Travel XII, Salad Days

Got back from a splendid holiday in Greece on Sunday afternoon, it was my first time there so we dashed around a few places, in the end it felt like we'd been away for a month. It was a lot of fun:

Friday 31/08:
Arrived late in Athens in 40 degrees of heat, nice view of the Acropolis from the hotel, just had time left for dinner before bedtime. The first of many Greek salads and Mythos beers were consumed that night amongst lots of fine Greek food and drinks.

Saturday 01/09:
Rental Car arrives, we set off to on our travels. Driving accross Evia we saw plenty of scorched landscape around Aleveri, that must have been horrendous. The burning smell was still in the air. Spent the night in Kimi by the port. For dinner we got Greek salad, Fish with potatoes and white wine, because that's all they had, there was no menu. Quaint.

Sunday 02:
Took the ferry to Skyros. The hotel is on the beach but most of the bars and restaurants are in the village - a 20 minute walk up a steep hill, very steep.

Mon 03 to Wed 05:
Lay on the beach, wandered up to the village for dinner, I didn't want to leave but
we'd already made arrangements

Thu 06:
8am ferry back to Kimi and set off back accross Evia, arrived at Delphi early in the afternoon. We explored Appollo's Sanctuary, where the oracles worked, the theatre, stadium and the gymnasium where they trained for the games. They had games there every two years in old days.

Fri 07:
Set off for Nafplio, this little coastal town was the original Greek capital city. Still going well, full of tourists, even the Athenians like to get down there for the weekend.

Sat 08:
Visited Epidavros which was a centre for medicine in the good old days, Hippocrates wrote his oath there. Then we had a wander around Mycenae (Mykines). Maybe that was the other way round...

Sun 09:
Depart for Monemvasia. Not far from Nafplio we looked back and saw a huge column of black smoke about 20km south of the town, later we saw the flames too, it must have been huge. Monemvasia is built on a huge rock off the south east coast, a natural fortress. We stayed in a hotel that used to be a monastery, the whole town is a world heritage site.

Mon 10 - Wed 12:
Hanging around Monemvasia and the nearby beach

Thu 13:
Long drive back to Athens, stopping at Corinth on the way to check out the famous canal.

Fri 14 - Sun 16:
Explored the Acropolis and a few other bits around the city including the stadium they re-built for the first modern Olypmics in 1896. We'd booked a photo tour - a professional photographer took us to a few places to get some good views and pictures. Worked out well.

It's fun driving, the cities are total chaos but that means you can go the wrong way up a one-way street and park wherever you like. Outside the cities the roads are quite decent after years of EU investment, look out for the goats though.

Generally the countryside is used as a bin, when we stopped to look at the fire in the distance, a fella pulled up next to us, got out of his car and threw an empty plastic bottle down the hill. It would actually be easier to keep driving and put the bottle in the bin at home, he didn't seem to see it that way. Despite that there is some fairly spectacular scenery in the Pelopnnese.

Goodnight,

JJ