Napflio is just as pretty a little town as it can be. It has a lovely old port surrounded by mountains, a beautiful old town full of Venetian buildings, and just behind it is a gorgeous old fortress perched way up on a hillside. Best of all, after Olympia, there are actually some good restaurants here, I think because Napflio caters to upscale weekending Athenians rather than just to tour buses. Anyway, it's easy to find a good meal here, and I really appreciated that.
I have to admit I never got up to the old fort. I was only here for two days, one of which was spent at ancient Mycenae, and the other of which was spent just wandering around the old town. I considered hiking up the steep stairways to the fort (allegedly 999 steps), but the stairway was crowded with rambunctious youth groups and we all know how I feel about them.
As much as I liked Napflio and highly recommend it as a destination in and of itself, the main reason I was there was because it is only an hour's bus ride from ancient Mycenae. Actually, the bus only takes an hour because it makes a kajillion local stops. I commented to one of my fellow passengers that I thought we almost certainly could bike faster to Mycenae. He said "Adults don't ride bikes in Greece, only children do." I protested that I'd seen several adults on bikes. He said "they are all Albanians." Good to know.
Mycenae, as you history buffs will know, was the stronghold of that asshole Agamemnon. This seems like a good time to mention that the only guy I really liked in the Iliad was Hector. I love that when his baby son was scared of his war helmet, Hector laughed and removed it before going to kiss and play with the baby. No other guy in the Iliad does anything nearly so tender and sweet and natural. I also like that he seems to spend less time sulking and squabbling over who gets to rape various kidnapped wenches, and more time worrying about protecting his family and homeland from the invaders. Of course I knew that things end badly for Hector and the Trojans, but I was rooting for them anyway. By the way, is it a coincidence that Agamemnon and Menelaus were brothers, and their wives Clytemnestra and Helen murdered and deserted them respectively ? I know that Homer blames the chicks, but I think the evidence points to the dudes being massive assholes. Personally, I think C and H had the right idea. You go, girls.
Where was I? Oh yes, ancient Mycenae. The coolest parts, besides just being somewhere so historically important, are the lion gate -- its lion sculpures still visible -- the ancient tombs, and the spectacular setting. Man, those ancient Greeks had an eye for a good view. Anyway, otherwise, it was hard to make much of the rest of the ruins -- it's mostly just the foundations and a few walls -- and the place was (of course) overrun with youth groups, so it was hard to feel like part of history, but I'm glad I went just the same.
One of the days I was in Naplio happened to be daylight savings day (the Europeans changed their clocks a couple of weeks later than Americans this year). I always check this out before I travel in March, having once missed a bus in Italy years ago because I didn't know that the clocks changed. Anyway, on the same day the clocks changed, the entire town of Napflio had a planned power outage for four hours, from 6:30 am to 10:30 am. I also heard about this ahead of time, so while it was a pain in the ass, I was able to plan for it. I had enough money (ATMs don't work with no power, and your credit card might not either!). I even found the one cafe in town that had a power generator so that I could get a cup of coffee in the morning.
I met a few travelers who weren't quite so prepared. One aggrieved guy came into the cafe as I was sipping my coffee, and demanded of the barista if there was "an ATM that works". The bartender pointed across the square, but the guy had already tried that one. The bartender shrugged. I glanced at my watch, and saw that it was just about 10:25, which is when the power was supposed to resume. I said "the power comes on at 10:30, so just try again". The guy said "yeah, but I wanted to leave earlier than that." He left and I took a couple more sips of my coffee before realizing -- how could he possibly leave before 10:30 when it was 10:30 already? He must not know that the clocks had changed. But he was gone and it was too late to tell him. I shrugged. He'd find out sooner or later.
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