Finally Something Educational

Over the past few days we have tried to tone it down and take somewhat of a breather. After some almost all-nighter stints we decided as a group to go and do something educational - travel to Olympia to see the home of the Olympic games (and afterall, we just had the 2010 games in Vancouver so it was a definite must-do on the trip).

So, we went on a rediculous journey to get to this city - I think the Greek Gods were testing us to see how badly we wanted to get there. After shuttling to a ferry, catching a 5 hour ferry to Athens, catching a local train to our EUrail station, waiting 4 hours, catching the first train out of Athens, then a bus then two more trains, we arrived in Olympia. Needless to say we were all fairly tired from spending about 12 hours transporting ourselves to the city but it was more than worth it. The city felt like a little piece of home... or rather Oak Bay.

The weather was much milder in Olympia but the landscapes were a lot greener and everything was extremely cute. We finally did some educational activities including going to the Ministry of Culture, the Archeological Museum and the actual Archeological site where the ruins of the original Olympic infrastructure was built. All of it was amazing to see - we were able to view some phenomenal statues of ancient gods such as Hermes and Nike. They were quite stunning. Unfortunately, I was told by a local that the Statue of Zeus (one of my bucket list items) was burned to the ground and no one can find the remains so I think that this bucket list item was completed because we made it to the archeological site nonetheless.

After a day in Olympia we headed to Corfu because we did not have time to go to Sparta (looks like I won't be reciting any lines from the movie but again, I'll give myself a half check mark for this bucket list item because we attempted to recite some of the lines in Olympia by the statues and ruins).

So some of the things that I learned were that women were not allowed to compete in the Olympics nor even watch them for the first few hundreds of years. Second, the word "gymnos" actually means naked which is where gymnasium came from. The Olympians used to have to compete completely naked at the Olympics - which I guess is why the winners were able to be cocky.