Greece Part 5: Messene, Mystras, Sparta and Epidauros

The above photos are amongst the only ones I got in Messene, and they’re taken at the gate/wall that we got to clamber all over! The reason they’re the only ones I got there are because after we’d finished looking at the gate and climbing the walls (which I discovered I’m apparently very good at, well at least I didn’t fall over!), it started to rain a bit…then it rained a bit more, and we thought, surely they can’t make us walk round a site talking notes in the rain?! But oh yes, they did. And I hate rain. So I was miserable. Then to make it worse, it started to literally pour down, the rain was on par with Florida rain!! And it lasted an hour!! We sheltered all that time under this plastic sheeting thing…not the most interesting thing we did!

We then headed to our next hotel in Mystras, but first stopped at the site of Mystras which spanned the whole hillside. We were dropped at the top and told to meet the bus at the bottom to take us down. The first photo is of Carmen, I walked past this bit not looking at it, then suddenly heard my name called, and there’s Carmen, on a pile of rocks!! The hotel that evening was lovely; we had a pool!!! And a really nice pool in a garden area, where we played some sort of volleyball in the water, and I hid from the ball XD The town itself was lovely too, it was little and had a pretty little square where all the old people sat =) We got all dressed up (above) and went to one of the two restaurants in the town which was lovely.

Now this was the worst day. It was very interesting…once we’d reached the top of the hill and recovered. I think this was definitely the worst thing we climbed!! It’s in the Spartan plain and called the Menelaion. Basically there is pretty much nothing in Sparta, despite it being one of the most famous Ancient Greek sites. So we parked the bus at the bottom of a hill that didn’t look that bad, they told us we were having lunch half way up so we set off. The half way climb nearly killed me…the second ‘half’ was even worse. So hot, so out of breath and so dead….but it was an amazing view at the top, and I got a picture of Nicola disrespecting the monument by licking it, yay!! So we are very right to look triumphant in the pictures =P

And finally, here is the theatre at Epidauros. It was pretty awesome and amazing. They say that you can hear someone drop a pin in the middle even if you’re sat right at the top. Ancient Greeks were clever with acoustics clearly! It was pretty astounding that it was still in this condition, and it was fun climbing it and testing out the acoustics!

Just two more Greece posts to go I believe, and the next one will have my favourite photos from the whole trip in it =)

So about me today, I’m verrrry stressed because I really really want to get some maroon jeans and I spotted some in New Look that were only size 16, then I found them on the website in my size, along with the shoes that Charlotte’s wearing here that I desperately want, so I was going to buy them, but then I realised it’s 20% student discount at the moment, so I thought, I’ll get them in town, and with the plus that I can use my £50 Eldon Square gift card I’ve been saving for an occasion like this, yay! But no, karma won’t let me do that. I am now not only missing my beloved opal ring (it still hasn’t turned up =( ) but I’ve also lost a £50 gift card. I’m pretty sure I brought it up to Newcastle the weekend before I started back at uni, but I can’t find wherever I put it, and I’ve searched the whole flat!! Any suggestions of where to look? (For the card and my ring?!) Anyway, the jeans are out of stock on the website now so I’m keeping fingers crossed that they’ll be in the shop still, but it’s not looking good. Anyway, better go do some translating now.

Love,