(No pictures today because I'm tired)
Wow... I only have one month left. Time if flying!!
Sunday was officially cave and optional hiking day. We hiked up to a Neolithic cave (Korykaian)
and then headed out on a seven-mile hike (well, for most of us involved it was
a seven mile hike… for others it was more like the “three hour tour”
foreshadowing the fate of those on the Minnow).
The hike was great and the weather was beautiful as we hiked.
After that we headed to the town of Distomo. Here, on June 10th, 1944, the
German military brutally murdered almost the entire village because they believed
they were helping Greek rebels. They
have a memorial to remember the people that were murdered and a museum as well
where they had photos of those killed.
It was pretty overwhelming and a reminder about how many lives were
destroyed by the Germans leading up to and during WWII.
The next stop was a monastery.
The next morning we left Arachova and headed north toward
Thermopalye. For those people that
disappoint me, you may have heard of Thermopalye from viewing a little movie
based on a graphic novel titled “The 300.”
Some of you may remember it was about some Spartans fighting Persians in
a scenario that seemed more like a battle for Middle Earth as opposed to a
battle to push out the Persians. Others
of you may remember it as a movie that starred Gerard Butler’s abs. Now, if you’re one of my students, you’d
better know darn well that I refuse to see the movie and that none of the
aforementioned scenes are accurate. Please
feel free to do some non-Wikipedia related research on the battle.
After that we headed for lunch and there was a beach
involved…. Then, some Christian church ruins and back on the bus through Volos
up through the mountains to the town of Makrynitsa. Now, if you think you could never imagine a
place like this quaint village, you’re wrong.
Have you seen Beauty and the Beast?
The clip below gives you a taste of the place we stayed in. However, instead of Belle running through the
town singing, picture grown men doing it (in attempts to be ridiculous). That evening the whole group had a great
dinner and watched some dogs fight in the plaza.
The next day we hopped on the bus for a bit of a drive up to
Thessaloniki. First we stopped at the
Volos museum. The displays set up here
were fabulous and they had an example of the stratigraphy we would see at the
next site. We also saw some
reconstructions of Neolithic houses. We
then stopped at the Neolithic sites of Dimini and Selsko where the Elusive
Parat spoke to us about the mysteries and marvels of Neolithic Greece. After that we boarded the bus again (it was a
great nap day) and had lunch at a “truck stop” in a chain restaurant called
“Goodys”…the place is kind of disturbing.
Then we drove past Mt. Olympus (home to the Olympians) and went to the
site of Dion (not to be confused with either Celine or Warwick). We couldn’t get into the site but had the
chance to see the museum, which had some great artifacts.
Back on the bus to Thessaloniki.
Today we started the morning on a nice stroll along the
water to the White Tower. Then we hit up
the Thessaloniki Museum where and walked to the Arch of Galerius.
Lunch…. Sugar fest!!
Frappe (extra sugar) and a nutella crepe (if you work with me or have
been one of my students, you know what happens with even the tiniest amount of
caffeine.
In the afternoon we went to the Byzantine Museum, which had
some fabulous mosaics and a few illuminated manuscripts. They also had some Madonna and Child images,
which, as some know, usually weird me out because of the way they depict “baby”
Jesus. After that we walked around town
and looked at some Byzantine basilicas (I heart Byzantine basilicas).
Tomorrow we head out of Thessaloniki and on to Kalambaka.
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