Day+5-Mycenae,+Epidauvros,+and+Beach!

May 30, 2012 Cassie Mahar Greece Trip

Today started bright and early before any of the crowds appeared with us travelling to the famous Palace of the legendary King Agamemnon, Mycenae. It is a huge fortified palace located high up on a hill over looking the fertile Plains of Argos. The walls are not as preserved as the ones surrounding the palace at Tiryns but they are still massive and make you feel miniature when you stand next to them.

We entered through the main entrance, the Lion’s Gate, into the palace. We saw the reconstructed megaron after it had fallen down the ravine. We also saw the outline for where the central hearth would have been if it were still there as well as the outline for the king’s throne. Everyone was excited to see this famous palace but the majority of us were actually more excited to see the “Secret Cistern”. This is the secret passage down into one of the fortification walls that leads to a secret spring where if the palace was sieged the people living inside would have access to a steady supply of clean water. We practically ran to the entrance. The tunnel down was extremely dark, dank, and slimy. But we came prepared with flashlights. All of us whole decided to brave the tunnel we linked hands and turned our flashlights one and started our descent into the tunnel. We discovered that there wasn’t much down at the bottom but it was the thought of reaching the bottom that counted. Next we visited the tholos tombs. We saw the tomb of Ageists, the tomb of Clytemnestra, and the magnificent Treasury of Atreus. The Treasury of Atreus was amazing! It had huge walls in the shape of a beehive dug deep into the hillside. The coolest thing was the echo. One of us stood on one side of the tomb and whispered a number into the wall and the other person right across from them on the opposite wall heard the number. Also before leaving this site we had a little presentation from the archaeologists, Ms. Mellican’s colleague Kim Shelton and some grad students, working on the site. We learned about what they were doing and little funny stories about things that had happened to them while they were working on excavating. Before lunch we went to the Ancient Greek Theatre called Epidaurus. It was immense! The stairs kept on going up as if they were going into the sky. We sat there imagining what it would be like to watch a play or hear someone sing in this magnificent theater back in ancient Greece.

The theatre was built specifically so that the actors or singers or poets didn’t have to yell and be heard up in the nosebleed heaven. We sat on the seats for a while mainly waiting for one of us to get up enough courage to get up and sing a song down on the stage. Finally after about 20 min four of us worked up the courage to walk down the old stone theatre steps and stand on the stage and sing. It was Lindsay, Cassie, Molly, Lexi, and our great conductor Anthony. Guess what song we decided to sing, none other than the Thayer Alma Mater. Even though we were completely tone deaf and we messed up a few words we managed to get a huge round of applause. The few scattered tourists in the theatre loved it, I don’t know why, but it was so much fun. We got back on the bus and drove to a small town with a beach where we sat down for lunch. After lunch we had about 20 minutes to hang out on the beach. That is exactly what we did. Some of us stayed on the hot soft sand and talked while the rest of us ventured into the cold bright blue Aegean Sea. The instant I stepped into the water I was amazed and the beauty of it and the little fishes swimming around. Let me tell you those fish had no sense of personal space whatsoever, they swam right up to your feet and sometimes if felt like they were nibbling on your toes. After the water we rushed to put our cloths back on and get back on to the bus without any sand on our bodies. Then we took the bus back to the hotel. When we got back we said bye to our amazing bus driver George and went to our rooms to change for the surprise. The surprise was optional; it was a climb to a castle on the top of a hill in Nauplia a minute from our hotel. This wasn’t any ordinary castle; the only way to get there was by climbing 999 steps. Most of us decided to do the climb even two who were afraid of heights! Even though we had climbed a mountain the day before we were all determined to reach the top of the hill, we were not giving up!



Once we reached the top it was the most amazing feeling, we had done it. After exploring the castle we started the descent down to the bottom. Once we reached the bottom all of our legs were shaking and there was nothing we could do about it except walk. We walked back to our hotel and relaxed and took showers to get ready for dinner. We went out to dinner with the group once again. This time we went to a modern restaurant right on the water and we ate dinner and our free dessert as we watched the sun go down over the water. The end of our night in Nauplia was exactly the same as the night before. We went to the Italian Gelato place right near our hotel. A few of us decided to change it up though and got Greek Frozen yogurt. They said it taste like Pinkberry maybe a bit more sour and softer. After our ice cream we went back to the hotel and bonded for a bit and then headed to bed for a really restful night of sleep.