Author: taganay

As an epigraph I wanted 
insert a famous joke
“"“Oh, Vanya, how beautiful!”, 
but the censors did not approve.

When I was considering the different options for our trip to Greece, all of them included Meteora. Because it's simply impossible to be in this area and pass by. The unique combination of rock pillars and the monasteries built on them makes this place one-of-a-kind. So I planned an overnight stay in the nearest town.

As usual, we rose early this morning, said goodbye to the welcoming farmhouse near Delphi, and were briskly driving along the mountain roads of Boeotia. The area is deserted, with only the occasional sign of a ski slope or a nearby hotel visible. 

The mountains give way to a plain, and after four hours of driving, we enter the town Kalambaka. 

We need to find a store and stock up on groceries, but I realize parking here is impossible—in some places, the cars are parked two rows deep. So we head straight to the house I rented—the owners promised parking nearby, and, interestingly, they weren't lying! It's a large and fairly empty lot, even though the town center is less than a 10-minute walk away. It's unclear why everyone parks there when there's such a convenient spot nearby. But it's better for us.

By the way, here it is this house — We really liked it. It's a very cozy and nice place, with a washing machine (which is sometimes necessary on a road trip). We were even sad to leave. Actually, that was the case with almost every place we stayed 🙂

We had little time at Meteora—we were staying there for only one night. So, after lunch at a nearby restaurant, we hit the trail.

There are different ways to see the local beauty. Driving is perfectly fine—the road runs past the main monasteries, with plenty of parking and viewing platforms. But that's not our method. I found a rather long walking route, which is where we went. 

The route began through the picturesque towns of Kalambaka and Kastraki, with restaurants, wineries, and hotels. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to stop for local wine tastings.

Monasteries were visible above, on the cliffs. We kept wondering how they were built there. After all, so much building material had to be carried up, at best by donkeys, or sometimes on our own backs.

The trail then led through the forest. Apparently, there's plenty of moisture here, so there are plenty of trees with thick foliage providing shade—a pleasant change from the rocky slopes of Mount Parnassus.

    There were even druids in the forest:

And then we went up, and all these incredible landscapes opened up in all their glory.

It was really hard to resist taking photos at every turn. And we didn't resist 🙂

Then the time before sunset came, and it became even more beautiful.

However, the sun was already low, and we still had a long way to go. Moreover, at one point the trail for some reason led onto some private property, so we had to go back and go around. So we decided not to follow the route all the way, but to take a shortcut through the Holy Trinity Monastery—that's where the trail was. a suitable path.

The last photo from above, and here we are already heading out into the city.

Go to Greek Trip Homepage.

Sparta

After Nafplio, our road led to Ancient Olympia. But first, we stopped in Sparta—it was almost on the way. 

Ancient Sparta is located within the modern Greek city Sparta. There's nothing touristy about this city—it's just an ordinary place you'll drive past and forget about within an hour. When the GPS told me we'd arrived, I was very surprised—I expected to see a large parking lot full of cars and tour buses, but instead there was a dusty, empty lot with three cars and no signs. We didn't even bother parking there, but pulled the car over to the side of the road, fortunately there was space. The only thing that hinted at the presence of that same great Sparta nearby was the stadium with a bronze statue (as it later turned out, of King Leonidas).

A dusty path leads past the stadium, and we arrive at the entrance to the archaeological reserve—this is where ancient Sparta stood, at one point the most powerful city-state in ancient Greece.

Little remains of its former glory now: the place is clearly neglected. There's a ticket booth in front of the gates, but it's been empty for a long time; admission is free.

Inside, too, little remains—no columned temples typical of other sites, no intact buildings at all. Only the remains of walls, pine trees, and olive groves. In place of the central square (agora), there is now an olive grove. 

It's interesting that the two main powers of ancient Greece, Sparta and Athens, proposed completely different paths of development. Sparta represented extreme militarization, with men confined to barracks from the age of 7 to 30, and military service ending at 60. Women and slaves were responsible for economic activity (Sparta enjoyed a level of women's freedom unprecedented in Greece—another side of militarization). Education was strictly military. Travel was restricted to state needs. In short, North Korea, by comparison, would be a fairly liberal state. But Athens represented philosophers, art, and science. It was about voting on important issues and ostracism, about Zeno's paradoxes (which, by the way, I never understood). paradox of Achilles and the tortoise, there's no paradox there 😀). And it's very nice to realize that we did, after all, inherit the Athenian model, and not the Spartan one.

