Peacham to Olympia

October 8 – 14: Peacham to Olympia

We’re one week into our Odyssey and it’s time to put this Blog into action. Outside Zeus has provided a serious thunder storm with driving rain and lightning, which leaves us with little to do – so here at the Bacchus Pensione, outside of Olympia, I’ll begin the tale which may be lengthy - after all it is a week!! Let’s just say right off the bat that with fall in the air, the tourists pretty much gone, and the temperatures in the reasonable 70’s we’ve been enjoying our pre-sail visit to Greece. 

 

On Monday, the 8^th of October with more luggage than we normally heft, we loaded up Harold the Honda and headed to the kids in Darien where we shared a dinner and caught up on each other’s news. It’s become our habit to drop off the car and to head out of JFK, and at this point all the pre-flight preliminaries moved like clockwork.  Tuesday we ‘limo’ed’ to JFK with plenty of time to spare, checked-in our bags and ourselves, and prepared to luxuriate in our Delta business class seats. Our fellow flyers were primarily people heading for various cruises which left from Athens. Taking a direct flight makes all the difference, cutting the travel time, and more importantly insuring that we and our luggage will arrive together. Before we knew it, it was Wednesday morning and we were landing at the Athens airport amidst sun and warmth. Theodoras, a taxi driver often used by CYA (College Year in Athens – my old alma mater), met us at the customs hall and drove us to our student digs on Eratosthenous Street where he handed us the keys, and we fell into our apartment.  It is a simple affair: two rooms with two beds each, a kitchen and a bathroom but it’s all we need since we don’t spend much time there and it has WIFI which keeps us connected to the outside world. A few hours nap and we headed out to get some basic groceries for our breakfasts, and to find some simple dinner.  As happens so often in this very friendly country, at the top of the street was a ‘supermarket’ and on the street we met Laura, a young Greek woman, who had lived IN VERMONT and in Essex NY, but who is now settled here in the area of Athens known as Pangrati. She saw our hesitation as we looked for things, stopped to help, and gave us all the hints and tips we needed, including a recommendation for dinner: VYRINI’s, a lovely taverna owned by a British woman Susan.  Choosing a wonderful array of appetizers and a FIX beer, we re-acquainted ourselves with the glories of Greek food before falling back into bed, assured that the next day we’d be on Athens Time.

 

There is such a comfort to be in a city where we know the ins and outs of getting about. While my Greek may be a bit rusty, it gets us all that we need, and I feel comfortable negotiating the everyday events of groceries, restaurants, directions and the niceties of life.

 

Feeling somewhat freshened (after 12 hours of sleep), we headed to CYA to meet with Vasso, the lovely Greek lady who had been our life-line on email as we prepared for our trip. She in turn introduced us to many of the administrative folk who make CYA tick: Jennifer the receptionist from Rockville Centre NY – where Bob was born; Georgia, the librarian who showed us the much improved high-tech library;  Nadia who acts as student affairs administrator;  and Poppi who handles the 48+ resident apartments, dining hall and that infrastructure. The school has flourished since I was here in 1967 and while these most recent years have been tough as nervous parents pull their children from the program, you can appreciate all that’s been done by Alexis Phylactopoulos to make this whole operation ‘classy’.  To be located right next to the old Olympic Stadium in a modern high-rise with all the amenities of an academic institution demonstrates an institution that is here to stay as it goes into its 50^th year of operation.  We met with Alexis briefly before touring the rest of the facility – including ISMENE – the dining hall. It was lovely to see “Mrs. Phyl” (Ismene), the current “Mr. Phyl’s” late mother, honored with a painting on the wall in the lobby, a dining hall with her name etched in glass on the doors, and sense that her presence was still there.  She was unique in her time – a Greek woman who went to Wellesley when Greek women were to stay at home, knit and sew and raise babies… and who started a simple ‘junior year abroad’ program in Greece using all her connections, and her guts to get the program off the ground.  I was impressed with her in 1967 and continue to admire her to this day.  She and her husband – the original  “Mr. Phyl”  - were critical to establishing my love affair with all things Greek.

