My Big Fat Greek Adventure Part 3: Poseidon's Temple

Our trip to Greece was Funny Guy's dream come true.  An avid Rick Riordan fan, he couldn't wait to see all of the places of the myths in the books in real life.  One of the places he begged to go was Poseidon's Temple.  Just about an hour's drive from Athens, it looked like a spot worth seeing.  We added it to the itinerary for the evening of our last day in Athens.

Unfortunately, I did that thing I normally do when I'm in charge of itineraries--I got antsy and nagged My Man into leaving too early.  I didn't want to risk missing the sunset!  We ended up arriving about 2 hours too early.  Oops.

The temple was beautiful, perched out on the end of a promontory overlooking the ocean.  But it was windy, super windy, and cold.  We walked around, got a bunch of great pictures, and started to freeze.  Still an hour and a half until sunset.

We ate a picnic dinner, took some more pictures, and froze some more.  We listened to Funny Guy tell us all the stories about Poseidon he could think of.  I explained the history of the place (the earliest ruins date from the Bronze Age but the temple standing now was erected in the 5th century BC).

Finally, the kids were done.  Granted, it had been a long day.  We'd already walked all over Athens, hitting the Agora, Mars Hill, and Zeus's Temple.  I was almost ready to side with them, but I'd heard that the sunset was magical.  Would it really be worth waiting for?  My Man thought so.  The kids didn't.  I wavered (it was really cold).  Finally we compromised, the kids hung out in the car, out of the wind, chilling with books and mp3 players.  My Man and I hung around at the temple, waiting for the magic of sunset.

And then it came.  And it was unbelievable how the light and color of the sunset transformed the temple into something holy.  "The kids are missing this!" I fretted to My Man.  "It will give them something to come back for when they are old enough to appreciate it," he answered.  I thought about running down to the car to get them, but I worried the park rangers wouldn't let me back up (it officially closes at sunset and they were already eyeing their watches, ready to start herding the photographers out.  Plus, I just couldn't pry my eyes away from the magical scene in front of me, which seemed to get better with each passing moment.

Probably, if you weren't there, with the wind in your face and the hugeness of the world and the ocean and sky falling away around you, these pictures won't wow you the way they still wow me.  But if you ever get the chance to visit Poseidon's Temple, bring a jacket (just in case, even if all your friends who just visited Greece the week before said they sweated though every minute of every day), and a camera, and prepare to be amazed.

Unfortunately, even though I could have stared and stared forever, the rangers decided at this point that the show was over and started (almost physically) pushing us out.  We'd walk a few steps, turn and stare, catch their pointed looks, and turn around for a few more steps, before pausing to catch one more look.  Some things are just too beautiful.

My Big Fat Greek Adventure Part 2: Athens Acropolis, Agora, Temple of Zeus

One of the only unfortunate parts of our Greece vacation was the logistics of getting from one place to the next.  If we were millionaires, we could have saved a lot of time and inconvenience by flying straight to Thessaloniki, driving (or better yet helicoptering!) to Leptokarya, then catching the train down to Athens.  Instead, we ended up doing quite a bit of backtracking.  We flew from Athens to Thessaloniki, rented a car, drove to Leptokarya, then drove back to Thessaloniki (past the bus station) to drop off the rental car by the airport, then had to catch a cab back to the train station and catch the train from Thessaloniki (going back past Leptokarya) to Athens.  All in all, it added several hours to our travel time but saved several hundred dollars.  Worth it.  Barely.

My Man volunteered to do the rental car exchange, dropping the kids and me off at the train station to avoid the extra backtracking.  Inadvertently, he also dropped off all his money, which meant he was stranded at the rental car office with no way back to the train station, even though the bus fare was the equivalent of less than a dollar!  And we had no cell service so he was completely on his own.  Fortunately, he still had his debit card and was able to find an ATM and get back to us in plenty of time to catch our train.

