Blogs from Pelopennese, Greece, Europe - page 24

Hello all, I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated but I have much to share with you. First, this blog dedicated to my time at Helike (or Nikolaiika) and another two devoted to my trips to Olympia and the Argolid, respectively. As some of you know, I’ve spent the last three weeks participating in a dig in and around the village of Nikolaiika on the shore of the Northern Peloponnese, about an hour from Patra. On the whole it was an incredible experience, largely because of the people I met there. The first two weeks, there were 11 of us altogether: Aliki, a Greek-Canadian who’d just completed a Masters in Archaeology; Effie, a Greek-American who is currently an undergraduate at Tulane; Jessica, a girl from Pennsylvania who’s just completed her undergraduate; Rachael and Erika, ... read more

Since Sunday is the typical day of rest, we decided to rest more than usual. This day was the “villa” day, which meant we tried to not go anywhere if possible. We layed around, read books, and listened to Rachel’s music. Her music was better than what the villa had to offer, which were CDs of the Best of the Bee Gees, the Best of George Michael, and the Best of Ricky Martin. I also spent the morning trying to plan out our next few days at the villa. As everyone who has traveled with me knows, I love looking at maps and reading guide books. I found a new book about this region and dove in. I was heckled for my planning, but I ignored them because I know that they will ultimately see my ... read more

Today, we are being “postcard travelers”. This means that we saw a postcard yesterday, loved what we saw, bought the card, and headed out to see it. The postcard we bought yesterday was of the beach of Voidkilia. It is about 12 kilometers north of Pylos. What a beautiful site! The sand is beautiful. The bay is almost like a swimming pool, unless you get close to the entrance where the water flows in from the ocean. Then, you just enjoy the rocking of the water while floating on your neon pink inflatable. We found a perfect spot in the shade to set up camp right next to a rock cliff. We had a quick dip in the water before eating the pastries we bought at a local market on the way to the beach….mmm. ... read more

Our first full day on the west coast of the Peloponnese and we are all a bit beat. We wake up at 10am and have a nice breakfast outside on our patio. We have four choices of juices to choose from: peach, cherry, and mix of some sort. We really need to expand the typical juice selection in America. We love these flavors. After nourishment, we head off to town to find the internet café. Finally, we post the first of our blogs. Of course, there are no pictures. We plan to add those as some point before we leave. I had no idea how much time it took to write up trips like this. There never seems to be time to catch up on documenting our trip even though it is pretty mellow. After ... read more

Tuesday was amazingly hot. Our landlord, Brian, later said it got to 116 degrees F (well, technically he said it got to like 47 degrees C and Uncle Dan converted it on his computer, but close enough). Unfortunately that was the morning that the power went out. No air conditioning in that weather is pretty miserable, so Uncle Dan went on a walk. Bird watching was a little impossible though because as he said, “the birds were sweating too”. When Aunt Mary finally got up, she called Brian and made sure the air would be back up soon, so we decided to head out and it was cooler when we got back. We went to Nafplion, about half an hour away. I loved it there. Uncle Dan and Aunt Mary even put up with shopping ... read more