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Published: July 28th 2017
Today was going to be special since we had last minute made changes to our plans. According to the original plan we were to visit the Salamina island and stay in a cute Flintstone themed house. However the island didn't have much to do so we decided, just previous night, to check out the countryside of Greece province Peleponesse.
The Peloponnese is the stuff of legends. Literally. It is here that Hercules fought the Nemean lion and gods walked the earth, meddling in mortal affairs; it's from here that Paris of Troy eloped with Helen and the Argonauts set sail in search of the Golden Fleece. Celestial and mythological charms aside, this region bears tangible traces of the many civilisations that once called it home, witnessed in its classical temples, Mycenaean palaces, Byzantine cities, and Ottoman, Frankish and Venetian fortresses.
Thanks to Airbnb, we stumbled upon a beautiful 2 storied house overlooking the sea, hosted by a lady called Ada. After booking the same we set our Google maps on offline mode as we were going to drive there! Akshay and me got a Ford MUV and picked up the girls from our Athens hotel as we set the compass for Peleponesse.
The
place where we were going to stay is a sea side fishing village called Githio, 3hrs away. As we exited the city with Akshay on the wheels, for the first time Europe, and me next to him to continuously remind him to stay on the right side of the road. Soon the country side started with hills all around and the sea never too far. Greek country side is filled with olive plantations punctuated with pine trees but that also gives it dry feel thanks to the olive plants dull and bare look.
Couple of hours into the drive and we missed our first turn and had to take a small detour through a smaller internal road just before the town of Tripoli. As we were driving I noticed a pickup truck parked filled with fruits in a private and solitary field with a hut like structure. From my previous experiences, I asked Akshay to make a u turn and take us there. As we entered the gate and approached the truck, a big Greek man stood up from a table which hosted two more young girls, his daughters. We greeted each other with him speaking only on Greek. For
next 20 minutes it was a game of dumb charades as we told him we would like to buy watermelons, muskmelons, onions and batates, basically what we could see in the truck. The man was so happy to see us exotic brown people that he invited us to see his small hutment in which were his wife and son and a TV to which pointingly he sang 'jimmy Jimmy, aaja aaja' as he got to know we were from India! We clicked a few photos with them asked for directions and got into our car singing Jimmy Jimmy only to make another halt 15 minutes away on the other side of Tripoli in a fruit orchard where trees were laden with apples so much that they formed a carpet beneath. We dug into some juicy green apples plucked from trees and bought more vegetables from a street vendor sitting on road just next to a beautiful Stone Church.
We had spent more time than we expected and were getting late to reach Githio, where we were to meet Ada at 1700hrsby the town square but not before making yet another brief halt outside the town of Sparta! Akshay and me
gave a few gladiator poses in front of the sign which read 'Sparti' which is Sparta in Greek. We couldn't help but say aloud "this is Sparta" althoug it seemed a quite and uneventful town.
Soon we reached the village of Githio where Ada, a 60 year old lady greeted us like a long lost aunt with pappi's and jhappi's.
She guided us to get apartment which was atop a hill with a spectacular view of the sea from her living room, bedroom, terrace, kitchen, garden and any space in between. The house took our hearts away, with all of us saying just one thing, 'if we have to make a farm house or has to be this way'. The living room had a glass wall a good 20 feet long overlooking the sea. There was a long sofa along it's length. The island kitchen beautifully carved out of it. A big terrace on its left side with a beach bed and two bedrooms. The whole look was related to the blue sea and white waves with boat replicas, shells and conches, sea sponges and what not.
It was 1800hrs by the time the spectacle sunk in before we head
to the nearby beach and had our first swim in the cool Waters of the Mediterranean. Again here we got chatting with few locals who advised us to visit Elaphenisos island and the Symos beach on it for tomorrow. We noted it down and headed to the town of Githio for dinner. The town is filled with beautiful restaurants and cafes along it's yacht dotted promenade. We settled down in the best looking one and spent a good couple of leisurely hours having great food. When we asked our waitress about the places suggested for tomorrow she said it was like Paradise. Also she was amused to see Indians so far away, with us being the first ones she ever met and so treated us with free ice cream!
We reached our beautiful home had a couple of drinks on the terrace in the moonlight overlooking the lighthouse before calling it a day.
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Purnima
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Greece .. one on the bucket list
Aalok as i read i was transported to the beautifully described places in my mind's eye. Who will not want to visit after reading the blogs! I normally do not like to read too much description but the way you write it i want to read more and more!