Last Day in the Mani

 Neither of us slept well. Normally, I'd refuse to give in and keep convincing myself that I will fall asleep again, and usually I do. Today I tried a different approach. I got up before 7 and found Phil outside and told him that I wanted to go early. He'd also not slept well, and normally gets up between 5-6am, so was already up watching the sunrise and working on his online class. He was so startled by my appearance and then my suggestion that it took another couple of hours to leave.

We decided to go back to where the goats had held us up and cross over to the western side of the peninsula and see what that looked like. It turns out that it is WAY more developed. Our first stop was the first little village we passed, where we stopped for breakfast and a swim. 

View from the breakfast cafe

This is where we swam. I don't like walking on rock beaches, but it sure was beautiful.

After breakfast, we drove much of the day, stopping at a series of Byzantine churches. The first was a 14th century church.

Our attention was drawn to the belfry by some signage.

Outside Phil noticed that a game board had been etched into a stone.

Beautiful frescos. Some were destroyed by the Turks, they say.

The human figure here had been pretty much removed entirely.

The altar had been moved to a different area and so the church was reoriented.

One of the more complete frescoes

A second church was interesting in that the elevation of the town has risen since it was first built (probably 14th or 15th century) and so you had to step down and into it.

It was a VERY low door as well.

More frescoes

This fountain was also lower than street level.

Our next church turned out not to be a church, but rather a Disney version of a town.

We stopped for this church which wasn't a church, but a newly built event space that looks like a traditional community

Fake-aged towers

We stopped at a couple more places, and ended up at Kardamili, the town that Patrick Leigh Fermor lived in for the last half of his life. One reason that this town was significant was that we have loved everything that Patrick Leigh Fermor has ever written, and as I said earlier, he shaped our understanding of Greece. Much of what we know is filtered through what he wrote. A second reason is that we also really loved Richard Linklatter's Before film trilogy, the final of which is set in the area. The couple are at Fermor's house and have dinner with him before they go off on their own for a complicated date night that comprises most of the film. We wanted to visit his house, and it turns out that he donated it as a museum and a residence for visiting artists. The museum, however, is only open one hour a week (Mondays 12-1) and you have to get tickets a month in advance. If only we had known! We settled for exploring the town and then the local museum of Maniot history.

This tower was part of the museum. The compound that comprised the museum was one locally important family's compound.

We went up three sets of these stairs, all of which would have been ladders that could have been pulled up to protect the family if necessary.

There was also this ladder down.


 

View from the top looking down on one side

View from the top looking down on the other side.

None of those photos captures the sense of height and dominance and solidity.

Us looking out from one of the levels of the tower. We lost track of what floor we were on.

In Kardamili proper, I tried to buy some stamps since we had seen an open post office. I very proudly asked for them in Greek, but the woman answered in English, "Tomorrow", and then took a call. I waited until she was done and said in Greek, "Not today...? Tomorrow?" She said again in English, "Yes, tomorrow. I am working alone today." Greece often frustrates me. I bought some postcards, but will have to find another post office to be able to send them. But I realized that I saw postcards in only one shop, and that shop had only about 5 different pictures. I think postcards are going out of style? That feels tragic to me. There is an art to writing a postcard, and they are fun to receive. There are digital analogs (wow...isn't that an oxymoronic concept?!?!) like Facebook posts or the photos that I send to my dad's Aura digital picture frame.

The town of Kardamili is beautiful. Here are some photos of things that caught my eye.

The riot of brightly colored flowers always floors me.

This millstone was set into the garden wall.

This was a Byzantine fountain that I had seen in one of the postcards. But now someone was using the wealth of water to grow a garden right up to the edges of it.

A close up of the fountain.

The postcard I bought.

After Kardamili, we drove to Kalamata, stopped at a Lidl supermarket to get dinner, and found our Airbnb. Another win for Phil. Phil is cooking, laundry is spinning, and I am out on the avli listening to some house sparrows chirp, a European dove coo, and the occasional rooster crow. It is lovely.

The avli

The livingroom (wide angle to get it all).

Tonight we are going to walk to the beach after dinner. Tomorrow we may visit ancient Messene but our goal is to get to David Romano's excavation at Mount Lykaion.