Sassi in Matera, then Bari

On Thursday we woke up and went to wander around the sassi. At one point, we were trying to decide which way to go and an older man, probably in his 70s or 80s, told us to go up the hill. He then proceeded to follow us and point out a church and a viewpoint. He asked us if we wanted out picture taken because most of our photos were probably just one of us. As we are two people traveling, I would have to take Jess’s photos and she would have to take the pictures of me, so we probably didn’t have many photos together (this was all basically true). He took us to his house. He grew up in the sassi and his father spent time in the US, working in order to earn enough money to buy their cave. His old house is now a construction site: a few places in the sassi are being redone into more modern housing units. He lifted up the plastic orange “fence” and took us right inside, showing us which parts were the “bathroom” and which were the bedroom/living space. Afterwards we went into the construction site next door which was a much deeper cave. There was a construction worker inside. The old man asked if we could be in there and the construction worker said, “Not normally, but you’re already inside, so…I guess.” We spent some time walking around that part of the sassi and he took more photos of us. Every few minutes he would hit my arm, say, “Andiamo,” and we’d go up a different way. He kept explaining that many tourists come to Matera and only stay on the “tourist routes” without actually seeing the sassi: they walk through it, but don’t see much. He also took us to café which was not fully open – they were setting up for the day – because it had a really good view of the river and the cliffs across from the sassi. When we walked back down to the main road, he pointed out that people pay at the museum next door to see the same view we had just seen for free. It was a fun way to spend the morning, for us and for him. Even though he only spoke Italian I was able to communicate pretty well and understand what he was saying to us.

That afternoon we went to Bari. My mother and I had high hopes for Bari because my grandfather had talked about it so much. He rarely mentioned Altamura, but rather spoke of Bari more often. I’m not really sure why. We knew our hostel there was going to suck, but it was the only cheap place in town. We were not prepared, however, for how much it was going to suck. It was a bit of a pain to try and find the place. We had to ask a few people and then a young guy actually walked us to the door of the place. When we entered, the “lobby” was no bigger than 10’x10’. Steep steps led up to one dorm room and another one was up even steeper steps (basically a ladder). That’s where we were staying: all the way up. The bathroom was below the entrance. The man at the hostel could not figure out that we had already paid a deposit online and did not owe as much money as he was asking for. I pulled up the confirmation on my computer and told him there was no way we were paying again for the deposit. He had to call the boss who agreed with me. Then, we had to pay for a “sheet.” This was the first time all trip that the linen was not included. The “sheet” was the same texture as an airplane pillowcase. It was hot at night and I stuck to it as mosquitoes buzzed around me, eating me alive.

We went out to dinner at a trendy restaurant on the main street. I had salad, grilled veggies and potatoes while Jess had ravioli and swordfish rolls. There were tons of little kids walking around with their parents even though it was after 11 pm. There were also a bunch of football supporters in the streets with a big banner. Our hostel was in the old part of the city. Like Altamura it had windy, narrow streets with a bunch of churches scattered inside.

Altamura

On Wednesday I finally got to walk the streets my grandfather walked as a child. We went to Altamura. I was so excited that I didn’t bother bringing a book or any other diversions. The train ride was short – only about half an hour from Matera. We arrived and the train station employees were confused with our request for a map. The town does get some tourism, but not enough to merit any info point at the train station. We found the center of the city, walking through some newer neighborhoods (by new, I mean newer than my grandfather’s time). In the center, we stumbled upon a tourist info and shop where I got a map. For an hour we wandered the older part of the city and went inside the cathedral where photographers had set up their equipment to photograph some of the statues inside.

The streets were narrow and windy. Many of them were either one-way or pedestrian-only. There were some tabaccis (news stands) and other shops in this part of the city. It was surrounded by a wall, which is not the “alta mura.” The “high wall” was slightly further out and we did find some of its remnants later on. Inside the old center, I went to a bakery that had been in the same place since the 1423. Inside they were making thick pizzas, which were more like focaccia with vegetables and other toppings.