 

After freshening up and taking a brief nap, we met up with Manos and Sophia for dinner at a lovely restaurant literally right across from our apartment. Manos had heard of the restaurant from friends, but little did he know just how close we were.  … so close that we had to dawdle away 90 minutes until the place opened. So we took an early evening ‘volta’ or stroll by the gardens opposite the official home of the Greek Presidents, past enough guards to make anyone sleep well…past many parked TV trucks & crews,  and through the back streets where embassies, and very wealthy Athenians make their home.  Of course, it wouldn’t be Manos if we didn’t go past a relative’s home – this time a cousin, Natalie (Nata) who at 85 remains a well known artist and sculptor in Athens.  Her atelier was still open in the evening where her assistant was working on a large piece, so we poked around before heading back to the Cucina Povera for dinner. We were the first there at 8:40pm and had a lovely table outside, but by the time we left two hours later there wasn’t a seat to be had. A hidden gem, obviously known by the youthful ‘in crowd’.  We caught up on personal news, the state of the Greek economy, the impending move from Stonington, and the sad news that two of Sophia’s children are leaving for Germany since neither feels they have a future in Greece. As she put it – they could have jobs, but not careers, and so they’re leaving and she doesn’t assume they’ll be back. And pretty much on that note, we parted ways.

 

The next day Bob and I walked through parts of the Plaka and on to the new Acropolis Museum. It continues to please me after so many visits to the sad old museum on top of the Acropolis.  Now instead of a warehouse of sculptures, crammed together in a gloomy space, every single piece from the site is given its own unique space where the viewer can walk around the object, read clear signage, appreciate the historic context of the piece, and understand how it fit within each of the main structures.  Through the use of models, video where appropriate and wall signage, the new airy and light museum is a welcoming place to walk around.  Some of my favorite new elements were:  the entry where one walks on glass flooring over new ‘digs’ discovered as the museum foundation was started; a video showing how the entire Acropolis was built and modified through time; the video which documents how things were moved from the old to the new museum (not an easy feat to accomplish); and the poignant top floor which represents the actual Parthenon both  in its size and its orientation to the Acropolis. The original friezes and metopes are displayed in their appropriate spot and at either end the vast open portions of the east and west pediments await the time when the British Museum returns the stolen Elgin Marbles to their rightful place in Athens. It is a poignant reminder of the loss felt by Greece, and the effort it has taken to earn back the right to have the Marbles returned.

We moseyed back through the Plaka, and past the Temple of Zeus, as most Athenians were rushing home for the week-end.

 

Saturday had threatened rain, but instead with our newly rented Toyota Yaris we drove out of Athens in bright sunlight with Bob as navigator and I as pilot.  While Google had said our trip would be about 3 ½ hours, they hadn’t counted on windy two-lane mountain roads, where my top speed was 40 kph.  But it was a beautiful ride past small mountain villages clinging to the sides of mountains, deep gorges, and herds of goats amidst the olive trees. After something closer to five hours we arrived in the ‘metropolis’ of Achaia Pissa and our pensione. Trip advisor,  and Bob’s thorough research, does it again! With a room overlooking olive groves , and the sounds of roosters, donkeys, goats and dogs (instead of motorcycles, buses and garbage trucks) we feel that we’re in a lovely calm oasis, not unlike Peacham, but with an even smaller population!! 

 

Our guide whom we had arranged to show us Olympia on Sunday asked that we do it on Monday instead, so with a day of leisure, we decided to visit the port of Katokolo where the cruise ships dock for tours of Olympia.  It was an excuse for a trip, but it was a bust.  The skies were overcast, the port was empty of ships, and the town whose only purpose seems to be grabbing Euro from the cruisers, was a sad and empty town.  We drove one end to the other, and headed back for a FIX beer at our oasis where the skies opened and left me here typing away.