Greece Day 2

Epidaurus was a 2 hours drive from Athens

and the theater there was…

Not what we were expecting. Turns out were at the Little Ancient Theater of Epidaurus. The real site to see looks a lot like this…

Then we stopped in Argos for lunch. After lunch Iwanted to go here,

Castle Larissa, that tiny looking castle ontop of yonder hill. So we started up a mountain thinking we were following the sign. And instead we came to the Monastery of the Panayia Katakekrimmeni.

The monastery was built in 1700 on the location where the Temple of Hera had been on mount Larissa. The monastery prospered greatly till the revolution. The church was the site of the first school ion Argos.


Since the road ended at the monastery we ended up never going to Caste Larissa. So we continued on to Tripoli. Again it was raining as we drove but that was okay with me. I don’t mind the rain. And I still got a picture of the Tripoli Cathedral!

Now Tripoli was a major site for newly liberated Greeks in the Greek War for Independence. And even cooler then that… Konstantinos Georgakopoulos is from Tripoli.


You never heard of him?? Really!?


Well neither have I. Wikipedia filled me in. Any how after dinner we headed off to Olympia.


It was really late when we got to Olympia but it was still pretty easy to tell that it was a cute town. So we got a hotel room and promptly went to sleep.


The next day we got up early and started off with some shopping. There were so many tourist shops. I bought a lot of postcards and these really cool good luck charms. They look like this…

And I bought my mum a four inch one for her office and a bunch of tiny ones for friends. It’s called A nazar, lucky eye or evil eye stone. And the idea behind it is that it protects you from the evil eye. When it does protect you it cracks and you must get a new one. People that use it hang it on the threshold of their house or office, many wear it as a charm or hang it in their car. They’re really pretty in my opinion, I like holding them up to the sun and looking through.


After lots of shopping we hiked over to the ancient ruins at Olympia. The ruins at Olympia are a mix of athletic facilities and temples.


I was doing some research on the ancient Olympics and I found this story “It was for women forbidden to see the Olympics. Once there was a women who tried to see them. See clothed herself like a trainer and looked at the matches of her son. When son won a match, she shouted like a woman and the men of Olympia killed her. From that time not only the participants but also the trainers and visitors weren't allowed to wear clothes.”


But back to the ruins, needless to say it was epic.


The most well known structure at Olympia is the Temple of Zeus. It was completed in 456 BC and was one of the largest temples in Greece. Although today none of the original columns remain standing, but there is one that was reconstructed and put up for the 2004 Athens Olympics. This is what it looks like today….

And this is what it used to look like….

During the 7th century, one of the very earliest monumental Greek temples was built here, originally a temple to both Zeus and Hera. But when the Temple of Zeus was built it became simply the Temple of Hera.

The workshop of Pheidias is still standing as well. This is where Pheidias sculpted may statues for the temples.

The Philippeion is a memorial which contained statues of Philip's family, Alexander the Great, Olympias, Amyntas III and Eurydice I. It is the only structure inside the Altis dedicated to a human

And here are a few other pictures from Olympia.
 

Cheers,