A Tale of Two (Mycenean) Cities

Lion's gate at Mycenea

So you wouldn't think I could pull a third entry out of our trip to Greece, but honestly, I could probably write many more.  This one has been rolling around in my head for the six months since we've gotten back mostly because I had never heard of Tiryns before we went.  I found it in Gardner's when we got back, as you can see, but it's overshadowed by Mycenae if only because the people who lived in both were called Mycenaeans.  The hill top where Mycenae is located is right below two green and rounded peaks.  The highlight of our trip came at the beginning...the famed lion's gate. It's magnificent, even without their heads and must have been imposing coming in underneath them and into the narrow yet high-walled corridor. 

The engineering of building such a place was highlighted again when we wandered to the far corner of the complex and saw a doorway leading....down?  Reading the sign, we discovered it was the entrance to a corbelled passageway to an underground cistern that would ensure the citadel had a continuous supply of water in case of a siege.  Mycenea, when we were there was slightly overcast and windy.  Standing on the edge of the hilltop I was reminded of Lord of the Rings and how these civilizations were the ones that spawned legends and stories.

Entrance to the underground cistern at Mycenea.

Tiryns rooms

Tiryns on the other hand, we visited on a sunny, hot day.  Whereas Mycenea was set apart from a city Tiryns was less than 10 minutes from the vacation town of Napflion.  The guidebooks we had stated Mycenea as the better of the two but I beg to differ.  While Mycenea had paved pathways, probably to direct people of where to walk and to keep them off the ancient walls, you could actually walk the hallways of an ancient Mycenean city in Tiryns.  Much less visible work has been done to excavate Tiryns but you can truly get a sense of the layout of rooms and how someone would move through the space.  After walking around the throne room and making our way in and out of what were probably anterooms and bedrooms we headed back to Napflion where we were staying.

For the weary tourist Napflion is wonderful, with numerous trattoria, cafes, and a line of restaurants right along the water's edge with couches overlooking the castle of Bourtzi, which can only be described as adorable.  We drank freddo cappuccino and watched the sun go down.

Sunset in Napflion with Bourtzi in the distance.

Gardner's pages 90-91 (Tiryns) and 91-92 (Mycenae).

They threw my sandwich at me at the Louvre....

Um, that actually happened to me, the title of this blog.  It was a packaged sandwich, but there was actually time it spent in the air between our server's hands and mine.

I caught sight of this article "Extraordinary Museum Restaurants" from Departures Magazine via HuffPost Arts yesterday.  I completely agree with Terzo Piano at the Art Institute of Chicago, it's yum, and no flying food.

That's the only one I've been to on the list...8 more to try!!

What grows in a Lundagatan?

I've recently been reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the third book in the Millennium series (aka The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series).  I've gotten so absorbed in reading these three books that I've found myself wondering what Lundagatan street where Lisbeth Salander lives looks like, or wanting to see the view from the cabin on Hedeby Island, or even visit Göteborg, where Zalachenko's farm is located, even though it's where Lisbeth was shot.  I know there are lots of "literary" destinations, people going to Prince Edward Island because of Anne of Green Gables or heading to Chatsworth House to see the inspiration for Pemberley (or Lyme Park if you're a fan of the 1995 Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle adaptation of Pride and Prejudice).  This isn't traveling for anything in Gardner's but reading comes right after "art" and "food" on my list of favorite things.  So here is a list of the top 10 places that I personally have had the urge to go because of the books I've been reading... (wouldn't Levar Burton be so proud???)

Lyme Park

10. Venice!! (The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt) - Who wouldn't want to go there?  I've actually been there already, but it was before I read this book and while it brought me back to my trip I think I would go back just to see the opera house that is at the heart of this story and get lost again in the winding little back paths and over the bridges...and the gelato.

9. Dominican Republic (The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz) - I'm not sure why I want to go to "The DR" based on this book, nothing good happens.  But maybe I was just so taken by this book, and Diaz's collection of short stories, This is How You Lose Her, that I wanted to see where they take place.  Maybe it's also trying to understand all the different settings from cane fields to beach-side resorts that make up this island. 

8. Anything by David Sedaris where he talks about living in Paris or Normandy - This is a joke...actually it's not.  I love reading Sedaris' take on just about any place or thing, I still laugh to myself thinking about the title story from Me Talk Pretty One Day, where he describes when he is trying to learn French.  But what I REALLY want is to randomly bump into him in Normandy or Paris, so I guess I have to go.

7. London and around it (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke) - This is one of my favorite books.  It's so immersive. I've described it as "Harry Potter for grown-ups" to many people because Clarke created not just a story, but a back-story and supporting documents, a little world to its own.  I don't think I need more of a reason than that.

6. South coast of England (Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier) - There is something beautifully desolate of northern beaches and since this book centers around the discovery of fossils during the 19th century it adds this mysterious quality of a history that is still unknown. 

5. Bunch of Places, including Istanbul (The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova) - Okay I'm kinda cheating here, I didn't really like this book too much, the story is compelling enough, but if you want to read a great book about a historical type mystery like this read People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.  BUT The Historian takes place in a whole bunch of places that I want to go: Amsterdam, Romania, Bulgaria, and Istanbul!!!  This last one is significant because we're actually going there!  In October!!  So stay tuned for posts about that trip...

4. I actually really would like to go to Prince Edward Island...because of Anne of Green Gables

3. Smyrna (Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides) - Smyrna doesn't play a huge role in this a-maz-ing book, but having never heard of The Great Fire of Smyrna growing up, I feel compelled to go and see where this tragedy happened. 

2. Pakistan (Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson) - All controversy about his non-profit aside, this book and Three Cups of Tea are a great reminder that there is more to Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Pakistan than what we hear about on the evening news.

1. Denmark (Hamlet, William Shakespeare) - Yes, I know, multiple sources, based on legend, yadda yadda yadda.  Being able to go and say "There's something rotten here" is worth it to me!!