Passing Time in the Peloponnese

We just wrapped up our tour of Peloponnesian spots on our 'could we live here?' list. We didn't add as many places to that list as we had hoped, but every place we visited is great for a holiday. And soon we'll take a short respite from Greece to enjoy a week in Belgium to see how it feels to be away.

Natty Nafplio

Public transportation on the Peloponnese is frustrating. Rental cars are almost impossible to come by this summer and if you can find them, they cost a fortune. So we planned to take the bus from Kalamata to Nafplio which is about 2 hours away. There's no direct bus to do that so we would have to take a bus from here past Nafplio, wait on another bus, and then backtrack to Nafplio. And for reasons we don't fully understand, you can't buy these tickets in advance because they're different bus lines even though they're all KTEL buses. (As an aside--can any American over age 45 not think of cheesy compilation albums when they hear KTEL?). We got to the bus station and learned that our bus was sold out which put our whole itinerary in jeopardy. We headed over to the taxi drivers and were able to get personally driven directly to Nafplio. It wasn't a cheap cab ride, but by US standards, it was affordable, and direct! We arrived hours before we would have by bus and much less sweaty.

If there's such a thing as a Greek Charleston or New Orleans, it's Nafplio. It's a touristy but attractive waterside old town and it's pleasant to just stroll around the cute little blocks of shops, cafes, and restaurants. It also has a majestic fort looming above it and some great walking paths that lead to a handful of nearby beaches. One evening on that walking path, we said kalispera to a guy walking the opposite direction. Just saying that word was enough for him to ask where we were from and how we knew Greek. We chatted with him for a bit and learned that he's a retired grade school teacher. He asked if we'd enjoy having him show us around the town the next morning. Sure! We ended up getting a history lesson about Nafplio and then we chatted over a leisurely coffee together. During our chat he mentioned that he has a garden and asked if we'd like to see it. Sure again! Soon we walked back to neighborhood and then he drove us to a plot he owns a few miles outside Nafplio. He picked a few of his cukes and tomatoes and gave them to us. Then he took us next door to a commercial farm run by his sister and we got a personal tour of tomato, cucumber, and lettuce greenhouses. You never know what'll happen when you say hello to people here, do you?

Daddy's Girls

As we parted with our new Nafplio friend, Sam said we hoped to one day meet his wife, but Sam never got to say that last word, 'wife.' He cut her off as he anticipated Sam saying 'daughter.' Greek dads are especially besotted with their daughters. On Crete, the taxi driver who took us from Chania to Kissamos waxed poetic about his own daughter for much of the ride and he told us "I'd give up my life for her" apropos of nothing (hmm, now maybe we are seeing why Greek pop songs can be so melodramatic). And while we were eating dinner with our Chania host and his wife, host dad swooned when a call came in from his daughter who is away in college. He had to take the call.

Epidavros and Owls

The highlight of the Nafplio time was seeing a performance at the ancient theater of Epidavros. Sam had been there 30 years before and by chance we sat in almost the same spot that she did. During the play, we heard dear little scops owls making their sweet cheeps in the quiet parts of the performance. And at one point I glanced up to recognize the International Space Station flying directly over us! Being in the theater, hearing the owls, and seeing the ISS were the highlights. The less said about the play, the better, although the actors were good. It almost doesn't matter what they perform on the stage because it's such a special setting. But next time we go, maybe we splurge for the seats with cushions instead of sitting on the 2,500 year old rock bench seats.

Chatting in Greek with a Thai Woman

We returned from Nafplio and spent a couple nights in Kalamata before heading to Koroni. The visit to Nafplio didn't do anything to help put a shine on Kalamata. The people here seemed even more unfriendly after we got back to the city. These are not the most gregarious people. We craved a little cultural diversity and decided to risk it on the only Thai restaurant in town (heck maybe the whole Peloponnese). The cheery Thai woman who runs it came over to us and we ended up chatting with a her in Greek. Weird cultural mash-up! We learned from her that there are between 200 and 300 Thais in Greece and she recently relocated from Athens to start the restaurant. We're generally trepidatious to have certain Asian cuisines in Europe, but this was bonafide Thai food (with no weird replacement ingredients). Afterwards we lazily chatted in English with a British expat, who had consumed much alcohol and told us that the villages in this part of Greece are some of the safest places to be if/when the world ends. Hmm....

Cute Koroni

And then it was off to Koroni, which is on the westernmost finger-foot of the Peloponnese. This time the bus wasn't sold out. It's a cute ampitheatrically built little town with the requisite hill, decaying fortress walls, and marina. We booked four nights there and when, on the last night, we asked our host what time we needed to leave the next day, she invited us to spend an extra night as a gift to us. Given our desire to not be in Kalamata, how could we resist? At night, we took a walk out of town until the road changed to gravel where we met a farmer who was laying out hundreds of pounds of grapes on tarps to turn them into raisins. After barely saying kalispera to him, he came over to have a lively chat with us. Among other things, he told us he gets paid .90 euro cents per kilo of grapes! This seems criminal. The slow bus ride back to Kalamata was amusing as the bus driver, in typical Greek fashion, seemed to know everyone we passed and honked or yelled out kalimeras to everyone.

A Break from Greece

It's been so hot here for our whole time in the Peloponnese and we're craving cooler air. In the summer, Kalamata's little airport has flights to bring in the northern Europeans down for browning and roasting. We decided to take advantage of the flights bringing those folks down here. We're going to spend a week in Belgium. Of course the forecast for Belgium for our first day there seems to be as hot as Greece. We're curious how it'll feel to be out of Greece for the first time in almost a year. We've long said that we've wanted to date Greece before we might want to marry it. We've now steadily dated for almost a year. Will this brief absence make our hearts grow fonder?