We'd opted to take the train to Athens rather than fly, not only to save the money, but also because the kids had never traveled by train before (unless you count our trip to NYC a few years ago, which for some reason, they don't).  It was a fun trip.  We got a huge discount for being a "large family" (at least three kids) and upgraded to first class for a few extra bucks, which meant that we had a compartment with six seats all to ourselves . . . until an unfortunate sixth person arrived about half-way through the trip.  I'm not sure he thought his upgrade was worth it, being stuck in a compartment with our crazy group.  He put on his headphones and feigned sleep the whole way.  But we will never forget the gum incident of 2017 (I can't bring myself to publish it to the world--you'll have to ask Young Man for the dirty details).

My favorite part of the train ride was standing in the caboose and watching Greece fall away behind us outside the windows.  It was beautiful.  We chugged past ruins and villages, through mountains and along the ocean.  I only wished I'd prepared better food to bring along, since the restaurant car didn't have any gluten free options and six hours is quite a long ride without any real food.  Luckily we did have a few granola bars and apples.  And gum. . .

We arrived in Athens around 3, caught the metro to within a block of our apartment, and walked in.  It was a beautiful apartment just blocks from the Acropolis (almost next door to the Acropolis Museum and metro stop), with a grocery store and bakery downstairs.  It was definitely our best-ever AirBnB experience!  In fact, after a quick shopping trip to stock up on groceries and then making and cleaning up dinner, it was still early enough that we decided to hit the Acropolis that night.  It was a fantastic decision, since (as we saw the next morning), it was much less crowded and cooler than if we'd waited until morning, plus it left more time for exploring the next day.

The Acropolis ruins are really fantastic, but there is restoration work going on that mars the experience just a little.  At first, I thought we'd timed our trip badly, but turns out there has been ongoing restoration work and scaffolding on the Parthenon since 1983!  Even so, the experience was incredible and some strategic angling allowed some good photos.  Even better was just being there, soaking in the views, contemplating the history, the beauty, the experience.

Before we even got up to the Parthenon though, we walked through several ruins of temples and theaters and were wowed by the Theater of Herodes Atticus, built in AD 160.  It's huge!

Then we climbed the stairs to the top of the acropolis to see the Parthenon and other ruins atop the hill.  The views of Athens were stunning.  The beauty of the ancient buildings was powerful (as was the wind!).  The whole experience was surreal.

I couldn't believe I was actually there, in the city of mythology and philosophy and ancient texts, seeing it all with my own eyes, imagining how it might have looked when it was alive, not ruins.

We left just as the Acropolis was closing and headed to a nearby hill for sunset.  The path was lined with wildflowers and we had the place practically to ourselves.

The views were even better than they'd been from the Acropolis (because now we were actually looking at it!).  The only problem was the wind made pictures difficult for those of us with long hair.

The kids had fun goofing of, running around, and posing for pictures.  It was a nice way to end a day that had been mostly travel, and the perfect introduction to Athens.

The next day we headed to the Agora, and I was enchanted.  I love how one website describes the space:

Strolling through the ruins of the Agora one can't escape the unbearable weight of history that hovers about the place, and yet, the form of the landscape reflects none of the splendor of magnificent buildings that once adorned the landscape. The lacy arguments of ancient Greek philosophers who strolled the ground leading their pupils scattered in the winds throughout the globe, and the ruined stones speak of fiery orations only in a silent sort of way. Despite the magnificent rock of the Acropolis that commands the landscape of the Agora from above, and the majestic presence of the Temple of Hephestus that balances the Parthenon across the plateau, the Agora remains a shy, humble and tranquil place.

Of all the historical ruins we visited in Greece, the Agora was one of my favorites.  The Temple of Hephestus (built in 450 BC) still stands impressively on the hill, with several well-preserved friezes along the tops, the museum is wonderful, and the grounds are beautiful.

The quiet sunshine of the morning, the relative emptiness of the place, and the abundance of wildflowers all contributed to its charm.

One of my favorite parts, though, was listening to Funny Guy explain the myths and stories behind each of the characters we encountered (at the Agora and throughout our whole trip).  I would read a brief description about a ruin or statue, and we would all look to Funny Guy who would say, "Want to know more about so-and-so?" and launch into a colorful story about how that particular Greek historical figure made history.

