July 4th - Day 24

Sphacteria

Happy 4th of July America!! Although most of us were a little sad about missing our traditional 4th of July activities, we tried to make the most of the day. We treated our bus driver to a badly off key rendition of the Star Spangled Banner as we set off for the day. We didn't get very far, however. We were supposed to spend the morning touring the Palace of Nestor and the Chora Museum and take a boat over to the island of Sphacteria in the afternoon. It was decided that we were better off going to Sphacteria in the morning, so we got off the bus and walked down to the pier that was next to our hotel to catch the ferry to Sphacteria.

Sphacteria has been home to several battles throughout Greek history. It was the site of one of a major land battle in 425 BC between the Spartans and Athenians during the Peloponnesian War, during which the Athenians attacked a small group of Spartans who were stranded on the island and forced them to surrender. There was another battle there in 1825 between the Greeks and the Turks and another one in 1827. Both of these battles were part of the Greek war for independence.

There are very few remains left of the island and I never made to the top to see the few that do remain. The hike to the top started out innocently enough. The path followed a winding incline which was largely overgrown - not atypical of an archaeological site and very similar to the other "forced death marches" that we have encountered before. It was not until we reached what I now refer to as the Gauntlet of Spiders that I experienced any hesitation about continuing on this "forced death march." The path was lined on either side by a series of bushes and trees and suspended between this shrubbery were huge spiderwebs complete with quarter-sized spiders. You may not know this...but I have a terrible fear of spiders. I can't even look at a picture of a spider without freaking. I really made an effort to get through the Gauntlet of Spiders, but I failed miserably. Every time I ducked to go under one of the spiderwebs the ginormous spiders seemed to make a beeline towards me. It was too much for me to handle and I turned around and went back to the pier where the boat dropped us off with a small group of my peers who also couldn't handle the spiders and put my feet in the water while waiting for the rest of the group to return. Apparently I didn't miss much - according to those who made it to the top there were the remains of some walls and a great view, but not much else. I didn't feel bad about missing some walls - I've seen enough over the past several weeks to last me a lifetime.

Palace of Nestor

We took the ferry back over to the mainland and had about 20 minutes for lunch. I grabbed a delicious gyro from a local shop run by a very friendly Albanian. Then it was off to the Palace of Nestor, a Mycenaean palace dating back to the Bronze Age, about 1300 to 1200 BC. It was originally a two-storey building with store rooms, workshops, baths, wells, reception rooms, a throne room, and sewage system. It is fairly well preserved compared to some of the other sites that we have seen. We also got to see a Mycenaean tholos tomb. After touring the site we went to the Chora Museum, which contains some of the finds from the site.

We then had the rest of the afternoon free. Some of the group decided to go rent a boat for the afternoon, but I opted for spending the afternoon on the beach by our hotel and swimming in the Ionian Sea. I went back to the same little tavern for dinner and then Bella hosted a little 4th of July party on our hotel's porch complete with beers, snacks, and music. I must admit that I missed home - thinking of the usual barbecue and fireworks that I was missing.

Tomorrow we head to Olympia where we will spend our last 2 nights of our Peloponnese trip. We head back to Athens on Saturday.