Right now, I am sitting on our balcony in Monemvasia watching the moon rise and listening to the waves crash on the beach. No jacket or wrap needed. Talk about a perfect night.
Trying to wrap my head around the experiences we have been having has been hard. I've been thinking about it for the last two days. Let me start by going backwards. Monemvasia is a town built into a hillside of rock. There are small paths that you can only walk on or take your wheelbarrow on. The paths and steps going up go to other parts of the village. While we walked around there today, we are actually staying across the water on the mainland. This morning we started the day in Pylos and drove through Kalamata and Sparta. The roads are crazy here - people pass whenever they want and half the times on curves. We have been on so many hairpin turns that when Liz got out of the car yesterday she couldn't stand straight because she felt like she was still moving. I'm glad I don't get car sick or else it would have been a horrible, horrible, ride. While the driving isn't the best, the views are spectacular! We have seen millions of olive trees and handful of grape vineyards and watermelon fields. We have seen up and down valleys and all kinds of geological features. No doubt about it, it has been worth the drive. Even though I have my international drivers license I will not be driving here unless I absolutely have to.
Sunday night through Tuesday morning we were in Olympia. We all caught a cold so we laid low and rested. We were able to see where Zeus was supposedly born, the first Olympic stadium, and a bunch of other touristy sites that I now don't remember the names of. After seeing the first five temples/ancient sites they all start to blend together - even though each one on it's own is still very interesting.
The days before that we were in Greece's third biggest city, Patras. The city on it's own wasn't spectacular but the company we had was unbeatable. Being able to go around with people who live in the area, wherever you are traveling, changes the experience so much. We were able to go out to meals and have others order great food, go to places we would never have found on our own, and experienced much more of the Greek cultures that we would have on our own. On Sunday we really didn't want to leave our friends because we knew we would be back to a much more touristy experience but there was still so much of the country we wanted to get to while we were here. Our most cultural experience was going to the "best man's" house of Ian (son of our Seattle friends we met while in Greece - Paul and Cathy) and Eleni (daughter of Greek's Georgia and Angelos). For lunch (afternoon meal around 2pm) there were us (our three plus Paul, Cathy, Georgia, and Angelos) and their family consisting of a mother, father, and two grown sons - none of them spoke English. It's quite the lunch when you have Georgia trying to translate most things for you. The mother is trying to cook more, and more, food because she doesn't think there is enough (there was more than enough!) and all the Greek men are telling/yelling at her to sit down and eat. Oh, and at least four friends of one of the sons came over and joined the whole gang -they didn't speak English either. Oh, and when the Greeks were having a conversation it sounded like they were all yelling. It was quite the lunch. And I can't gush enough about how mouth watering and amazing the food was. Almost everything was from their farm: potatoes, pork and lamb, peppers, Greek salad, pasta, fried zucchini... The list goes on. And then there was dessert. By the end I needed to be rolled out of the house. It's a good thing I took so many PE classes this year so I can eat as much as I want and not have to worry about it.
We have been swimming five times now. Each time the water has been crystal clear and so warm. However, I have to get use to the pebble beaches and occasionally wearing slippers in the water because of sea urchins. Today, while in the water I was scared that my feet would hit rocks (yeah, I'm strange and touching the ground sort of freaks me out) because the water was so clear but the water was so deep that I couldn't.
Before I left, with graduation and work money, I bought myself an iPad. It has been nice to stay in touch with the world (yes, I did choose this, and I am still able to have a vacation - done with school and don't have a job...) but the great/life saving aspect of the iPad has been the map! We bought a SIM card in Athens and have been able to get a signal almost everywhere we have been. So from the back seat I can open up my iPad, go to the map, and see where we need to go. And the GPS is so accurate that I can say make the next right and we will be back on track and then we are. Yes, we still have two "real" maps out... But going through cities can be very confusing! Plus this has saved us from a whole lot of fights trying to figure out which way to go. Hooray for technology!
That is all for tonight. I may get pictures up tonight... Well see when I crash.
If you are really interested, according to Terry, we are at 36 degrees, 41.277" north and 23 degrees, 2.238" east right now.
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