But even in Sparta (modern-day Sparta), things aren't so bad—there's a school next to the archaeological site, and kids are playing football. Life goes on, which means there's hope it will get better.

Finally, we drank coffee at a nearby cafe (after all, Sparta is not a tourist city - a cup of cappuccino cost less than two euros) and drove on - the Pantanassa Monastery awaited us.

Pantanassa Monastery

When I was planning today's route, almost on the way, I saw another landmark - Pantanassa Monastery. We liked the photos, so we decided to stop by. I thought we'd spend about an hour there—really, how long does it take to see a monastery?

But everything turned out differently. Because it's not just a monastery—it's a military, administrative, and religious center, built by Byzantium in the 15th century. We spent almost three hours there (and we could have spent more, but we had to go). The monastery and administrative buildings are located on a mountainside, and above it, almost at the summit, stands a 13th-century fortress. All of this together is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.“Misra Archaeological Site”" And there is something to see there!

For example, a fortress:

And the monastery:

And, of course, cats 🙂

After visiting the archaeological site, we got into the car and finally reached our destination. hotels. This isn't Olympia yet—we're heading there tomorrow, but for now we're spending the night in the coastal town of Zacharo. 

It's about five minutes from our hotel to the beach, and after checking in, we go for a swim. Then we admire the sunset and go to dinner at a pleasant and completely empty restaurant (except for the ubiquitous cats). It's empty, most likely because it's expensive—dinner for two with a carafe of wine costs a whopping 27 euros.

Ancient Olympia

The next morning, after breakfast on the terrace, we left the cozy hotel and drove to ancient Olympia—the very site that gave birth to the Olympic Games. The distance seemed short, but it took us about an hour and a half to get there along narrow country roads. But the archaeological site itself was just as expected—with a large parking lot, well-filled despite the early morning hour. 

Something unexpected happened when we were buying tickets—they didn't charge us. It turned out that today and tomorrow were museum days, so admission was free. Of course, we didn't object. 🙂

Olympia itself was just as we imagined it: impressive remains of temples, baths, and, of course, the stadium.

The site houses a rich museum displaying artifacts collected here. Admittedly, the abundance of must-see antiquities begins to feel a bit overwhelming after a certain point. It's a good thing that archaeology will soon give way to natural wonders in our program.

Castles, bridge, beach and harbor.

We're leaving ancient Olympia. We'll be driving for about four hours, but there are plenty of places worth visiting along the way. The first of these is the medieval castle of Clermont. It's right along the way, so I decided to stop there.

But we were in for a bummer: the castle is open until 3:00 PM, and we arrived at 3:20 AM. This isn't the first time we've encountered this: many tourist spots in Greece close very early. As a consolation, we admired the beautiful view of the Gulf of Patra.

We continue on. A short stop in front of a modern wonder – a bridge. Rion - Andirion. It was built just 20 years ago, and before that, the only route connecting the Peloponnese peninsula to the mainland was the Isthmus of Corinth, which we crossed. We wanted to visit the Venetian fortress of Rio, built to control the strait. But, as expected, the fortress was also closed. So we admired the bridge and headed across.

Shortly after the bridge we make a short stop in the ancient city Nafpaktos. The city has a rich history, dating back to before the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta. I even regretted not staying here at least for a night, or better yet, a week. 🙂 As always, there's not enough time to see everything we want to see. We swim in the sea—there's a beautiful beach there with a view of the medieval fortress.

Then we have lunch (or dinner—it's 5 pm), admiring the picturesque Venetian harbor, and continue on to Delphi along a steep serpentine road. I hoped to make it before dark, but it didn't work out.

Along the way, we make a couple of short stops to admire the sea from above – the lighting is really beautiful.

Tired, we arrive at our housing — It's located in a converted farmhouse in a mountain village near Delphi. It's a very picturesque place; it would be great to visit in winter for some skiing (if you can manage the serpentine roads). 

Go to Greek Trip Homepage.

While preparing for the trip, I realized many times that I didn’t know Greece at all. For example, the city Nafplio, a very ancient city (older than Mycenae), the first capital of independent Greece. I only learned about it while planning my itinerary: the city is interesting in its own right, and it's also very conveniently located, so we stayed there for three nights.

On our very first evening, we went to the beach (about fifteen minutes from our apartment), then strolled along a beautiful path along the sea. For some reason, the promenade was blocked on both sides by gates, which everyone bypassed (there was even a well-trodden path there). 

