Day 11- Thurs. May 21

Day 11 (Thursday, May 21):

To start off the day, Paula and I walked to the grocery store to buy breakfast. After picking out my chocolate milk and banana, and Paula her food, we went to the checkout. Little did we know it was not going to be that easy :) There was no one there to check us out so we waited, expecting the woman 20 feet away to come and do it. She didn't. Three more people got in line, bringing the total to 5 persons in line. The lady finally meanders on up, and instead of checking us out, gets on the telly and starts chatting! The old man in line behind us does not take this kindly, and is able to yell at her in Greek – complete with hand gestures. Unfortunately, this does not appear to perturb the woman. After about another minute, she gets on the intercom, and calls up someone else to check us out! We wait, and someone else appears. There is a mutual groan as the phone rings and of course she answers it. Finally, we are able to pay for our stuff and leave. The differences between American and Greek grocery stores are profound. In America, checkers make fairly good pay and a grocery store can be a pretty darn good place to work for someone. Yet here they do not care, and freely provide incorrect change and poor service.

!t 9:30 we met, and group took the 10:00 bus to Mycenae. On the way I composed (yet another :) love letter to Abe on my i-pod.

Once at Mycenae (or Mykeneh), we had a guided tour. It was pretty neat, and both Paula and I were both excited for this excursion because the Mycenaeans were so powerful and important. (Think pre-history, and the Trojan War era). First, we visited what is supposedly Agamemnon's tomb. If you don't know, Agamemnon was the king who led the Trojan War effort. His brother the King of Sparta, sent him a message that his wife Helen (the Spartan king's wife) was “kidnapped” (i.e. she had run off with) Paris, the prince of the Trojans. So Agamemnon, desiring to help his brother, led the effort to reclaim Helen, (and conveniently capture the strategic city of Troy in the process), enlisting help from 22 city-states in the process. The tomb of Agamemnon was totally buried until the mid 1800's, when a German named Schleimann looked for Mycenae to excavate. I was also impressed by the use of triangle reliefs in the architecture; triangle shaped cutouts designed to relieve the pressure of the superstructure.

The Acropolis of Mycenae, as well as the tomb, are both impressive. The tomb is like a circular pyramid, (if that makes sense), and the stones are HUGE. The lintel stone is one of the largest I have ever seen. Even today, historians do not know how they moved the stones. Or cut them. For the tomb, the stones are all cut and are smooth blocks. For the walls of the acropolis, the Ancient Greeks called the the “Cyclopean Walls” after the cyclops because they could not think of any way all the giant stones could be moved and assembled unless they were moved by the cyclops. (The stones in the cyclopean wall were not all uniform like the tomb but still impressive). The other neat thing about the area was the lion carving on the relief above the entryway. Remember, all this was built in the 12th century BC!!! How amazing is that!! While Greece did not have lions, even 3 thousand years ago, the Mycenaeans were trading in a massive area. Trading remains of the Mycenaeans have been found in such far flung locations as Egypt in Africa (hence the exposure to lions), with Afghanistan, Spain, England, Finland, and of course all around the Mediterranean Sea.

We also went down (and I do mean down) to the cistern, or water supply. You go down this dark, deep, long staircase – in the dark. Luckily Rob (our professor), had a flashlight, so we had some, but not much, light. I kept my hand on Paula's shoulder the whole time because I couldn't see a thing! But that was really cool. The other thing that should be noted is that this whole time the wind was HOWLING. I mean, sailors only hope for winds this good. Like 50 knots! It was insane. My hat got blown off, and I ended up carrying it, and both my professors' hats blew off too. Even the spiders were trying to hide form the wind. It was blowing so hard if you turned your back to it and leaned backwards, you could go for a few inches because the wind was so strong it would support you. The wind snatched words from our lips as soon as we spoke.

After we got back, I woke Abe up :) and we video chatted for an hour. It was wonderful :) Love you Abe!! Then time for a dinner of greek salad on the waterfront, watching the world go round. Then Paula and Sarah and I went to the grocery store to get food since we won't be fed tomorrow, or Sat. really. I just got some yoghurt and juice.

Finally, Paula and I relaxed by watching a movie tonight, “Twilight Zone: The Movie,” and it was entirely too scary for me! And now, well, its after 11 and time for bed. Tomorrow, Paula, Sarah, and I, and probably Casey, are going to a town called Tolo and are going to investigate some Greek beach. Then Saturday, we leave for Delphi. Its a 6-7 hour bus ride, but luckily it will be broken up by a stop in Thermopilae. Until next time... :)