FREEDOM!!!

I wish I could upload the picture of our sporty little yellow kokkino auftokinito (yellow car!), but of course I left the cord that attaches my camera to the computer in Rome, and haven't been able to locate another one. I may get to borrow one tomorrow and fill in the photos for you then from the last few blogs. But let me tell you, we feel like millionaires and the taste of freedom is sweet! Our own set of wheels! Forget waiting hours for the bus and squeezing onto a hot little compartment that costs you $50 with a bunch of other people who stink almost as much as you do! We are FREEEEE!!!!

I am writing from Astros, a beautiful small town on the eastern coast of the Peleponnesus. We arrived earlier today, via a few little adventures.

Leaving Zakynthos Island, we travelled by bus to Corinthos, where we hoped to catch a connecting bus down to Tripoli, which is almost the very center of the Peloponnese. As luck would have it, the wait would be 5 hours. Although I've been advised by several people now to rent a car for this leg of the journey, I was still a little hesitant about driving here where the "rules of the road" are few and far between: basically 1) if you can squeeze through with an inch to spare, it's a go 2) if someone is driving towards you, you better move over a little, and 3) fast is good. However, the prospect of staying with my mother and children at the very bleak bus station in Corinthos with NOTHING really within walking distance except some abandoned cars and a seedy-looking hotel, at the hottest part of the day, was actually a worse option, in my estimation. So I grabbed a toothless cab driver who agreed to play the game of trying to communicate with me and we headed to Loutraki, about 10 minutes away, for a rental car place. We arrived to find it closed, but a quick phone call from him had Mr. Rental driving up on his motorcycle within a few minutes.

The price was not quite as bad as we had worried it would be -- about $100E or $150US dollars for 2 days. I was also afraid it might be an old beater with bad brakes, but it is a brand-new tiny yellow sporty car. Very cute. I was additionally dubious about having to drive a stick shift, but after just a few little jumps going around the block it was just fine. Heading out of town, I suddenly screamed: "Look! Look, down! Everyone!" and that was our encounter with the Corinthian Canal. That thing is WAAAY deep!

We happily headed onto the main highway, (the car guy called it the "autobahn", but I don't think so!) and down the road to Tripoli, revelling in our new-found freedom and the most-welcomed air-conditioner, which we all agree is much better than sliced bread. The roads were perfectly comfortable for me to drive, nothing like the crazy driving in the towns. The sun was setting very slowly and we enjoyed driving through miles and miles of olive groves with silver leaves turning in the breeze, grape vines, charming houses and small family farms. We gradually headed up into the hills, as most of the interior of the Peleponnesus is mountainous. The terrain reminded Emma and I very much of our home in Santa Rosa, and driving south to the monastery in Dunlap. It was simply beautiful.

We stopped at a "Rest Stop" which was actually a very large building housing a restaurant, cafe, bakery, book shop, sundries store, and probably some other things we didn't discover. We spent well over an hour there making calls home, having some dinner, and picking up a few needed items. Grandma Coco discovered souvlaki at this point and she is now a believer; let the record show it. I had some eggplant thing and the kids found gelato again. We decided to drive all the way into Sparta where we wanted to be the next morning for visiting Mystras, an ancient Byzantine town, which was once the administrative center of the Byzantine Empire, under the Paleologos family, I believe. There are some very good frescoes there.

We found a little place called Hotel Cecilia right in town. Basil had had enough travelling for the day and was itching to go to a park. He kept crying and asking for the park we had left back in Rome at Ostello Dante. Even though it was dark by now, and about 9PM, we headed out to go down a few blocks to the little square and fountain nearby. Plenty of people out and about, restaurants just beginning to get lively, like in Italy. Sparta was a much larger and livelier town than I thought it would be. There were a lot of college-age people, lots of modern shops, busy streets. We however, were ready for bed by about 10PM, wanting to get an early start in the morning. As Grandma says, our room was fitting for the place: spartan. Not much besides beds and a tiny bathroom, but it was fine. No mosquitoes, and an air conditioner which we couldn't really figure out.

I got everyone up at 7:00 the next morning and we headed out about 8AM for Mystras, a 10 minute drive. I knew it would be very hot again and terrible on us if we went later in the day. At first, Emilia was tickled with the place. It really is a whole "ghost town" from ancient times, very much intact. Many buildings are well-preserved, and many other little homes and shops are half-falling in. You can, for example, walk up some stairs and stop on a little landing that crumbles away. And there are roads and stairs all over in a honeycomb of antiquity. You can just imagine the bustle, the shops and homes and families that inhabited this place.

Already by 9AM it was getting quite hot and sunny. I was trying to make it to the one active monastery still there and we had been travelling in that direction. The mountain Mystras is on is very steep, thus, all the stairs. They couldn't even have wheeled vehicles here, only donkeys and horses. We could see the monastery but we got to a point where there was a very arduous climb up a series of switchback stairs. Emma had gone ahead and turned back. Basil was insisting he be carried. Grandma needed to rest. I told them to just enjoy the spot there in the shade, a little forested area with lots of places for Emma to explore and climb. I went on up to the monastery myself.

In the old church (from the 1400s? I think?) there was an icon of the Theotokos called "Pantanassa", which is what the monastery is known as. I took pictures of the few fresco fragments and stayed to pray for many people for a little while. I asked the attendant if I could have a blessing from the Gerondissa before heading back down. She brought me down and introduced me to the Abbess, who called one of the English-speaking sisters, Sister Agnes. I actually remembered her from my visit here 12 years ago!

We spoke for some time and she apologized profusely for the restoration mess all around. They gave me some water and juice, and a cookie which I kept for the kids. There are 6 nuns there, and everything they have must be carried up by hand or by their donkey -- all those stairs! I asked Sister Agnes why she chose to come here, and she said that when she began to think of entering the monastic life, this place kept calling to her, so she came. The view from up there of the still plains below, where Sparta lies enrobed in olive fields, was stunningly beautiful. Cats abounded, which she said were important to them because of all the snakes. I asked if there were scorpions and other poisonous things. Of course there were! So I began to think about Emma climbing around those old stones, and decided I had stayed long enough... It was a very refreshing journey.

When I came back down, they had left a note for me under a rock on the path, but were right down below. Emma was SO disappointed that she had not gone with me, especially because of all the friendly cats up there. She wanted so much to go up, but I just didn't have the strength to climb all those stairs again, and it didn't seem like a safe place for Basil and Grandma. A false step would be disastrous -- very sheer drops and no handrails. So we did a little more walking and attitudes and entire worldviews deteriorated with almost every step. The heat was rising, the HUGE red ants were terrifying to Emma, who had on flip-flops, the weird buzzy insects or birds or whatever they are in the trees were ramping up to an intolerable pitch, Basil wanted to be carried again (after leaving his mark on a tree there), and basically, we had had enough of Mystras. We went back to the car and headed down to find something to eat, as we'd had no breakfast really, only coffee.