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K - Given its well-publicized economic problems some friends have asked us whether Greece is a mess - rumors of inadequate public services, garbage in the street etc. seem to abound. I am absolutely sure that the life of the average Greek is full of major concerns and uncertainties but from a tourist perspective there is little to suggest a country in crisis. The places we visited were all clean and the people welcoming. With the exception of the train service which no longer runs internationally and which has been suspended in some areas (replaced by buses) we would not have known there was a particular issue. We were not of course there during a strike period.
One thing that did shock me a lot however was the level of graffiti in Athens (and to some extent in other towns). Beautiful small streets covered in painted scrawl (we are not talking Banksy here). I was pretty surprised to see the Pantheon undefiled – and that’s not a joke! I am not sure that this has anything to do with the economic crisis however – it seemed to be rather more longstanding,
So moving on…… from
Athens we took 3-hour bus to the pretty harbor town of Napflio.The Aegean sea is a stunning blue and the castle town itself has some lovely back streets full of tavernas. We liked it a lot.
Unfortunately it was also overrun by teenagers, and I mean overrun. I have never seen so much slouching and hair flicking in my life! It turned out that this was some sort of pre or post exam week tradition with school trips everywhere –but with very few teachers. Thank goodness for curfew – by 8pm the numbers were thinning out and by 10pm the town was back to its tranquil shoulder season self - peaceful but enough going on to be interesting.
We hired a car the next day and visited Mycenae, in 1100BC the most powerful city-State in Greece. The ruins are pretty ruined but it was interesting to see the level of civilization at a time when I am fairly sure the UK was still in the Bronze Age.
Mycenae was also overrun by teenagers but by skipping lunch we got to Epidavros to find it virtually empty. Epidavros is the site of
an amazingly well preserved amphitheater that is famous for its perfect acoustics. Sitting at the far top edge of the 12,000-seat theatre, which is still used for performances, you can hear a whisper on the central area. And so we found. A school coach arrived and several of the kids performed a scene from a Greek tragedy. We obviously didn’t understand a word but it was an enjoyable way to have the acoustics proved. So I guess school trips also have their uses!
Sightseeing over we retired for a lovely long lunch at Old Epidavros on the coast – souvlaki, Greek salad etc. It has been many years since I last visited Greece and I had forgotten how much I really enjoy Greek food. My hips were beginning to remember though!
The next day we took our little Kia Picanto over the mountains to Ancient Olympia – the original site of the Olympic games. The first Olympiad was held in 776BC and dedicated to Zeus and the site is a mix of ruined temples, athlete’s quarters and training areas as well as the games area itself. The museum houses some amazingly well preserved statues
and friezes, including one of Nike, Goddess of Victory that I particularly liked as it had a real sense of movement. However whilst understanding why the statues have been moved we both thought it would be much better if copies could be placed in the areas on the actual site. For example, Nike’s plinth remains in place in the ruins but it loses all its impact as the statue is in the museum. Whilst objectively the ruins may not be the most exciting you will ever visit, it was an amazing feeling to be there, especially in an Olympic year and that made it well worth a visit and I confess it was nice to see the coverage of the Olympic torch being lit there just a week or so later and think “I’ve been there!”
Our final stop in the Peloponnese was Diakofte, a small beach town where we found a great apartment close to the beach for a bargain price. It was wonderful having a sofa for a few days! The best bit however was the local taverna where the guy cooked only 5 or 6 dishes each night and you just went into the
kitchen and pointed and picked. His repertoire also included some traditional dishes we hadn’t seen on other restaurant menus such as a delicious lamb with artichoke & lemon. Fabulous!
The reason for our choice of Diakofte had been to take the funicular train through the gorge to Kalavrita. The gorge was pretty (and a little hair-raising in places as it clung to the funicular track on the edge of the abyss) but we thought the $25 return price tag was excessive. Making the best of it however we pottered around the pretty town which is a base for winter skiing and visited a WW2 memorial dedicated to the victims of a horrific 1943 massacre where as part of a reprisal program that killed over a 1,000 Greeks the Germans shot every village boy over the age of 12. A somber sight.
Our next stop was the island of Corfu. Our overnight ferry arrived at 6am so we elected to stay in the village of Agios Gordios mainly because a local hostel, “The Pink Palace” –did free collections from the Port. All worked like clockwork but the the hostel did not really work for us
as it is a full board arrangement and although the food here was solid the atmosphere was of a college canteen and there was no menu choice. A superb deal if you are a student and just want to stay somewhere clean and safe and eat cheap, good food. Not so good for two 40 plus travelers with a food hobby. So the fact that one of the staff assumed we were the parents of a twenty- something staff member had absolutely NOTHING to do with our decision to move on to a local hotel!!
Corfu is a beautiful island and we hired a scooter one day to explore further afield, enjoying the stunning views of the coast and the offshore islands. Our intention had been to do this for a few days but in the end the lure of the hotel pool, which we had virtually to ourselves, proved too much and I am slightly ashamed to say that the following 3 days of “traveling” pretty much involved, books, lunches and sleeping!
We could hardly believe that our expected few days in Greece had stretched to 2 weeks! It was a great reminder
of how lovely this country is and I expect to come back here again in the future. Finally dragging ourselves away however, we took another ferry and headed on to Albania, which is the subject of another blog.
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Carl Harris
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