As we were trying to find stamps, a woman saw us admiring the façade of an old palazzo. It had been carved into apartments – I’m guessing she lived in one of them – and she invited us inside to see how pretty the courtyard was. She was really excited to show it to us and we took some pictures inside. It was so nice of her to invite us, total strangers, inside this private space. We went into the tabacci across the street and bought stamps. Then we walked through more of the old city coming to a municipal building. I went inside to try and figure out what kind of office it was. The woman didn’t really speak any English but as soon as I told her “mi nonno nació (Spanish word) Altamura” (roughly “my grandfather born (in Spanish) Altamura”), her face lit up. She told me to go to the birth records office and wrote down the street name. She then told me how to get there, which I understood in her slowed- and dumbed-down Italian. It was already one in the afternoon, so we weren’t sure if the other office would still be open.

We found the birth records office, which was still open. I tried explaining that my grandfather was born in Altamura. They asked what date, which I wrote on a piece of paper. Two women (one was actually about my age and spoke a few words of English) walked over to a huge revolving machine and pushed a button until the 1916 book appeared. My grandfather was the 86^th birth in 1916. They were able to locate his birth certificate pretty quickly and asked me if I wanted a copy. I said that I’d love a copy. The actual copying of the certificate took quite a bit longer than finding it in the book. When they came back with a copy I had to fill out a request form. I was probably the only young American who had shown up in their office to make such a request. They didn’t really know how to fill out the form because it had one space for my address in Altamura and another space for my Italian ID number, neither of which I could provide. I handed the girl my passport, my NJ drivers license, and my expired Spanish ID card (I figured this was probably closest to the format of an Italian ID card and that she might understand it better.) Then there came the confusion of how I, Rachel GEYLIN, could be requesting the birth certificate of someone I say if my grandfather if his name is Vito CLEMENTE. Why don’t we have the same name? I had to explain that my last name is from my father and this Vito is my mother’s father. In America we don’t take our mother’s last name at all, just our father’s. I was used to explaining this because the Spanish were constantly asking me why I only have one first name and one last name. Eventually they just wrote my NJ address in the blank and my passport information on their request form. I was handed a stamped, official copy of my grandfather’s birth certificate. We had been in the building for almost 45 minutes. It was now 2 pm and they were closing. We were actually still inside as the metal grates came down. We looked at the door with a semi-confused expression and another woman directed us to another exit. At this point we were minor-celebrities in this office: it’s not every day that Americans wander into the Altamura records office.

I took another look around Altamura, but everything had closed down, so we headed for the train station.

Getting to Matera -where everything can be found "a la sinistra"

Tuesday afternoon we arrived in Bari. The plane we took there was our smallest one during the trip: it only had four seats across it. We took a city bus from the airport to the train station. It was hot and crowded because of the time (lunchtime) and a woman was yelling at her daughters. At the train station, we had just missed the train to Matera, so we had to wait an hour for the next one. Our train passed through Altamura. From it, I could see some church steeples and the newer part of the city. We passed through olive trees and fields along the way. The ground had low hills and was fairly dry because of the summer heat. In Matera we asked people how to get towards the center. Another traveler helped us. She was an Italian woman who spoke perfect English. She had been everywhere in the world: she lived in Japan for a while and her daughter (age 26) had been born there. She had spent time in South America, the USA, and South-East Asia. She had also just returned from a trip to the Middle East and was taking a short trip through Southern Italy.

Our hostel in Matera was actually a converted monastery. It had a chapel and still held cultural events like concerts. It was also a hotel that happened to have two dorm rooms in its basement. These rooms were naturally cooler and the beds were divided into smaller sub-rooms which meant Jess and I had our own little nook.

That evening we walked around Matera to get some food and see the town. The tourist office was not open – it’s unclear as to if one actually exists or not. We kept asking directions and people kept sending us to the left. Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on Earth. There were prehistoric caves across the river and more recent ones in the same part as where we were staying. The “more recent” ones were without running water until about 40-50 years ago. They are called sassi and the town has been used to film commercials and movies like Passion of the Christ. They are divided in two parts: the Barisano and the Caveoso. Our hostel was in between the two, on a cliff and just off the Piazza di Duomo.

That evening we went to a hardware store so Jess could buy a flashlight to use as a reading light. It was somewhat difficult communicating that we wanted the light, but not batteries. Afterwards, we went and ate dinner. I had chicken with balsamic sauce and a veggie frittata. The food was simple, but really tasty. After dinner we had gelato – I had dark chocolate and coffee. Then we walked back to our hostel stopping to look down at the sassi at night.

The Oracle!

