At eleven o’clock last night, a strange phenomenon occurred
in Tolon. There was a low rumbling
sound, and the ground shook. Ms.
Govender had been looking a bit tired, and we wondered whether she had finally
fallen asleep and started snoring. Turns
out we did her a disservice – last night, our region of Greece was hit by an
earthquake that reached 5.2 on the Richter scale. Quite obvious it wasn’t Ms. Govender then –
her snoring would have been much louder than that!
We breakfasted this morning to the sound of waves gently
lapping at the water’s edge just below us.
It was slightly cloudy this morning and so those with sea view rooms
didn’t get the spectacular sunrise they were looking forward to, although the
views were still pretty special. We
checked out of our hotel – which had been a big hit with everyone – and were
soon on our bus heading for the theatre at Epidaurus. Epidaurus is probably the best preserved
Greek theatre, and is still actively used for performances throughout the
summer months. It is famous for its
acoustics – a coin dropping in the orchestra can be heard at the top of the
auditorium without any need for special amplification. We likened the acoustics to school
assemblies: Mr. Greetham needs a microphone to be heard by everyone in the
school hall, but the ancient Greeks at Epidaurus were clever enough to design
the theatre so that every member of the 12,000 strong audience could hear the
actors’ words. This year, unfortunately,
we weren’t allowed to perform anything in the orchestra, although Hala, Haya
and Nadine H did see a girl from another group perform a beautiful song to the
assembled crowds. How did they manage
that, and no one else? As soon as we
arrived at the theatre, these three were desperate for the toilet - they waited
until we walked all the way up to the theatre, and consequently had to walk all
the way down again before getting a chance to explore it. Hence, they missed Anna’s tour. They got their own little tour back up to the
theatre, Mr. Suter kindly agreeing to escort them back up so that they didn’t
completely miss the experience. We did have an acoustic check from Ridaa, however - her loud screech as a minuscule spider fell off a tree and crawled down her leg while listening to Anna certainly echoed around the theatre.
Heading back to Naphlio, we completed the journey some of us
had started yesterday when we climbed the stairs to the Palimedes fortress, only
this time it was a lot easier as we drove up.
The only difficulty was squeezing the bus through the narrow streets of
Naphlio, as the local Saturday market was in full swing. We made it to the top, and proceeded to
explore the summit, some 365m above the town.
Most exciting for our children was the prison cell where a defeated
Greek general, Theodoros Kolokotronis, was kept locked up by the Turks who
ruled Greece at the time. It is barely
1m by 2m and has no light at all – he gradually went blind. We weren’t going to allow the children to
stay in it long enough for that to happen, but it was quite an exciting
scrimmage as all 27 of our children tried to fit into it at once! There are some spectacular views to be had at
the fortress, but there are also some very high unprotected walls which four
anxious teachers and our guide kept the children very far away from – we were
all safely accounted for on the bus again!
Next port of call was Mycenae, and we stopped first at the Tomb of Agamemnon or Treasury of Atreus, whichever you prefer to call it. The structure itself was found when a shepherd lost a lamb down a hole – which turned out to be the tomb. The tomb itself had actually been plundered at some stage in history – given that it was probably sealed up some time around 1500BC there was plenty of time for that to happen – so there were no real clues as to what it was used for. The children thought that it was called a beehive tomb as there were so many bees inside, but they were simply enjoying the cool air. It was actually named for its shape which, funnily enough, is like a beehive. From there we made our way to the citadel of Mycenae itself, reputedly the home of Agamemnon, who accompanied his brother Menalaus to Troy to try to retrieve Menalaus’ wife Helen. He wasn’t particularly lucky, Agamemnon, because after ten years away fighting, he was murdered on his return home by the man his wife had taken up with, Aegisthus. Mycenae was excavated by Heinrich Shliemann who, upon discovering the gold face mask that is now in the National Archaeological Museum, telegrammed a Greek newspaper to say, "I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon." Chances are it isn’t actually Agamemnon, but it’s a good story.
With so much packed into this morning, lunch was well anticipated: cheese pastries, salad, stuffed tomatoes, veal, rice and fries, and ice cream and sour cherry sauce for dessert. After gorging ourselves, we went to see a pottery making and painting demonstration which was really a very clever marketing exercise to generate interest in the pottery that the shop also sold. Parents, can we advise you have plenty of super glue ready to hand when the children arrive home – despite several notes to carefully wrap their clay goodies and to carry them in hand luggage if they are fragile, we are sure there will be some calamities en route. Huge excitement was generated by the shop proprietor, who gave each child a raffle ticket and then proceeded to award three prizes. Reyad, Halal and Jamal were the lucky recipients. Karl has to be commended on his shopping skills this week - a steadfast refusal to do any! Saroufim family, we hope you are not expecting presents.
And so back to Athens, and more food, and the end of a busy
time spent here in Athens. Karishma said
she felt like she had been here for a month - to which the teachers concur! – but
there is lots of excitement this evening as the children prepare for the
journey home. We’ve had a fantastic week
here, and as you’ll have seen from the blog we have packed an awful lot of
activity into our short time here. In
our time here, we have not received a single negative comment about the
children – they have been an absolute credit to themselves, their parents and
the school. All the feedback we have
received has been positive, with most of the people who did stop us to find out
who we are and where we are from amazed at the ages of the children and
somewhat taken aback that children so young have been allowed to travel so far
from home – not something Greek children, or parents, would do.
So lights are going out now, we have a lie in tomorrow
before we begin our trek home. The
children are excited about seeing you all tomorrow evening – we’d imagine you
are just, if not more, as excited! Until
tomorrow, yassos!
