Sunday 19th

Today we visited the city of ancient Corinth. It was really cool. Unless of course you're talking about the weather, in which case it was very un-cool. Today was a scorcher, about 38 degrees. This fact is reflected in the colour of my back and shoulders, and nose. Ouch. You'd think I'd learn but noooo, 'I don't need suncream, I’m part African, your weak, measly European sun can't hurt me.' Well apparently I was wrong.

My first discovery of the day was that I’m a bit of a geek.

I got all excited when I found out that the hilltop castle behind me was King Philip of Macedon's strategic base when uniting the two parts of Greece. Or something like that. And that the mountains all around us are the Peloponnese, made famous by the Peloponesian War of 431 – 404 BC, which itself was made so significant by Thucydides commentary of it; that 'the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must'. And that's exciting because it is foundational to Machiavellian thought, and everybody loves Machiavelli. He could probably have his own hit sitcom.

OK, now that that's out my system... our first stop of the day was the Acrocorinth, site to Aphrodite's temple. Where I got something else out my system. I threw up in it. You see, it was really hot, and we legged it up this extremely large hill at midday a lot quicker than I would have liked to. What, the founders of modern civilisation couldn't invent an escalator? So I got to the top vomited everywhere. Now I’m not proud of this, but it's something to tell the grandkids.

Then we went into the ancient city. As we were going to buy our tickets, I had a thought. I found out the other day that I can travel for half price in Athens because I’m a student. Perhaps I could get a discount at historical sights too? Now some of you might be shocked at what transpired next. I can't say I’m proud, but it did the job. “I'm a European student”, I whispered to the attendant. And she let me in for free. Now in 99.9% of circumstances I would staunchly argue that as an Englishman, I’m not European. England is my country and Great Britain is my continent. Europe is what happens the other side of the channel. God knew this, which is why he effectively installed a large moat around our great and glorious homeland. But the other 0.01% of the time I’m willing to make an exception, especially if it means I’ll save 6 Euros, or if there's a castle involved.

It was cool to catch a glimpse of what Paul would have seen, to walk where he would have walked. We sat in the shade and read Acts 18 together.

We also had time to visit the museum.

This was my favourite part of the day. Not because the museum was anything special but because of one of their rules. It really made me chuckle quite a lot. Most of the old stuff on display were replicas, but they'd been cordoned off so that we couldn't touch or damage them. There were all these headless statues laying around from a few years back, put there so that tourists could stand behind them and get their picture taken. But now that had been banned too. I can understand someone getting arsey about breaking something that is thousands of years old, and I see why they use replicas but the charade has got to end somewhere. I mean come on. It's like putting up signs that say, DON'T TOUCH MY FAKE ARTEFACTS!

Why, in case I break it and you have to make a new one? Seriously.

We also saw the port from which Paul sailed when he left Corinth and spent some time at the beach.

It was a lovely day and it contributed nicely to my suntan. Check it out, I’m the arm on the right.