Monday morning we dropped our stuff at the hostel and ate breakfast. Then we took the bus to Delphi. Buses in Greece are strange. You don’t always pay as you board. In many cases, we picked up a person along the route who came down the aisle to take our tickets or money. You could be practically at your destination before you actually paid a dime. The ruins of Delphi were built into a steep hill. Built in the 6^th-century, the Temple of Apollo was a pilgrimage site. People went to consult the oracle, a middle-aged virgin, who sat there. The temple and the rest of the site was built on Mt. Parnassos and has views of the Gulf of Corinth. The temple was in ruins, but the floor was still visible, which was unique. Many times the columns are still standing, but nothing else. There were other structures on the grounds – lots of walls and some columns. Up the hill we came across the theater and the stadium. We’re not sure what kind of games or matches were held at the stadium, possibly running races. It was all the way up the hill, so it wouldn’t have been used for cart races. There was another ruin site across the street (and down the hill from this area). We checked that out then went to the site museum. The museum’s building was new and it housed statues and pieces of buildings on the site.

Afterward, we tried to find food for lunch. There was one small “supermarket” with bad lighting and practically no food. I bought stuffed vine leaves and chocolate to eat. Back in Athens, we were shown to our own room again! This was nice because we had to do some laundry before heading to Italy the next morning.

Crete

After Corinth, we grabbed our stuff and headed to Piraeus, the port a few kilometers south of Athens. It was insane there. We got out of the metro and were in a small plaza with an escalator going up to a pedestrian bridge to cross the busy road between the metro and the water. We found our company’s office and went to pick up our tickets. We were leaving from dock three, and there were about a dozen docking areas. Cars and people were everywhere because there were at least six ferries (almost all are car ferries) leaving that night. When we returned, early in the morning a few days later, nothing had changed: there were tons of early-morning ferries leaving and people rushing in all directions. It was like being at a really busy airport during the holiday rush except this was outdoors and it involved cars and trucks. We grabbed some dinner and headed for dock three.

The boat itself was nice. It wasn’t the nicest ferry I have been on, but it wasn’t the worst. Cars were downstairs and we boarded along the side, taking escalators up to the sixth or seventh deck. We had booked airplane-style, “Pullman” seats. We wanted to get there early to pick our seats. The Pullman section was already crowded with families and people spread out everywhere. There were seats left, but a lot of the floor space had been claimed. We saw a few other backpackers, but many of the people were Roma and a lot looked pretty sketchy. I went to the bathroom to brush and floss. The other women in the bathroom basically stared me down as I did this. I slept on the floor because it was more comfortable than sleeping in a chair. My floor space was actually in a row, so people couldn’t really bother me. Getting to the bathroom during the night proved challenging because I had to dodge people and climb over chairs. When I woke up, the sun was rising and we were arriving in Crete.

Friday morning, we were given fresh-squeezed orange juice as we disembarked from the boat. It was reasonably warm in Iraklio/Heraklion, but not hot (it was 6:30am). It took us a few minutes to find the hostel. When we got there, we were allowed to check in and sleep for a bit. That day, we went to Knossos, the ruins of the Minoan palace. This is where the legendary Minotaur, half-man half-bull, lived in a labyrinth. The palace was huge. We started on one side of it and from that point couldn’t see many ruins. I figured, “okay, this will be a relatively-small palace, a few rocks, nothing major.” Boy, was I wrong. We started on the higher side and didn’t realize how far down the hill the palace extended. There were various smaller areas and reproductiosn of frescoes found at the site. Many parts of the palace had been reconstructed by Arther Evans, who uncovered the ruins in 1900. In my opinion, he was too liberal with his reconstruction. Many of the rooms were named based on the functions he prescribed to them, rather than carefully studying the objects he found. For example, he found a chair near one room, so it immediately became the throne room. One interesting tidbit about Knossos is that the oldest stairs in Europe are here. The 3700-year-old staircase goes down the back of the palace. People are not allowed to walk on it, but we could see it from above and below. The stairs are not particularly impressive, but their age certainly is.

That night we ate at a restaurant on the central plaza. Jess had chicken stuffed with cheese and in a date sauce. I had a salad with avocado and smoked salmon. We also tried oozo which was similar to raki, but came pre-mixed.

