I failed to mention in my last post that during the first day on the island, while I spent time alone, four girls approached me and asked if I could take their photo. They were visiting from the island of Sfakia, and insisted I join them for a picture as well.
On the last day I visited the town's fish market and hovered around as the men displayed that morning's catch. The whole scene was ripe with photo opportunities and I was clicking away like mad. Watching the townspeople approach to buy that evening's dinner was really intriguing, especially coming from the land of super market gluttony. Several cats hung around waiting for handouts, mewing so as not to be forgotten. I hovered as one man shaved away the scales of one fish.
Late Wednesday morning, the 11th, the group gathered their things and boarded a small boat to take us back to the mainland of the Peloponnese across the water.
Once on land, we boarded a bus (driven by an incredibly handsome Greek man named Giorgios - we're friends now) and took the two and a half hour ride to the village of Nafplio. The scenery along the way changed again and again. It started out poor with many hollow, unfinished dwellings, likely the result of a terrible economy and lack of funds. As we travelled more inland, the landscape turned to sprawling green mountains, and olive and orange groves. Then at last, when we crossed the peninsula, an astonishing view of the sea.
Once we got to Nafplio and threw our belongings into hotel rooms, Ioanna guided us all over town. Nafplio is famous for a little trinket called "worry beads,"made of all kinds of materials from amber and onyx to wood and plastic. The idea is that one plays with these beads, sliding them around on the string when worries surface, and the repetitive clink of the beads and the motion of moving them around will cause the worries to fade away. I'm not sure if it's something I really believe in, but I did buy a strand made of dark wood that smells like incense, as a token to remember this place.
Ioanna guided us up a hill to an old fort over looking the town and the bay, then into a strange tunnel to take an elevator up to the top of the hill. Once we were up, we made our leisurely way back down the other side. On the way, we encountered cactus, cliff jumpers, lots of anti-Nazi graffiti, and more astonishing views.
The town of Nafplio is also famous for Palamidi Castle, which has precisely 999 steps up to the front door. I'm not the most athletic of girls but I looked at those nearly thousand steps as a challenge and that night, after taking a dip in the ocean, Kara and I decided to make the hike. It took us a half hour to get to the top - we took a lot of breaks to take photos and breathe - and then about twenty minutes to come down. It was dark when we reached the top, and we were dripping with sweat, but we did it!
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