Rome to Greece
Coming into Athens, we could see loads of snow on the
mountain tops, lots of sparse rocky hills, and the huge big bay. Quite close to the airport there was a huge
quarry, looked like they had taken half the mountain away. We got a transfer from airport to bus station
where we caught the bus to the Peloponesse.
This journey took around 3.5 hours. Athens harbour had heaps of ships anchored in
it, and seemed to be a really busy port. The scenery was a bit bleak, it was
cold and there was snow everywhere. We
thought we were heading to a warmer climate!
Huge rocky outcrops and olive trees was what it was all about.
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| Coming into Athens |
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| Huge quarry |
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| Snow capped hills in the Peloponesse |
We met Phil at the bus stop and after a short 15minute drive
from Sellasia we reached the house in Vassara.
We met Shema, Annabel and Charley and two other English helpx’s Nick and
Dee. Not forgetting the two lovely dogs,
a mum and son combo! Everyone seemed
really nice, but we kind of had discussed that a week here and we will have
seen and done all we need too – how wrong were we!
The next day we mistakenly slept in, as we hadn’t changed
our alarm clock, so it was a bit of a late start. After breaky we went for a look around and
helped tow the van out of a mud hole, and sorted out our project. One of which Phil had many of. They had a small block of land on the
outskirts of the village which had a few olive trees, a small building which he
was doing up and not much else. The plan
was for us to create a veggie garden area, a chook run and a dog run. So, the planning began. Orders were placed for the materials and
within a couple of days we had started building fences. All this time we were getting to know the
family and Nick and Dee who were currently helping out on the renovation
project on the house next door. All of a
sudden our week was up and we were in no hurry to move on. We asked to stay another week, which in the
end became two.
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| Starting from scratch |
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| Nick, Murray and Phil inspecting the slide hammer |
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| Working hard on the back garden fence |
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| Out to dinner with the locals |
Our days were filled fighting with rocks under the soil as
we tried to ram angle iron as posts, it was so frustrating! Murray made a slide hammer which was good
but couldn’t get past those dam rocks. So everything seemed to take ages, and
we felt like we were getting nowhere.
Luckily our nights were filled with good food, conversation and
laughter, everyone got on so well – it was great. Every Saturday after work we
were treated to a bbq and bonfire which was really relaxing. And on Sundays Phil and Shema took us on
outings to see sights in the Peloponesse and also out to their favourite Greek
restaurants.
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| Monemvasia |
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| The clan - Nick, Annabel, Dee, Shema, Delwyn and Murray |
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| Rocky outcrop by the Church of Sophia |
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| Looking towards the Mediterian Sea |
The first trip was to Monemvasia. This is a walled village on the rock of
Monemvasia. Cobbled streets and stoned
houses galore. We walked right up to the
top of the fortress ruins to the Church of
Agia Sophia built sometime in the 16th century perched
precariously on the side of a cliff.
The views were amazing from here you could see for miles, the water
looked beautiful and the spring flowers in places were shoulder high. After walking back down and across the bridge
we sat and had lunch at the marina and had fried sardines and other seafood and
drank Ozu on ice. Yummy! We returned to Sparta and walked around the
ancient Sparta ruins and then met up with Phil, Shema and Annabel and had
delicious Geros (wraps) for dinner before heading home.
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| A gorgeous wild flower! not to mention the one taking it ! Murray told me to say that |
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| The view from the top back towards the township |
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| the winding pathway down |
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| one of the streets in the village |
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| Freedom riding - no helmets - it is against the law but very few use one. |
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| Awesome place ! |
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| The marina where we had lunch |
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| 200 year old Olive tree at Ancient Sparta |
We had another busy week fighting with stubborn rocks. Then
we had Friday morning off so we caught the school bus at 7am to explore Sparta
and then out to dinner with our new friends for our 27th wedding
anniversary. Un be known to us Dee and
Annabel had baked and decorated a cake, Annabel made a beautiful card, Phil had
brought some bubbles and we headed off to a small village about 30 minutes away
to enjoy a village restaurant meal. More
delicious local Greek food was enjoyed with excellent company. This was an anniversary to remember.
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| The Vassara village square |
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| Downtown Sparta streets lined with orange trees |
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| Sparta - snow capped mountains close by |
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| Our Wedding anniversary cake |
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| 27 years...... |
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| Anniversary celebrations with our new friends |
Another bbq and bonfire on Saturday night followed by a trip
to the middle of the three southern fingers of the Peloponesse to a beach
called Kardamyli. (I think) The water
was still a bit cold, and a little windy, but it was so good to be beside the
sea again. On the way back we drove
through Gythio a fishing town with its waterfront areas on the harbours edge
packed with cafes and tavernas. Beautiful.
We stopped and had some refreshments before heading to yet another great
Greek restaurant for “pig on paper” for dinner.
Yum – great little restaurant great food and great service – the barmaid
went out across the road to another tavern to get me a gin! - Only wish I could remember its name to
recommend to other travellers. The pig on
paper was exactly that, bbq pork belly cut into chunks, red onion rings, hot potato
chips, blobs of mustard and lemon segments all this surrounded by sliced bread.
We also had chicken and beef souvalki, hourta(special wild green weeds) and
black eyed beans and a mixed salad. Delicious, can’t wait to get home and copy
this.
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| Walking through the village on our way to work |
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| Murray in his element |
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| Gythio waterfront after a hard day sight seeing |
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| Gythio wharf |
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| Pigs on paper - yummy! |
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| The three goofies sitting on the couch in the back of the mini bus |
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| Vassara village |
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| Vassara clock on the top of the hill behind village |
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A big bettle about 5 cm - Delwyn loved seeing this criter
The pressure was on during our last week to finish our
project – our personal pressure that is, there was certainly not any pressure from
Phil and Shema. We worked really hard,
but kept coming up against those bloody hard things below the surface and there
was now lots of welding to be done, so I found other things to do, while I was
waiting. I planted some fruit trees and made a fence around them and tidied up
the cottage. We worked right up to Saturday night, and were
both gutted that we never finished. Three pens were made, and the gates were
welded but not hung, so I guess wasn’t too bad. There won’t be too much more for some else to
finish off.
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| Wild flowers at Mystas |
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| Just chilling out ! |
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We enjoyed a walk one
day with Annabel through what she called the tortoise land – we thought she had
made it up, but as she was telling us that there was actually tortoises living
here, Murray spotted one just off the track – yep no camera with us of
course. The tortoise land was close to a
river and was full of spring flowers, it was very pretty.
Shema used to take the dogs for walks down there. Vassara itself was a neat place, with a
mixture of old houses, ones partly renovated and ones completely renovated. It was a very friendly village, and people
got to know us strangers pretty quickly as each day we would walk through town
on the way to work. We were so lucky to have experienced this off
the beaten track village life and have made life time friends during our time
there.
Next stop was Zante Island and Kefalonia Island for a well
earned break and a few days in the sun!
On our way we caught up with Pat whom we had met at Phil and
Shema’s and meet his wife Heidi in Kyparissia to talk about our Bulgaria
stopover. We then continued on our way
up the coast to Kylini Where we would
catch either the ferry to Zante then a few days later island hop to Kefalonia
or vice versa. On arriving in Kylini we
were told the next ferry that night was to Kefalonia and the inter island
ferries were not running yet, so we caught that ferry to Kefalonia. Zante was the island that the movie Mumma Mia
was filmed in, so we were a bit disappointed.
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Happy times at Vassara - enjoying an ale or two
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