28 September 2014
Dear Friends and Family,
I begin my blog with a random thought. Quite a number of years ago, as I was going through my "Greek Phase," a briefer, less intense period than my "French Phase," I took a semester of modern Greek at the Orthodox church in Portland. While I made some progress, none of it stuck for very long (of course, now, NOTHING sticks very long!). I could not connect it to anything. It was simply strange letters and sounds. Yesterday, as I was walking through Tolo, I passed two women, each on opposite sides of the street. Traffic was whizzing by, accompanied by the normal white noise of the morning. I could hardly hear them and could not imagine how they could communicate, especially with, what to my ear, was nothing more than a jumble of sounds. I have decided to dub it "GobbledyGreek!" While it is a comprehended series of sounds and meaning for the Greek people, it will remain "GobbledyGreek" to me.
Having gotten that off my chest (mind?), I promised to share a bit about our little road trip. We had stayed pretty much in the vicinity of Ingrid's since arriving. We did venture to a local beach on Monday, but a strong, warm, blustery wind (said to be a "scirocco" coming from Libia) Drove us from there after a relatively short time. So, this time, we headed towards the southeastern coast of the Peleponnese, past the famous theatre of Epidavros. We climbed some dramatic mountains before coming to a prominent overview of the Mediterranean, looking to the south.
As we made our way along the coast, we looked back to the north and the Isthmus of Corinth
We proceeded south, twisting and winding along a narrow two-lane highway, making the occasional stop when struck by unique sight, like this colorful church
That over looked a bright blue bay
We were headed for the town of Methana which lies on a finger of land (or perhaps it is a thumb! It has near it an active volcano (quiet at the moment) and we were told, has some sulphur hot springs. As we approached the harbor of the village, you could smell the distinctive odor of rotten eggs coming from the aquamarine bay.
As the high season is mostly over, it was very quiet in Methana. We stopped at a local taverna and realized we were the only non-Greeks in the place (possibly in the town!). We, naturally, ordered too much for lunch. It often happens that when Polley and I are traveling and discover an interesting new restaurant, we are drawn to several new things on the menu. Here we ordered the standard Greek salad. However, they also featured meat on a skew, so we ordered one. What we did not know is that we ordered 3! They were served on two large discs of a pita-type bread (meant to absorb the juices of the meat) and covered with French fries dripping with some sort of spicy sauce (also designed to soak the bread), with a side of tomatoes and onions. It was huge! Fortunately, hungry band of harbor cats were on hand to assist us in devouring our meal
It was a lovely afternoon and as we drove out of town, I took one last view of the setting
before tackling the twisty road back to Ingrid's. It was nice to get out and about to a part of the Peleponnese that we had not visited previously and it gave us a taste for hitting the road again soon. It can be very easy to just "veg-out" in this slow-moving world. One must force oneself to make a move. We will try again soon!
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