h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Our holiday in Greece at the beginning of June is now fully booked. Most of this posting has been published elsewhere, but I'm grouping it all together here.

We're flying to Budapest and staying there two nights, in the Mellow Mood hostel right in the centre of the city.

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/MellowMoodCentralHostel-Budapest-8470

Then we're flying to Athens, and hiring a car at the airport. We won't go into the city, but will drive to Chalkida, which is on the island of Evia but connected to the mainland by a bridge. Our hotel is the Almira Mare:

http://www.almiramare.gr/en/index.html

Chalkida looks like an interesting place. The straits between the island and the mainland are so narrow that they get a tidal race, which changes direction up to twenty times a day. There's been a bridge since 411 BC. The present one is some sort of a rotating bridge - it can open to let boats through. There's also a suspension bridge a few miles away, only a couple of years old.

Next day, we'll go on a long drive up the east coast of Mainland Greece, passing Thermopylae, Lamia and Volos, and arriving at the mountain peninsula of Pelion. Here we'll stay in a town called Chorefto, beside the beach:

http://www.aeolos.com.gr/en_place.htm

We'll stay there six days, and may just spend the time on the beach or in the pool, or we might go and see Mount Olympus, or Meteora, the "rocks in the air". These are giant rock pillars, and monks have built monasteries on the tops of the pillar, hauling up all the construction material in buckets on the ends of a rope.

After 6 nights in Pelion, we'll drive back along the route, stopping once again at Chalkida, and the next day back to Athens for our flight home.

I'm looking forward to it.

Awesome holiday
2 months isn't long to go!

Sounds good. By the way Gnomon, I'm curious, have you seen 300? Any plans to?

It sounds interesting. But Mrs G wouldn't be interested, so I'd be watching it on my own. Did you know that at the Battle of Thermopylae, as well as the 300 Spartans, there were also a load Thespians?

Maintaining the camp, no doubt.

Your wife might be more interested when she hears about the "talent" in "300" -

!!Warning, this link leads you to the drool thread!!

383?thread=38339168" >F42604?thread=139168&skip=9251&show=1

I remember hearing that there were a bunch of soldiers from somewhere else acting as a sort of rearguard I think, blocking entry from the back. Is that what you mean, or were the Thespians in with the Spartans?

According to my guide book, there were 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians guarding the pass.

Why are actors called Thespians, then?

Supposedly named after Thespis, the first actor in a Greek play. Up to that, the plays were recited by the 'chorus'.

I'm always suspicious of claims that a single person invented anything. I suppose there had to be a first actor, but I don't necessarily believe that anyone knows who he was.

Perhaps popularised by him, like Wellington boots? Thanks, anyway.

This could revolutionise Trivial Pursuit. For example: So Nellie Melba possibly wasn't the first person to put peaches on her ice cream? Gnomon's theory may well be right - why should the idea have been hers? And how do we know she was the first to have the idea?

Sorry - took the tangent a bit far off track there.

Alas, we know that the dish WAS specially created for her and named after her, but who was the Charlotte who liked apples? (I can follow a sidetrack as quickly as anyone else)

Still bothered by all those Thespians blocking the Spartans' rear passage, ooh, lay off!

Leonidas said "Come and take them!". And he wasn't talking about the marzipan ones with the cream centres.

The maps I ordered from amazon arrived today, so I think everything is now prepared. I'm really looking forward to my week or so in Greece.