Easter is one of the best times of the year to travel around Greece. As volunteers, we decided to spend our two weeks of holidays traveling through the Peloponnese. We started planning as soon as we came back from the Christmas vacation. The trip was originally made for four people, so we had rented a car and a big apartment to stay the first four days in Athens. But sometimes life happens and we had to re plan everything for only two people. We were a little stressed at the beginning because we really wanted to continue with our original plan and not to give up. But in the end, everything worked out.
The trip was planned the next way: First, spending four days in Athens and then, ten days around the Peloponnese. We arrived in Athens pretty late in the afternoon, so after a quick shower and a snack we started exploring the streets. The first contact we had with Athens was very special. Because it was dinner time for some, the bars and restaurants were already filling up with people, some of them with live music and even some dancing. After admiring the beautiful atmosphere, we continued walking without a concrete destination. Soon, we looked up into a straight road and saw something shiny at the top of a mountain. Me, a History graduate who cries quite easily, as soon as I put my glasses on and focused my eyes on what I knew we was seeing, immediately got goosebumps and, maybe, some watery eyes along the way. Because what we was seeing was the Acropolis of Athens. After this, we set our destination: to get as close as we could to the Acropolis. We continued enjoying the streets full of people and of food. We ended up arriving at Monastiraki Square, which was completely filled with people, but we got to admire the Acropolis from close. We were pretty tired so we went back to the apartment and on the way ate some very nice pitas.
One important day for us in Athens was the 18 of April, which is the World Heritage Day, so the entrance to all the monuments and museums were free. We took this opportunity to go to the Acropolis. I will save you from the emotional rollercoaster that I suffered and the other volunteer had to suffer because of me. I will just say that it was amazing, you will have to see for yourself to understand. Apart from museums and monuments, we enjoyed some amazing food in the streets of Athens. Every single restaurant and bar calls your name with their amazing smell and we couldn’t resist.
On our last day, we suffered a tragic loss, my phone. This already set our day to be the longest and most stressful of the trip. That same day, we had to leave the apartment and get our rental car to start our road trip. We got our priorities straight and went to get our car. Let’s say that driving a car in Greece is a risky sport, but we succeeded. After that, we went on a quest to find a new phone in the messy streets of Athens, and after a very long and tiring day, I finally got a new phone and officially started our road trip. We decided to not structure our roadtrip a lot so we could have a bit of freedom to go wherever we wanted to go, but we did have a list of places that we wanted to visit for sure. We also decided to stay mainly in campings, so we enjoyed a very relaxed lifestyle, where we cooked for ourselves, ate on the beach, etc. Once again, the fact that this trip was designed for more people and we were only two kind of made everything more difficult, starting with the gas prices, which were through the roof and really limited our decision making. But still, we made it to a fair amount to cool places.
Our first stop was Corinth. We took it as a little break from all the driving from Athens and we enjoyed the canal, which was quite impressive. We didn’t really spend much time and soon departed towards Epidaurus. Once we arrived we went straight to the Archeological Site and it was magical. The theater of Epidaurus is an amazing place, whether you are really into history or not, it really blows your mind. We were lucky enough that a young woman was singing in the middle of the theater and it was amazing. After that, we got to enjoy the amazing coast and nice meals of the village. In Epidaurus we also visited the so call “Sunken City of Epidaurus’ ‘ an underwater ruin of a roman city in the village. The water was a bit cold and filled with sea urchins but it was totally worth it as we got to see the ancient walls and a bunch of vessels.
We spent the next few days in Nafplio, which was the capital of Greece for a few years (1827-1834). The city had a whole different atmosphere than the other cities and it resembled an Italian village, as they were part of the Venetian Empire. One of the best things we did there was to go to the Palamidi fortress and see the whole city from above (going up almost 1.000 stairs). The next day we went to the Archeological Site of Mycenae. Mycenae was simply incredible. Every time we went to an archeological site we did a little history class in order to enjoy everything more.
After enjoying some days of rest and tanning under the warm sun, we headed to the south of the Peloponnese, to Monemvasia. Until then, the car adventures had been pretty relaxing, but the road to Monemvasia was truly a challenge. After some small heart attacks, we arrived safe and sound to Monemvasia. After spending the night in an amazing camping, we went to discover Monemvasia. I don’t really know what we were expecting from it but it was amazing. There were some tourists but it wasn’t completely crowded, so we could enjoy the place despite the high temperatures that made us reach for every shadow we could.
We continued with our quest of the Peloponnese and arrived at the Mani Peninsula, with not as much as a traumatic driving experience as we had with Monemvasia. Our first stop was the village of Limeni, which only had a bunch of houses, most of them rentals, and almost the same number of restaurants, but we had packed our lunch and enjoyed the amazing crystalline waters. That same day we arrived in Kardamyli, but before we stopped in two amazing beaches that we visited the next day, Foneas and Delfinia. Both of them with white rocks but with an amazing view and more amazing water. Kardamyli was a cute little village, with a lot of personality and very hospitable locals. We got a little lost in the neighborhood but we got to see who the normal life of the people from Kardamyli is.
Our last stop of the Peloponnese tour was Kalamata. It was the last one and even though we were a little tired and it was very warm, we enjoyed our first big city since Athens and did some shopping and ate an amazing pita. Early in the evening, we set off on our final part of the road trip, towards Athens again. But first, we made a stop again in Corinth to see the ancient city of Corinth and enjoyed our last sunset.
It was an incredible opportunity to discover a new part of Greece and overall a great trip, given the already disastrous beginning and the challenges we had to face, which I actually think that made the trip even better and more memorable (now that I see it in perspective). When we arrived in Chios we had our batteries charged for the final part of the project.
