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Published: January 5th 2007
Frost on a post
a chilly morning in Kalavrita, GreeceUPDATE: Pictures added 14-January.
Greetings from Kalavrita, Greece!
Today, we got to see a little bit of this small mountain town. This charming city is over 2000 years old, and is a popular tourist destination for Greeks who love to ski at Mount Chelmos. However, there is such little snow this year, no one is skiing. The air here is cool and crisp, and there is a little snow on the mountain, but none on the ground in Kalavrita town.
We moved from the youth hostel into a rooming house, or "domatia". There were three main reasons for moving: a very foul smell in the room, no hot water in the hostel, and the college students who were partying a lot, making it very difficult to sleep. I suppose it's been over 20 years since we lived in a dorm, so it was worth moving to a quieter setting (fingers crossed for a hot shower!)
The owner of the domatia explained to us (in Greek with plenty of hand gestures) how to turn on the hot water heater, and how to turn on the space heater for the common bathroom on our floor. Our room has a
wonderful view of Mount Chelmos.
Mark attended conference events while Lynne studied her Greek. She saw a beautiful ceramic espresso cup and saucer in a store, that were made in Kalavrita, so she studied enough to say, "Hello. Do you have two of these? How much do they cost? Thank you." The shop owner knew much more English than Lynne knew Greek, but he seemed happy that she was trying to speak the language, even though she probably mangled the pronunciations. She was able to purchase two of the Kalvrita espresso sets, and the shop owner helped her with the proper pronunciation of "thank you" in Greek.
She then enjoyed a galaktoboureko (don't ask how to pronounce that one!), which is a custard dessert with a filo topping and cinnamon, along with a Greek coffee. This sent her heart racing - Greek coffee is much stronger than espresso we get in the U.S. She also watched what appeared to be a Greek sitcom on the cafe's plasma TV.
We're getting used to the typical Greek meal schedule: breakfast (a boiled egg, a piece of toast with jam, and a slice of feta cheese) around 8:00am, a large
our Domatia
our rooming house in Kalavrita, Greece. Our gracious hostess has a son who works for the U.N. in New York, and a daughter who teaches English in Greece. lunch at 1:00pm, and dinner starting at 10:00pm. People often take a siesta between 2-5pm, and it was described to us as if each day is split into two days that start by waking. That means we're likely to have coffee and "sweets" (dessert snacks like galaktoboureko or baklava) around 5-6 every day.
After an evening concert, we had dinner and went out with a friend for crepes filled with chocolate and something crunchy that is similar to Rice Krispies. We're sure to return for crepes again!
Until tomorrow, kalinishta (good night!)
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