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Published: August 10th 2008
Being behind on the trip planning we woke up one day with nowhere to stay and decided to try heading to the Peleponesse. We caught a train to Corinth (Korinthos) and were stoked to find a near empty campsite right on the beach. It was exciting to go to Corinth and imagine Paul’s journeys and the meaning behind his letters to the Corinthians. Corinth is a cute seaside town with some ancient ruins beneath the Acrocorinth fort perched over the city. We had heard the Peleponesse was beautiful, but didn’t realize how much so until we hired a car for a couple of (intense) days driving.
The whole ‘island’ is what we imagined Tuscany to be like; bright yellow fields, silvery green olive trees, old orange farmhouses dotted between ancient ruins. Forts, castles, churches and villages are everywhere (especially on the top of high mountains) and most have fascinating stories behind them. Not only is the countryside beautiful, but the coast has amazing turquoise coves with crystal clear water - some of the clearest we have ever seen. The whole area is far less touristy than the Greek Islands, and getting lost in the rural areas gave us great insight
into the traditional Greek lifestyle.
Almost every house has their own bright green vines, which they make their own restinas wine from (and sell for a couple of euros in 1.5L bottles). Buying vegetables and fruit from the roadside stalls is a rewarding experience. The produce is huge and tasty; watermelons are the size of our backpacks and the grapes are sweet and perfect.
The villages of the countryside have cobblestone ‘roads’ with orange tiled houses and are like ghost towns if you visit during siesta. Before returning the rental car, we realized how quickly we needed to drive to make it back before close time. Before completing (very windy) 550km in 7 hours (go rally driver Matt) we got stuck in a bit of a rainstorm on the top of the mountains (wow it can rain in Greece!). Driving down a quiet road we saw something in the middle of the street, and Matt slammed the brakes on. Getting closer we realized it was a turtle! After slightly hitting him, we reversed back to investigate the damage and saw him waddle off into the nearby bush. Crazy!
After some misinformation from the local travel agent (s)
(these areas have no phone, net, timetables, etc) we headed back to Athens by train to head north to Corfu. The Greek intercity bus timetables aren’t printed online (or anywhere else convenient) due to some copying restrictions, so it’s basically get to the station early and wait for a bus that might come. We were lucky and arrived in Corfu Island, hoping for a quiet transit stop before heading to Italy by boat. What we didn’t count on is the island being so beautiful. The beaches are amazing and Matt officially declared one of his swims to be the best of his life, which is saying a lot! Definitely more than our one day scooter adventure is required. Unfortunately the Germans, French and Italians have already discovered Corfu’s beauty years ago and pack it out all summer.
At one of the swimming coves, we found the most bizarre scene yet. Walking down a steep path takes you to a waterfront bar pumping dance music to the semicircular rocky bay. Girls sit around drinking and cheering on the ‘jumpers’ who run around doing flips, tricks and moves into the water. One of the pro’s had special grip shoes and does horizontal
roundhouse runs along the rocks before back flipping into the shallow rockpools. Matt contemplated doing a ‘Manu’ but decided that this scene was kinda out of his league.
Looking to the horizon we can now see Italy (if we squint real hard), so the last of all boat trips will take us from sunny Greece to the land of pizza’s! Andio!
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Alisha
non-member comment
Manu
What's a manu? I thought Manu was the little black haired doll on Playschool? Is it like a bomb?