left, and a large C3rd BC theatre, of which virtually everything remains. It's not exactly the right layout for a C5th BC theatre, but it's better preserved than any other theatre left from antiquity. It's *huge* - it seats about 12 000 - 14 000, tier upon tier of seats rising from the central orchestra, and the most amazing view out over the stage to the mountains and the sea beyond. Probably the most impressive thing is the accoustics - you always read in books that you can hear every word on stage from the back row of a Greek theatre, but you don't quite believe it until you actually *hear* it.
Next, more driving and may I say at this point that I think our tour guide was on crack. '...and, in revenge, Orestes and Electra killed their mother - look at the artichokes on the right! - in revenge for the death of their father.' He also seemed to come from the proud tradition of Herodotus, bleding history, mythology, ethnic and biological detail with a happy disregard for reality. 'The pine trees, you can see, are covered in nests. These are the nests of worms. They're dead at this time of year, but soon they will come to life and fly out. These are a great disease for the pines, but if they survive for five years, then the disease goes away, and stays away for five years, and then come back again.' Hmmm.
The main stop, and the point of the journey, was the remains of Mykene - the centre of the great Greek culture of 1500 - 1200BC, the mythical home of Agamemnon. It was... I've probably used the word 'incredible' too often over the last few days. I just can't quite get my mind round the *age* and the *size* of the place. The walls are made of enormous boulders, so great they're called 'Cyclopean'. The whole place is perched on a rocky hill between two junior mountains, the perfect location for a fortress. I saw the great lion gateway, I saw the tombs excavated by Schliemann, I walked up the 'wide ways' of Mykene. It's impossible to convey what it felt like - to walk into the Homeric stronghold. I sat on the hillside by what was apparently the Mycenean palace. I spend so much time with my mind lodged in that era, it was so strange to visit it.
Slept most of the way back. Think I deserved it.