The next morning we climb up Palamidi fortress. According to various sources, the staircase to the top has 913, 921, or 999 steps, and all the guidebooks advised either climbing early in the morning, before it gets too hot, or driving there (there's a road leading up from the other side). In reality, the climb isn't difficult at all (especially compared to Grand Canyon or a mountain Mauna Kea), but the views from the stairs are interesting.

For example, this ugly building in the photo. In the middle of the last century, when post-war Greece was trying to attract tourists, someone came up with the idea of building a concrete box on top of the ancient fortress. Acronauplia — that's cool and progressive. I wonder how they even got permission to do this—I think a hefty bribe was involved. Tellingly, the hotel was popular for quite a while (and of course, in such a great location!), but in the early 2000s, something went wrong. Here are some links with details:

• r/AbandonedPorn (in English)
• How Greek hotels are dying.

Well, we continued on up. It was good to arrive early: there were only a few of us in the entire fortress, and no one was interfering with our detailed inspection.

On the way back, we discovered that the street in front of the fortress stairs had become a farmers' market. After buying a liter of local wine for two euros and some fresh fish, I started thinking about moving to Greece again.

The island-fortress of Bourtzi

Burdzion Island (Bourtzi) is impossible to miss—it's visible from practically everywhere in Nafplio. It resembles a stone ship—that's because the island is almost entirely occupied by a fortress of the same name, built by the Venetians in the 15th century to defend themselves from the Turks. It didn't help them, however.

In 1950, a luxury hotel opened on the island (though the luxury was all about exclusivity—the rooms themselves are quite austere), and now it's a tourist attraction. There's a boat service to the island, and a ticket costs about 5 euros, plus another 5 euros for entrance to the fortress. We happily spent a couple of hours there. 

Evening Nafplio.

After dinner, we go for a walk to see the city at night. It looks nice—narrow streets, through which we wander aimlessly.

At some point we come out to strange object, reminiscent of the entrance to an underground bomb shelter. The entrance is unguarded, and we step inside. We see several elevators, one of which even has working buttons. There are only two—up and down. Since we're at the bottom, we press the top one, and a couple of minutes later, we find ourselves on a mountain above the city. Around us is an expensive hotel (rooms start at $400) with a beautiful view of the city (called "Nafplia Palace"). We pass through and descend along the dark road back into the city, stopping to take night photos.

Sanctuary of Aesculapius

I get up early this morning and, for my morning jog, climb the 900-odd steps to the Palamidi Fortress again. The fortress is still closed, but I don't need to go there—I want to take pre-dawn photos from above. It turns out I'm not alone—several other people are watching the sunrise with me. And it was worth it!

We have breakfast and get into the car: today our road leads to the ancient city of Epidaurus.

Once upon a time, when I was in fifth grade, we were studying ancient Greece in history class. And our teacher, Alla Fedorovna Stroy (it's been so many years, but I still remember it), was telling us about ancient Greek theaters—their acoustics were so good that, even sitting in the top row, you could hear the actors on stage without any amplification. 

And now, many years later, I am standing in one of these theaters - this is theater in Epidaurus, next to Asclepion — a temple complex dedicated to Asclepius. 

And yes, the acoustics are really good.

It's about an hour's drive from Nafplio. In addition to the theater and the Temple of Asclepius, the complex includes a hotel, several baths, and a stadium. In short, it offers everything needed for a healthy lifestyle.

And again, olive trees and pine trees are all around. Apparently, they grow better than other trees in the local rocky soil.

After the temple, we continue on to the seashore. Our destination is a small beach from which you can swim to“sunken city”"In fact, it's not a city, but the remains of several houses near the shore, at a depth of about one and a half meters. They were discovered by chance in the 1970s during aerial photographs. They are believed to be the ruins of a 2nd-century Roman villa.

There aren't many people there, and we happily spend a few hours there, swimming and lounging on the sand. We have lunch at a small restaurant (with cats everywhere) and then continue on to the settlement. Methane.

Along the way, we stop at a pass and admire the beautiful views. For some reason, I thought the Peloponnese was flat, and the mountains awaited us in northern Greece. But it turns out there are mountains everywhere.

We're not interested in the settlement itself, but in the nearby hot springs. Where else can you sit in a spring and immediately plunge into the sea? And for free, and with almost no one around.

