"It's dark in here... and we may die."

We began our drive back to Athens in the morning, but there were a few stops to make on the way. The first, to all our thesbians' delight, was the Temple of Epidaurius. It has a well-known ampitheater and museum, and while the former is more famous than the latter, the latter was fascinating to me. One of the display cases held ancient medical tools, and for some reason, I was awed by seeing a very old pair of tweasers.

Go figure. ^^a

Vickie showed us out of the museum (after telling us where they kept all the, er... removed necessities from some of the statues) and led us to the theater. It was a bit odd at first, to be honest, but that was before we were shown the remarkable acoustics. As we sat scattered about the theater and Vickie stood centerstage, the people stationed at the top could hear her (without raising her voice) as clearly as the people in the middle and front rows. ^^ Incredible!

Then, we drove to Agamemnon's acropolis/tomb in Mycenae to see more ruins, more mountains, an olive tree grove, and multiple reasons as to why I brought a small yet high-powered flashlight! There were amazing artifacts in the museum --I personally enjoyed seeing the old swords, armor, and jewelry-- and impressive views of the olive groves. Once outside we hiked up MORE inclines (at this point in the trip, we're a little tired of hills and stairs) to see the actual fortress atop the small mountain. Cool views of the ocean, and more bee-infested flowers everywhere, so I stuck close to Lee for a bit before joining Andrew and Patrick for our self-guided tour of the cistern.

(Check Patrick's blog for the adventure in the cistern -- he retells it wonderfully. And this post's title will make sense after reading it, as well.)

The tomb was dark, empty, and... well... crowded. A lot of other high school groups were there, and some of the guys were having fun listening to loud flatulent noises echo in the hollow rooms. Wheee.

Next, the jaw-dropping height of the Corinthian Canal. We took pictures on the bridge, crossed the busy street (roadkill, anyone?), and took more pictures before splitting up for lunch. Patrick and Adrienne disappeared, Abigail and I went to the Greek version of McDonald's (called Goody's... not the clothing store, to our surprise), and everyone else had 50u\/l4k1. I was actually very pleased with Goody's; my burger, called the Golden Burger, was a normal hamburger with mayo, lettuce, tomato, and parmesan. The parmesan was a fascinating touch. Maybe I'll try some on a Big Mac when I get home ^^a

Vickie and Yorgos kindly drove us to the Acropolis, where we said our goodbyes (and everyone had to take pictures, of course) and tried to get in to see the site. ...some of us flashed our student ID's and ran in before we realized that we only had about ten minutes, five of which you spend running (not walking) up flights of stairs. _-_ Needless to say, we had a bit of trouble reining back on our two fastest walkers, Chrissy and Katina. Adrienne and I went back for them in hopes the four of us wouldn't be kicked out.

After that, we wandered down and around Athens, found souvenirs to buy for the folks back home, and regrouped at the hotel. We split off from there to find food, and the group I followed (consisting of Miss Teri, Katina, Naomi, and Abigail) found the BEST 50u\/l4k1 pita place in Athens! ^^