Two hour bus ride to the Corinth Canal. We had only ten minutes to observe the pretty and interesting (although defunct) canal. We were supposed to get off the bus, look at it, take a picture, and get back on. There was a Greek woman selling her wares where we got off the bus. I touched a silk dress as I was walking by, and she pounced on me. She spoke very little English but knew how to push a sale. She held the dress up to me and made yum yum noises. She grabbed my arms and started propelling me towards what I thought would be a dressing room while saying forcefully, "Come come! You try!" Turns out she was steering/dragging me to the cashier, to whom she handed the dress. The cashier said, "25 Euro" and held out his hand. She was barking, "You pay! You pay!" and the next thing I knew, I was handing over my credit card to buy a dress than I wasn't even sure would fit me. It felt a bit like an out of body experience that I had very little control over. While this whirlwind of dress bullying was taking place, everyone else looked at the canal. Mike took a picture, and we got back on the bus. (Later at the next hotel, I tried on the dress and realized the neckline was more low-cut than I would wear. Fortunately, my mama taught me to travel with safety pins, so I pinned it up and it was fine. I ended up wearing that dress several times when my small supply of clean clothes ran out. Now that we're home, I sewed up the neck line so I don't have to pin it.)
Next stop was a museum and ancient theater at Epidaurus, dedicated to the ancient Greek God of medicine, Asclepius. While our guide, Katherine, sang his praises, I listened to the interesting info while being thankful for modern medicine and Jesus, the Great Physician.
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Ancient surgical instruments. Scary stuff.
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Storm clouds were gathering and thunder rumbling while we were in the museum. Katherine rushed us to the theatre so she could demonstrate its perfect acoustics before the storm hit. Constructed in the 4th century BC, it could accommodate 14,000 spectators. No fancy sound systems back then, but if you stand in the acoustic center of the theater, every audience member can hear you easily, even if you whisper.
Mike hustled back to the bus, because it was starting to rain. I stopped to pet a cat, because it was my goal to pet every cat in Greece. That one-minute delay cause me to get caught in a drenching downpour while Mike remained dry on the bus.
The bus dropped us at our hotel (the Rex) in Tolo, and that night we toured the Palamidi Fortress in Nafplio with the same guide we had earlier in the day. The fortress was beautiful and interesting, and the views from up there were gorgeous. I loved it.
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| Mike at Palamidi Fortress |
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| The whole herd on the steps of the fortress |
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| At the fortress, with Nafplio in the background, wearing our earpieces so we could hear Katherine. |
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| Mike and Bob in the prion cell in the fortress. What a miserable place for prisoners to await execution. It smelled like ancient urine in there, and the air was stale and hot. Uneven rocky floors where the prisoners couldn't even lie down. I thanked God for grace and got out of there before I got mired in the sadness of medieval punishment. |
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| The herd on the bus |
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| Palamidi Fortress on the top of the hill |
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| View from the fortress |
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