A couple of hours on the beaches of Methana, and then it's time to go home. It's been a busy day.

Go to Greek Trip Homepage.

After spending the night, we pack our things, get in the car, and head out. As the crow flies, it's not far: less than two hours. But driving straight isn't part of our plans: we didn't come to Greece to drive from point A to point B.

First, we'll stop at Acrocorinth. "Acro"“ means something like "elevation"“, so "Acrocorinth" refers to the elevation above Corinth. Just as "acropolis" refers to the elevation above the city. The ancient Greeks—both the Mycenaean culture and the later Hellenes—almost always built their cities near acropolis fortresses. The Minoan culture, however, did not construct fortifications on Crete: their palaces are believed to have served administrative and religious functions, but not military ones. They began building fortifications shortly before the collapse of their civilization, sometime in the 15th century BC.

Acrocorinth It stands on a fairly high mountain—it takes us about 15 minutes to get there by car. At the top is an impressive fortress. However, most of the fortifications are not Mycenaean, but rather Venetian and Turkish: the fortress controlled the important Isthmus of Corinth, so the walls and bastions were rebuilt more than once to meet the latest fortification requirements.

Now there are dusty rocks, dry grass, turtles and a small number of tourists: apparently, Greece has so many archaeological reserves that there are not enough for all the tourists.

At the top, we met two girls from Belarus. Or rather, they approached us when they heard Russian and asked for a ride down to the bus stop for our return trip. I admired their courage: they had come to Greece with an organized group, and on a free day, instead of lounging on the beach, they took a regular bus and went to see the fortress. Despite their limited English, and, it seemed to me, they had a lot of money. Incidentally, they had hiked up the mountain, which earned me genuine respect—it's a long and steep climb.

We still wanted to go towards their hotel to see the Corinth Canal, so we agreed to meet downstairs in the parking lot.

Having explored the fortress to our heart's content, we pick up the girls and head down. But first, we want to stop in ancient Corinth itself. Unlike modern Corinth, it's not located on the seashore, but about 10 kilometers away, beneath the fortress-like mountain. Apparently, in those days, the defense of the fortress was more important than the nearby beach.

Corinth Canal, Incidentally, it can be considered the oldest long-term construction project in the world. The first mention of an attempt to build it dates back to the 7th century BC, and later Julius Caesar, Caligula, Nero, the Byzantine Empire, and Venice all attempted to dig it. All the rulers of the Peloponnese, except the Turks, made their mark.

The canal was dug in 1893, under the Greek government. It's now of no commercial importance—it's too narrow.

After taking in the canal, we head back to Mycenae. Along the way, we listen to Oldie's audiobook from their Achaean series, "The Grandson of Perseus." A strange sense of presence arises: the book's setting is the very places we're currently driving through: Mycenae, Tiryns, Argos, Nafplion...

We arrived in Mycenae quickly—everything was close by. The great, "gold-rich" Mycenae, the most important city of the ancient civilization that gave it its name, was in fact a relatively small acropolis fortress on a hilltop. A city once surrounded the hill, but little remains of it. However, the fortress walls are lined with the so-called "“cyclopean masonry”": The Greeks of the classical period, who settled the Peloponnese several hundred years after the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, did not possess the technology for laying such large blocks and decided that these walls were built by the Cyclopes giants.

As we walked around the fortress, I became increasingly melancholy. The thing is, in preparation for the trip, I read articles about ancient Greece and listened to lectures while jogging, so I knew about“Bronze Age catastrophe”In the 12th century BC, events occurred that led to the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization. While some Greek cities (Nafplion, Athens) managed to survive, Mycenae was completely destroyed and abandoned. 

But it's one thing to know, and quite another to see the remains of buildings and explanatory plaques: "Erected in the 13th century BC. Destroyed by fire in the 12th century BC." And so it is on almost every building, only the first date may vary. This wasn't a bolt from the blue: just before the collapse, Mycenae was in a period of heightened activity building defensive fortifications. For example, they carved an 18-meter passage into the rock to reach an underground stream, built a cistern to collect water, and expanded the fortress walls to protect the stream. All of this was built in the early 12th century BC and destroyed a few decades later. 

We walked around Mycenae for a couple of hours, visited a very rich archaeological museum, and went to our place of stay for the next few days - the city of Nafplio.

Go to Greek Trip Homepage.

