My grand plan for Greece.
Went to the car rental, realized that i needed to prove ive been driving for more than a year, but i only brought my german license which was issued last month. Went to the next car rental, which was pretty sketchy, and got a car for a fraction of the price as the last place. Sick. I havnt mentioned that driving in Athens is mad dangerous. Not that they drive fast, they drive lazy, lanes don't matter, accidents are frequent. First turn, i dented someone's bumper already. Altho a mini, buddy had his car out more than all the other cars, but it was my fault. Unfortunately he was there so i was like sheiza. Did the paperwork, wutever.
2008 Nissan Micra. Of all cars.
Arrived in Patra after 215kms, the beach side was pretty happening and everyone was greek, so i was in Greece greece. Next day headed straight to Olympia, 45mins by drive. The area was a huge playground for atheletes dating back before Christ. They did the basic sports that we do today and in addition literary and scholar competitions. What would have been impressive were the enormous temples that they build for the gods who watched over the games. I left just as bus loads of tourists came pouring in, man wut a good feeling.
Next stop was the beach, 20mins away. I sampled a couple of "Blue Flag" beaches, which totally deserved the "Blue Flag", and just bummed the day away. Afterwards I thought it would be ambitious/stupid, without checking the time, to make my way over to the mountain villages. In a couple of kilometers from the beach the whole landscaped just transforms from grape and olive farms into large rocky mountains with villages perched up on the cliffs. Driving through it was just awesome. I finally arrived at night in the largest village close to the area i wanted to be in. It was pretty quiet and caters to ski-goers in the wintertime.
Woke up the next day to plan my stuff. I read in the pamphlets that the monastaries were pretty cool, as well as some caves, but i wanted to check out the River Styx and the Black Waterfall. In myth Hades turned the river black and created the gates of hell there. Decided to explore the monastaries first as they were the closest. I got to check the first monastary out for a couple of minutes before getting kicked out by a monk. Turned out the whole monastary is closed 1-2pm, i think its lunch time. The second one was cool, an 8 story fortress wedged into a rock cliff. It really looked more like a getway resort than a holy sactuary. 10 ppl lived in this Monastary and they let me in at 1:30, how nice. The whole thing got burned by the Nazi regime, they managed to restore the building but left the church/worship room burnt and dim-litted, the frescoes barely visible through the ashy walls. In a little room they had jewel covered boxes with bones, somehow preserved with some flesh still intact, of im guessing important people in them. Around the box layed their ear rings, watches, and other valuables. Chilling sight.
With the Monastaries done, decided next to make my way to the River Styx. This was what I was waiting for. Still wasn't too clear as to how to get there, even the guide book said to ask a local, so after asking some locals they pointed out going to the ski center as a start. After scaling up another 9km's of mountain roads it got real cold and windy. Thank god there were some poeple there, maintenance crew of something, despite everything being closed. They explained to me that i had to climb up some to the peak, a couple of more km's up a broken dirt road, which meant compromising my rental car (knew i shoulda rented a 4x4). After that was another hour of decent by foot. It was basically climbing up and down the friggin mountain. Sounded like an expedition, since it was already mad cold and windy. But i was bent on doing this. Didn't have enough time to do it the day of, so decided to stay in the village one more night and get this thing DONE.
I shall end this blog with goats. Lots of goats.
