Hey! We left Greece just a couple of days ago, which is a little sad, but we needed to move on. Dad always calls Greece his homeland. I don’t think we have any heritage from there, but for him it’s more of a cultural thing. Greece is very odd in the way it looks. Unfinished buildings can be seen anywhere which gives it a bit of a lonely feel, although that’s not really true. Greece isn’t much of a lonely place. The people there are very kind and fun to hang out with. Keep reading to get a more detailed story of our travels.
Our chosen mode of transportation was a ferry from Italy to Patras. Until I looked at a map, I hadn’t realized how far south Greece is. It then made sense to me why our ferry had taken 24 hours. The weather was so nice there, and thankfully while we were in Patras, we were able to wild camp next to the water. Patras was only a rest stop for us before going to Olympia. We planned on staying in a campground near the ruins for a night before heading on, but we liked it so much there that we stayed three. We met some awesome Dutch people, and relaxed with them until it was clear that we had other priorities. One amazing thing that I must mention is the lightening storm. On the second day, before dinner, lightening was flashing well into the night, and every second, too. The sky was illuminated with bolts scribbling across the sky. I ran down to an Olive grove to get a better perspective with my camera. I stood, getting chowed by mosquitoes for half an hour in order to get these few shots:
On the last day, a tour group of old Americans pulled into the camp ground with their gargantuan RV’s. It was funny to hear their accents when we had heard only Dutch and Greek for so long. They were definitely an odd group, but the thing we all liked most about their arrival was the Greek Dancing. The old woman who runs the camp ground told us that Greek dancers were coming in the RV’s, so when the Americans arrived, we were surprised that when they told us that they were not dancers. After that, we lost hope. We figured the lady must have been joking, but during dinner, out came a group of traditional Greek Dancers decked out in dresses and old-timey attire. It was such a nice show, and they even invited us to join them! That was a time that really stood out and made me happy.
After finally leaving Olympia, we took a beautiful drive through the mountainous Peloponnese. It was there that we witnessed shepherds herding their sheep across the winding road. It is extremely tranquil there. The roads are not too fast, the towns are sleepy and the landscape is magnificent. After miles and miles of driving, the valley opened into a wide, expansive, landscape where the mountains were placed farther apart, and the looming outcroppings folded back to open up the view of the sky to us. I am a so-called amateur photographer, and I love taking photos of the world that I see before me, so I had to stop on the drive to snap some shots*.
As we got nearer to our destination, rows of orange, lemon, and lime trees decorated the sides of the road. Houses appeared and power lines resumed their ugly duty of providing electricity-AND mess up the view :(. Oh well…
Late that night, we arrived in the town of Nafplion. Since we were still in the Marco Polo, we camped near the sea along with fifty other other cars and RV’s. The next day, we entertained ourselves with a trip to Ancient Mycenae. During the torrential downpour, we extended our umbrellas and found a tree to hide under. Mom gave us our history lesson in front of the ancient city. We listened and when she was done, we walked up the slope to go back in history. The whole area including Mycenae is amazing, and I gazed at its pulchritude. The whole experience was enhanced by the petrichor, which was, of course, a result of the weather. Despite the true awesomeness of the site, we spent only a short time there due to the rainstorm, which I mentioned earlier. We also enjoyed their little museum on the opposite side from the entrance. This contains many small artifacts from jewelry to weaponry found over time in Mycenae. It’s fun to take a look, though it doesn’t contain much.
We returned to Nafplion for the late afternoon to walk around their Old Town. There is not so much to see, but it definitely has some charm. So far, we have covered in this post nearly all of our trip to the Pelopponese. There is one last important stop, though: Porto-Heli, a town relatively close to Athens, which my dad stayed in as a little boy. It is still a nice town, but its population has grown to twice as much as it was in the ’70’s. We camped in a great spot right on the beach that night after rolling into town that evening. We drove around downtown to find some of the old restaurants and shops that my dad had been to as a boy. Unfortunately, they were closed.
Back at our wild camping site, we ate some baked goods and played cards while listening to the sound of the waves lapping up against the beach. The next morning we took warm sun showers and explored the beach. The reflection of the light against the calm, undulating water was absolutely gorgeous.
