November 6, 2008

Corinth and Nemea

Again we woke up with plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast before meeting the bus. We drove a short ways to Ancient Corinth. Once there we saw the Temple of Apollo, the location where the Apostle Paul was tried, and the many, many streets of shops they had. One unique item of the Temple of Apollo was that the columns were monolithic, being made of a single stone, instead of multiple stones stacked on top of each other. In the museum we also saw the piece of the synagogue where Paul preached.







We had a great time wandering around the Ancient city and taking pictures. The fact that we were walking through the same streets that were there during ancient Biblical times was so cool.

Afterwards we continued onto Nemea. There we saw the baths the athletes used prior to the Nemean games. These were similar to the games in Olympia, but instead of being every 4 years they were held every 2 years. There was a Temple of Zeus that had 3 original columns and 5 more that were being rebuilt. It was the only time we could actually walk through a temple site. It should be noted that eating olives from the tree will cause an upset stomach and a weird film in the mouth. From there we continue to the Nemea stadium and walked through the very long tunnel to the stadium. Even in ancient times they had graffiti.





Once back at modern Corinth, we walked to find something to eat for lunch. We found a little cafe on the pedestrian street in the center of town. I had spinach pie and a veggie gyro. Helen and Didi each had a meat gyro. Russ had fish and some awesome garlic mashed potatoes. It was so good. We then went for a stroll to help digest our lunch. We found some shops we wanted to return to once they re-opened at 5pm.

Back at the boat we had a few hours to kill before the shops opened so Helen and I had a quick workout, Didi soaked her ankle in the tepid tub, and Russ napped. Once the stores had re-opened we headed back out for some shopping. I bought a purple top and a bracelet with a St. Andrews cross. Didi and Helen bought cotton thread, and Didi also found some local wine.

We then headed back to the boat for our lecture from Heinrich on Greece Trade and the Effects. Dinner was the oriental buffet, which means I had rice with veggies, eggplant (which was good), tomato salad, and green salad with bulger. Everyone else had the meat which consisted of pork chops, chicken with couscous, and fried squid. We all avoided the burgers. It was overheard from multiple tables that it did not seem very oriental tonight. Not a big surprise, why should tonight be any different?

We then headed back to the room to change so we could head out to town to find some entertainment. Before we headed out, we enjoyed the belly dancers in the main restaurant. Russ really had a good time dancing with one of them and decided to stay behind while the girls had a night on the town. When we left, he was still busy chatting them up.

We headed out to find some "night life" and decided to pick up a few drinks from the many cafes that line the pedestrian street. Not too crazy :)