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I was tired on the ferry, so after I wrote I mostly continued reading "In Conquest Born".

By the time we got into port it was nearly four. It rained on us as we went to Hotel Filoxenia and I felt a bit homesick. I couldn't decide if I missed Madison or Seattle, but I was certainly missing something.

Katy left us after checkin to visit her family in Greece, and the three of us went to the internet cafe and then walking around. I felt dizzy and dazed until I got a (sparse) dinner in me.

After we walked to Areos Park, I felt a lot better. It's large and full of trees and flowers. It was full of people, too, young and old, all playing games and talking. I had a wonderful time.

When we got back to meet Katy, she said she had to go back for dinner. The rest of us decided to shower and go to bed early. I volunteered to plan our time in Athens using my Eyewitness Guide Book, so I spent my wait time with that.

OK, it's time for Ouzo and bed so I'll finish up on the bus tomorrow morning.

It's early morning on the bus, and it looks like I have a lot to catch you up on.

Yesterday we began our four day bus tour of mainland Greece. Our first stop was at the Corinth Canal, a monumental achievement connecting the Ionian and Aegean Seas begun by the French and then finished by the "Grecians".

Our second stop was in Epidaurus to see the fifth largest and best preserved theater. The area was once a town dedicated to the healer Asklepieion. The theater itself, complete with orchestra and all, was quite impressive. Margaret and I climbed to the top just in time for an impromptu concert by a Chinese tourist. It was all quite fun. Then the two of us jogged off to try to get a glimpse of the ruins of the city, while Becky went to look at the museum. Relations in that respect went quite well all day.

There was enough to see the floor plans; only a foot or two was left of any of the walls. The whole area was also filled with bright red, white, and pink flowers, as well as stunning black, yellow and green, and white butterflies.

My only complaint was that there just wasn't enough time to explore the rest of the ruins, but as Becky keeps reminding me, that's the compromise we have to make to be able to go to all of these places. I keep thinking how nice it would be, though, to be able to take it all at my own pace in a car of my own.

I especially felt this as we passed through Nafplio and past the acropolis at Tiryns.

Our second stop was at Mycenae. This ancient city was more like a fortress, built on a high hill in an area of dramatic beauty. Again, most of the ruins were only a few feet high. However, structures like the Lion's Gate and Grave Circle A were much more intact.

Margaret and I scaled the acropolis and went down to see the other side and search for the Secret Stair to the underground cistern. We found it, and it was open, but what I hadn't thought of was that it would be pitch black, making a right angle after the first twenty or so steps (out of 99). Another touris had a tiny light, but he wasn't brave enough to venture down. What drove me nuts was that I did have exactly the same light on my keychain, but I'd left it on the bus! So we had to admit defeat.

On the way out, we caught a glimpse of the North Gate.

Afterward they took us for a very late lunch. We were all dismayed by the outrageously tiny selection (and we didn't have any choice of restaurant) plus the fact that they didn't tell us anything about prices until the end of the meal. On the upside, I finally got to try mousaka, as sort of eggplant shepherd's pie.

The rest of the day we spent driving, and I have to confess that while I saw much of the austerely lovely countryside, I also napped away a decent chunk of it.

We arrived in Olympia in early evening but our hotel had been overbooked by a newly arrived bus of dozens of high school students. So our guide, Eva, put us in the only other place in town: a delightful four-star hotel. The accomodations were terrific, our favorite being the presence of a real shower curtain. Strangely, they put the tap on the long wall, and we've had to bathe via strategic spraying with the removeable head.

Dinner in the hotel was similarly extravagent. We had five courses: vegetable soup, cheese pie, salad of cabbage and carrots with vinegar, pork with real potatatoes and fried rice, and a dessert of vanilla custard with caramel sauce. They also served the ubiquitous bread and water. I was stuffed, to say the least.

I tried to call my Mom, but the phone was a rotary, and I kept getting the same prompts over and over, so I think I need a touch tone. Finally we alterntad showers, and then sat down to try the Ouzo, as I mentioned.

The stuff is unbelievably vile. Since I actually like licorice, I'm attributing this to it's potency (46% by volume) and the fact that we drank it with just water mixed in. It looked interesting since the water turns it a milky color from clear, but it was so ghastly as to be nearly undrinkable. But we still have that whole bottle, so we're thinking of trying to mix it with orange juice or Sprite tonight.