Last Greece Day

Our last two days in Greece was divided between visiting ruins and visiting a nature preserve. We visited Pella which has is another example of an old Roman town. This was a much smaller site that Dion but had some really nice mosaics. One of these is perhaps a depiction of Alexander the Great who was the King in this part of Greece (Macedonia) after his father, Philip II was killed at a wedding. The remnants of houses were quite large and had some very large courtyards. Some think perhaps Philip's palace was located here but there is no real evidence of this.



We did visit some old Macedonian tombs one of which is believed to be the tomb of Philip. We could not take pictures in the tomb to preserve the paintings, etc. It would have been much too dark inside the tomb anyway. They have this site very well set up. The tombs were discovered under a burial mound and were uncovered in the 1970's. The outer tombs were shallow and have been robbed in antiquity but the one believed to be Philip's was not looted. Many treasures were found here including a box will Philip's charred bones in it. Many other bones of dogs and horses were also found and were burned on the pyre with him. Ceremonial armor and many gold and silver objects were also found in the tomb. The finds were really spectacular. Then we descended into the area of the tomb itself. There is a glass wall between you and the door but it was very eerie. The door is closed to help preserve the frescoes within the tomb but it is still pretty impressive.

The very last day, we took a boat ride on Lake Kerkini which is a nature preserve and wetlands area. There are many species of heron, cormorant and other birds including the Dalmatian pelican which is an endangered species.
Here is a picture of one beginning to take off.
We also saw water buffalo out in areas of the lake. They are good swimmers and someone called the the "hippos of Greece".


We had a great farewell dinner that night and said goodbye to all our Greek friends from the Fulbright office. It was bittersweet. We hated to say goodbye but were also excited about visiting Bulgaria and learning more about it. The bus ride to Bulgaria is about 4 hours but we will have stops along the way so it will take longer.

More from Bulgaria!