During our midterm break, I returned with my family to the Peloponnese after just a few days away and climbed the steps to the Palamidi Fortress. While the true number of stairs is somewhat contested (1,000, 999, or a meager 857?), I don’t think it would have made a difference in how much we sweat or the fact that our legs felt like spaghetti afterward. Upon this visit, I had more time to explore the fortress, built in the early 1700s by Venetians and made up of eight self-contained bastions that would be individually defensible if any of the other ones were breached.
Following Alex’s lecture not even a week prior, I could serve as a kind of tour guide for my mom and my aunt, and I tried to explain that the walls were sloping and uneven because this makes them less likely to be destroyed by cannon fire, marking a change in fortification style in response to the development of technology. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my notebook up, so I could only give them snippets that I remembered, but they were content to rely on their Rick Steves guide book. Even though the history of the fortress is interesting, the best part of the visit was undoubtedly the amazing views over the old town of Nafplio and over the hills behind and below the fortress.
We also happened to be there during the Mediterranean Yacht Show and got to hear the 7-minute blasting of the horns on the final night before the yachts left the following morning. My aunt especially liked watching them leave one by one and speculating about where they might be off to next.
After two nights in Nafplio, we headed back to Athens in our rented car, feeling lucky to not be stopped in the kilometers-long pile up getting out of the city, and caught a ferry to Hydra, which is my favorite place we have visited so far. Upon arrival, we were planning on taking a water taxi but instead were met by 2 donkeys and a man who spoke very little English but assured us that he was meant to take us to our AirBnb. Though the island was by no means quiet, the lack of cars and motorcycles definitely made it feel more peaceful than other places we’ve visited. Because we were there during Easter, we got to follow a procession to the church in town and also passed by a couple of kids selling hand-made paper baskets and bunnies– now we have one in our room!
Aside from spotting some green rock, tentatively identifying it as chert and sending a photo to my roommate from home – a geology major – I am happy to say my academic brain was largely turned off in Hydra. For the little time we were there, we enjoyed the landscape, walking between a few of the towns, and of course, seeing the donkeys, mules and horses (though avoiding their poop on the cobble-stone streets was a rather unpleasant hassle…)
