Walking through Olympia is an easy thing to do. One long shop front, or thats how it feels. Shops, restaurants and hotels line the 2km strip. It's only until I walk up a fairly steep hill, to a pretty much bland and empty theatre, that I see the size of Olympia. For a town with so much History, I was expecting something else. It is tiny in size. I guesstimate that for every shop, restaurant etc there must be as few as 8 houses.
The bleak and run down Olympic museum is just worth the 2 euro entry fee, only cause it enables you to have a look at the Olympic torches that have been used in recent years. My favourte, in case you were wondering, is the one from Sydney. Slik, unconvetional and it breaks the mould - All the elements I exude!
My next port of call is the Ancient Olympia Museum. My short walk is a sereal one. I cross a bridge and in a nook, tucked out of the way are two familar looking BMW motorbikes. On closer inspection, I realise they belong to Chris and Chris, the Albanian and BiH badges on the panniers give them away. As I search about my person for a pen to write a note, they round the corner, all I can do is smile and think how efficent the Germans are. We exchange routes and share a joke and I leave them to continue to rekindle the magic of their honeymoon.
I enter the Olympia Museum and immediaty there is a stark contrast from the previous museum. The grandure and the sharpness of attention to detail, can't help but leave me feeling impressed. The helpful staff point me in the right direction. He must know I have a knack of starting museums from the present day and working backwards. Not this one tho. I am plunged way back to when the 1st signs of life were discovered at Olympia. There is certainly a trend in the museums I have been to and that is that a high percentage of the lead archiologists are German.
The museum is cleverly laid out with pottery, busks + marble statues dating back prior to 4BC. Like all good showpieces, they save the best to last. A cavenous room which could easily engulf a 5-a-side footbal pitch. Down the length of the rectangular room on either side is the statuary from the temple of Zeus. Both tell a story in marble, peaking in the middle at around a height of 2 metres. The one in better condition tells the story of Ancient Greeks fighting off the centaurs, who are trying to abduct Greek women. A showstopper that leaves me gobsmacked by the detail and intricacy. It also left one question - how long would it take to make.
It is now time to turn theory into reality. I head outside to the ruins. A sea of people, hundreds of people are crowded around various people holding up boards with numbers on. Bus tour groups have descended on Olympia's archilogical site, on mass.
The magical shine has been removed by the volume of people trapsing around and on the ruins. I manage to steal a couple of seconds away from everyone. The enormity then hits home. I am lost by the scale, the only thing that is easy to workout, and the main reason for my visit to Olympia, the stadium.
Beautiful in its simplicity. No marble in sight. No seats. No buildings. There is a tunnel though which was covered by grass and completed the four steeped banks slopping to the centre. A 200m by 30m sandy track waits for the games to begin. Over 40 000 people would have crowded round to watch the stadium, and in truth, the whole site.
A bitter taste is left in my mouth by the amount of people. I would feel better, I think, if people were satying locally and 'new' Olympia was reaping the rewards. However this way, the only ones making money is the travel agencies and the site.
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