It was even better in the museum where we paused at each statue so that he could regale us with stories, breathing life into the headless, armless relics, each centuries (some even thousands of years) old but still alive in the imagination of our 9-year-old.  Simply amazing.

Funny Guy kept the trip interesting in other ways as well, making it his personal mission to photo bomb as many pictures as possible.  After we'd wandered through the Agora for a couple hours, we headed out to climb Mars Hill, site of Paul's Biblical confrontation with the people of Athens.

The steep climb was rewarded with more incredible views of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis.  And we could see the throngs of people already filling the place, reminding us how wise we'd been to visit the evening before!

Although it was already way past lunchtime, we decided to take the long way home so we could stop by the Temple of Zeus (stopping along the way for some delicious gelato of course).

The Temple of Zeus is (rightly) ginormous and that's with only 15 of the original 104 columns left standing!

It's history is fascinating--construction began and stopped and started again multiple times over hundreds of years as the area was conquered.  It was finally finished by the (reputedly cruel) Emperor Hadrian in 131 AD, who had a giant ivory and gold statue of himself erected next to the similarly giant and ornate statue of Zeus inside.  He also had this arch erected, to remind the people that he, and not the Greek gods of mythology, was now in charge:

But not anymore.  Fully quenched of our historical thirst for a time, Funny Guy declared the sight-seeing over for the day (little did he know what was still in store . . . ).

We relaxed in some ancient arm chairs (surprisingly comfortable, though they could use some cushions!) in the beautiful park nearby until hunger overcame exhaustion and we were able to walk the rest of the way home for lunch.

Although we were out of time for sightseeing in Athens, our trip was still far from over.  In a few hours, we were scheduled to pick up our rental car so that we could head out to the Temple of Poseidon for sunset that evening, then head out for our adventures in the Peloponnese early the next morning.  But that will have to wait for another blog post.

My Big Fat Greek Adventure, Part 1: Thessaloniki, Mt. Olympus, & Meteora

We weren't planning on traveling for Spring Break, afterall, it feels like we just arrived to Kyiv! But then there was a crazy deal on airfare and a bit of research showed that spring in Greece is the best time to visit (if you want to avoid the heat and crowds), not to mention that Funny Guy is a walking encyclopedia of Greek mythology (thanks Rick Riordan), so we decided, why not?!

Athens is less than 3 hours from Kyiv, but it took us a bit longer to fly up to Thessaloniki where we rented a car to drive down to our Airbnb rental in Leptokarya, at the base of Mount Olympus.

We stopped for dinner on the beach before heading to the house for bed.  That was when we discovered that Darling Daughter had forgotten to bring her sweatshirt.  And I had grossly underestimated how cold the wind chill would be.  Still, it was beautiful and we soaked in the waves, the castle up on the hill, the sunset.  We were really in Greece!

The next morning, we split up.  We dropped My Man off to meet a group of paragliders, then the kids and I drove up into Mt. Olympus National Park to hike part of the Mt. Olympus summit trail.

 The weather was cool and threatening rain, but we set off anyway, undeterred.

Originally I'd hoped to hike from the trailhead in Prionia down to Litochoro, but realized that might be too ambitious for the younger kids.

Instead, we opted to hike from Prionia on the E4 trail to the old Monastery and then back.  It was perfect and allowed plenty of time for stopping to climb rocks, look at bugs, and take pictures.  (For someone with even smaller hikers and two adults, it would be possible to drop off hikers at Prionia, then drive back down to the monastery and leave the car there, hiking up to meet the rest of the group to make the hike even shorter.)

The trail was gorgeous, along a raging creek, through forest, with lots of rocks to climb and flowers to admire and interesting terrain.

By the time we got to the monastery, sadly ruined by Nazis in WWII, but undergoing some renovations now, Funny Guy was starting to tire and the rain that had been threatening all day began to fall more seriously.