That day, we set off on a mission to find Costas, Dad’s missing friend from 27 years ago. Last time he was in Porto-Heli, he became friends with Costas and he has talked about him so much on this trip. Of course, we didn’t know if he was living in the same house, or even if he was still alive, but we hoped we could find him. Dad steered the car along a long road which wrapped around the bay. He said it wasn’t far from there. We eventually reached an over-grown-looking restaurant, seemingly abandoned. We all worried that Costas would not be there, but when Dad disappeared into the house for a long time, we figured that he had found someone. Mom, Raisa, and I soon were invited to the rooftop terrace to meet Costas, whom we had heard so much about. He didn’t know much English at all, but it didn’t matter. Earlier, Dad had communicated with him through, Matina, his sister. We were interested in meeting her, too, but she had awful arthritis and was bed-bound. I took a sweet photo of Costas and Dad on the rooftop terrace before we left, and Costas, glad to see us, gave us a bag of traditional Greek cookies. I was really glad that Dad got to see his old friend again, maybe for the last time.
The rest of our trip to the Peloponnese is very small and quick so I will just sum it up for you now. We drove all the way to Ipadarus to see the monumental Greek theatre. It was very great and the view was beautiful. Some people even came onto the stage and performed. The rest of that day was spent driving until we reached a town seated just below Old Corinth. There, we stayed at a small campground, overrun by German high school students, but managed to enjoy our first authentic Greek meal on the water. The next day, was Dad’s 50th birthday! We went to see Old Corinth, then took a quick drive over to Athens, where we checked into our awesome Airbnb.
Of course, Athens is not in the Peloponnese, so that’s where our summary ends. Next, I will tell you about all the great things we did in Athens. For Dad’s 50th birthday, we went to a great bakery and walked around the tourist-y part of Athens near the Pantheon. The woman at the bakery was so nice to us. She always smiled and gave us extra sweets for free. The quality of the pastries was perfect and we bought from them every single day. While walking around Athens, we managed to get a bag for Raisa, which she has needed for ages. The best part of the day, though, was walking up the hill a bit to eat dinner. We chose the perfect spot, too, a rooftop terrace. It was incredibly beautiful there and the food was delicious. We sat there and talked, even after we had finished our food. The view was awesome because you were able to see both the city of Athens and the Acropolis. As it got dark, we ordered two plates of traditional deserts. It was probably one of the best things I have had on this trip. It had baklava and various cakes, but even better were the lukomades. The were absolutely sublime, cooked so perfectly. It was definitely a good night.
The rest of the time we spent in Athens consisted of Dad working on some dictations which he had to finish up from his job back home, and the rest of us watching episodes of Wonder Woman at 3:00 in the afternoon. This is what unlimited wi-fi can do to you. We did a bit of shopping and sightseeing, though. We mainly needed to shop for more conservative clothes for our trip to the Middle East, but more specifically Iran. The nice thing, though, is that even in those countries, the cities are more liberal so you do have some freedom.
Our sightseeing was limited, but we had to visit the Acropolis. It is so busy there! It kind of worries me because the world is becoming much too touristic. I feel like people have lost respect for the beauty of the world, and instead become obsessed with selfies. Okay. I will admit it. I have taken a few selfies. Okay, more that a few selfies, maybe 100 selfies. Fine, more like a few thousand selfies. But it’s not an obsession. I am respectful with my selfie-taking. I do not climb on monuments to take my selfies. I do not take selfies with random children (weird…). I do not own a selfie stick, nor do I wish to unless I could use it to whack people around with. But the most important thing is that I do not do Duck Face. If you really want to do the Duck Face, just move to Oregon, you’ll like it there. Trust me. The whole selfie-taking culture is definitely bizarre.
Back to my earlier point… I wish that the world was more undiscovered and calm. I loved seeing the Acropolis, but it got me thinking that I wanted to skip all the monuments and spend some time hot air ballooning, swimming on remote beaches and climbing mountains above 4,000m. I am not going to give you a review of the Acropolis because I figure there are so many people willing to do that for you and there are better things to do in the world. An example might be swimming in the turquoise L’Esteron river in the Maritime Alps with a Roman bridge built over the canyon. There will be no one there, so simple and timeless. So I would probably like the touristic monuments better if they were less crowded and more authentic.
I think I am going to end my blog post here. Athens was fun, but after that we did something even better after leaving Greece: We climbed Mt. Olympus. It was an awesome experience and it has totally set my mind on hiking and mountain climbing. Dad and I have decided to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro this January. We also are going to climb Mt. Roraima, one of the tepuis of Venezuela. We will do even more! I thought that the Mt. Olympus experience was so great, it needed its own blog. See you in a few days.
-Sophia.