Ancient Olympia January 9

The alarm goes off and with a reluctant sigh I pull myself up, looking at the dark room, hearing the bells of the alarm shrilly clamouring for attention, thinking,…this is our holiday…and it is dark and the alarm is ringing….but knowing that it is better to get up and have an early breakfast so we can be on the road again to gain as much as we could today in our travels.
The problem of what to wear each day is becoming more obvious…actually it is the problem of ‘what will I wear again’ . By now all our clothes have been worn and we have not completed a proper wash ( of clothes that is…) since we left Vienna…..and so the clothes are beginning to not feel as they should be….Marc actually has a few clean polo shirts left but I’m now resorting to ‘ah, the pink jumper today; ah, the black jumper today; ah, the pink jumper today…etc etc..’ ….don’t even think about the trousers….!!!!

As the weather has changed considerably and we did not conceive that Greece would be this warm. It was predicted 19 degrees in Kalamata and where we were headed was not going to be that much cooler…..that is quite warm for a Grecian winter by the local standard…so my predicament was I did not have anything cool and the two jumpers mentioned above were the lightest of my travelling wardrobe . We came prepared for the cold..which we have had!! Of course we are washing the smalls…and letting them dry in the back shelf of the car as we travel…it must be quite funny for the Greek driver looking into our car from behind to see bras, socks and undies on the back!!! However, do you know that perfume sprayed in ‘different areas’ of your clothing can assist this predicament….well I am learning anyway!!!
In all honesty I am really looking forward to a greater selection of clothes when we return from our trip!!
For now..it will do. But I am sure my travelling clothes will just stand up and walkway from me when we arrive at our house!!

Back to the story…
However, we still allowed ourselves an extra 1/2 hour to allow the early bird tour buses to come and go at our destination before we arrive – moderately important to us since it is SO much nicer to wander through a tourist site with you being one of the few tourists there – presumptuous of us but so far in Greece we have been pulling off that feat.

Today took us to Olympia…ancient Olympia. And yes, we practically had the place to ourselves with a bus of Australian schoolgirls just leaving as we were arriving and no more than 4-5 other tourists in the whole site. This meant we could wander wherever and read all the signs.
Lyndell is amazed at how archaeologists can conceive what the original buildings looked like when all that is left is a jumble of rocks and the odd standing column or two. I suspect that there still survive some drawings from ancient times that would help.(it was amazing visualising the forums and the buildings and particularly the size of the building that they placed the god Zeus in….it was a building all of it own and I am not talking about a normal house…I am talking about a place like a palace….and this was just one building in Olympia the most important one as far as the grecians went.)

Anyway, the ruins are impressive in terms more of their significance then in terms of what structures are still standing. From originally being a sanctuary dedicated to Zeus it has come to represent the beginnings of the ‘Olympic Games’ – when a ‘sacred truce’ would be proclaimed for the duration of the games allowing the different Hellenic cities to compete in athletic sports rather than in warfare. These first ‘Olympic Games’ started in the early 8th centuryBC (more than 2900yrs ago) and continued for 1200years until the pagan religions were suppressed in the 5th centuryAD.

To be able to walk through the archway onto the original Olympic stadium as the original Olympians had and, just for fun, for BOTH of us to run the length of the stadium (192m from start to finish stones) – and yes, we have video proof Lyndell ran the entire length without stopping! To see the extensive buildings reserved for the athletes and the judges including training areas…

(it was such a huge place and so sophisticated,…society in a lot of ways has gone backwards from this era in terms of accomplishments and knowledge for their age and stage of time,,,,when I try to pice together the stages if society and eras…I am so impressed by the ancient Greeks
This was actually quite exciting…to ,walk through the stadium and imagine the crowds….compete in their togas,,.actually I found out today that they actually competed naked. This was also evident by the grooming they they did before they went in..the oiling and powdering of the male body…..hmmm..strong male athletics…ah …the mind boggles …..mmmmmm

Of course I had to run through the entrance and then walk to the other end of the stadium to run all the way back….it was so far…complete in my black jumper winter gear as well with the sun shining quite strongly from above. Yes I waved to the waiting crowd as they cheered me on in this vast empty arena…
A wonderful experience…( the imagination says it all) )

Then the museum with finds from the archaeological site including the near complete statue of. Here and the extensive numbers of statues that went into just filling the eaves of the Temple to Apollo. Amazing!
We spent quite awhile looking around before heading into the township just to have a look and to share a rather mediocre quality sandwich and cup of coffee at a cafe.

Lyndell then, after her exhibition of athletic prowess earlier in the Olympic stadium, rolled her ankle on a gutter and has a significant sprain. However, she soldiered on hobbling around the town, buying a pair of sunglasses to replace those she left at Schloss Matzen in Austria and I bought a touristy book about Greece that at least explains the history and provides guidance on how the buildings at various archaeological sites would have looked.
Lyndell continues to hobble on and does not complain much, even with ongoing exposure to the inevitable stairs.
( yes Laura I am still doing those stairs…just a lot slower and leaning on Marc more…..I mean one week left and I still have so much to see….I will rest it in the trip home…but No Not impressed…I could have rolled it in the stadium, at least I could say that I had injured myself in the ancient Olympic stadium…!! No I had to do it in a coffee shop…or leaving one anyway…
I left the shoe I all day and It was quite swollen as seen in the Facebook photos I placed up when I finally ventured to take my shoe off that night….believe me!!!)

After Olympia we drove onto to Kyllini to catch the car ferry to Zakinthos- we just wanted to get in at least one Greek Island into our trip and this was one that was ‘on our way’ and the weather having turned sunny, likely to be more ‘like the summer tourists see it’ then if we tried to add a visit to one of the more ‘famous’ Islands such Mykonos or Santorini at the end of our trip. I really wanted to see Santorini but the thought of a ferry ride three hours long from someone who does not like boats rocking and rolling in water,,,much prefer to be in the water, I mean I even find the Manley ferry in Sydney not good…so Marc thought the closest island was a much better idea. I also felt that Santorini would probably not look the same as my Mate Steve had described it as he went in summer,,and we were in winter and things definitely look different in the winter sun.however, much prefer no crowds!!
We made the ferry, found an ‘okay’ hotel that had a special on a double room for the night – 30€ since there are VERY few tourists this time of the year.

One ‘sad’ experience on-route to Kyllini was seeing a child of around 8-9 standing between the lines of traffic at a stop light begging while the cars stopped. Sad. It was school time and he should have been at school. (We both felt uncomfortable with this child at our window and we had to look away, it happened today again on our way back from the island as well, but this time it was a man..) .Overall, there have been few beggars during our holiday. A few in Italy and western Austria outside churches, only one we saw in Vienna where there were signs specifically prohibiting begging near the Schonnbrum Palace, none in Slovenia and a couple so far in Greece but this young child was the most distressing since where he was begging was so ‘out of place’ geographically (being out on the highway away from the town itself) and socially (since the Greeks, although poor, seem to proud to beg).

Before going to bed we walked the township and found it surprisingly large and much more ‘alive’ then others we have been too. I was enjoying window shopping but Marc was tired from the driving and so we settled in for a lovely dinner at a small outside restaurant….who felt the cold weather..and we were sitting there in just a jumper …..!!! It does seem the tourist business in season is a sufficiently prosperous one to create some local economic stimulus. People were out shipping and drinking etc…and felt more ‘alive’ to what we have seen so far in the economic aspect if Greece.Other positives for visiting the island out-of-season is that the locals are not ‘tourist-fatigued’ but they have enough experience with English tourists to have excellent English (pity it has not rubbed off on the road signs but that is a story for tomorrow).