Cold, wet, and a little tired, we opted to head back on the road for a shorter trip and were rewarded by seeing several dramatically colored newts (which Young Man gallantly scooped from the road to save from unhappy martyrdom by the cars).  One was so grateful for the help that he climbed right up Young Man's leg.

The kids were real troopers and didn't complain at all in spite of the cold rain.  I guess it was a small price to pay to hike on Zeus' mountain.  It may have helped that we played one million games of I Spy and Contact and laughed and laughed and laughed.  I may also have resorted to a super secret stash of Cadbury chocolate eggs, AKA energy capsules, to help ward off melt-downs.  By the time we got back to the car, this was our view:

Still, when asked if they would do it again, all three kids gave a resounding "YES!" and so would I.  In fact, I hope I have the chance to go back some day and hike the full trail, hopefully not in the rain.  

Meanwhile, the weather hadn't cooperated for My Man either.  He and the other paragliders had a chance to check out the launch and got one quick flight but then the rain interrupted any plans to fly more so My Man was forced to enjoy a delicious lunch with a gorgeous ocean view.

By the time we got back home, though, the sky was starting to clear, so we joined My Man to head back up to the local paragliding launch.  At the top of the hill there is an old church, more than 600 years old actually.  "That's older than the United States!" My Man exclaimed.  His instructor laughed and said, "Everything in Greece is older than the United States!"  As if to prove the point, My Man ran off the mountain, then flew off toward the beach, circling around a beautiful old castle along the way.

That evening, Funny Guy and I took a walk to the beach, where we spent the rest of the evening watching the sun set and practicing skipping rocks into the calm water.  It was beautiful.

The next morning, the kids and I had to leave before the crack of dawn to drive inland to Meteora, a collection of old monasteries perched dramatically and sometimes precipitously on giant rock outcrops.

After some interesting GPS instructions, we managed to arrive just in time to join our hiking tour.  It was fantastic.

The guide had grown up in the area and knew every legend, story, and trail.

He pointed out interested old trees, told stories about the wild boars in the area, and pointed out good photo ops.

He put up with the sibling squabbling that accompanied our three kiddos and told so many good stories that Funny Guy forget to get tired until the 5-hour tour was finished.

We saw several of the old monasteries and went inside the Great Meteoron Monastery.

Although I probably would have explored more extensively if I'd been there on my own, the kids were ready to head home after our tour, understandably tired out after two days of hiking.  It was a great outing, though, and we all highly recommend the Visit Meteora tours.  The day was beautiful, warm and sunny, no evidence of the previous day's rain, so after we got home, we prepared an early picnic dinner to eat outside.  After a few minutes, we heard My Man.  What?  The kids started looking around to see where he was.  I looked up.

Sure enough, there he was soaring high above our picnic on his way to a beach landing.  Funny Guy and I hopped in the car to go pick him up.  Incredibly, he was finishing an epic cross-country flight from the other side of Mt. Olympus!

It was the longest flight of his career, and arguably the coolest.  I couldn't believe that he managed to fly directly over our house from so far away!  And landing on the beach, with the beautiful red poppies waving in the breeze and the beautiful blue ocean behind was really the perfect ending.

My Man pointing to Mt. Olympus (where he started the flight) and then to the beach where he landed.

Sadly, it was the last paragliding day until the end of the trip, but it was a flight to remember.

That evening, My Man and I visited Platamon Castle, then ate out at a traditional Greek Taverna with the other paragliding pilots who were visiting from Switzerland.  Just bring us your very best, they told the restaurant owner when he came to get our orders.  What arrived was a sampling of mouth-watering salads, cheeses, and meats.  The five of us feasted and feasted and still couldn't finish it all.  It was the perfect ending to the first segment of our Greek vacation.  If we had had to leave Greece and go home right then, it would have been worth it.  Lucky for us, however, we still had almost a week left!

The next morning we drove up to Thessaloniki, traded our rental car for a spot on the train, and headed down to Athens for our Big Fat Greek Adventure, Part 2.