Mycenae and Epidavros

My alarm went off at 8am and I ate the same quasi-breakfast and was dressed and ready at 8.45. I headed to the bus station early to get the 10am Mikines (MYKHNEΣ) bus to the Mycenae ancient site. I eventually found the Mikines bus and climbed on board. It went through Argos (APΓΟΣ) and the eventuating shopping madness. A woman sitting next to me spoke to me in a friendly torrent of Greek, so I tried to stammer back ‘I do not speak Greek’ in Greek and she probably thought I was crazy. We went through Mycenae town and a place called Monastiraki and arrived at the site with a lot of tourist buses. The ticket was €8.

I had given myself under two hours so made haste. I walked around the ruins in about 50 minutes – there isn’t much left really, but it was interesting and definitely worth seeing. The city was built between two mountains and while they had access to underground water, I wondered why they chose such an isolated place to build it. Must have been completely strategic. I then went into the museum, and after getting in trouble for eating an apple inside, made my way around the simple and well-laid-out exhibits ahead of a huge Italian tour group. There was a good history of the different excavations over the years, and the pieces of gold that had survived were still beautifully rich and lustrous.

I got back on the 1pm bus with no problems and headed back through Argos to Nafplio. I was in time to get the 2pm bus to Epidavros, but I went to get some lunch instead. I ate half of it then got on the 2.30 bus to Epidavros. The road wound through lots of villages and past Mycenaean bridges to Epidavros town and further on into the hills and the ancient site. I ate the rest of my lunch, fighting off wasps, then bought my €6 ticket and made a beeline in front of another huge tourist group to the theatre. As I climbed the steps I saw the top of it poking over and got quite excited. It’s absolutely amazing – huge and intact. I climbed up the somewhat uneven steps and took a seat in the blissful shade right up the top and just sat for a long while, listening to people drop coins in the middle of the stage, tour leaders crinkle paper, and jokers singing songs to rousing applause.

It is true – the acoustics are absolutely brilliant and while there were only a few people my ears were tuned in. As it filled up though, it became apparent that it’s too easy to hear noises elsewhere in the audience and the whole thing was soon abuzz with noise.

I walked round the top into the sun on the other side and made my way back down one set of steps and stood on the stage for a moment, looking up. I went then into the very sparse and unexplained museum which took all of 7 minutes, and then on to the archaeological site. It was quite large and reasonably well-explained, but burning hot with no shade, so I probably didn’t look at it in as much detail as I should have. There is a lot of restoration work happening and so it’s difficult to get an idea. I simultaneously want to see what the ruins look like now as well as how they looked in their day. I really liked the long stadium and it was interesting to see buildings intended for healing and how they worked – that was a new thing at least.

I headed for the bus stop early for the 6pm bus, having a chat with the post office man on the way and being invited for dinner (what is wrong with these people?). Lucky he warned me because the bus didn’t show up from Kranidi until 6.20, but I guessed that the Asian couple nearby were waiting for the same bus. On the bus I spoke to the Asian couple were from New York on their honeymoon and another man and his girlfriend were Classics students from Cambridge, misappropriating Faculty funds on a beach holiday. Back in Nafplio I found myself lured into a restaurant on Bouboulinas – lucky because I fancied seafood. I had quite a good swordfish souvlaki. I went back to the hotel via my favourite Antica gelato shop and had banana and tiramisu. The girl there remembered me again and shook my hand when I said I was leaving tomorrow. Back at the hotel I tried to work out the next couple of days. Bed at 11pm.