Introduction
Flight and Athens
The Acropolis
Athens Protest 2011 and Mount Lycabettus
Acropolis Museum
Trip to Gythio, Mystras, and Ouzo
Monemvasia – a fortress you can live in
Diros Caves near Gythio and Night-Before Dinner/Antics
Back to Athens and homeward bound

July 2011:

The following day, we would be taking a tour of the Diros Caves. During a 40-min boat trip, we sailed across an intricate network of passages decorated with stalagmites and stalactites. There is still parts of the underground network yet undiscovered. Archaeological research (Dr. George Papathanasopoulos) has shown that the caves have served as places of worship in Paleolithic and Neolithic times and their inhabitant believed that the caves were the entrance to the underworld.

The caves were located right by the shore. There was a rocky beach that was adjacent to it. There was parking for the caves and beach, but it was almost full when we got there. Luckily we found a spot. Later we discovered that there was some kind of slick in the water and part of it washed up on the beach so we skipped going to the beach. We did stay there for about an hour before going back to Gythio for dinner.

I can’t tell what that strange person is. The sign was in Greek.

They had a sign banning photography as the flash may react with the minerals in the cave. I kept taking pictures and no one said anything.

There were also life jackets provided. Much of the water is very shallow but there were some deeper parts in different parts of the cave. Many people opted not to take it. I didn’t know how to swim so i took one.

The boats were very long and narrow to get through the many holes in the caves. Sometimes we had to duck to get through as there wasn’t enough clearance. However, there were many parts where the ceiling was very high and you can see the stalactites growing about 30-50 feet down.

They wired the caves with lights and some power for the tours so you could see some of the caves. However, much of it was too dark to take a picture without flash.

After the tour, I did manage to hit my head on a stalactite. There are definitely some cons of being tall.

Afterwards, there were plans for all the wedding guests to have dinner the night before the wedding. They had made reservations for about 25. As usual, all the portions are generous, including the alcohol.

As the alcohol adventurer that I am, I mixed about a shots worth of Ouzo with white wine. Many guests were worried about my experiment, but it actually tasted ok. I’m up for anything that masks the licorice taste.

Afterwards, we went back to the largest balcony of our rooms and sat outside and drank for the rest of the night with the groom. The bride left after dinner to her house near the wedding venue to prepare for the following day. We couldn’t open one of the wine bottles so we ended up pushing in the cork. Yep, real classy. We couldn’t figure out the “open a bottle with your shoe” method. We wish we did as we our white wine had a side of cork in it. Ouzo of course made an appearance.

We decided to call it a night sometime around 2am. The groom was locked out of the room he was sharing so he slept in my room. Needless to say, there was some panic the morning of the wedding as the groom was missing. The groom’s mother call my room around 9am and I told him he was in my room. Soon after, I kicked him out of the room and went back to sleep.