Concordia CMLL Study Tour

June 1st day 7 of our trip and we have officially left Sparta after seeing Chloe’s presentation about –  Temple of Artemis Orthea 

very interesting hearing how Spartans, a civilisation that was very militaristically impressive and a very prideful society, to which after their height of power became a spectacle of tourist destination in the early Roman period where many would come to watch the ritual of Spartan children doing their right of passage into adulthood. It was also sad to see how much there’s not left of their sites in archeological places.

We also took a group selfie which was very fun in front of a Sparta soldier statue.

The bus was a 3hrs ride headed to Pylos with a break.

At the rest stop I had noticed that all of the baked goods all had cheese in it, all of them.

Before arriving at Pylos we stopped at the archeological site of – Tholos Tomb of the Griffin Warrior, which was the presented by Isabell. 

The inside of the tomb by far was my more favourite of the Tholos tombs we had seen so far, as it had looked less visited by people and more untouched.

We also found out how to tell a pair of bones was that of a woman or man and how that is determined by looking at the pelvic bone which if made a circle in the center it was a man’s and if it was heart shaped it was a woman, in addition the back of the head and the jaw shape also can help with this conclusion.  

We also visited another archeological site that’s right next to the Tholos Tomb, called – The Palace of Nerros, it was an amazing above ground site, meaning there was a a pair of stairs that brought you up to a suspended walkway where you could see what was left of the palace above ground and lean over the railings too. It was honestly an amazing way to look at the site knowing that it was still be preserved for a long time because there would be less contact with tourists. 

Not to mention the site was made of clay hence making it more delicate. It was also the first site where we had seen a bathtub in it, which from what we could see it had a fresco-like design all inside the tub.

Pylons castle, our last destination before the hotel. the scenery from the castle out into the sea was absolutely gorgeous, you could see how there was these rock formations and way far out enserceling the land and kind of locking in the parts of the sea to the inside in a moon shape way as if it was not a fully part of the Mediterranean sea but something more private, the rock islands that made this somewhat border like view enhanced this look that one of them had a arching whole through it making it look like a massive doorway. The castle ground themselves where also fascinating to see how parts of the castle were changed to keep in prisoners and how the mosque got turned into a church, however I found the museum to be the best part, it was a museum for artifacts that were found and excavated from underwater sites. It is absolutely amazing what can be discovered down there in the sea, such as a bag of chestnuts you would imagine that after all those years the chestnuts would have rot away and disintegrated but they had looked as if you could have picked them yesterday, they also had a small portion of the first Linear B tablet that had been discovered and that was amazing to see in person. 

We arrived at the hotel, to our surprise it was at the very top of the hill with a gorgeous view overlooking the sea and scenery. It was  by far the most beautiful view and room of our stay since arriving in Greece and it came with a kitchen. Unfortunately we are only here for 1 night. 

We were told of 2 beaches near our hotel which everyone dispersed into 2-3 groups heading down to the same beach located at the Pierre in front/next to the town square.

It was quite a sandy and relaxing experience. It was also a very interesting experience swimming in salt water. I kept expecting it not to be salty since I’ve only ever swam in fresh water lakes before this, plus imagining what it would be like swimming in salt water I always imagined it to be a dry and a little sticky experience, but no it felt very refreshing if not even more refresh compared to some fresh water beaches I’ve been too, however my eyes and nose did burn when I went under water, it was also a lot colder but warmer than I expected it to be. 

During our time at the beach some of us also went looking for sea glass and some cool looking rocks, or some like myself also just read our books as a pastime activity. 

The second beach which was further away was only introduced to us as an option when we all were already at the beach, for that reason I was the sole person who wanted and ended up visiting the second beach.

fortunately i found this a very relaxing experience having some time on my own, slowly enjoying and taking in the scenery. Which was incredibly scenic going through the town and out to the path that came out and away from the town into nature where I was again also the sole person down this path plus the beach as well. The path out of town was this beaten down road through nature full of rocks sticking out, while grass and bushes were poking in as if trying to reclaim the path back into the wild. 

The view while going down was just the sea and the grass land mountains with an occasional sail boat in the distance. 

When arriving at the bottom of the beach I immediately noticed that rather than sand it was a white rock beach but regardless it was beautiful, however I had decided not to swim since the rocks at the shoreline that touched the water had been covered in algae making it incredibly slippery. I still walked along the shoreline noticing that most of the underwater parts of the shore was littered with snails blending into the rocks. This was noticed when I went to pick something shiny in the water thinking it was sea glass instead I was unfortunately spooked by the unexpected snail. 

Overall It was an incredibly beautiful beach, having it to myself felt rather magical. A ghibli movie worthy moment.