Saturday we took a bus to Chania, another port city on the northern coast of the island. We walked around the Venician port to the lighthouse at the end of it. Then we got homemade ice cream at an Italian gelateria. I had dark chocolate and banana. We walked out the other end of the port towards the newer harbor and the beach. Luckily I had brought my bathing suit. The water was really clear and warm. We didn’t stay too long because we hadn’t brought towels and Jess didn’t have her swimsuit. Then we walked back towards town. Along the way we saw octopus hanging on a string near a restaurant. Then I had another Greek salad for dinner and more ice cream. The bus ride took almost three hours because of the windy, mountain roads. Along the way, we passed five separate weddings going on. Back at the hostel, there were new people in our room. One woman decided she did not want the fan on during the night. She kept turning it off and we kept trying to explain that there were too many of us and there was no way anyone would get any sleep if the fan was not on. Finally, after three passive-aggressive, silent fan battles, she got up and had the hostel change her room. I had tried pointing out that she should either get another sheet or put some pants on to sleep in. In all the hostels I’ve stayed at, I’ve never actually seen anyone switch rooms during the night.

Sunday morning we slept late and then walked around Heraklion, which was basically dead. We walked dorn the old Venician harbor and then climbed up the ramp at the fort to see it all from above. We also sat and read at café for a while. I had a strawberry juice, which was somewhat like a smoothie. There wasn’t much to do, so we walked around a bit more and ate lunch at fast food place right across the street form the water. I had yet another Greek salad and we watched mTV for a bit. Then we used the internet and went back to the hostel and finished our books. We tried to read in town, but got sick of the people bothering us. One man approached us and put a magnet in my book. I took it out and place it next to me on the bench. When I did this, he began to hit my book to try to get my attention. I liked Crete, but I was getting seriously tired of the attention paid to us. I’ve traveled many places, but have never felt this bothered by people. That evening we took the ferry back to Athens, leaving behind Heraklion and its three Starbucks. This was probably the highest concentration of Starbucks we had seen on our entire trip. The town wasn’t that large and you could easily walk between the three. The ferry ride back was much emptier. It was, however, much more difficult to sleep because it was freezing cold. The air conditioner was up way too high and I had trouble falling asleep.

Corinth

Thursday morning we took a train to Corinth. From the center we took two buses to old Corinth where we saw some ruins and an attached museum. Corinth is where Paul wrote letters as he tried to “spread the word of god.” The Temple of Apollo had only a few columns standing, but the rest of the ruins were great. They weren’t ruins of temples or extremely important buildings. Instead, Corinth was basically a town of ruins. We could see where the main street had been and where shops were. There had been a bunch of churches and a synagogue, all constructed at various times and all in various states of ruin. From the ruins (a site called Ancient Corinth) we could actually see the sea and the mountains across an inlet. The museum wasn’t anything spectacular. Many of the artifacts had actually been stolen a few years back. They were recovered, in Miami, and returned, but not everything is on display. We could also peek into a room just off the museum where a man was restoring a vase. We couldn’t watch for too long, but it was interesting to see him work. It completed our visit. We mailed some postcards and caught our buses back to the train station from where we took two trains and a subway to get back to our hostel. The trains were comfortable, but they really need to run more cars. Many people from Athens take day trips out towards Peloponnese because of the beaches. We got seats because we got on at the train’s second stop. There were only two cars, and most people had to stand (for an hour) on the very crowded train.

Athens

Tuesday we visited the Acropolis. It was full of other tourists but I still enjoyed seeing the ruins, along with the other sites there. The Temple of Athena Nike was off to one side as we went up the Propylaia. There were tons of people standing on the steps taking pictures. Up top, the stones were pretty slippery to walk on. We saw the Parthenon, which was completed in 438 BC. and had doric columns (the most simple ones). A large chunk of the side of the Parthenon was pretty much destroyed and men were working on the rest of the structure. The pediments and friezes had been restored/reconstructed. The best bits of the building are actually in London at the London Museum. Lord Elegin took them in 1801 and they’ve been protected/on display since then. We walked around the back of the structure and then over towards the Erechtheion, which I think I might have liked more than the Parthenon. It’s a smaller temple and has ionic columns on one side of it. On the other side, there is a small porch-like area where caryatids held up the roof. (Now plaster casts of the originals are in their place.) A caryatid is a column in the form of a figure (these are female), which serves as both decoration and structural support.

