Olympia!

Why I stayed in Athens so long? I'll never know. The Greek countryside is beautiful and the people are so friendly. Since my last entry I've spent time in Pyrgos, Olympia, and now Patra. Olympia was amazing, minus an extremely bad incident that was... I don't even know if I want to write about it. It was a really... stressful night. I'll save that until the next blog entry.

I might not be able to upload any more pictures. My camera is pretty much out of battery, so I'm trying to savor every last drop by cutting autofocus and completely minimalizing the amount of time it is spent "on." Unfortunately, until I see a card reader, I can't upload tsuff. Why didn't I bring a charger for my camera, you ask? Good question. Why didn't I spend the extra five Euros and have a place to sleep last night? Another good question, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Olympia is definitely one of my top places to see in Greece, and perhaps in life. They are the coolest ruins I've ever been to. In case you don't know, Olympia was the grounds of the original Olympics and is still the spot where they light the torch every year. It was also a sacred spot for Zeus, going back much earlier and was the site of one of the original Wonders of the Ancient World.

So the thing I like best about the site is the condition of everything. As of now, most of it hasn't been restored. And because the area hasn't really been massively populated... ever, many of the original rocks and fallen columns are still there. You walk around this huge place and you're actually walking on the ground these athelets and officials walked on. You look at a stone, almost completely corroded and you're like, "that stone has been sitting there for over two thousand years." It was awesome.

My favorite was the Temple of Zeus and the Arena. I remember reading about the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World back in the day, and reading that the only one left standing is the pyramids. Most of the others are lost. I didn't even realize there was anything left from the big guy's temple, but its all still here (Except, of course, him. It was actually his statue that was the supposed wonder, not the temple) But all the columns (huge columns) are lying there, still in the same place that they were when the temple fell fifteen hundred years ago. Yes, stuff has been touched, but comparatively to other places like the Acropolis / Parthenon, not much has been touched at all.

The Arena was just cool. There's not much to see except a big ditch in the ground where they had all the events, but the fact that it's still there and the same rocks line the border is really cool.

The rest of the place is really neat to see, too. There's just so much, and the surroundings are beautiful, too. It was the place they chose as sacred to the king of their gods. Of course it's going to be nice.

Anyway, it was a cool experience. If you find yourself in Greece, definitely drop by Olympia.