Corinth

Let me start this blog entry by giving an itinerary of my school trip to Corinth and a number of other places near and around the Peloponnese.

Thursday: Meet at the Center and board the bus at approximately 9am. First stop- a cave at Kapsia. From there we made our way to Agia Foteini, the “Wonky Church” that we were given a tour of by the architect himself and this stop included a picnic lunch. Next stop the Spyropoulos vineyard where we were given a tour and had a tasting of their various wines. After making our wine purchases and enjoying the tasting which included their homemade cheese, we piled back on the bus and headed to our first hotel.

Friday: First thing we drive through the Vouraikos Gorge on the bus. We were planning on taking a nice scenic train ride, but the train tracks have been under construction for over a year and are still not complete. The bus took us through the gorge to Kalavryta, a monastery where the rebels gathered and, blessed by a priest there, they took an oath to defend their country against Ottoman rule. Next we went to a World War II monument that commemorated the lives of thousands of Greeks who were killed by the Germans; most casualties were men, who were shot to death, but many women and children died after being locked in a school and then the building set on fire. From this rather depressing and somber site I went on the optional trip to Perahora, a sanctuary of Hera which is the only ancient site that the general public is actually allowed to walk all over. We got to experience a traditional Greek dinner party by lying on the ruins of the dining room and being shown how they would have sat/lain and drank the night away.

Saturday: The day started off with the strong smell of cheese as we entered a cheese factory in Limnos. The stench was hard to bare and the cheese was not the best I have ever had, but the men working there and giving us the tour were colorful and interesting to listen to. From there we headed to greener pastures, literally. Our next stop was a goat and sheep farm at which we got to meet a genuine shepherd. He was very nice and allowed people pick up and hold the baby goats and sheep. After scraping the mud off of our shoes and trying to recover from the stench, we made our way to Epidavros which is an ancient site where healing was performed and contains this amazing theater with the most spectacular acoustics I’ve ever heard. If you drop a coin in the very center of the stage, you can hear it at every point in the stadium seating. Then it was back to Loutraki for the evening, the town we stayed in for two nights that is known for its fresh spring water which you can find bottled all over Greece.

Sunday: We finally made our way to Corinth on the last day and the ancient site was overwhelming to say the least. Our tour guide was one of the people excavating the site presently and a former Arcadia Athens student. She was very knowledgeable and helped us make sense of the expansive set of ruins. From there we made our way up to the AcroCorinth which is a giant fortress at the top of Corinth. The walls were overbearing and intimidating, making it easy to understand how it is that the fortress has never been seized through force in its entire history. We were fortunate enough to get a tour with Tim Gregory, an expert on the site who has written a number of history books on Corinth. A bit of hiking was involved, but it was all well worth the effort and we had the opportunity to see a “sacred” spring on the very top of the mountain which was covered at some point in history by a certain population, the name of whom presently escapes me, so that one must climb down a steep staircase and slowly make his/her way down the sloping ground to the side of the small pond. Once we made it back to the bus it was time to head back to Athens after a long and tiring weekend.

While there is so much to talk about in regards to this excursion, I think it best to just give my overall comments so that my audience does not get bored by the sheer length of this entry. I am extremely grateful that the school set up such a trip because we saw places I would not normally get to see and probably would not have thought about going to see on my own. It is also useful having people who can translate with you. It was also very reminiscent of our first trip together as a large group during orientation and the nostalgia was welcome. There was definitely a greater sense of the “real Greece” getting to see more of the average village person making a living than the standard Athenian who has adapted to an urban environment. It was a very pure experience and one I won’t soon forget. Although there were not too many outstanding moments for me, I was sure to document it thoroughly on film and it was a trip filled with excursions I feel I should have made during my time in Greece either way, so it was successful in that regard.
My apologies for the more factual and laundry list style of this blog, but it can be difficult to write with great detail on such an immense experience that, especially in hindsight, did not strike any particular chord with me. But check back for when I post on my trips to Meteora and Mykonos, they will be much more entertaining and anecdotal, I guarantee it.