Little or Nothing?

Dear Friends and Family, Well we have completed 3 days at Ingrid’s and so far our biggest challenge seems to be deciding where to have dinner! As I have said before, in Greece the taverna offerings are generally all the same unless you opt for pizza or the occasional Italian restaurant. Very few other choices. You just have to find your favorite chef (usually the wife of the owner). Last night we tried a new place, but, perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. The day began without a cloud in the sky, but the morning was cool. Polley and I actually pulled out long-sleeve shirts for the first time since leaving Portland! We sat out on the front veranda of bungalow #5, enjoying our coffee, but feeling a bit cool. Then it was off for my first walk to Tolo, the very typical beachside town, about ¾ of a mile away. It was nice walk past the various places that we frequented last year. We were, of course, here for a month last year, so we had sampled many options over the course of that time. I think Thursday night we will go into Tolo for dinner. After finishing my walk and doing the blog entry, Polley and I decided to go down to the beach at Kastraki, just below the taverna that we dined at our first night here. The taverna rents umbrellas and lounge chairs and it appeared to be a nice setting.

And it is.

The problem with it, as we found, is that it is very rocky. Getting into and out of the water is a real challenge . . . and not much fun. So, while it is nicely maintained and the chairs are very comfortable, with the sun so warm, and the need for cooling off quite frequent, the place was less than convenient. So, after about an hour, we abandoned our rented cabaña and retreated to the taverna itself for some wine and a view of the Acropolis of Asini

Then, as you no doubt know by now, it was home for lunch and our siesta. Polley and I are both very much into our books, so the nap was short and we spent a good long time reading, before joining Ingrid and Yorgos at the bar. While we were there, a German family that are good friends of Ingrid’s came to visit. The mother is actually the sister of a woman we met last year, Irena, and she was accompanied by her daughter and son. The daughter, Jasmine, was an amazing young woman. She may be the most sophisticated 15 year old I have ever met! Her English is excellent and she loves America. She must have spent nearly an hour talking with us. She promises to come back and see us tonight so I will try to get a photo. Finally, we were able to break free from the crowd and head to dinner. As I said above, we tried a new place down on another beach, Triton II, which is connected to an elaborate camping establishment. Ingrid had heard good things about it and it was quite good. We just had some fried kalamari and what they call “tomato balls.” We were too curious! They turned out to be their version of tomato fritters like we had had in Crete. They were good and would have been quite acceptable if we had not had the ones at Neromilos in Sissi. Those were in a whole different category! We are nearly at full moon, so as we were leaving the taverna, I did catch this picture of the moonlit night

Then it was home. They family was still there, so we chatted a bit more before retiring. As we headed back to the room, were visited by a little friend. I managed to capture this photo of him as he posed on our bed

It was a nice day, but we will search for a better beach location tomorrow. There is a lovely place near Nafplio that we discovered last year. More on that adventure tomorrow.