Day 5 - Olympia

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Daniel and I both woke up feeling much better today, which made Rachel happy because she didn’t want to hang around with a bunch of old fogies(SPELLING) that were falling apart. I could finally see in the sun and Daniel didn’t have a napkin hanging out the end of his nose. Today we took off to Tholo beach, which is north of our holiday villa in Kalo Nero by about 5-10 miles or so. I had read that it is sandy, clean, and uncrowded. All this things were true. We could have easily found a spot all to ourselves if we walked a little bit down the beach. However, there were free umbrellas and chairs near our car, so we snagged them up. Daniel was the first in the water as usual. “Cold” he said and then came out. Rachel went in and said the same thing. I thought the water was great. It was colder than the east side of the Peneloponnnes, however, it was much more refreshing. I also liked feeling the surge of the waves again. Bathtub water is alright, but it can get boring. I liked the feel of the living ocean. We read our books and relaxed in the shade for a few hours and then decided it was time to take off to see some ruins at Olympia, the site of the original Olympics. It was nice to use the fresh water shower on the beach before leaving. However, a yellow jacket didn’t like that I invaded his turf and took a bite out of my arm. It didn’t hurt much then, but my arm was swollen, itchy and red for a few days after. We never checked out the beachside café, but it was pretty charming.

The drive to Olympia was pretty easy compared to the roads we had been traveling. There were a few places along the way that looked like great bird habitat so we stopped to enjoy the views while Daniel listened and watched to no avail.

We arrived in Olympia at the beginning of the typical siesta - 2pm. It was a hot day, but not compared to earlier in our vacation. I’d say it was around 85-90 degrees F. Luckily, there were many trees on the site so we could find shade easily. We were all impressed by the size of the compound. There really isn’t much left, in terms of standing buildings, but the large stone outlines of the buildings help you picture their previous grandeur. I liked seeing where the flame was lit for every Olympics, though it wouldn’t look like much if you didn’t know what has happened there for the past 2,000 years or so. I also enjoyed the stadium. The slopping grass lawns around the court used to hold 40,000 cheering fans of the games. On the way in the stadium, athletes used to walk by about 16 bronze statues of Zeus. Any athlete caught cheating at the games was required to pay for a bronze statue of Zeus to be made. Beneath the statue, the athlete’s name and what they did to shame the games were engraved on statue’s base. Daniel couldn’t help himself and had to pose as one of the Zeus statues. After we were through, we heading back to town. On the way we had to pass the museum for the site. There are many statues outside the museum. Again, with Rachel’s encouragement, Daniel posed as a god.

Of course, Rachel had to shop at the tourist shops lined up as you leave the site. The first one had a “Cute, Greek guy” so Rachel shopped in there for a while. Obviously the boy (my term) didn’t mind her taking her time. He told us the five postcards she wanted to buy were 50 cents each and then told us we only needed to pay him 1.50 Euros while he winked at Rachel. I missed the wink! Rachel didn’t leave me in the dark for long as she walked out of the shop giggling and happy, carrying on about how much she loves Greece.

We went and had ice cream, frappes, and beer to cool down and get off our feet in the small town of Olympia. It is a quaint town that was actually nice to walk around in. Rachel wasn’t done shopping and hoped she was on a roll to find some more cute Greek guys working in the shops. I spied an internet café and we all sat down for a ½ hour to keep in touch with work, friends, and family. Rachel was also able to mail off a few postcards.

Time to head home. Nothing exciting happens along the way. Daniel is starved as usual. It is around 6pm so the restaurants won’t open for at least two more hours and possibly three. We hit our local bakery for some bread with plans of eating leftovers from last night’s BBQ. Ohhh….those pastries looked too good to pass up. It is always a good time for a pastry we have all agreed. Daniel had ham and cheese, Rachel had feta cheese, and I had some cream one that was more like a sweet cheese of some sort. There is never a huge choice at these bakeries. However, there is never a bad choice either.

Time to relax, take a shower, and enjoy the evening. Around my typical bedtime, we decide that since it is Friday night, we really should hit the town. The town square at Kyprissia is full of outdoor restaurants and bars. We walk around the square and find the bar with the youngest clientele, which still is older than Rachel prefers. They have a DJ mixing music. We listen to American dance music while watching a HUGE TV play Animal Planet. It is a bit surreal. We order a few drinks and watch the scene. Our waitress is beautiful, cute, and friendly. Daniel is quite smitten. She speaks a bit of English, which is helpful. We speak a bit a Greek, which isn’t helpful. It all works out. Our waitress dances in the restaurant when she isn’t waiting on customers. We decide to ask her if there are any local dance clubs. Rachel really wants to experience a Greek club scene. I don’t know how she talks us into it, but off we go to an open-air club across from the beach at 12:30 am. I had read that clubs in Greek typically don’t get going until 2am, so we had 1 ½ hours to wait. It definitely started getting busier at 1am. Daniel didn’t notice though because he was already asleep. Can you believe that?! The dance music is so loud that we have to practically yell at each other and Daniel is asleep in the three-person couch we share. Everyone around us and everyone who walked by laughed at us (in a friendly way). I’m sure it is rare to see a snoring man next to two women in that club. It is really too bad that he had the camera in his pocket. Though, he took a few pictures of the club before he went to sleep, so at least we got a few shots of the club. 2am came and went and still nobody was dancing. We were really hoping to see how Greeks danced. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. We woke Daniel up and drove home for a good night’s sleep.

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