As I prepare for next summer's vacation, I realized that I never posted the write-up for last summer's trip to mainland Greece. So here goes

My wife and I took a 2-week road trip around the Peloponnesian Peninsula and then up into the mainland of Greece in July of 2018. I'm a history teacher, so keep that in mind as I rate the things we did. This is very (probably OVERLY) detailed, but I want to be as helpful to others as possible. Some of the pictures posted are mine, but some were stolen from Google because I suck at taking pictures. We mostly stayed in AirBnB's except for Olympia & Delphi where we stayed in hotels.

This is the route we took in case you're interested:



Things to understand about Greece:
EFFECTS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS - I learned A LOT talking to locals about its effects & what caused it. It was interesting how opinions differed between young & old, urban & rural, tourist towns & non-tourist towns. Many people lost everything, and jobs are scarce. Effects that we saw everywhere were:
* Unemployment - Not much homelessness...just idleness. Lots of people not at work, especially young people.
* Underemployment - Kind of nice for tourists, but not for the locals. Tour guides had Masters' Degrees in history. I saw only 1 teenager working somewhere that wasn't his parents' business. The average salary decreased by 40%, not including the jobs lost...just those that took a paycut.
* Abandoned buildings & abandoned construction projects everywhere outside of Athens
* Graffiti - Teenagers are pissed that there are no jobs, and they have a lot of time on their hands. Literally every government & abandoned building is heavily tagged, but most private property & ruins are clear.
* Parks are suffering - Greece has more, bigger, & nicer parks than anywhere I've ever seen. But cuts to funding have destroyed most of these parks.
* Public Services were cut - Greek government runs many services that are private (or controlled locally) in the US, so things like trash pick-up, street sweeping, and mowing along roads have been neglected.
* Income Tax rate starts at 40% and goes up from there, so locals are pissed and desperate

SIESTA - Greeks have a siesta from about 1 or 2 to about 4 or 5...kind of like Spain

MEALS - Everything is 2 hrs later in Greece than here. Even breakfast cafes don't open until 8 or 9am. Dinner starts at 8pm or so & go until 12 or 1 am, even for kids on weeknights during school months. Dinner can take 2-3 hours. In the less-touristy towns, restaurants are often outside in what appears to be the front yard of a house. It would usually be us & a bunch of locals (entire families), and we were always welcomed with open arms and had lots of fun. Greek food itself is fairly diverse, but there's no diversity in types of restaurants. 85% of all menus are the same, regardless if we were on the main drag in Athens or off the beaten path in the middle of nowhere. No chains or fast food outside of Athens. Literally none.

TREATMENT OF AMERICANS/TOURISTS - I've been all over Europe, and nearly everyone has been nice & accommodating...and Greeks are the same. They may seem rude...but they aren't really...that's just the way Greeks carry themselves (see below). Outside of Athens, nearly everyone was overly appreciative and thankful for us simply choosing to go there. Compared to Athens & the Isles, mainland Greeks feel neglected & overlooked by tourists. Their economy is in shambles & is just now beginning to recover. For this reason, I've never seen people express sincere appreciation for tourists more than they did in these smaller villages.

GREEK ATTITUDES - Greeks don't seem to give a damn about anything. Some Americans may find it lazy, or rude, or uncaring, or oblivious to the world around them, or laid back, or to be a respectable DGAF attitude that we all wish we had. Regardless, you just have to go with the flow and laugh at it sometimes. Examples include: Parking in the middle of the road without concern for traffic, never looking before crossing the street...or simply walk down the middle of it, closing stores 3 hours early just because. Restaurant table service is worse than any other European country...you just have to embrace it.

SUN & HEAT - If there are ruins in the area, there are no trees or shade. While the humidity is less, the sun itself is far more brutal than Texas. Just be prepared for that.

PRICES - Everything is super cheap once you leave Athens. Beer, wine, food (including all forms of meat), lodging...all extremely cheap.

Driving outside of Athens:
Half of Greece's population lives in the Athens metro area, so everywhere else is rural or a small town. Driving in Greece was crazy & fun. Traffic laws seem to just be suggestions. Stop signs & red lights are treated like yield signs. Solid yellow lines are just for decoration. Driving down the middle of the road is standard practice, but moving over to let someone pass you is as well. Every gas station we saw was full-service & cash only. People parallel parked 3 cars deep. Everyone drives like a crazy teenager. It was crazy...but really fun.

