On Friday, our first full day in Greece, we were ready to see it all. Being American’s, that meant going on a road trip. There are trains and buses in Greece that go all over the country, but the network isn’t as dense or frequent as other European countries. For the freedom of going where we wanted and staying as long as we wanted, we rented a car. Plus, for our big group, the car would be considerably cheaper. The destinations on our road trip were the towns of Sparti, home to the ruins of the famous ancient Sparta, and Nafplio, a picturesque ocean town that was briefly the capital of modern Greece. The round trip distance was about 300 miles, and took about 6 hours total in the car.
Now it did take some planning and research to feel confident about renting a car and cruising through a foreign country. We all did some research about laws, and the general way people drive. First, for Americans it was clearly spelled out that the Greeks require an international drivers license for you to drive in their country. My mom easily got one from AAA, without having to do anything more than pay the fee for it. Melissa and I both went to the local Swiss office to get international licenses, and the process was the same as my mom’s: just show up and pay a fee. Another terrifying tidbit of advice we found on the internet, that proved to be true too many times for comfort, was that cars will pass you at anytime on a two lane road, even with oncoming traffic. It’s common for the passing car to straddle the median while the two normal lanes of traffic drive mostly on the shoulder. We also read, and found, that scooters and motorcycles weave between traffic, and make up their own lanes. With a little trepidation, we found during our planning process that most rentals have manual transmissions. I also read that Greeks are aggressive and bad drivers, however, with the exception of the way they passed other cars, I found that to be mostly untrue. Actually, out of all the time that I was on the road, I think I was the worst driver.
The start of our road trip adventure started around 8 a.m. when we accidentally splurged on a not quite free hotel breakfast, before catching the metro to Hertz, where we had reserved a small manual transmission car. I was a little nervous because I had only ever driven a manual once before… in the flat city of Faribault… 7 years ago… for maybe half an hour. My mom had more experience, but not since the 80’s. We rented the smallest car possible that could still fit 5 people, and it might have even been smaller than a Geo Metro. There was a hatchback for the “trunk,” but thankfully we were able to keep all of our luggage at the hotel, because I don’t even think it was 6 inches deep.
I initially felt more confident about driving than my mom because I read a tutorial on “How to drive a manual transmission” on the internet the night before, so I sat in the driver’s seat. With one foot on the clutch and one on the brake, I put it into neutral and started it up. I shifted into reverse, and was ready to go, when my mom exclaimed “Wait!” She didn’t have a seat belt. We walked back in to tell the sales lady, who apologized and said she’d give us a bigger model for the same price. When our new car came out, it had 5 seat belts, but I couldn’t tell that it was any bigger.
White knuckled, I miraculously was able to make it through the Athens traffic and onto the freeway, only killing the engine a few times, but being able to start it back up quickly each time no problem. I was just starting to feel confident, and like a race car driver shifting, when I ran into trouble twice at the toll booths. I swear I was doing everything the same, but it would take me 4 or 5 times of starting it and killing it before I could get it moving from a stop.
The drive was filled with hills and mountains. It was no wonder the ancient Greeks had so many city states, without the modern freeway and it’s many tunnels it would take forever to travel between cities. Some mountains were even high enough to be snow capped. Our freeway cruise also took us past the famous town of Corinth, (mentioned in the Bible.) The modern town is along the sea, but as we drove we saw a tall fortified hill, sitting alone in a plain outside the city, that we thought was ancient Corinth. At home I looked it up to find we were mistaken, it’s called Acrocorinth. It was inhabited and fortified since ancient times, and still has impressive ruins, but we had our minds set on other sites. It’s tough to see it all in Greece, everywhere you go it seems like there are ruins older than history. Our trip also took us near the famous ruins of Mycenae, and Mystras that we just didn’t have enough time for.
Luckily there weren’t many stops along the way, and I was able to get us to Sparti in one piece. We weren’t exactly sure where the ruins were, so I parked in a big parking lot, where both my mom and I took some time to practice starting from a stop while everyone else stretched their legs. The secret I found to not kill the engine was keeping the clutch pushed in a little bit, all the time in first gear (which might be advice you only want to apply to a rental car).
It turned out that our parking lot was for a local school, so my Mom was able to run into the school and ask for directions. After that, Mom took over the driving and brought us into the city near the ruins. It was lunch time so we stopped at a cafe for a bite, then made our way to the ruins.
The ruins are on a hill, and below the hill is a modern statue of Leonidas, the famous king who fought the Persians with 300 Spartans. Of course we needed to stop for a photo-op. Entrance to the ruins was free, and we could see why. For some reason the plaques that describe the ruins were missing from the stands that clearly were supposed to hold them, so we were left to guess at what we were seeing. I was also struck by the whole site being covered in an olive tree orchard, along with a couple horses tied up among the crumbling stones eating grass. Because this was one of our first visits to an ancient city, though, we were impressed. But by the end of the trip we could tell that for such a famous city the archaeological sight seemed surprisingly small, one might even say Spartan.
My mom then drove us out of the ruin park, and all the way to our second stop of the day, the town of Nafplio. She had to navigate narrow one way streets, with frequent stops, until she found a parking lot next to the harbor. We walked along the harbor soaking in the ambiance and taking pictures. The town is famous for having a fortress, called fortress Palamidi, on the tallest hill, and a castle in the middle of the harbor on its own island, called, the castle of Bourtzi.
Before Dan, Ann, and I decided to brave the climb up to the fortress, we needed to find a bathroom. After following sign after sign for the public bathroom, we saw the door was locked, but that didn’t seem stop some earlier visitors from making full use of the facilities… just on the door, instead of inside. Being courteous and hygienic Americans, we were able to find a water closet in a nearby cafe.
After our bathroom adventure Dan, Ann, and I then took a hike up the 913 stairs of the fortress, or at least that’s according to the guidebook we used, I didn’t take the time to count. At the top of those hundreds of stairs, at the the fortress walls, we were rewarded with a breathtaking view of the harbor beneath azure colored skies.
We were somehow able to make it back down the steps without a stumble, and we loaded back into the car bound for Athens. I initially started driving, but I ran into some trouble with stalls again, making a left turn from a stop sign… on a hill… with railroad tracks… in the middle of traffic. It was too much for me and I just threw my hands up, and let my mom take over getting us back to Athens. A few days later, when we rented a full size conversion van with more than enough room for my legs, I was able to drive without much trouble. I’m using the excuse that southern European cars are just better sized for the shorter southern European people than me.
My mom and I weren’t too hungry when we got back, so we just had gelato for dinner (because we’re adults and we can do that on vacation!), whereas everyone else went to a sit down restaurant. Afterwards, we all capped off the night together with drinks at the hotel bar, bathed in the lights of the city.
