Mistras and Sparta

On Saturday, after our wonderful day Friday, we drove from Monemvasia to Mistras, which is a ruined Medieval town in the foothills above Sparta. Stella again gave us a brief historical backdrop, and left us to our own devices to explore the ruins. We hiked up to the top, where the ruins of the castle are, which was tough, especially after our Monemvasia climbing! The views were, however, gorgeous and worth the weariness of our legs! We climbed down, and I was again impressed by the vastness of the ruins! Imagining what it would have looked like in its heyday was slightly overwhelming and very impressive. Some of us got a little lost on the way down... I managed to get confused only once, which I thought was pretty good actually, and then met Diomidis and Napoleon (who had decided not to climb to the top) and Stella at the bus, which took us down to Sparta to see the statue of Leonidas and eat some lunch. The bus transported us in the afternoon/evening to the other side of the Peloponnese to Olympia, which is located in a comparitively flat area. It is also quite close to the sea, and we were treated to truly excellent views from our bus windows. When we arrived at our hotel, we saw huge tables set up with glasses, and hotel staff placing what seemed like close to a hundred candles on the entrance to the lobby. Using our excellent logic, we concluded that there was to be a wedding reception at the hotel that night, especially taking into consideration that it was a Saturday. (It seems as though ALL Greek weddings are on Saturdays!) We had dinner at the hotel, which was very entertaining, including discussions about our pets (a popular topic amongst many of our students). Kaitlyn, Lauren, Amy, Erin and I all retired to one of our rooms for about an hour of the iPod game (which was hysterical), and then headed out to see modern Olympia. The Greek national soccer team was having a playoff game against Latvia, so after doing some late night window shopping we settled down with various coffees (I've become addicted to cappacino fredo) and watched the game from our outside couches :) We watched the Greeks score 3 goals, and had a marvelous time celebrating quietly with the Greeks in the cafe. It was another lovely day!

More information to follow shortly about Olympia (I hope) :)