Greece was such a change from Albania, as soon as we got in, there were mountains and forests, the roads were better, but it was still hot!
I think anyone that thinks of Greece thinks of all the ruins to look at, and we were no different. As has happened often on this trip though, the first place we stopped at was purely by accident, we hadn't read anything about it or been told about it, we headed there because there was a camp ground there, the place was Kalampáka and it is well known for the monasteries built high on top of rocky outcrops. They date back over 1000 years and at there peak there were 20 of them, now there are only six that are still being used. From here we headed south to Olympia via some spectacular mountains, some with snow still on them. Olympia is where the Olympics started around 700BC, but that is kind of obvious. Unfortunately there is not a lot left to look at, but it is interesting all the same. And we got to have a look at Zues' temple. Then it was east to a place called Epidavros where there is an incredibly well preserved amphitheater that dates back 2500 years and is that well designed that a person sitting at the very back in the top row can hear a person on the stage just as well as someone in the front row, and it was shown to us that it worked. Then it was Athina (Athens) to look at the Acropolis with the Parthenon on top. We had been told that the Parthenon is a little disappointing because they are constantly working on it and it was a little disappointing from that point of view, but we are glad we saw it and the surrounding areas. Athina is almost one big archeological site, there are so many areas being investigated. Despite being another capital city and being an old city, we did kind of enjoy it, it had quite an interesting feel to it. We also visited the Archeological Museum where everything appeared to be dated BC! We saw one display where most exhibits were dated between 2500 and 4800BC, just amazing! Even clay frying pans dated 2000BC. The highlight though would have to be a mechanism that dated back to the second half of the second century BC, it comprised gears, scales, axles and dials. It is the earliest preserved astronomical calculator and displayed the positions of the sun, moon and most probably the five known planets in antiquity. It was used to predict solar and lunar eclipses, it kept an accurate calendar of many years and displayed the dates of the Pan-Hellenic games. From Athina we headed south to have a look at Poseidon's temple that is perched high on a cliff top overlooking the sea. Then we had only one more temple we wanted to look at, Apollo's. To get there we had to head right back through the heart of Athina and then out to Delfi to the West. Here we stayed in a camp ground that was perched high on a mountain side with a commanding view over a valley all the way to the coast, it was great. At Apollo's temple it was a lot like all the others in that there wasn't a great deal left to look at, but we have seen it now. We then plotted a coarse to Macedonia and decided that having visited all these places built for the gods, we had to go to their birth place, Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece at nearly 3000 metres.