We descended from the Acropolis and entered the Theater of Dionysos which was built between 340-330 BC. It’s located on the hill just south of the Parthenon. We could actually see it when we sat on a wall next to the Parthenon, which is above the city and could be seen from a distance. The theater wasn’t particularly remarkable, so we didn’t stay there too long. Next, we went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus which was begun in the 6^th century BC. Hadrian’s Arch, located just outside the temple grounds, was completed in AD 131. The temple only had a few columns standing. These were, however, really tall: about 17 meters. One had been toppled and was in slices. From here, we had a great view looking up towards the Parthenon. Getting here was a bit of a challenge because crossing the street in Athens takes skills. They traffic lights are clearly designed to favor automobiles. People are barely given enough time to run across four-six lanes of traffic before the light changes. If there is an island in the center, you will be stopping there. No question about it; there’s no way you have enough time. You could sprint, but it’s 95ºF by 10 am, so that’s out of the question.

We wandered through the tourist-kitsch-filled streets to the Roman Agora, located on the other side of the Acropolis (closer to our hostel). It was a kind of forum like space used during the Roman time period, hence the name. We didn’t bother going inside because we could see the whole thing from outside the fence, and really it just looked like a bunch of rocks. We did, however, enter Hadrian’s Library, which was pretty cool. It was a series of buildings. The scrolls were stored towards the back flanked by two mini-auditoria. This is according to the reconstruction drawings on signs because there wasn’t really much left for us to see.

Our final site was the Ancient Agora, Athens’ marketplace and civic center. They had reconstructed the Stoa of Attalos which was a long, narrow building with two rows of columns in front of it. It housed a small museum of assorted vases and objects found at the site. The “museum” was very well air-conditioned and it explained how the site had been used over time. There was an 11^th-Century church on the grounds. We also climbed a hill to the Temple of Hephaestus which was from ancient times and really well preserved. The rest of the Agora was a jumble of rocks, all of which were labeled, but you had to use your imagination to see what they used to be.

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at a market to pick up food for dinner. The produce at our local grocery store was terrible: moldy carrots, dead-looking tomatoes. We breezed through the meat market, where men held up lamb heads for us to see. They tried to guess where we were from. I was generally ignored, but Jess was told she was from Singapore and Kazakhstan. From the market we headed up the street towards Omonia, a central transportation area and large square. There were people setting up for an anarchist protest. We didn’t hang around because there were police everywhere: streets were closed off, police vans were parked and there appeared to be riot gear ready to go. Our hostel was only a few blocks away and we could hear some drum banging later on that evening, but the protest seemed peaceful (or at least we didn’t hear about any backlash.

On Wednesday we tried to go to Delphi, but we had missed the bus. Instead we went back toward the Acropolis and walked around a few blocks filled with religious shops. Jess’s dad really likes Eastern Orthodox icons so she was looking to buy him one. The shops were all the same: store owners sitting inside, looking rather bored, and smoking a cigarette. They were somewhat confused as to why two American girls would be in their shop. She didn’t buy anything and, instead, we went to the New Acropolis Museum. The building was finished this year and the museum had only been open for five weeks. It was built by a New York based architect, who designed the building on top of some ruins. Large areas of the floor were glass, so people could look down at the ruins below. You entered in the bottom of the museum and walked up a slight incline, meant to represent the walk up to the Acropolis. That walkway was inclined and lit by natural light from the glass floor and ceiling of the third story of the museum. The second level was full of sculptures, including the originals of the caryatids (except for the one in London). These were really interesting to see up close because no two of the six were identical. Their hair was all done differently, and their clothing was slightly different as well. Up on the third floor, we watched a movie about the Parthenon. This floor had been constructed with the dimensions of the Parthenon in mind. The room where the movie was shown was meant to be “inside” the Parthenon. On either side exits lead to a glassed-in room which had the originals (and plaster casts of the parts taken by Lord Eligin) of the inner and outer friezes. The pediment statues were also at either end of the O-shaped room. I really liked the way the ruins had been displayed because it gave visitors a way to experience the friezes as they should have looked.

Leaving the air-conditioned (we were actually cold) modern building, we headed towards the tourist streets to find some lunch. I had grilled octopus and feta cheese. The octopus had been sliced vertically instead of in rings. It was delicious. Jess had orzo and lamb in a light tomato sauce which she really liked. Then we tried to go sit in a park and read but that didn’t work out because people kept bothering us. One guy actually followed us when we tried to switch benches. There weren’t many people just sitting around in the park. There were some people walking through it, but the only people “hanging out” were really sketchy-looking, so we left.

That evening I went to Carrefour for some groceries and a Priest was speaking in the center of Omonia. There were police again, but far fewer than had been patrolling the previous evening.