March 24

I woke earlier than Sarabeth this morning, hoping that the hot water would be working for a shower (it hasn’t worked for the past two days, so my hopes weren’t high). It wasn’t. I ended up just washing my hair in the sink. I’ll just use someone else’s shower next time. I have had some terrible luck with showers this trip. I went down to breakfast, surprised to be the first one down, though I came down about 20 mins later than normal. The coffee at this hotel is terrible. I actually don’t think it is coffee, just hot, gray water. I’m not kidding, I could tell there was no caffeine in the beverage because I was getting sleepy again by 8:00. I ran into Allie, Louisa and Emily, who were also in need of caffeine, on their way to the café for a go cup of coffee. I eagerly joined them.
The site today was only 20 mins from the hotel, so we had a short day today. In The Illiad, Pylos is the home to King Nestor, and the excavators of this site have dubbed the large complex “Nestor’s Palace.” It’s funny to go to places that trained archaeologists have named after characters in a story. I guess people just want Homer’s story to be as real as possible. That and it makes their site much more significant to tie to a well-known character from a pseudo-history. All that remains of the 13th century BCE palace is the mud brick foundation. It’s similar to other Mycenaean palaces we have visited so far, so we really didn’t spend much time there. The most distinguishing feature of this place is the sheer number of clay cups that were found here – over 6,000. The archaeologists even found a room that contained only broken cups. The theory behind their number is that they were the ancient version of Solo cups. This site also had a wine magazine and the thinking is that huge celebrations and feasts were held here and these cups were for a one-time use.
After the site, we visited the museum. There were lots of cups on display (I was surprised that these would be considered one-time use cups, as they seemed nicer than the cups we use at my house. They were plain, but they still had a nice shape.), as were fresco remains, one of which depicts a singing poet that the archaeologists jokingly named “Homer.”
After the museum, Krentz took us inside the Venetian fort. He told us earlier in the day that he would be telling us stories about two different naval battle fought in this harbor and would take us to the outside of the walls where we would see the harbor. I asked why weren’t going inside and he said he figured everyone who was interested in the fort would have gone on the free day. When I told him that the fort was closed on Monday (as are most sites – that’s why our free days usually fall on Mondays), he bought us all tickets to the fort and told us the stories from the path along the inside of the walls, in a spot where we all could see the harbor. The first story was about a battle fought here in 1927 between the British naval and the Turkish navy. Apparently, Britain, Russia and France had forced an armistice between Greece and Turkey (this battle came at the end of the War for Greek Independence) and the British general had received vague orders to keep pressure on Turkey to keep them in line with the armistice. Both fleets were uncomfortably close in this harbor and after a fire was shot, the battle broke out. The British, though outnumbered, had the better ships and decisively won the battle. The Britsh general, though a hero to the Greeks, was ordered back to England and court marshaled. They weren’t happy that this general, given the responsibility to prevent two nations from fighting, ended up in the fight himself. The second story was about Athens and Sparta in the 5th century BCE. This battle (well, lack of battle) is noteworthy for being one of the only times that Spartan soldiers surrendered. About 300 soldiers were basically stranded on the island opposite Pylos and surrendered to Athens without a fight.
It was lunch by this time and Krentz called an end to the morning’s outings, but we were to meet back up at 6:45 for a discussion, and then out for a group dinner (paid for by the trip) at 8:00. Most people went straight to lunch, but Matt, Jensen, Emily, and I wanted to explore the fort a bit more. This fort was constructed in 1573 by the Turks after losing a naval battle two years earlier. There was a ledge that ran around most of the exterior walls, and there were cut outs at the top where the cannons were shot. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so there was no way I was going back inside anytime soon. I explored with this group for about an hour, and then stayed to see the citadel a little further up the hill. I had my sandwich in my backpack and a copy of The Golden Ass, the assigned reading for tonight. We had been the only people visiting the fort, and now, I was the only person left. So I picked a nice, sunny, spot on the citadel and munched on my sandwich as I read. The sun was nice wand warm while I read, but when the dark clouds started to roll in, the wind got too chilly for comfort and I headed back to the hotel.
I finished The Golden Ass in the room and took a 30 min nap to recharge my batteries.
I joined up with the group for our discussion at 6:45. The discussion was helpful – we talked about Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata. After the discussion we all went out to dinner at Gregorio’s. Krentz had worked it out ahead of time and had them bring us several dishes, which we passed around the table. We feasted on Greek salad, saganaki (fried cheese), giant beans in tomato sauce, chicken, pork, bread, wine and almond dessert. It was a very nice dinner, and lasted about 2 hours.
I came back to the room and showered in Emily’s shower. Hers gets hot water and I took advantage of that luxury.
Tomorrow we have a lot of driving to do to get to Olympia, so it will be another long bus day.