Table of contents

• New Corinth
• Antiquities Day: Acrocorinth, Ancient Corinth, Mycenae…
• Three days in Nafplio
• To Delphi via Olympia.
• Delphi
• Monasteries and rocks of Meteora
• Metsovo-Ioanniya
• Mikro Papingo. Vikos Gorge.
• Mount Olympus and its surroundings
• Portaria
• The island of my dreams
• Matala - Faistos
• Rethymno
• Arrival in Chania
• Elafonissi Beach - Topolia
• Two days in Chania
• Athens

Preface

Greece smells of sun-warmed pine. Of course, there are many other scents there too: juniper, oregano, jasmine... Athens often smells of exhaust fumes—narrow streets, lots of not-so-new cars. In Nafplio, in places, there's a smell of sewage—a common problem in many truly old cities. One street in the mountain village of Mikro Papingo smelled intoxicatingly of ripe grapes—they entwined the beams overhead, creating a cozy canopy. For some reason, it smelled specifically there, although grapes were plentiful elsewhere. But now, sitting on the plane taking me from Athens to Copenhagen, I remember Greece exactly like this: blue skies, dry, rocky soil where pine and olive trees grow freely, and the joyful scent of pine pervades everything.

The Long Road to Crete

I started planning a trip to Greece five years ago. Our 25th wedding anniversary was approaching, and I wanted to celebrate it with a memorable trip. Especially since we hadn't traveled anywhere since our wedding: what kind of money did a graduate student have in 1993, even though I was working two jobs? I knew Natasha's childhood dream was to go to Crete, so I started looking into options for a trip to the island.

That time, going to Crete didn't work out: I couldn't find a suitable flight from Detroit. All flights required at least two stops and took an absurdly long time, over 20 hours. So we flew to Lisbon and took a wonderful road trip through Portugal and Spain. We also started a tradition of annual fall travel: we luckily got married in October, when most of Europe enjoys beautiful weather and there are fewer tourists. We missed the COVID-19 year of 2020, but every other year we've traveled to a new region.

This year, our 30th wedding anniversary was approaching, and I started thinking about Crete again. A flight search revealed that there still wasn't a convenient flight to Crete from Detroit, but now that I had more experience, I remembered our trip two years ago: we flew into Vienna and then took an overnight train to Venice. I really liked the idea: you board the train in the evening and get off in Venice the next morning, refreshed and well-rested. A double compartment (I didn't consider cheap seats—we're not students anymore, after all) from Vienna to Venice and back from Rome to Vienna was significantly more expensive than airfare, but considering we were saving two nights at a hotel, the cost was comparable. And most importantly, it saved time: any flight, even a short one, is at least half a day wasted… So I started looking for an overnight ferry from Athens to Crete. And it turned out there was!

So, the idea for the trip was solidified. All that was left was to put it together with plane tickets, an itinerary, and booked accommodations... I've gotten pretty good at this sort of thing, and every year there are fewer hitches. First, I had to decide on the length of the trip: I was only given two weeks' vacation, but I work remotely, and for that kind of work, all I need is a laptop and internet connection. So I planned four weeks: two weeks of vacation and two weeks of remote work. I've done this before and have learned to combine work and leisure. A week and a half before the trip, I learned that I couldn't work remotely anymore: I'd been laid off. Business activity had slowed, and I couldn't be assigned to a project. I thought I was safe since I was working on a fairly important internal project, but as it turned out, I was wrong. I shrugged and decided that this way I'd be able to see more of Greece. Although I still had to work a bit, because I also have a small business, and clients don't care whether I'm on vacation or not. Moreover, shortly before the layoffs, I very fortunately found a program that searched for jobs and sent out resumes using artificial intelligence queries. So, I quickly figured it out and customized it, and while we were walking through various historical sites, the program worked tirelessly. As a result, I completed one interview while on the trip, then another – a much longer one – and, a few days after returning, received a job offer. 

I've divided my four weeks like this: two weeks of travel around mainland Greece. Then we'll return the car and spend the rest of the day wandering around Athens (or rather, the Pireos port area). In the evening, we'll board a ferry and spend a week in Crete. On the way back, we'll spend another day in Athens and three days in Copenhagen. While searching for flights, I discovered that separate Detroit-Copenhagen and Copenhagen-Athens tickets are much cheaper than the Detroit-Athens route, and the flight is easier because you can rest after the long flight across the ocean. Copenhagen will be an added bonus: we've already transited through there, but only spent half a day there.