Itinerary:
We flew into & out of Athens
Athens - 3 nights
Nafplion - 2 nights
Kardamyli - 2 nights
Olympia - 1 night
Mitikas - 2 nights
Kalambaka/Meteora - 2 nights
Delphi - 1 night

Our trip outside of Athens:

Day 1 on the road: Corinth Canal, Ancient Corinth, Mycenae, & Nafplion (2 hours of drive time)
* Corinth Canal - Cool place to stop for 10 minutes for pics. There was supposed to be a cool footbridge somewhere, but we didn't find it. The bridge in the pic is a railroad crossing). The only place to eat there was essentially a truck stop.
* Ancient Corinth - Cool little museum, but the highlight is outside. A couple of acres of barely excavated history. It felt like what the Acropolis probably felt like while it was still being excavated & categorized. This is where Paul wrote 1st & 2nd Corinthians, and you can see where he preached. Nice restaurants for lunch about 1 minute up the road from the site.
* Acrocorinth - Ancient castle near Ancient Corinth. Drove forever up the mountain to find it, but we could only walk to the entrance. Not worth it.
* Mycenae - You will hike through the ancient city & castle ruins including a huge tomb that reminded me of a giant stone igloo. I really liked Mycenae, but it's pretty far down the list of things we saw & did.

Corinth Canal



Nafplion (AKA: Nafplio) - This is one of my favorite European oceanside resort towns. We could've stayed here for days. Family friendly. Great food, great shopping, nice bars, plazas with kids playing pickup games of soccer. Not much nightlife, but it's there if you look. Beaches are OK, but the port & promenade are great. Very beautiful & romantic. It has 3 large castles/fortresses/bastions that protect the city including 1 in the middle of the bay. This is the main resort town for wealthy Athens residents.

[photos removed as a result of copyright claim - staff]

Nafplio from the fortress above



Day 2: Road trip to Epidavros (AKA: Epidaurus): The Epidavros theater ois considered the best & oldest active amphitheater in the world with perfect acoustics, which all others are patterned after, and it did not disappoint. Even with dozens of others talking in the theater, I could hear everything my wife said on stage even though I was sitting in the back row. This place was exceptional! There's also a small museum, stadium, & other city ruins.




Day 3: Toured the main Fortress ruins towering over Nafplio, and it was fantastic.
Drove to Kardamyli with stops in Sparta and Mystras along the way (nearly 4 hours of drive time)
* Sparta - It's just a town. Nothing of ancient Sparta remains. Drive around it if possible.
* Mystras - A series of monasteries (some abandoned & some active), an active convent, and old churches. Exhausting uphill hike, but I really enjoyed it. It's worth it if you have 2-3 hours available.

Day 4:
Kardamyli - Small beach town on the south side of the peninsula without lots of tourists. Lots of small restaurants, bars, & beaches. It clearly wants to be a tourist resort town, it's just not there yet. For that reason, there's still lots of local charm that you won't find in resort towns. It's definitely a town in transition between the old timers and a more touristy identity. You will get to see how "normal" local small-town people live. The financial crisis has clearly hurt this town and its transition into a resort town, but we saw evidence of that all over Greece. Some of you would love it, and some would hate it.

Day trip south to Diros Caves and made several stops along the way in small towns (3hr round trip).
The Caves are on the coastline and mostly filled with water, so they are toured by boat. The boat tour was closed the day we went, (man was I pissed!). A small walkable section was open, but it's inferior to many caverns here in Texas. We ended up hitting the beach & hanging out in other small coastal towns & Kardamyli, so all wasn't lost.

Day 5: Drove to Olympia through Kalamata (3+ hours)
The drive along coastal south & southwest Peloponnesian Peninsula are beautiful & scenic, similar to Big Sur & northern California. I can't recommend it enough. I'd show pictures, but they won't do it justice.

Olympia - This is a 100% tourist town. Without the Olympic site and the shops/restaurants/hotels that cater to tourists, it would have a population of zero. 90% of tourism are cruise ships, so there aren't many hotels. Most hotels are old & outdated but with out much traditionally Greek charm . The exception is the 4-star Hotel Europa on the hill. Very few AirBnB's. Ate a really nice dinner at Hotel Europea. The sunset was one of the best I've seen in a long time.
Sites to see in order of how I'd rate them:
* Sanctuary of Olympia Archaeological Site - Actual site of Olympia. The reason you come here!
* Olympic Games History museum was exceptional!! I learned so much! Very well done & interesting.
* Archaeological museum was OK but pales in comparison to the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

One of my favorite part of the Olympic Site were these pedestals. Losing was honorable, but quitting & cheating were shameful. Cheaters & quitters (or the patrons that sponsored them) were fined, and those fines funded statues of Zues which were placed on these pedestals leading into the stadium. The offender's name and offence was carved into the pedestal. For over 1000 years, spectators of the games spat on the names of the offenders as they entered the stadium to show their disdain. While the Zeus statues are no longer there, these pedestals still remain with the names & offences visible.



