One of the many stray (spayed and neutered) dogs of Athens
Temple of Venus on the Acropolis
Graffiti from 1927 on the Acropolis
The Parthenon
The Temple of Zeus
The Parthenon
The winds on the Acropolis
Some of the great graffiti in Athens
Coastal town on the way to Athens
Coastal town on the way to Athens
Theater in Epidavros
Theater in Epidavros
Poros fishing boat
Poros
Sheep herder crossing the road on the way to Poros
Fortress in Nafplio
Nafplio
Fishing boat in Nafplio
The "good part" of the road on the way to Ermioni
Food of the Gods - Souvlaki
Borf lives!
Saw some DC graffiti, Borf
Acropolis at night from the "secret spot"Yeah, I am totally awesome at keeping updated with my blog. I am hard at work everyday coming up with ideas to post and new pictures to show to the world - not so much.
So last time I left you it was New Years Eve in Roma. The Roman new year was chock full of explosions. Fireworks and firecrackers are everywhere popping, booming, and blasting in our ears. It reminded me of my New Years spent in NOLA at the Mid-City Christmas Tree Bonfire. Pandemonium was abounding every which way you looked. The skies over Roma were painted with different color explosions and a thick haze, covering the area in a cloud of smoke practically chocking our lungs. We spent our night drinking eight bottles of Martini Rossi Spamonti with our couchsurfing hostess and a fellow surfer. After the smoke clouds cleared we made our way to the Colosseum to watch the crowds. Reveling in our own clouded haze of bubbly drunkenness we waded through the congested streets like salmon swimming up stream. We returned to the apartment for a few hours of shut-eye before we headed to the airport to depart for Greece.
The short flight to Greece was beautiful, flying over countless Greek Isles each one greener than the next with the bluest crispest sea surrounding each. When we landed we rented a car and with our trusty GPS we took off for Athens. Once on the road the GPS kept telling us to get off the highway and go onto tiny side roads and back ally streets to get to our destination. I figured it knew a better way to go then me so we followed it, passing farms and dirt roads on the way. Upon arrival to our Couchsurfer hosts house he commenced to stuff us with sandwiches, homemade Christmas cookies from his mother, and the food of the gods - souvlaki (one of my top five foods). That night, he and his friend carted us around Athens, taking us to local bars and "secret" spots to see the Acropolis - spots the guidebooks never mention. We had a blast, all the while ingesting two more souvlaki's from street vendors. By this point I was stuffed and oddly only craving more souvlaki.
After only one day in the city we jumped in the car and headed off for the Peloponnese the western peninsula of the country, for a few days of exploring. Our destination for the first night Ermioni, a small sleepy fishing village in the south east. We left in mid-afternoon for a four hour drive straight down the coast. The drive was beautiful as we passed by coastal villages, hundreds of feet below us at the bottom of cliffs. The ocean with the setting sunset up a romantic scene and picturesque vistas for us to enjoy during the drive. After sunset we still had a few hours left until we reached our destination. However, this is when things began to get difficult. First of all the Greek coastal roads are extremely windy, curvy, with varying peaks and hills, so in other words, a very nauseating unlit drive. We were following the GPS to a T when we arrived in a small town about 50 kilometers away from Ermioni. It told us to take a right then a left up this small hill, then another left into an alley all the while we are getting away from the main road. Our next turn was onto an alley which turned into a dirt road. We looked at each other and kind of gave one another a shoulder shrug -"lets keep going, it knows where it is," I said, referring to the GPS . This is where things got bad, "turn right," Melissa told me. We both looked down a craggy, rock laden, hole pocked "road" descending at practically a 50º angle. "Okay lets do it," I hesitatingly said. We slowly descend the hill scraping and bumping the bottom of the car, hearing sounds you do not like to hear when you are driving. "This has to be a shortcut which leads us to a paved road soon," I said. Melissa just looked at me with skepticism. "Come on the GPS knows where we are," I reminded her. She shot another look of skepticism towards me. Wrong - the roads just kept getting worse and worse until we are driving through olive groves, on the Farm roads. No lights, no signs, no people, no nothing. The car was making horrible sounds and I was hopping we didn't get a sudden flat tire in the middle of nowhere. We were both agitated and scared, but we kept going. Finally we saw lights of a town way ahead. We came upon a paved rode and took it, against the discretion of the GPS. We were done with the unpaved roads and just continued until we came across signs of civilization. After only a few kilometers on the paved road we ended up in Ermioni alive and well. Upon inspection of the GPS we came to find out that I had set it on "off road" status, which explained the confusion. After arriving we found our hotel dropped our things off and took a stroll around the town. The quaint little village was just that, nice and charming.
After our one day in picturesque Ermioni, we headed west to the town of Nafplio, the first capital of modern Greece. Here we saw some wonderful sights and had a time walking around the town and got some great pictures. There was an old hilltop fortress and an island fortress warding off ancient invaders. We then headed back east to our island getaway, Poros. A small island only 200 meters from the mainland. We still needed a ferry to get there so I considered it a getaway. It was a small island inhabited by friendly people and friendlier dogs. Melissa and I quickly made friends with one of the local pooches. We only spent a day on Poros and took in some of the island. It was rainy and there was not much to see. Other than that it was very nice. As with everywhere else the people were great.
For our last day on the Peloponnese we headed back north following the coast up to Epidavros, an ancient city which is home to the oldest surviving theater in the world, dating back before the 4th century BC. It was an amazing site which boasted perfect acoustics from the center of the stage. Apparently those Greeks knew what they were doing. We wandered through ruins, centuries old and took in the surrounding area. When we left we realized we were hungry. We drove into the town and stopped in a place that had a sign that read souvlaki and pizza. What a perfect ploy to get the two of us in. It ended up being the best Souvlaki I have ever had in my life. It was utterly amazing. The flavors just popped and the pork just melted in my mouth. It was heaven in a pita. Speaking with the owner and a few of his friends we were made privy to some homemade retsina, a sap wine made from trees on his property. He said the recipe was generations old handed down from father to son for hundreds of years. It was interesting at best, very herbaceous and floral, but not much else. Not even close to the deliciousness of the souvlaki.
Our travels took us back up to Athens for two more days of Greek life. This time we had the opportunity to explore the touristic side of Athens - Acropolis here we come. Climbing the hill to the top of the Acropolis we were greeted by a pervasive 10 mile an hour wind that sent sand, dirt, hats, and hair whipping every which way. It made the climb slightly challenging. Finally at the top we followed the paths to the Parthenon and stoop on steps that Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle once stood. The ideas of modern thinking were developed at this very spot. It was an amazing feeling. We were looking at buildings that have been around for thousands of years and held so much history. The view from the Acropolis gave us a 360º view of Athens and filled us with joy and appreciation for what we were standing on.
The last two days of our trip were once again spent couchsurfing. We meet up with another local who showed us yet another side of Athens. Again not missing out on its food. We continued to stuff our gullets with the sweet sweet nectar, souvlaki and other traditional foods. It was a trip to remember. We had spent two weeks traveling through some of the most important sites if the ancient world, the cradles of democracy and free thought. The power of the trip will always stick with me and always make me want to eat my way through history.
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