Corinth and Monemvasia

So this is likely to be a long post, due to the fact that it was a long and eventful day!

The BCA group, plus Diomidis and his friend Napoleon, met our guide Stella (whom Aphrodite hired to take us since she is still restricted to her apartment with her broken leg) at the Hilton hotel at 7:30, to head off on our 3 day trip to the Peloponnese. We stopped first at the Corinth canal which is 4 miles long and links the Ionian and the Hadriatic seas (I think). Roman Emperor Nero actually began construction on the canal, but work was abandoned at the time of his death, and the modern canal was not completed until 1893. It was only another 10 minutes to the site of Ancient Corinth, where the apostle Paul spent a good deal of his time. It was here that he is supposed to have written the earliest book of the New Testament, 1st Thessalonians. We saw the remnants of the temple to Apollo which is one of the few remnants from the Greeks, due to the vicious invasion by the Romans. The Romans had great respect for Apollo (he's the only Greek god not to have a Latin name as well), hence why the temple was left intact. An earthquake left the temple in ruins, unfortunately, and the rest of the ruins are from the Roman reconstruction of Corinth at the time of Julius Caesar. We saw the place where Paul was taken to the Roman tribunal at Corinth, which was so amazing it can barely be described. The place itself wasn't hugely impressive - an ancient Roman wall -but the fact that it was where Paul was taken to face the Roman tribunal was so crazy. We walked on the main road of Ancient Corinth from the Roman period, and all I could think of was that maybe Paul walked here. After our visit we climbed back in the bus and drove a long time down through Sparta to...

...Monemvasia! Stella installed us in our hotel, and then we took a bus to the foot of Lower Monemvasia. Monemvasia is essentially a huge rock island, connected to the peninsula by one narrow bridge. Monemvasia is the remains of a fortress left from the the medieval times. Stella told us a little about the history of the place, and then left us on our own until dinner time. We all started up the mountain, which was... so tough! There were so many steps, and the steps were uneven, and the rocks were slippery, and I was so glad that I had worn my sneakers! I took a break about halfway up to take some pictures (and catch my breath) so ended up arriving at the top without the rest of my group, who weren't in sight. I walked to the right, towards the monastery and away from the castle (which is at the very peak of the rock). It was absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately locked up due to vandalism. I noted out to my right an expanse which held more ruins, which begged to be explored. After finding a path (?) I trekked out to the ruins, which actually led to another path which led to another peak with more ruins. These were built right up to the edge of the cliff, which is a straight drop off several hundred feet down to the beach and water. There was a magnificent turret, which I went to climb into and then discovered there was a large opening down off the cliff to the water. I climbed in anyway (very carefully) and tried to take some self-portrait photos with varied success. After enjoying this for a time, I wandered back through the wind and the sun (which was priceless) and hiked up to the remains of the castle, where many from our group were already. We asked a couple from Switzerland to take a picture of us all, and I took a picture of them, after randomly speaking with them in German :) As I said before, I have a magnet! We then all climbed back down to where I had been before, and then after more exploring there, we headed back down and across the bridge for dinner!

Monemvasia = one of the best places in Greece so far for me. Aegina, Meteora and Monemvasia are battling it out in my heart right now... not going to lie! It's a good fight to have!

Miss you all!