Stadium at Olympia



Yes, that's me at the starting line!

Day 6: Drove to Mitikas with a stop in Nafpaktos (4 hours of drive time)
Nafpaktos - Cool little beach & port town. Great shops, restaurants, & bars. Nice beach. Caters to cruise ships. Lots of international & American) tourists. Nafplio was much better & I don't know that I'd stay overnight, but it was great for a quick stop for lunch and a stroll through town.

Mitikas & Preveza: Almost no tourists other than us. It was really wonderful to be honest.
* Mitikas - A small bedroom community where we stayed. Houses, small grocery store, a coffee shop, & few local restaurants..
* Preveza is about 3 miles away where tourists hang out & everyone works. Cool little coastal town.
* Beaches were really nice around Mitkas & Preveza. Very relaxing & not very crowded. Family friendly.

Day 7:
* Ancient Ruins of Nicopolis - The only reason to visit this area of Greece other than the beach. It was awesome! It's a huge ancient city that hasn't been fully excavated. A theater, stadium, baths, aqueduct, statues, monuments, walls, and castle ruins are available for you to explore, crawl around on, and basically do anything you want! I felt like Indiana Jones. We were there for 3 hours and saw 2 other couples total. Nothing touristy or sterile about this experience at all! You will need a car because it's spread out over a few miles.
* Nicopolis Museum - Skip it. Total waste of time.

Concourse area under the theater at Nicopolis



My wife snapped this pic of me on an ancient aqueduct pillar. There were some boards on the ground that people use to walk from one pillar to the next, but "f" that. I stayed on the first one!



This is another set of aqueducts that you can walk over, but we didn't have time. (pic taken from Google)



Day 8: Drove to Kalampaka/Kalambaka with a couple of short stops along the way in small towns (3 hours)
Kalampaka (AKA: Kalambaka) - Where everyone lives & works. Meteora is the tourist attraction. Wonderful little town with tons of shops, restaurants, bars, & a little nightlife. Very family friendly. You can easily experience the local flavor of inland Greece. Tons of locals seem oblivious to tourists, but tourism is the main industry. Tourists & locals mix well here everywhere you go. We loved this little town.

Day 9:
* Meteora - Best thing we did on the whole trip!!!!! Add this one to your bucket list...seriously! Get a private tour. I don't normally do that, but driving around the crowded mountain & finding parking are impossible at the monasteries & scenic outlooks. Local experts drove us around in a passenger van and explained so much! One of the most beautiful places on Earth. It's truly unbelievable...and I mean that literally. It doesn't look real. Sunset was breathtaking! All monasteries are operating, and you'll see many monks & nuns. These are 4 of the 7 monasteries. Some of these pics are mine, and some are from the internet, but none hold a candle to what it actually looks like.

Day 10: Drove to Delphi with a stop at Thermopylae
* Thermopylae Battlefield - I was excited about seeing the location of 1 of the most famous land battles of ancient history, but it's just a roadside picnic area with a big monument (and a bunch of power lines behind it) and extra parking. We were in and out in 10 minutes. A lot has changed since 480 BC, so the area looks nothing like it did back then. Skip it if you have go out of your way to get there.
* Delphi (The Ruins & Museum) - The museum is pretty solid. You should see it before touring the site which includes ruins of the gymnasium, stadium, amphitheater, natural springs, several temples & monuments, and of course the Oracle and Temple of Apollo. Takes half a day to see.
* Delphi (The Town) - Several restaurants that cater to large tour groups. Most hotels are small and on the main drag. Delphi is tiny & 100% touristy, but it's a quaint little Greek town with lots of locals if you venture off the main strip a couple of blocks. The terrain is a mountainside, so be prepared if you want to go up into town, even if only a couple of blocks.

Monument of Leonidas at Thermopylae



The Theater of Delphi from above with the Temple & Oracle of Apollo in the background