Out of Athens

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Hello ladies and gents! I am in Greece. I arrive in Athens rather late Tuesday night because I missed my connecting flight in Brussels and had to wait 5 hours for the next flight. So far I've only spent one day in Athens and will tell you more about it on a later entry.
For the past 2 days I've been in Napflion,only 80 miles from Athens but itseems a world away. Located in the Peloponnesian peninsula and spared from the recent fires, this small town is very popular with Greeks as a cheap and convenient alternative to the islands. While there are no great sandy beaches, it is rich in history and postcard pretty. It was chosen as the first capital of modern Greece in the 1830s and it is 30 minutes from the ancient sites of Mycenea and Epidavros. The town itself is pretty tiny but extremely picturesque. A few narrow winding streets embowered by bouganvilleas, a harbor with promenade, tavernas, cafes, tourist shops and the remains of a Venetian fortress on a hill overlooking everything. I climbed the 999 steps to the fortress at sunset yesterday and the view (an the climb) was breathtaking.
After that I was ready to sample the local cuisine. The seafood in this area is excellent and one of the specialties is octupus, which of course I had to try. I was surprised at how tender it was, simply grilled with a squirt of lemon. It made for an unusual but delicious meal.
This morning I took a short bus ride to the theater of Epidavros. Dating back to 400 BC, this amphitheater is the best preserved of it's kind and had great acoustics. A person speaking in the stage can be heard in the upper levels. It's astounding when you think how old and how well engineered these ancient monuments are. Thanks to brilliant minds and slave labor we can still enjoy them to this day. On the way back we saw some wild fires but this is nothing compared to the fires that ravaged Greece a couple of weeks ago.
I ended the day with a dip in the Meditteranean. The town has a small pebble beach, almost at the tip of the peninsula. The water was clear, warm, the sky clear and with the limestone cliffs of the hills painted golden by the setting sun, it was an experience I will not soon forget. A perfect way to cap my stay in Napflio. For me this is the perfect place to have a vacation from my vacation.
It is easy to do nothing here and it's good to relax before returning to Athens tomorrow.

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