Southern Peloponnese - 2005

We signed up for this affordable Embassy sponsored trip at the last minute after most of our visitors for the year had gone.  We departed by bus at 7:30 am on Saturday morning, December 3 with about 40 other people, mostly employees of the Embassy or their friends.  We headed west past Corinth and then southwest to the town of Tripoli, the capital of Arcadia.  From Tripoli we headed into mountains and passed the town of Megalopolis before crossing the border into the region of Messinia.  Near the small village of Mavromati we stopped the bus and toured the ruins of ancient Messene with an archeology assistant as our guide.  These ruins are currently being excavated and rarely visited by tourists so we had the place to ourselves.  We saw the 4^th century BC circuit wall and drove through the Arcadia Gate with towers intact, the best preserved part of the wall.  We saw the theatre, fountain of Arsinoe, sanctuary of Asklepios, Roman villa, and stadium plus more.  The ruins extended over a wide area and the size was quite impressive. 



Finally we headed south to Kalamata where we only had time for lunch at the hotel where we would stay for the night.  Right after lunch we headed to a large olive grove to watch workers (mostly gypsies) knock olives down and separate them onto plastic sheets spread under the trees.  Our host was the uncle of one of the young ladies on our bus who we met as we walked to her uncle’s house.  Patricia was in her 20s and trying to start up a business in Athens – something to do with selling perfumes.  She spoke flawless English with a Texas drawl and when we asked we found out she was born and raised in Sugarland, Texas.  Her parents were Greek who settled there and that’s where she grew up learning Greek from her parents with occasional visits back to Greece and relatives.  Her uncle and aunt had a table set up with snacks (many olives) and provided soft drinks and ouzo for us.  From there we stopped at a local company that takes the sacks of olives and presses them into oil.  We saw the operation in full swing with piles and piles of sacks ready to process.



We drove back to our hotel and finally checked in but only had a little time before we departed again.  We drove to the suburbs of Kalamata where we sat at a nice outdoor café and listened to a speech from the president of the Kalamata Chamber of Commerce.  He didn’t speak long but gave us a short overview of the olive oil industry and especially of the famous Kalamata olives.  We purchased some extra virgin olive oil on out way out and piled into the bus again for another trip in the dark to somewhere in the nearby countryside.  In a little village, in an unmarked inn, we entered a small room with a roaring fire in the fireplace for dinner.  Again, this was a friend of Patricia’s uncle and a place we would never stumble across on our own.  The atmosphere was cozy and convivial with food soon spread on the communal tables.  We had toasted bread with olive oil, feta cheese and spicy cheese dip as starters.  Next came a salad of shredded cabbage, carrots and peppers.  The main course was piles and piles of lamb chops along with oven fried potatoes.  We had endless pitchers of local white wine and when the cost for drinks came (we had to pay for our drinks) the total came to 50 cents per person – an amazing bargain since some had beer or colas.  Eventually we drove back to the hotel for a good sleep after a long, long day.



Sunday morning we had a nice buffet breakfast in our hotel and were on our way about 9:00 am.  We headed north through town past the Frankish castle and into the mountains.  While Saturday was mild with cloudless skies, we woke up this morning to fairly heavy, dark clouds but did not get into rain.  The road wound up and up into the mountains with great views of Kalamata and the Gulf of Laconia.  We drove through rugged country, with high, mostly treeless mountains and along a deep gorge.  We eventually drove high enough to be in the clouds and we crossed into the province of Laconia on a winding, narrow road.  At times the road was carved out of the mountain with rock overhangs where the bus stopped to make sure he would fit.  After a while we descended into the town of Sparta, the skies cleared up, and we made our way to the nearby ruins of Mystras (or Mistras), a fortified Frankish town and castle built in 1249 by William de Villehardouin from Champagne in France.  He only had it a short time before the Byzantines captured it and kept it flourishing.  In its day it was known as the Florence of the Orient and it had close ties to Florence, Italy.  It was surrendered to the Ottomans in 1460, occupied by Venetians from 1687 to 1715, put to fire and sword by the Russians in 1770 and eventually destroyed by the Egyptian troops of Ibrahim Pasha in the Greek War of Independence in the early 1800s.  Many of the churches have been restored, both in the lower town, which was for normal citizens, and the upper town, which was for nobility.  We were met there by a local tour guide who turned out to be quite dramatic as well as knowledgeable.  However, her drama slowed us down and we only viewed a few churches in the lower town before our time ran out.  Rita and I are determined to re-visit this wonderful place.  One could easily spend an entire day there.



We had an appointment to keep with a former Greek employee of the US Embassy, Eugene, who worked in the Political section, and who retired this past summer.  Eugene and his wife have a beautiful home at the base of Mystras and one can sit on his back porch with splendid views of the castle and city.  His wife teaches Greek culture at the University of Athens so they mainly visit this house on weekends.  Eugene also has about 600 olive trees and has started an olive oil export business.  Eugene, his wife, brother, and sister-in-law hosted us for lunch with delicious snacks, breads, and sandwiches from a local bakery.  We had an enjoyable time but the sun was starting to set and we had to get back on the road for home. 



We drove through central Sparta (not much left since they were Spartan and didn’t build lasting stone structures) and back on the road to Tripoli and home.  It was a fun trip and we met several new people from the Embassy that we hadn’t met before.