Sister in a Cistern (by Alex)

Yesterday, we went to Nafplio, a small town on the ocean about 2 hours from Athens (about 240 km from Athens). We stopped by Epidaurus. Epidaurus is an ancient hospital, where they would let the magic water heal them. Here is the well with the magic water.

Today it has a magic hose next to it.

Epidaurus is now in ruins. One of the buildings is the still-standing theater. When you stand in the middle of the stage and whisper, people on the top row can hear you. It was believed that listening to plays helped your body heal. This theater is still used today.

We also saw the oldest bridge in the world. It was very exciting for a pile of rocks.

When we got to Nafplio, Dad tried to find the hotel. We drove up and down tiny streets, trying to find the hotel parking lot. At one point, Dad approached a fork in the road. Ignoring the “Go left” sign, he went down a tiny road. He realized that he got to a dead end, and reversed down the street. He bumped in to a yellow post (in case you were wondering, we were in a rental car). A man ended up helping Dad reverse out of the street because there was only 1 inch between the mirror and the car on the left, and 1 inch between the mirror and the man’s house on the right. After that, we parked on a street, and Dad and I went to look for the hotel. We walked up some steps, and found the hotel. We asked the man at the desk where the parking lot was. We said we were parked by the court house, and he gave us directions. We ended up parking at the parking lot of an abandoned hotel. We walked down some stairs, and checked in.

Even though the hotel was 4 years old, a lot of things were deteriorating. Also, the Nafplio law prohibited the removing of rock when they build buildings. Because of this, Anna and Dad slept on a bed that was partly held up by a rock. Also there was a rock in the bathroom.

Today, we left the hotel. We saw Mycenea. Mycenea was a city that was the center of the Mycenea civilization. We saw the King’s castle. This was the same King that sent Hercules out to do 12 things, before Hercules could become king. Also, Helen of Sparta lived at this castle, before Troy got involved with her. Also Hermione, her daughter, was born here.

First, we passed the Lions Gate. This was one of the most famous, and oldest, gates (yes, Lions Gate Productions was named after this gate). It was called Lions Gate because of the two lion carvings on top.

Then, we walked and looked at all of the remains of the buildings. We eventually saw a cistern. A cistern is a place where water is held. This cistern held water from a spring. The castle didn’t use much water, so not many trips down it were needed. We walked down many steps, before Mom decided to back up. Then we walked down with some people from the UK. We shared our “torches” (flashlights and iPhones) and had every light source we could light up the path, as there was no natural light. We walked down the 99 steps and took our pictures (flash on). Then, we walked back up. It got a “This is awesome!” from Anna.

We walked to the museum, and got back in the car. We drove to the canal. We got there just in time to see a big boat, three sailing ships, and 4 yachts pass. This also got a “this is awesome” from Anna. Then a bridge lifted out of the water. We hung around for a bit, and then drove on.  When we exited the car and watched the big oil tanker pass under another bridge (it was not a draw bridge, and we were on the bridge as it passed.)

Eventually, we drove back to Athens. This is what we did the last two days.