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We are still loving greece!
we head to the bus station ( a minor adventure it itself navigating the metro and maps) and decided to head 1st to neafoli in the pelopenese where we have hired a car and been driving around for the last week.
Greek traffic is pretty crazy ( you seem to just park wherever you want to and everyone is jutting in and out but peter has done a great job driving on the other side of the road and through some narrow cobbled village streets manoevering around big trucks and goats!)
we headed first to stremista ( in the arcadian mountain ranges) and stayed in a tiny little village in a room above a cafe/bar for 2 nights. The village was so sweet and set in the mountain ranges- it was so quaint, we met a local goat herder who was herding his goats across the road, and older men riding their donkeys.. we also visited the ancient gortys site ( an ancient healing site) and did a walk up to a monestry in the searing heat- only to find it closed!!
next we headed to Olympia- the original olympic site. The areas around had been badly burnt with the recent fires but we still got a sense of what a peaceful setting it was and wandered around the sites ( including the original athletic field).
we drove down the west coast- olive groves and mountains one side and a clear blue sea on the other and sandy beaches, then headed to Mystra near Sparta. Mystra is set in a gorgeous mountainous landscape and has a byzantine city still well preserved which is a world heritage cultural site. We did a 12km walk up through the surrounding mountains and taiyetos foothills which gave us beautiful views of the fortress under the bright blue skies. It was so peaceful walking listening to the goats bells chiming in the distance. The walk was MUCH tougher and longer than we thought and prepared for and we were absolutely b*****ed by the end of it!
We then headed along the East coast and stayed in a tiny little village called Pouithra where Kate managed to bargain the prices down using her couple of Greek phrases which suprised the landlord! We swam in the clean gorgeous water ( still not quite managing a graceful entrance and exit on those pebbles) much to the amusement of the locals who thought we were crazy because it was so cold for them! We stayed in a little room above a bar which overlooked the beach and made friends with a big tom cat we named Big Ginge who growled like a bear and was very affectionate and loved all the food we gave him!
We then headed back to Nafplio to drop the car off and caught the bus to Yithio so we could get the boat to Crete.
After 8 hours on the ferry ( or 5 mystra beers each and a huge bag of pistacio nuts) we arrived in Kastelli in Crete.
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