Final days in Greece

Two weeks after leaving Greece we thought it way past time we wrote a final note about our time in Greece, so here it is .....

Towards the end of our stay we had access to a hire car which allowed us to see more than just the area we could cover on foot. Our first excursion was over to the other side of this peninsula to the Venetian fort of Methoni, as mentioned in a previous post.

The Arcardian Gate in the walls of Messene

Our next trip was to Ancient Messene. 

This is one of the best classical sites in Greece, just not well known due to the remoteness. The first thing we noticed was the sheer scale of the place. As a city it is protected by mountains on three sides and huge stone walls – almost 10kms of them – remnants that stretch up the sides of these mountains. Like many of these Greek sites there are remains from early times mixed with Roman, later Greek and Byzantine ruins. It has a particularly good amphitheatre and a stadium with many of the stone seats and columns still remaining.

The Stadium

The Monastery

After a couple of hours walking around the site (with, perhaps, four other tourists) we headed up to the village for lunch.  We had our first real Greek salad and seven-hours-in-the-oven pork. Melt-in-the-mouth delicious and with a great view over the ancient ruins. We then headed up the mountain behind the town on a very rough track that was a challenge for our little Daewoo rental car. At the top was an old monastery that is now closed except for once a year when the locals overnight there for a religious festival. The only inhabitants these days are goats.  They mainly inhabit the surrounding countryside, but occasionally careless people leave the gates open and the goats do what goats do, so it's a bit of a smelly place.

Frescoes inside the monastery

Frescoes on the ceiling

The windy road

Another day trip was to Sparta, home of the legendary warriors, the Spartans. Now it is a new town called Sparti, due west from Kalamata, but the road needs to cross some high mountains and very rugged land to get there. Due to the mild winter there were only traces of snow on the tops and the road was clear for us.  We likened the road to that between Arthur's Pass and Otira villages, before the viaduct was built, and repeated about eight times!  Numerous hairpins later we arrived in Sparti and found it to be more modern, neater and cleaner than the few other

Orange trees in Sparti town

towns we’ve seen in the Peloponnese. There are plenty of orange groves nearby and trucks full of loose oranges. Even the streets have orange trees which look wonderful. We did pick a couple but found them full of pips. Maybe more ornamental then. Apart from a small museum with lovely mosaics, there isn’t much else to see in town (unless you have a budget that includes lots of shopping!), but up behind is the village of Mystras. This is on the mountain where the Spartans left their newborn males to see if they were tough enough to survive the night.

Mystras

Mystras was once one of the most important towns in the region, even becoming the second home of the Byzantine emperors in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. It is now a World Heritage Site. Unfortunately we arrived at 3pm, closing time, so we just saw the ruins from outside.

This period included Christmas and New Year.  It was undoubtedly difficult to be so far from family, especially for Christmas.  But on Christmas Eve we were kindly included in a party for expats held at a nearby village.  We met several interesting couples there.  Many spent part of their year in Greece and the other part at 'home'.  One of the women was Kiwi, though she'd spent a good proportion of her life in Oz.  She and her husband kindly invited us to visit them at their Koroni home so we popped in for a cuppa and cakes late one sunny Friday morning.  We sat chatting on the deck of their modern apartment, with glorious views overlooking Zaga Beach and the Ionian Sea.  Jackie is an artist - you can enjoy her work here.  Their spare bedroom is Jackie's studio, but she also runs classes in the village.  Peter's an ex-plumber who, among other things, is currently learning to play an electronic keyboard - he has it sitting in front of their huge telly, which is connected to his laptop - he uses YouTube to get free lessons and sits there and plays.  We enjoyed their company immensely, are impressed by their lifestyle and are very grateful that they showed us it's possible to live very well and inexpensively in Greece.

The day finally came to be leaving Koroni. While we will miss the friendliness of the locals and the amazing winter weather, it was an isolated place without our own transport. Our coach trip back to Athens was a very Greek experience. Waiting at Harakopio for the 8am bus we saw it heading in the opposite direction five minutes before it was due to pick us up - that is, it was going to be late. When it eventually arrived it was a very slow trip up to Kalamata with the driver busy chatting to a group of friends he picked up along the way. Sometimes one arm is needed to talk with, sometimes both …

Looking out the bus window - Mycenae!

The ”express” bus all the way through to Athens decided to change a couple of times at the Kalamata bus station but we eventually got underway with a new driver. This one followed the rule of no smoking on the bus, unless you are the driver. He also specialised in racing up to the toll gate barriers and getting through just as they opened.  As we had the front passenger seats it was a very disconcerting experience!  He also reinforced the rule that stop signs and red lights are more of a guideline than an actual reason to stop …

Street art in Athens

Four days in Athens was just the right amount to take in a few more classical sites, museums and shops at a leisurely pace. It has a cheap, clean, modern and reliable metro so getting around the city is easy. There are many excavated ruins dotted around, some with archaeologists actively digging. As we found last time, there are cafes everywhere and they are full of locals. What recession? One of the highlights is the very new Acropolis Museum. It is at the base of the Acropolis and built over excavated ruins which can be seen through the glass floor in places. There are also some pointed notes that it contains all the artefacts gathered from the Acropolis, except for those stolen by the English thief Lord Elgin.
The main Archaeological Museum also has enough statues to tire one out quickly. It is certainly a vibrant city with a lot happening, from some rather nice suburbs to the more normal graffiti-covered areas like around our hotel. A convenient location but not the most desirable. 

Temple of Hephastion

View of the Acropolis

Feeding the feral cats in Athens