Exercise Minotaur - A Journal (Part 2)

General Comments

The good thing about Europe is that you have Fanta. It is too strong to drink on a daily basis, but taken once in a while, it is quite refreshing. Europe also has Nutella, though Root Beer is sadly unknown.

Unlike the NZ lamb we get in Singapore, Greek lamb doesn't smell much. Maybe it's their diet.

Many of the dinners that were pre-paid for weren't very good, but the meals we paid for ourselves - even if it was at restaurants chosen beforehand by the guide - were delicious. Moral of the story: Don't go on tours which provide all of your meals.

A rule I came up with in Plaak (Prague) - hotels with names starting with "Hotel" are lousier than those which place the "Hotel" word at the end. Eg "Hotel Artis". The reason for this is that placing the word "Hotel" at the front gives it an air of class that they cannot otherwise aspire to, and need more desperately than better hotels. This rule seemed to apply for Greece, and seems to apply for Singapore too (Hotel 81)!

Greece is a very mountainous country, and you can only appreciate that when travelling through it by land. Even then, airconditioned buses hardly give you an idea of the experiences of the poor travellers of Pericles' time, but at least you can see why city states arose and persisted.

I was (un)fortunate enough to witness the symptoms of compulsive photo-taking disorder during the trip - all 3 females in their 20s were fond of taking pictures of all sorts of things: flowers, fruits, pine cones and worst of all - each and every one of their meals (okay maybe 1 of them didn't record *all* her meals for posterity, but the other 2 seemed to).

Aircons in Greek hotels all suck. The only aircon which could produce cold air during the trip was in Art Pythia Hotel, Delphi, because there was no central airconditioning, each room being equipped with its own individual unit, with a normal remote like those found in homes. Perhaps the managements disabled the compressors to save on electricity bills, or to prevent hapless guests freezing themselves outside the summer months.

I was thinking of getting some icons for 2 religious friends of mine (Tim and Ger), then I remembered that they were Roman Catholics, and getting them Greek Orthodox icons would be a blasphemy sufficient to get them excommunicated. Pity :)

At many places in Greece, they sold calenders with "beautiful women of Greece" (half nude, going by the cover). One place had a calender with erotic scenes from Greek pottery. Even more popular were playing cards with erotic scenes from Greek pottery, labelled "the best souvenir from Greece". A few places had cards with scenes of hardcore pornography on them, but those didn't have the same charm as the pottery ones. Besides, you wouldn't be able to concentrate on your poker game. But then maybe they're used for strip poker.

A group of 6 - 3 pairs - of 20+ year olds were incredibly close, even though they didn't know each other before the trip, even linking tables during meal times. It must be a generation thing.

Day 3 - May 3rd - Thermopylae-Kalambaka-Meteora

On the third day, we started on our Land Tour of Greece. This day had the longest drive - some 6 hours in total, for we travelled to Kalambaka in Northern Greece. On the way there, we stopped at Thermopylae, where a monument to Leonidas and the Spartans stood (the guide told us that it was a Greek soldier that betrayed them to the Persians, but I remembered that it was a shepherd. I did some research later and some sources mention a shepherd, while others just call him a Greek traitor.). I was holding out a faint hope that the memorial would be the ancient one that read: "Go, stranger, and to Lacedaemon tell/That here, obeying her behests, we fell.", but instead it was a modern monument raised in 1955. There was also another monument at the same site - one to the Boetians, the guide said, but no one bothered about that one (and I can't find out anything about it either). Later, I found out that there was also a monument at the spot where the Greeks made their last stand. Oh well.

After lunch in Kalambaka, we went to see the rocks and monasteries of Meteora. In one of the rocks, there was a cave (the Cave of Dulhiani, or something) hung with many coloured cloths. We were told that in summer, young men and boys from the villages will try to ascend to it, and the one who reaches there first and takes a cloth will be accorded some special status for the rest of the year.

We viewed all 6 of the monasteries and nunneries from afar, but visited only one - the Monastery of Great Meteoron. Prior to 1929 (?), the only means of ascent was by clambering onto a rope thrown from above (the rope was supposedly replaced only when it broke - "God's will"), but there is now a staircase. Inside were such interesting things as a charnel house, housing the skulls of deceased monks, and a church with Byzantine and Byzantine-style icons and frescos.

Before we could buy anything from the monastery, we were quickly shuffled to a shop in the plains below which gave the various tour guides some commission and offered us Ouzo (a Greek alcoholic drink made from grape resin, about 40% alcohol by volume) for free. I was intending to sample some, in my quest to prove to myself that all alcohol tastes Vile, but the smell alone made me feel like puking, so I witheld myself. We were then checked into our hotel in Kalambaka. Having already walked through the town after lunch, my father and I decided to rest before dinner, and take our walk later.

After dinner, I bought a Meteora T-shirt at a shop for 7 Euros, but a whitish dandruff-like film seems to be peeling from it as I type this, so maybe I got conned. After that, we returned to our hotel room, which had been transformed to a furnace. It seems that the helpful management had switched the central airconditioning to heater mode from aircon mode around dinner time. Like typical Singaporeans, we had left the aircon on on "high". The rest was history, and we ended up opening both the doors to the corridor outside and the balcony to air the room, and commiserating with the other members of our tour group, who were having similar experiences.

Day 4 - May 4th - Delphi

In the morning, somewhat later than the previous day, we left for Delphi. Lunch was at a restaurant near Delphi, where as an appetizer, I had cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and meat (not bad, but a touch too salty and too meaty). My main course was swordfish fillet - huge and very fresh, though it was too bouncy and heavy (not in a filling sense) for me. My father claimed the cooking wasn't too good, but it was fine by me. For dessert I had baklava. Greek baklava isn't as sweet as Arabic baklava, but it is too dry. It is also served in the shape of slices of cake rather than the arabic round tarts.

