Tonight, we dine in Hellas!

That's right. This is the post where I describe our pilgrimage to the truly important places.

When most people visit Greece, after paying their due respects to the Acropolis, they head immediately to the beach, or to a nearby island, where they head immediately to the beach.

We, however, being bold adventurers and devotees of a much nobler appreciation in very old piles of rocks, decided instead to travel northwards. Heading north, you will find that even fewer people speak English and that even fewer people are aware of the history they keep tripping over. You will also find that Greek public transports is largely nonsensical; you will inevitably arrive at your destination, but you can never be entirely sure when, or indeed how.

We eventually arrived, then, in the town of Thermopoulis, which is the sort of roadside town I described early in the previous post. Its primary function seems to be providing something to distract truck drivers from the monotony of the open road. What it is least interested in doing is acknowledging its adjacency to the battlefield of one of the most significant battles in the history of Western Culture.

This is, of course, the battle of Thermopulae, in which a small coalition of Greek hoplites met the mighty Persian army. On the last day of the battle, the Spartan king sent most of the few thousand surviving Greeks home, remaining in the narrow mountain pass with three hundred highly-trained Spartans.

That's kind of a big deal, because it's the beginning of a sense of "Greek-ness," of nationalism. The idea that there's a larger bond between people than the city they call home.

Down the road a ways from 'Thermopoulis,' though, stands a lovely monument to the Spartan King Leonidas, guarding the shores of Greece between two highways. Seeing this bolstered our hopes, though, and crossing the highway, we found the fortified hill of Kolonos. At the top of this, we beheld the famous inscription, as reported by Herodotus himself--"Hey, you there! Go tell the Spartans that we're still here, obeying their orders."

Sweet.