In the shop of the restaurant was a gorgeous golden-brown coloured Cocker Spaniel. He was friendly till I took my camera out to try to get a shot of him, whereupon he started running away from me, eventually hiding behind a chair. The staff explained that he was afraid of cameras. Oh well.

After lunch, we visited the museum at Delphi. This one wasn't closed. Not totally, at least, but most of the collection was not on display due to only one room being open for viewing. At least the Bronze Charioteer was there.

We proceeded, then, to the archaeological site. At its entrance was displayed a list of queer rules. Apparently in Greece, some actions are forbidden on archaeological sites. They include: taking "improper" pictures, singing, making loud noises, "to introduce food" (whatever that means - the image I have is of releasing Killer Tomatoes to devour the Temple of Apollo) and entering the site in a bathing suit. This reminded me of the list of SAF Contraband for servicemen returning from overseas.

After our guide Marisa had given us a tour of the main ruins at Delphi, she gave us 30 minutes to explore the site - possibly going up to the theater - and to take photos, cautioning us not to go to the Stadium as it would take too long and we'd visit Olympia the next day, which had a better stadium anyway. Naturally, I wanted to see what the stadium looked like, and ended up nearly dying on the long treak up (Yet again. It's something I tend to do when overseas).

After leaving the site, we had a look at what remained of the (now dry) purification spring and the less-crowded Sanctuary of Athena, then returned to Delphi for dinner, during which there was a man playing piano in a mediocre fashion (but it was better than nothing).

The aircon in the room worked (finally) but the bath tub was tiny - my knees were curled to my chest when I got in. They'd have been better off constructing a shower instead.

Day 5 - May 5th - Patras-Olympia

On Wednesday, we drove out of Delphi to its port of Nafpaktos (aka Lepanto). The suspension bridge bridging the Gulf of Corinth wasn't ready yet, so we took a ferry. The winds buffeting us during our short ~20min mini-cruise were a bit chilly, but I did not deign to put on my jacket. To questions of, "Aren't you cold?", I replied with my usual answer: "I find the cold invigorating", but after a while even I couldn't take it anymore and went inside.

On arrival at the opposite shore, we drove to Patras and had a short stop, visiting the Cathedral of St. Andreas (St Andrew). It's a 20th century construction, and as I recall, some parts still haven't been decorated, but it was glorious to behold anyhow. The cathedral contained the relics of St Andrew as well as some pieces of the Double Cross on which he was crucified, but I have my doubts about their veracity - after all, during the Middle Ages, enough pieces of "the True Cross" were floating around to reconstruct more than one, and with the number of finger bones at various holy places, some saints apparently had 2 left hands.

We then continued on our journey to Olympia. It was amusing to learn that the Olympic flame is actually lit on an altar in front of the temple of Hera in a re-enactment of a pagan ceremony If the fundies find Pokemon satanic, I wonder what they'll think of this!

After that we proceeded to the Temple of Zeus. I was heartbroken to see the pitiful remains of what once housed one of the canonical Wonders of the Ancient World. (*insert optional rant about the transience of man, and how our modern wonders will likewise disintegrate, and how we all suck and should treasure life. Add angst to taste*)

I have now seen 1 Wonder of the Ancient World (or what remains of it, anyway). 1 down, 6 to go. The Colossus is gone, hauled off on the backs of 900 camels. Herostratus burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Some people doubt the existence of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and I doubt Iraq will be safe for many years to come. The Pharos lies in the sea off Alexandria and I can't dive. But the Pyramids (or more specifically, the Great Pyramid of Khufu/Cheops) are still there, albeit missing their crowning limestone glory. And I've seen the partial reconstruction of the Mausoleum in the British Museum, so that's a half-count.

After our visit, we were bused to Europa hotel - the best hotel we stayed in during our trip. Suffice to say that it was highly recommended by the Frommers guidebook. We had some time before dinner, but my father didn't want to walk to the town of Olympia, so I went alone.

Europa hotel, though good, was far from the town of Olympia, so much so that the reception provided a map for guests. On the map, it didn't look too bad, but when I took the route, I found that it was down a hill. Along the way, my foot crashed into the lid of a rubbish cart that was lying on its side, causing me no end of pain. Also, dogs in houses adjoining the road kept barking at me (they were the unfriendliest dogs in Greece).

I spent a short time spent walking around Olympia town and buying 2 souvenirs/gifts. There was an interesting bookshop selling CDs of Byzantine music and a book on the mysteries of Rhea and Orphism. Another had Barbie-style dolls of Aphrodite, Artemis, Poseidon and others whose names I couldn't make out from the Greek letters. Eeks!

After that, I returned to the hotel. It was hell. The inclines were probably the steepest I'd ever seen, and I had to stop for breath more than once. By the time I reached my room, I was so drained I collapsed on the bed.

At dinner, there was a group of Koreans at the table beside us. Besides bringing their own seaweed to the meal, they also had a guy giving out green chilis. Wth?!

After dinner, I loitered around the lobby for a while, seeing if anyone was going down to the town, so I could share a cab up with them. Seemingly, everyone was deterred by the slope, so in the end I ended up talking to someone else on the tour, with whom I later discovered that we shared a mutual friend, and who has read my blog before. My infamy precedes me. For all I know, one day I'm going to run into the Brazillians who used to ask me for cyber-BDSM on ICQ.


Praise from the critics (on Part 1 of the Exercise Minotaur journal):

"thge greece entry so far is short, sweet and full of pointed observations and dry wit that is characteristic of the gabriel seah prose.
it's one of the finest examples of your work"

[Ed: Added cyber-BDSM and Delphi bath tub comments, 12/05]